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Yahweh
Yahweh *''Yahwe'', was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier, and in the oldest biblical literature he possesses attributes typically ascribed to weather and war deities, fructifying the land and leading the heavenly army against Israel's enemies. The early Israelites were polytheistic and worshipped Yahweh alongside a variety of Canaanite gods and goddesses, including El, Asherah and Baal. In later centuries, El and Yahweh became conflated and El-linked epithets such as El Shaddai came to be applied to Yahweh alone, and other gods and goddesses such as Baal and Asherah were absorbed into Yahwist religion. Towards the end of the Babylonian captivity, the very existence of foreign gods was denied, and Yahweh was proclaimed as the creator of the cosmos and the one true God of all the world, giving birth to Judaism, which has 14–15 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theophory In The Bible
Theophory is the practice of embedding the name of a god or a deity in, usually, a proper name. Much Hebrew theophory occurs in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament. The most prominent theophory involves names referring to: * El, a word meaning ''might'', ''power'' and (a) ''god'' in general, and hence in Judaism, ''God'' and among the Canaanites the name of the god who was the father of Baal. * Yah, a shortened form of Yahweh. * Levantine deities (especially the storm god, Hadad) by the epithet ''baal'', meaning ''lord''. In later times, as the conflict between Yahwism and the more popular pagan practices became increasingly intense, these names were censored and ''baal'' was replaced with ''bosheth'', meaning "shame". ''El'' theophory The following is an alphabetical list of names referring to El and their meanings in Hebrew: : Abdiel – ''Servant of God'' : Abiel – ''God my Father'' : Abimael – ''A Father sent from God'' : Adbeel – ''Disciplined o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Israelites
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan. The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt, dated to about 1200 BCE. According to the modern archaeological account, the Israelites and their culture branched out of the Canaanite peoples and their cultures through the development of a distinct monolatristic—and later monotheistic—religion centred on the national god Yahweh.Mark Smith in "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" states "Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period (c. 1200–1000 BCE). The record would suggest that the Isr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yahwism
Yahwism is the name given by modern scholars to the religion of ancient Israel. Yahwism was essentially polytheistic, with a plethora of gods and goddesses. Heading the pantheon was Yahweh, the national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah, with his consort, the goddess Asherah, and second-tier gods and goddesses such as Baal, Shamash, Yarikh, Mot, and Astarte, all of whom had their own priests and prophets and numbered royalty among their devotees. The practices of Yahwism included festivals, sacrifices, vow-making, private rituals, and the adjudication of legal disputes. Contrary to the picture presented in the Hebrew Bible, the Temple in Jerusalem was not the sole, or even central, temple of Yahweh, but the king was the head of the national religion and thus the viceroy on Earth of the national god, a role reflected each year when he presided over a ceremony at which Yahweh was enthroned in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Yahwism underwent several red ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tetragrammaton
The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', '' he'', '' waw'', and ''he''. The name may be derived from a verb that means "to be", "to exist", "to cause to become", or "to come to pass".Translation notes for While there is no consensus about the structure and etymology of the name, the form ''Yahweh'' is now accepted almost universally, though the vocalization '' Jehovah'' continues to have wide usage. The books of the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible except Esther, Ecclesiastes, and (with a possible instance of the short form in verse 8:6) the Song of Songs contain this Hebrew name. Observant Jews and those who follow Talmudic Jewish traditions do not pronounce nor do they read aloud proposed transcription forms such as ''Yahweh'' or '' Yehovah''; instead they replace it with a different t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
YHWH
The Tetragrammaton (; ), or Tetragram, is the four-letter Hebrew theonym (transliterated as YHWH), the name of God in the Hebrew Bible. The four letters, written and read from right to left (in Hebrew), are ''yodh'', '' he'', '' waw'', and ''he''. The name may be derived from a verb that means "to be", "to exist", "to cause to become", or "to come to pass".Translation notes for While there is no consensus about the structure and etymology of the name, the form ''Yahweh'' is now accepted almost universally, though the vocalization '' Jehovah'' continues to have wide usage. The books of the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible except Esther, Ecclesiastes, and (with a possible instance of the short form in verse 8:6) the Song of Songs contain this Hebrew name. Observant Jews and those who follow Talmudic Jewish traditions do not pronounce nor do they read aloud proposed transcription forms such as ''Yahweh'' or '' Yehovah''; instead they replace it with a different t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asherah
