Hebrews adopted deity from Canaanites
WE HAVE discovered that “God” is a common Germanic (Teutonic) mythical ancestor (“gott/gawd/gaud”), a Germanic “union, even sexual union (to mate)” (“ghodh/ghadh”) or a Syrians or Canaanites deity of fortune and luck (“gad”) (Isaiah 65:11) and is associated with Greek Zeus (Strong’s Concordance #G2203) and Roman Jupiter, the sky-deity or the sun-deity.
This makes “God” a European anthropological or humanoid figure derived from the myths of ancient civilisations. Yes, God is a human construct and a European myth and whose origins have nothing to do with Christianity!
If the word “God” is European human construct, what did the Hebrews term a deity or a force that is assumed to have created and sustains the universe and life?
The earliest and commonest reference of a deity in Judaism is Elohim. This is found in Genesis 1:1 as, “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth.”
This means, wherever one finds “Elohim,” European Christians substituted that with “God” and this happened after the 9th century.
According to Strong’s Concordance, “Elohim” is a plural noun or “divinities in the ordinary sense” (#H430).
Hebrews adopted the concept of a deity and term “Elohim” from Canaanites whose Ugaritic texts (14th century BCE) provide these details.
“The term expressing the simple notion of ‘deities’ in these texts is ilm... In Ugaritic, vowels are not written except after a glottal stop, so ‘ilm’ represents il’m.” (“Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible”, Second Edition)
“The word ‘El’ was found in the ruins of the Royal Library of the Ebla civilisation in the archaeological site of Tell Mardikh (Syria) and dated to c2 300 BCE. Tablets found in excavations at Ugarit (written c1300-1200 BCE) named El’s wife; she was the Goddess Asherah (Hebrew — ASHRH).” (“The Nazarene Way of Essenic Studies”)
According to the “Catholic Encyclopedia,”’el’ in Canaan, ‘ilu’ in Babylonian, ‘ilah’ in Arabic means, “the strong or mighty one. “Therefore, “el” is “the strong one.” In Hebrew, it’s associated with “gibbor” and “shaddai” (Strong’s Concordance #H1368 and #H7706), “masculine, strong, mighty.”
This has been rendered “El Gibbor” or “El Shaddai” and was later adopted by Christians as “Almighty God” or “God Almighty”.
“El or his son and fertility deity, ‘Baal also bears the titles ‘Rider of the Clouds,’ ‘Almighty,’ and ‘Lord of the Earth.’ He is the (deity) of the thunderstorm, the most vigorous and aggressive of the (deities), the one on whom mortals most immediately depend.
“Baal resides on Mount Zaphon, north of Ugarit, and is usually depicted holding a thunderbolt ... In 1978, Israeli archaeologists excavating at an eighth century BCE site in the eastern Sinai desert found several Hebrew inscriptions mentioning Ba’al and El in the form of ‘Elohim,’ a name used to refer to God in the Hebrew Bible.
“The Ugarit tablets make him chief of the Canaanite pantheon. He is the source of life and fertility, the mightiest hero, and the lord of war.” (Phoenician Religion, Canaanite Encyclopedia, 2017).
“Elohim” is a union of two words, ‘El’ (Deva-the-Father, the cosmic masculine presence, ‘the father of the deities, the creator of created things’) and ‘Eloah’ (Dhevi-the-Mother or ‘Shekhinah,’ the cosmic feminine presence). ‘El’ is found in male names as follows: Micha-El, Gabri-El, Rapha-El, Dani-El, Ezeki-El, Samu-El, Gamali-El, Ishma-El, Yisra-El (Israel), Yehezki-El (Ezekiel), El-ijah, El-isha, El-eazar, etcetera.
“‘Elohim,’ was an adoption from that of the protector of the universe and the primary and ‘supreme deity of the Canaanite pantheon was El, together with his consort, Asherah’.” (New World Encyclopedia)
In Hebrew, “El” is spelt as “AlephLamed.”
“Aleph is the head of an ox - the mightiest of the farm animals. Lamed is the shepherd’s staff or crook. When we put these together we get the picture of the Most Mighty One who guards and protects his sheep.
The agriculture analogy provides us with a concrete meaning that can help us all think the same picture when the name is used.”
As a generic name of the cosmic power, “Elohim” is the plural form of the male name, ‘El,’ whose female name is “Eloah” according to chapter 1 note 5 of the “Sepher Yetzirah” (“Book of Creation”), the oldest rabbinical instructive treatise of Kabbalistic (Judaic mystical) philosophy first put into writing around 200 CE.
There was a false translation of “Elohim” in the English versions of the Hebrew Scriptures rendering Genesis 1:1 to read, “In the beginning, the divinities created heaven and earth.”
Conclusion
Adopted from Canaanites by Hebrews, “El” and “Eloah/Elohai” are symbolic representations of cosmic masculine and feminine forces respectively and the word “Elohim”would imply a symbolical term for singularity or oneness of a duality.
Therefore, “Elohim” (Aleph-LamedHe-Mem, “ALHM”) is a symbolic representation of energy as having dual polarities – positive and negative cosmic energy, masculine and feminine mental disposition and biological male and female.
Elohim is about a natural conjunction of harmonious opposites symbolised by the connection of “El” (masculine) and “Eloah” (feminine). This means we are all natural creations of the fusion of parental masculine and feminine sexual energies.