Brief Bible Blunders -- How many God(s)?

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The footprints of the Israelites' polytheistic history can still be seen in biblical texts.

There have been a number of questions in the comments about where one can find support for the claim that, e.g., Genesis 35:7 is properly translated into English as "the gods were revealed to him" or "the gods revealed themselves." Go to the following link: http://net.bible.org/verse.php?book=gen&chapter=35&verse=7 See the second footnote, which comments on the English-language translation "God had revealed himself." It states, in pertinent part, "Heb 'revealed themselves.' The verb ... translated 'revealed himself' is plural..." -- i.e., it should be "revealed themselves."

It's also worth noting what the Christian apologetic website Tektonics.org -- no friend of polytheism -- says the correct literal translation of Genesis 35:7 is: "Jacob built an altar at Luz 'and called the place El- bethel' 'because there ha-elohim WERE REVEALED [plural: nigl-u] unto him'" (emphasis added).

Note also what they suggest the proper literal translation of Genesis 20:13(quoted in this video) is: Abraham said, "Elohim [gods] caused [plural: hith-u] me to wander from my father's house." The plural 'gods' and a plural verb in both cases. Link: http://www.tektonics.org/lp/monoelohim.html

Thanks to AsheIsTheRaven for this encyclopedia article on the discoveries at Ugarit. The evidence all seems to point in the same direction: Israelite religious belief and practice was built, either in whole or in substantial part, on the foundation of Canaanite religious belief and practice (including, without limitation, the words, names, and titles used for the deity). Link:

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ugarit

More evidence of the connections between Canaanite religion and early Israelite religion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sw-NFvueK8

The excellent NOVA installment (on PBS) entitled "The Bible's Buried Secrets":

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/

The website for Robert Wright's book "The Evolution of God":

http://www.evolutionofgod.net/

Link to playlist:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6F8036F680C1DBEB

Link to playlist in Spanish:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E8D251DB458C1191


Music: "Old Soft Shoe" by Gary Smith

Related articles

• Names of God in Judaism: EMET excerpt selected by אלוה אל (powersthatbeat.wordpress.com)
• God and the Chaosmos: Thinking with Catherine Keller (footnotes2plato.com)

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