God(s) of Israel (900-720 BCE)
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- PATREON: / samaronow
Part 3 of a series on Jewish History!
The Jewish people's road to monotheism was anything but smooth. It took centuries of intrigue, political and natural catastrophe, and a bloody rivalry between the followers of El and Baal. This episode looks at how that process began.
![Judaism and Islam (570-750) [feat. Al Muqaddimah]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UI9RIzNe-tM/mqdefault.jpg)
This was really fascinating. I love learning old religious lore and history like this.
"Forget Ba'al, he [Amos] said, El is the only god that matters." The fact is, the book of Amos never uses El as a divine epithet, only YKWK. The notion that YKWK was only a Judahite god is also not borne out by the onomastic evidence, see for example: "What's in a Name? Personal names in Ancient Israel and Judah" by Mitka Golub, Biblical Archaeology Review 2020.
If only you'd cite some sources for further study. This topic has so many different historical narratives it's tough to know which are more credible
Look up ‘Christine Hayes Yale lectures’ she covers all of this very, very rigorously in a series of lectures.
@@Brandazzo22 That's such a terrible argument. I've taken courses on this subject and there are a lot of conflicting narratives and theories, it's definitely not as simple as just googling it. And as someone who presents information to viewers, it's incumbent on him to provide sources for viewers to consult and to refer to. I wasn't even knocking the guy for not providing sources, just that it's good and almost standard practice to do so
@@Brandazzo22 And nothing in the video is unknown to you because you only understand this at a general and superficial level. There are many reputable scholars in this field, like professors and archaeologists in Israel, who have very serious disagreements about some of the points presented in the video. I'm sure on the whole the video presents a good standard picture of the modern consensus, but don't let that picture fool you so easily. Which is why, as always, the sources used are what's really valuable
It's well known in the Bible many Jews followed pagan gods.
Commonly they were scolded.
Very good... I have seen photos of archaeological sites in Israel that reflect polytheism and I have seen artifacts, mostly teraphim that date back to just after the reign of David. Plus Chronicles tells the story of Micah who kept teraphim so yes, they went back to multiple gods. I assume after getting creamed by Nebuchanezzar and becoming human sacrifices to Ishtar, Molech, & etc., they suddenly decided one god who had no fondness for human sacrifice was the way to go... My ancestors, by the way, were still doing human sacrifices centuries after Jews gave it up. As recently as five centuries ago, they were christening ships with human blood by grinding ships along the docks. Henry VIII lost a ship from sick grinding and decided to use bottles of wine instead. So five centuries ago was the last occasion... Didn’t want people to think Jews invented human sacrifice...
At the beginning of my royal rule, I…the town of the Samarians I besieged, conquered (2 Lines destroyed) [for the god…] who let me achieve this my triumph… I led away as prisoners [27,290 inhabitants of it (and) equipped from among them (soldiers to man)] 50 chariots for my royal corps…. The town I rebuilt better than it was before and settled therein people from countries which I had conquered. I placed an officer of mine as governor over them and imposed upon them tribute as is customary for Assyrian citizens. (Nimrud Prism IV 25-41)
The entire population of Samaria (the city rather than the country) was probably not far off 27K. The fact that only 27,290 inhabitants of Samaria are mentioned doesn't mean only 27,290 Israelites were exiled. It just means that's the number taken from the capital.
@3:12 the first defender of God against the competition from Baal is given as - Amos. What happened to Elijah? Elisha? Their stories feature prominently in the Book of Kings. Especially Elijah's competition with the four hundred priests of Baal who cannot ignite their sacrifice despite dancing, chanting, and cutting their skin, while Elijah's sacrifice is ignited by lightning the story says.
. . . We have fewer sayings and sermons from Elijah and Elisha, probably because writing wasn't widespread in Israel in the 9. century BC yet. But their basic story could have been written down by Israelite writers in the 8. centuries, even before Amos became prophet.
Amos is considered to be the first historically verifiable prophet. The historicity of the Elijah account is contested
@@Treiundzwanzig - In a strict sense, Amos is not historically verifiable. We have no extrabiblical sources for his existence. But if we accept the inner-biblical consistency of his message as indication for Amos' real existence, why not for Elijah's existence?
