Is Yahweh God?
10/20/2023
A constant issue brought up to me is how does a Christian worship the God of the Old Testament? You know - that Yahweh guy. Yahweh is the guy who kills indiscriminately, smashing babies skulls, stoning women (who are only property anyway) and hanging out with questionable people (ummm... coffee with Satan in "Job". His best buddy, King David, murdered a trusted military officer so he could take the guy's wife..., etc.). How do we jive this with the loving father portrayed by Jesus in his teachings?
What if we don't have to?
Huh?
What if we don't have to?
Time to take a deep dive into Biblical archaeology - the science of how religions developed. There are some interesting roads to travel, and some interesting ideas to explore.
The big questions are who is Yahweh, and where did he come from?
Y'all remember Abraham, right? He was "a friend of God". God appeared to him and told him to uproot his life in Ur of Chaldea, and journey to the land of the Canaanites, which God would give to him. And there has been trouble ever since.
The Canaanites had already settled the land. Canaanite is a generic term for the populations of the ares - including Phoenicians, Amorites, Hittites, etc. Not much is known about how they got there, but then again, not much is known about how the Native Americans beat the Europeans to the Americas by several thousand years. There is conjecture that they were either just already there, or maybe had migrated there from elsewhere around the Mediterranean Sea - possibly from Turkey, maybe Greece.
The Canaanites were polytheistic. They had, similar to the Greeks, a pantheon of Gods - of which were 2 of particular interest. The first was "El" - the father of all of the Gods. He was deeply paternalistic, loving, generous, merciful and providential. He ruled all of creation, and all other gods. "El" in more familiar terminology to Jews and Christians would be "El Shaddai" ("God Almighty" in English). The second one is a rather minor god in the pantheon - the god of war and storms - you guessed it - Yahweh - who brought the characteristics typical of warfare and natural disaster.
So, What happened? Are there really some 30 gods, all legit, running around in the basis of the Jewish religion? And if there is one God, what do we call him/her/it?
Theology, and common sense, dictate that if you were going to recognize one supreme being (monotheism), that God would normally be the "head" God - the Boss, the In-Charge Deity. This would be "El" - the loving, paternal deity that befriended Abraham, and blessed his family, making Abraham the father of many nations, and 3 distinct religions. But, is that the same deity that demanded that Abraham sacrifice his firstborn son? Seems to fall out of character. What about Yahweh?
Yahweh has that warlike reputation. He is thought to be the supreme support in a war-footing. He is decisive, protective and thoroughly ruthless in his defense of those loyal to him. Yahweh is the principal adversary to anyone threatening "his" people, and he is thoroughly merciless against those set against him. This is sounding more like the God of the Old Testament. Vain, jealous and cruel when needed. Or maybe just for fun.
Abraham settles in with his family, herds, tribe, slaves, and possessions. He goes to set up his worship for his God, who seems pretty similar to the "El" god - they are "friends". Yahweh seems a much baser god - lots of human foibles. He's almost the Loki character God - in opposition to Thor and Odin. He likes his mischief. And, as previously noted, he does not believe in "rules of engagement" in war. There is an argument to be made, and has been made, that Yahweh becomes adversarial to El himself, which could graduate into the argument that Yahweh may actually be Satan, who was "given dominion over this world"(2Cor4:4, the temptations of Jesus, the persecution of Job, the sacrifice of Isaac ?). That is the subject for another article.
How did Yahweh become the name that we associate with God the Creator? "El" was the "one true God" that Abraham worshiped - we can infer that from the relationship that Abraham had with God in the Bible narratives. El likely remained the God of the Hebrews for many generations - up to Moses, if the Bible accounts have any accuracy beyond metaphor.
In the scene where Moses has a talk with the burning bush, God identifies himself as "I AM", which, in Hebrew is designated by the word Yahweh. Moses was headed into what he knew would be a battle for freedom, and continued wars of conquest for a few generations. What better ally than a name that the Hebrews being led out of Egypt would associated with victory in war? Israel adopted Yahweh as its "national" God. The God that was the God of Israel. And so begins the reign of Yahweh.
I am obviously not the first person to put two and two together in this equation. Marcion of Sinope (an early Christian church theologian, and creator of the first New Testament) argued that the God of Jesus was El - the loving generous father - and not Yahweh the lesser war god. It is a theological argument that is not apologetics - it is the opposite really. It corrects the problem. It doesn't justify it. It simply identifies that the Hebrews, through Moses, changed their perception of what the nature of god was - which was going to be a vengeful protector of Israel - as long as Israel followed orders. Instead of continuing to serve God as Abraham perceived him to be, we now have God as Moses needed him to be. And it has been that way ever since.
Marcion was eventually excommunicated for these ideas. The church that developed in the wake of Paul had a power structure, and it took it out on him. Christianity can't do more than one God (even while doing 3). I don't think there are 2 gods, but I know for a fact that there are 2 perceptions of God in Christianity today. The loving father god -"El", and the vengeful, jealous god - Yahweh. It is my position that Jesus was trying to move people back towards the perception of God back to El from the war God Yahweh. It is not God who is different. It is our perception of what God does, and who God is. Jesus was trying to correct that. In the end, Paul saw more use in Yahweh, and that is probably why we are sitting where we sit in this pile of confusion & accusations of hypocrisy.
One of Jesus most well-known teachings is that you cannot serve two masters (Matt 6:24) - Jesus was making the point about money, but isn't that true of our perception of God as well? How do we hold in our head the perception of God as a loving father, with the perception of God as a vengeful tyrant? Would there be a difference in how you serve each perception?
If you knew God loved us all as precious creation, is original sin or hell compatible in any way? If the God you serve is a vengeful tyrant, who only blesses us in our strict servitude and our praise of him in any circumstance, would you serve out of anything but fear? Your perception of who God is absolutely influences how you interact with others.
For me, I am more prone to see the value in the perception of God that Jesus taught - the loving, protective parent who wants what is best for us, and wants us to experience the best possible experience of our time here on earth. If I want to have a stern taskmaster, those are easy enough to find in any job in the economy. Being petty and vengeful is the purview of middle management (we can list some bad clergy here as well), not the person in charge. Or that person does not stay in charge for very long.
I ask you to think on this. Pray on it. Jesus entire mission was to correct our perception about what God wants from us. Not for us to get an advance course in Hell by living life here.
In Peace, Faith and Love,
Ecc. RL Brandner, New Ecclesiastes Ministries