On Thu, 15 Feb 2001 09:45:25 EST Bizarro7@aol.com writes:
In a message dated 2/15/01 8:35:03 AM Eastern Standard Time,
Your recollection is accurate. "Elohim", the Hebrew word for god, is actually plural, which for many anthropologists and historians is evidence of the multi-diety origin of Judaism/Christianity.
Although the plural can also apparently be used in ancient Hebrew to imply qualities (my knowledge of Hebrew is pretty weak, but I've read a few commentaries that make this point). Hence, using the plural form with god can be intended to imply the vastness of his glory, etc.
It should also be noted that this plural form was used for centuries by people who were native speakers and who still accepted this as a singular form in usage.
Just one of the other sides of the argument.
A lot of long-suppressed
evidence is starting to surface in the Middle East that the Yawah of the ancient Jews had a female counterpart, without whom he could not function; Ashera.
Another tricky point of interpretation. That Ashera/Astoreth was worshipped in the Middle East is not open to question. Astoreth had a clear role in the Baal cult and worship of her is clearly shown as ongoing through much of the Old Testament, but that doesn't necessarily make her an associated cult. Consider parts of Latin America which are Catholic but where you can still find people who will sacrifice a chicken to an Aztec god, or descendents of Mayans have incorporated many of their traditional rituals into Christian ones, a future historian guessing at context could be mightily confused.
The
later turn of the faith toward domination by the patriarchs demonized and eradicated her,
A little fairness, here. There's clear evidence that many of the women taking part in the fertility rituals involved in Ashtoreth worship were underage and/or sold into their role as, essentially, sacred prostitutes.
Patriarchal religion began to replace the almost universal Goddess religions when agriculture and city-states kicked in big time, about 3,000 years ago. In multi-god cultures like Greece and Rome, the 'chief' diety became an all-powerful male one. It's no coincidence that this was around about the time that it became general knowledge, for the first time, that the male had a part in the procreation process.
I have nothing against goddess worship per se. It's not my own theology, but I can say that about a lot of things. However, there is evidence that points in an opposite direction. Widespread findings of fertility goddess statues is much more common to areas and times where agriculture had caught on.
Also, although there actually have been cultures that questioned whether males had a significant role in where babies came from, my understanding id that it's not typical even among diehard hunter-gatherer-nomadic-nonfarming cultures. OTOH, since it's hard to find one of those cultures that existed in complete isolation from farming cultures, I can see room for a difference of opinion, especially since writing is usually an invention of agricultural societies needing record keeping, leaving significant parts of history untold or unclear.
Ob. B7 - I won't go into Dawn of the Gods, and Deliverance seems to have been discussed out. Let's just say that, in Aftermath, it's possible the locals saw Dayna as a supernatural entity, bringing into question whether the probably patriarchal local culture had been waiting for a sign that fate would support their going after her (they were awfully quick to go into atttack mode) or whether it was only because she'd come in on the side of the enemy (given their knowledge that her sister was one of them and their treatment of her, 'field day on aliens' may not be all that was going on).
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