The Torah’s (Old Testament’s) Borrowing from Other, Non-Canaanite Religions
The Torah’s (Old Testament’s) Borrowing from Other, Non-Canaanite Religions

The Torah’s (Old Testament’s) Borrowing from Other, Non-Canaanite Religions

https://phoenicia.org/Canaanite-Origin-God-Israelites.htm

lThe Torah’s (Old Testament’s) Borrowing from Other, Non-Canaanite Religions

The Torah draws heavily from other ancient Near East influences which pre-existed it, incorporating and modifying them. Things such as the laws of Ashuna, Hammurabi, Middle Assyrian laws and Ur Nammu. The covenant theme, which runs throughout, is known to be directly related to the Hittite suzerainty contracts and the vassal treaties of Esarhaddon. One example of the covenant from outside the Hebrew Bible lies in the Phoenicians inscribed Arslan Tosh amulets: “Eternal one’s covenant, Council of holy ones, Sons of El” (Psalm 82). Interestingly, there’s also a fifth century AD Christian amulet from Cyprus which associates Ray and Osiris with Yahweh and Jesus in imagery on one side and a palindrome text on the other stating: “Yahweh is the bearer of the secret name; the lion of Ray is secure in his shrine.” This is interesting because the throne of El is depicted with features of a lion and the earliest possible instance of El. and an artefact depicting him with two lions. The Israelite accounts of creation contain clear allusions to ancient near-eastern cosmogonies. The first verse draws upon the Babylonian Epic: Enuma Elish, which means “when on high.”Both begin with a temporal clause, the book of Genesis beginning with “when El created the sky and earth.” In which also, nothing existed but primaeval waters male and female, fresh and salt Abzu and Tiamat, respectively. The god Marduk manages to create the world by destroying Tiamat with the wind ripping her asunder and forming the sky and the earth from her carcass. Genesis applies the same styles and motifs of its ancient Near Eastern setting only demythologize that lacks any theogony of the gods which the texts discuss. The memory of the battle narrative though is preserved in other parts of the Tanakh:

Christian amulet from Cyprus which associates Ray and Osiris with Yahweh and Jesus

 

  • Psalm 104:6 “You cover it with Tehom as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they flee; at the sound of your thunder, they take to flight.”
    And
  • Isaiah, 51:9 “was it, not you who cut Rachav to pieces and pierced the dragon? Was it, not you who dried up the sea, the waters of great Tehom?”
    And
  • Job 41 “Can you draw out Leviathan…think of the battle. You will do it again!”

There are still significant differences however between typical ancient Near East religious traditions and the Hebrew Bible. The most remarkable feature is the suppression of mythology in the Hebrew tradition there is no biography or theogony of Yahweh.

Conclusion

The most obvious conclusion of this analysis is the fact that the Israelites or the people who became the Israelites had no god or gods of their own. This means that their god(s) “came into being” in the Iron Age I (1,200–1,000 BC) when the population began to identify itself as Israelite. Further, if the story of their enslavement in Egypt (ending in Exodus) is true, then the elementary denouement, outcome or resolution of the discussion is:

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (if they actually existed) and the Israelites did not worship any god(s). Their religion evolved as a beg, borrow or steal one from the Canaanite, Mesopotamian and Egyptian religions over about two thousand years.

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