Asherah (; he, אֲשֵׁרָה, translit=Ăšērā; uga, 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚, translit=ʾAṯiratu; akk, 𒀀𒅆𒋥, translit=Aširat; Qatabanian: ') in ancient Semitic religion, is a fertility goddess who appears in a number of ancient sources. She also appears in Hittite writings as ''Ašerdu(s)'' or ''Ašertu(s)'' ( hit, 𒀀𒊺𒅕𒌈, translit=a-še-ir-tu4). Her name is sometimes rendered Athirat in the context of her cult at Ugarit. Significance and roles Asherah is identified as the consort of the Sumerian god Anu, and Ugaritic ʾEl,"Asherah" in ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, pp. 623–624. the oldest deities of their respective pantheons. This role gave her a similarly high rank in the Ugaritic pantheon. Deuteronomy 12 has Yahweh commanding the destruction of her shrines so as to maintain purity of his worship. The name '' Dione'', which like ''ʾElat'' means "goddess", is clearly assoc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
El (deity)
(also Il, uga, 𐎛𐎍 ''ʾīlu''; phn, 𐤀𐤋 ''ʾīl''; he, אֵל ''ʾēl''; syr, ܐܺܝܠ ''ʾīyl''; ar, إيل or ; cognate to akk, 𒀭, ilu) is a Northwest Semitic word meaning "god" or " deity", or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, ''ila'', represents the predicate form in Old Akkadian and in Amorite. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-, meaning "god". Specific deities known as ''El'', ''Al'' or ''Il'' include the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Mesopotamia's Early Dynastic Period. Among the Hittites, El was known as Elkunirsa. Linguistic forms and meanings Cognate forms of ʼĒl are found throughout the Semitic languages. They include Ugaritic , pl. ; Phoenician pl. ; Hebrew , pl. ; Aramaic ; Akkadian , pl. . In northwest Semitic use, ʼĒl was a generic word for any god as well as the special name o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Canaanite Religion
The Canaanite religion was the group of ancient Semitic religions practiced by the Canaanites living in the ancient Levant from at least the early Bronze Age through the first centuries AD. Canaanite religion was polytheistic and, in some cases, monolatristic. Beliefs Deities A group of deities in a four-tier hierarchy headed by El and Asherah were worshiped by the followers of the Canaanite religion; this is a detailed listing: * Aglibol, god of the moon and brother of Malakbel. Part of a trio of gods of Palmyra, Syria along with Bel and Yarhibol. Also part of another trio with Baalshamin and Malakbel. * Anat, virgin goddess of war and strife, sister and putative mate of Ba'al Hadad. * Arsay, goddess of the underworld, one of the three daughters of Ba'al Hadad. * Arsu, god of the evening star and twin brother of Azizos. * Ashtar-Chemosh, wife of Chemosh and goddess of the Moabites. * Asherah, queen consort of El (Ugaritic religion), Elkunirsa (Hittite religion), Yah ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baal
Baal (), or Baal,; phn, , baʿl; hbo, , baʿal, ). ( ''baʿal'') was a title and honorific meaning "owner", "lord" in the Northwest Semitic languages spoken in the Levant during antiquity. From its use among people, it came to be applied to gods. Scholars previously associated the theonym with solar cults and with a variety of unrelated patron deities but inscriptions have shown that the name Ba'al was particularly associated with the storm and fertility god Hadad and his local manifestations. The Hebrew Bible includes use of the term in reference to various Levantine deities, often with application towards Hadad, who was decried as a false god. That use was taken over into Christianity and Islam, sometimes under the form Beelzebub in demonology. Etymology The spelling of the English term "Baal" derives from the Greek ''Báal'' ( which appears in the New Testament and Septuagint, and from its Latinized form ', which appears in the Vulgate. These forms in turn deri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National God
A national god is a guardian divinity whose special concern is the safety and well-being of an ethnic group (''nation''), and of that group's leaders. This is contrasted with other guardian figures such as family gods responsible for the well-being of individual clans or professions, or personal gods who are responsible for the well-being of individuals. Ancient gods In antiquity (and to some extent continuing today), religion was a characteristic of regional culture, together with language, customs, traditions, etc. Many of these ethnic religions included national god(s) in their pantheons, such as * Amaterasu of the Japanese; * Amun, Amun-Ra and Horus for the Egyptians; * Apollo for the people of Troy; * Aramazd for Armenians * eponymous Assur for the Assyrians; * Ashtoret for the Sidonians; * the eponymous Athena-Mykene for the Athenians and Mycenaeans; * Baal for the Phoenicians; * Bathala of the Tagalogs; * Chemosh for the Moabites; * Dagon for Philistia; * Gaut for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. A distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, in which the one God is a singular existence, and both inclusive and pluriform monotheism, in which multiple gods or godly forms are recognized, but each are postulated as extensions of the same God. Monotheism is distinguished from henotheism, a religious system in which the believer worships one God without denying that others may worship different gods with equal validity, and monolatrism, the recognition of the existence of many gods but with the consistent worship of only one deity. The term '' monolatry'' was perhaps first used by Julius Wellhausen. Monotheism characterizes the traditions of Bábism, the Baháʼí Faith, Cheondoism, Christianity,Christ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The people of the Kingdom of Israel and the ethnic and religious group known as the Jewish people that descended from them have been subjected to a number of forced migrations in their history" and Hebrews of historical Israel and Judah. Jewish ethnicity, nationhood, and religion are strongly interrelated, "Historically, the religious and ethnic dimensions of Jewish identity have been closely interwoven. In fact, so closely bound are they, that the traditional Jewish lexicon hardly distinguishes between the two concepts. Jewish religious practice, by definition, was observed exclusively by the Jewish people, and notions of Jewish peoplehood, nation, and community were suffused with faith in the Jewish God, the practice of Jewish (religious) la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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