The patron god of the Jews, Yahweh is the god of the Old Testament, who had many names. His cult existed even before the union of Jewish tribes in Israel.
Cult of god Yahweh
Initially, the people who revered one god Yahweh lived in a Jewish tribe. The remaining Jewish tribes honored other gods - Shaddai, Anat, Tammuz, Moloch. Yahweh was then depicted as a bull and a lion. After the descendants of Judah became the founders of the unification of the entire people of Israel, it was this deity who became the patron saint of the whole kingdom of Israel. At the same time, his appearance changed - the bull has now turned into a man.
Jews believe that the god Yahweh lived on Mount Sinai, therefore, it was there that the services were held, which included indispensable bloody sacrifices. At the same time, they sacrificed both animals and people, who were mainly enemies of the Jewish people.
At the same time, Yahweh often communicated directly with people, descending from heaven in the form of a pillar of fire or light. Moses enjoyed his special love - it was to him that this god first called his name, then he helped his people to withdraw from Egypt, in addition, he presented the tablets with the commandments. These events are described in detail in the Old Testament.
Interestingly, modern scholars who have studied the New and Old Testaments in detail , say that in these parts of the Bible the god Yahweh is described very differently, while some basic events, such as the creation of the world, also diverge. Therefore, a huge amount of speculation arose who this higher power was. According to some researchers, it was a bloody demon requiring bloody victims.
According to the second version, the god Yahweh received an extraterrestrial origin. There are several facts that prove this theory:
- the image of a disk-shaped flying machine is found on murals of temples and ancient icons;
- in Ezekiel's book, the description of the “Glory of the Lord” is strikingly reminiscent of a description of a modern aircraft;
- the rules of the god Yahweh suggest that he can infect a person with serious diseases, as well as cure him;
- Yahweh is addressed to people by the “sons of man,” while distancing himself from them.
Today, the people who worshiped only one god, Yahweh, are only well-known Jehovah's witnesses.
West Semitic Mythology
There are sources in which it is said that the Almighty had a spouse, more precisely, 2 spouses at once. This is Ashera and Anat. According to some researchers, the ancient Jews during the transition to monotheism, he was the only god, while having a spouse. Some sources indicate that she was Anat, another part - Asher. At the same time, in the Old Testament, the worship of the Heavenly Queen by the Jews was mentioned - it was against this that the prophet Jeremiah fought .
At the same time, archaeological evidence suggests that her cult was widespread in Palestine until about the VI century BC. e. Despite this, among researchers there is a confusion between the names of the goddesses themselves, differing in Ugaritic mythology.
Compliance with other deities
Most likely, veneration of him was not common among ancient Jews, in addition, it was found in some other Western Semitic tribes. For example, among the Phoenicians it is denoted by the name Yevo. He was also responsible for the elements of the sea and was the patron saint of Beirut, where later texts were fully discovered dedicated to Yevo. They were created under the influence of various myths about the god of the thunder, Baal Haddad, the son of Ilu.
In the latter, the Hebrew name has been converted into a common noun, directly in the meaning of “god,” while Yahweh absorbed the functions of Ilu. He was considered the patron of the Israeli tribal union in Palestine and most likely was the patron of Edom there. He fights with the leviathan and the sea (Yammu) and wins a crushing victory. In Canaan and Ugarit, the god Yahweh was called Yammu - he was the god of the sea, defeated in the battle with Baal.
In the Old Testament
In the Old Testament, Yahweh (usually in the synodal translation “Lord”) is the monotheistic personal God of the people of Israel, who brought the Jews out of Egypt, and also gave Moses the divine Law. Interestingly, the Yahweh cult is contrasted with negatively evaluated cults of the remaining Semitic deities. At the same time, the history of the relationship of the inhabitants of Israel with this god is the main plot of the Old Testament.
In the Bible, Yahweh actually participates in the life of Israel and other nations, gives commandments, is revealed to the prophets, and punishes for disobedience. The perception of the personality of this Old Testament god was different in different philosophical and religious teachings. For example, from the point of view of Christianity, its continuity was emphasized in comparison with the concept of an omnipotent higher power.
Christianity
The name Yahweh in orthodox Christianity befits all 3 persons of the Deity. It is worth noting that the Son of God (before Jesus incarnation) appeared to Moses and the prophets under the name Yahweh. Yahweh is the legislator, creator of the world, deity, protector, powerful and supreme lord. The synodal translation in this case transmits the tetragram with the word “Lord”.
In the Christian world, the pronunciation of "Jehovah" has been used for about 200 years, although in many translations into Russian the Bible is quite rare and is replaced by other names (most of them are "Lord").