AtD, naming

[David Morris]

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/premo.html

scholars draw on the text of Genesis to conclude the following
controversial ideas about early Hebrew religion:

— Early Hebrew religion was polytheistic; the curious plural form of
the name of God, Elohim rather than El, leads them to believe that the
original Hebrew religion involved several gods. This plural form,
however, can be explained as a "royal" plural. Several other aspects
of the account of Hebrew religion in Genesis also imply a polytheistic
faith.

— The earliest Hebrew religion was animistic, that is, the Hebrews
seemed worship forces of nature that dwelled in natural objects.

— As a result, much of early Hebrew religion had a number of practices
that fall into the category of magic: scapegoat sacrifice and various
forms of imitative magic, all of which are preserved in the text of
Genesis .

— Early Hebrew religion eventually became anthropomorphic, that is,
god or the gods took human forms; in later Hebrew religion, Yahweh
becomes a figure that transcends the human and material worlds.
Individual tribes probably worshipped different gods; there is no
evidence in Genesis that anything like a national God existed in the
time of the patriarchs.



On Thu, May 8, 2008 at 6:28 AM,  <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
> Not to flog a dead horse [oh hell, why not?], but the name of "God" in Genesis is really "The Gods", I.E. in the beginning, the Jewish church was polytheistic. "In the beginning the Gods created the heavens & earth". Yet another deliberately misdirecting bit of mistranslation.
>  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> David Payne:  1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
>