Over sixty valid deities in the OT

[Willum]

So I knew there were other gods listed in the Torah/OT, but I didn't realize there were over sixty!

Sixty deities spoken about as if they were, to spout the phrase, "living gods."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category: ... brew_Bible

How can the OT claim to be monotheistic, when Asherah (Ha-Sarah), is Yahweh's wife, and so many other deities are part of the narrative?

We all thought Judaism was monotheistic, but it has as many gods as any other religion.

Can anyone explain this?

If you are Judaic, is it OK to worship one of the less bloodthirsty ones? Dagon, god of grain and the oceans, seems nice.

[Tart]

5 “Can you compare me to anyone? No one is equal to me. You cannot understand everything about me. There is nothing like me. 6 Some people are rich with gold and silver. Gold falls from their purses, and they weigh their silver on scales. They pay an artist to make a false god from wood. Then they bow down and worship that false god. 7 They put their false god on their shoulders and carry it. That false god is useless; people have to carry it! People set the statue on the ground, and it cannot move. That false god never walks away from its place. People can yell at it, but it will not answer. That false god is only a statue; it cannot save people from their troubles.

(Isaiah 46)

[StuartJ]

Brilliant OP ...!

Thank you.

And from the faith community we get little more than the "please explain" dodge.

It's quite simple:

The Jews were Canaanites

The Canaanites worshipped many versions of "God"

The possibly not even Jewish god Yahweh is a latecomer to the pantheon of mythological Canaanite gods.

At some stage in Jewish history, the faction that worshipped the mythological Yahweh gained control of Jewish society ...

... and rewrote the "scriptures" to install Yahweh as the only lower-case god the Jews were to worship.

The propagandists were very careful NOT to openly declare the mythological, henotheistic deity Yahweh to be "God" with a capital G ...

... that claim had to wait some centuries ...

... because the Jewish propagandists and mythographers were under the very watchful eyes of regional superpowers.

It's very important to note that the very earliest scraps of Jewish cultural propaganda are from Hasmonean times - the Greek period.

Most of the Jewish propaganda is from the Herodian times - the Roman period.

We have NOTHING from the times when the legendary Davids and the possibly fictional Moses were around.

[Jagella]

5 “Can you compare me to anyone? No one is equal to me. You cannot understand everything about me. There is nothing like me. 6 Some people are rich with gold and silver. Gold falls from their purses, and they weigh their silver on scales. They pay an artist to make a false god from wood. Then they bow down and worship that false god. 7 They put their false god on their shoulders and carry it. That false god is useless; people have to carry it! People set the statue on the ground, and it cannot move. That false god never walks away from its place. People can yell at it, but it will not answer. That false god is only a statue; it cannot save people from their troubles.

(Isaiah 46)

Tart, that passage from Isaiah might be describing Christians.

[Tart]

5 “Can you compare me to anyone? No one is equal to me. You cannot understand everything about me. There is nothing like me. 6 Some people are rich with gold and silver. Gold falls from their purses, and they weigh their silver on scales. They pay an artist to make a false god from wood. Then they bow down and worship that false god. 7 They put their false god on their shoulders and carry it. That false god is useless; people have to carry it! People set the statue on the ground, and it cannot move. That false god never walks away from its place. People can yell at it, but it will not answer. That false god is only a statue; it cannot save people from their troubles.

(Isaiah 46)

Tart, that passage from Isaiah might be describing Christians.

Well its not.. It is about the false gods in the Old Testament, more specifically about the gods of Babylon... Isaiah 46...

[Tart]

Brilliant OP ...!

Thank you.

And from the faith community we get little more than the "please explain" dodge.

It's quite simple:

The Jews were Canaanites

The Canaanites worshipped many versions of "God"

The possibly not even Jewish god Yahweh is a latecomer to the pantheon of mythological Canaanite gods.

At some stage in Jewish history, the faction that worshipped the mythological Yahweh gained control of Jewish society ...

... and rewrote the "scriptures" to install Yahweh as the only lower-case god the Jews were to worship.

The propagandists were very careful NOT to openly declare the mythological, henotheistic deity Yahweh to be "God" with a capital G ...

... that claim had to wait some centuries ...

... because the Jewish propagandists and mythographers were under the very watchful eyes of regional superpowers.

It's very important to note that the very earliest scraps of Jewish cultural propaganda are from Hasmonean times - the Greek period.

Most of the Jewish propaganda is from the Herodian times - the Roman period.

We have NOTHING from the times when the legendary Davids and the possibly fictional Moses were around.

When referencing the genealogy of the Old Testament... Your suggestion that the "The Jews were Canaanites", is totally false...

Referencing Genesis 10, the Sons of Noah:

10 This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons...

6 The sons of Ham:
Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.

15 Canaan was the father of
Sidon his firstborn, and of the Hittites, 16 Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, 18 Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites.

Later the Canaanite clans scattered 19 and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, as far as Lasha.

That is the lineage given, and the origin of the Canaanites in the Bible. The son of Ham, Canaan.

Now the Jews werent born of Ham at all. According to the Bible the Jews are Israelite's, Born to Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. And Abraham's lineage is traced back to Shem... who is the brother of Ham... Shem is not equal to Ham...

Judah, 34 the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, 35 the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah, 36 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem

This is the genealogy given in the Bible, and the origins of these two tribes, Israelite's (aka Jews) and the Canaanites... Now if you dont believe that this origins is accurate, Ham and Shem, it is still distinguishing the Canaanites from the Israelite's... They arent one in the same... In fact, these two tribes fought wars against each other throughout history...

And more so, they didnt occupy the same territory or even speak the same languages, they may have spoke similar languages, but according to Genesis 10 they had different languages...

When the Bible references Ham and his sons, it includes "20 These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations."

Likewise when the Bible references Shem and his sons, it includes "31 These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations."

Whoever wrote Genesis 10, recorded that the Canaanites came from Ham, and the tribes of Shem came from Shem. They also suggested that they didnt even speak the same language...

[marco]

"15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
16 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.

I think the Egyptians had a respectable pantheon. It is true that Yahweh was able to speak to Moses and communicate with Abraham so the cleverness in the invention of such a deity was his hands-on experience with desert travellers. He was also a bit of a bully, so he got folk to do what they were told, else he'd annihilate them. He was camera shy - still is - so only a few got to speak with him. Some actually think that those who claimed to speak to him were hallucinating or making things up. But who knows?

The creators of Yahweh are seldom given any credit for their work.

[Tart]

"15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
16 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.

I think the Egyptians had a respectable pantheon. It is true that Yahweh was able to speak to Moses and communicate with Abraham so the cleverness in the invention of such a deity was his hands-on experience with desert travellers. He was also a bit of a bully, so he got folk to do what they were told, else he'd annihilate them. He was camera shy - still is - so only a few got to speak with him. Some actually think that those who claimed to speak to him were hallucinating or making things up. But who knows?

The creators of Yahweh are seldom given any credit for their work.

Ya.. No credit given, or even recognition as creating Yahweh at all...

[ttruscott]

Excuse me but what does the word valid mean in this context?

[StuartJ]

[Replying to post 28 by ttruscott]

The old "please explain" dodge ...

[StuartJ]

[Replying to post 25 by Tart]

The biblical writings are not "historical or scientific" ...

This dodge is used over and over ...

Yet YOU chose to put up biblical propaganda as historical truth ...?

These "scriptures" can obviously mean just whatever individual members of faith communities choose them to mean.