The name of god

Many of us remember god being called Jehovah, mostly by Protestant religious, and others of us have taken the Jewish designation, common to academics and scholars, of Yahweh as the name of god or just God when we speak about the deity.

This book, by John McLaughlin, an Associate Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible studies at the University of Toronto. Provides an extensive summary of the derivations of Yahweh or god, and I’ll note a few of them and those from other academics as I move through the evolution of the madman we think was (or is) god.

In the pantheon of Canaanite gods and other deities listed in religion studies or mythological tomes, god was named El or a derivation of El, often with explanatory extensions, such as Elqanah (El creates/possesses), Page 6 of McLaughlin’s book.

El was the epithet for God, but where did the idea of God come from anyway?

There is no answer, none.

Julian Jaynes, the noted psychological researcher, in his acclaimed 1976 book The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind has suggested that the idea of god came from primitive mankind’s equating kings with the concept of god, stemming from an unconscious stimulus inherent to the mind (brain) of man.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Jaynes

That suggestion, as erudite as it is (and Jaynes was a brilliant man), is, as I see it, a stretch and not a very creative stretch. So, we can ignore it, for now.

There is, in fact, no concept of god that spurted forth from early humans. There is an evolution of a higher being or presence, but no definitive call for it to be called God, until the Greek philosophers.

El, the chief god (as later described by Bibliologists) of the Middle Eastern civilizations, was considered an elderly (old) man, held in respect and awe. Why is not known.

He sired a family of male and female children who received like respect only because they were sired by him,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mesopotamian_deities

Note that the idea these were “gods” stems from the authors of the myths and stories, not from the list of beings found by archaeologists or scholars dedicated to ancient texts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform

Again, let me emphasize that no idea that these beings – or humans with special attributes – were seen as gods: the idea or concept of god was not extant at the time.

And from this collage of special humans came a being who seized upon the idea of leading a primitive peoples – Israelites – by proclaiming to be El or El Shaddai, his father, thus obtaining the awe and respect that his father had garnered.

This being took upon himself the epithet: YHWH. The “name” has never been exactly disclosed, the interpolation of “a” and “e” came into being to make the name pronounceable and eventually sacred, prohibited from being said aloud.

YHWH or Yahweh developed his holy scam, out of a psychopathic ego need it seems.

There is no other reason for his actions and ruse that makes sense.

More upcoming…