. . . The details of Elijah's story are not reliable, but his existence as opponent of Baal worship, which is what matters most in this context, seems to be agreed upon by scholars today, compare the following quotes from references given in his Wikipedia article:
"While few scholars doubt the existence of Elijah as a religious figure of great personal dynamism and conservative zeal and as the leader of resistance to the rise of Baal worship in Israel in the ninth century BCE, the biblical presentation of the prophet cannot be taken as historical documentation of his activity. His career is presented through the eyes of popular legend and subsequent theological reflection, which consider him a personality of heroic proportions. In this process his actions and relations to the people and the king became stereotyped, and the presentation of his behavior, paradigmatic."
in "Elijah | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 25 July 2021.
"It is noteworthy that while there is agreement on the existence of Elijah as a religious figure, given the composite nature of the Elijah narratives, the legendary and fanciful character of some of the Elijah stories, and Elijah's paradigmatic portrayal as 'a prophet like Moses,' (Deut 18:18), there is very little agreement on the historical reliability of the narratives about him."
in "Elijah". www.bibleodyssey.org. Retrieved 28 April 2021.
. . . One could take a Minimalist position, of course, and contest the historicity of all prophets before the Babylonian exile, because there was no bible written before it, according to the Minimalists. But if we accept that there were writings before that became the nucleus of stories in the bible and consider that writings from the 8. and 7. century have been often found by archeologists, with rare finds from the 9. century, then Elijah in the 9. century isn't so far removed from writing.
I think, most of this story is very speculative, to say the least. It is a hypothetical reconstruction that may have its merits, but shouldn't be presented as history.
History is always a hypothetical reconstruction
the funny thing about the Tetragrammaton is that its proper pronunciation has been lost as no one is sure of the dialectical marks were used.
The way you pronounce the tetragrammaton is YA’OH
We are not supposed to know how it's pronunced. Only the Cohen Gadol could say it and only on Yom Kippur and only on specific time of prayer and only inside a specific place in the Temple.
Sam, your work is interesting, but it doesn't jibe with what I was taught in college re Jewish history. I realize that history and archaeology may have moved on from when I was studying. But it would help to be able to verify YOUR sources and your qualifications. I know you're an actor/filmmaker; I'm speaking of your background and sources for these histories. Thanks.
@@marceloorellana5726 Realistic, taught by a major scholar of the Old Testament and religion, who was not Jewish not had any ties to Israel. No discernable agenda, certainly not nationalistic.
I wasn't familiar with all those gods but a book I enjoyed was "Did God have a wife?" by Professor Dever who looks at the archeology and folk religion of ancient Israel and in particular the cult of Asherah.
I seem to remember Robert Alter in The Art of Biblical Narrative also showing hints of old gods and myths in the Bible, such as the, but not limited to, the imagery of God battling with sea monsters, which is similar to other religious traditions in the area of sky god fights sea god for dominion.
Look, I’m sorry but it’s absolutely obvious that the ancient people of the Middle East all had very similar related polytheistic religions which influenced each other, and that Zoroastrianism is in fact the FIRST monotheistic faith.
The Jews have simply forgotten their gods. Every culture on earth is animistic or polytheistic - unless they have forcefully changed, as Jewish tradition did, when they went into a period of aggressive dogmatic scribal preservation.
What parts are inconsistent for you?
@@owenb8636 I wrote that so long ago that I can't even recall! Sorry.
The Bible never said that after David they started worshiping cannanite gods that happens ever since the exile in the desert. 1 and 2 kings are historical accounts older than any other source about the kings of Judah and Israel . What sources are you using?
Israel also literally means those who fight (in context argue with) God.
Which they did a lot in biblical texts. Looks literally like a father and son arguing.
I am a Mennonite Pastor.
This is literally my sermon for the First Advent for our Church this year.
It is absolutely true that many of Isaiah's prophecies were originally about Hezekiah.
And they were fulfilled fully by Jesus.
I'm so glad I found your channel.
Great History, you bring Ancient and Modern history together and make us History nerds justified as students of the past and present
"Because as far as the Jews were concerned, the true identity of El Elyon was their local god, FUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKK"
"Lost tribes" is the most misunderstood hyperbole in history. Especially since we know the Bible verses later (which people ignore) tell us some moved south into Judea some returned and that others moved into northern Mesopotamia and Media (modern Kurdistan in Iran) and I theorized some clans and families of the 10 tribes went into multiple directions across the Assyrian empire including a few Benjaminites and Judeans and even some Israelite tribes split into many branches by clans and even further speculate many went to Arabia. I'm basically saying no Israelite went west of Turkey or Egypt, no Israelite went north of Armenia, no Israelite went east of Iran and no Israelite went south of Arabia. Ironically places we modernly give borders of the middle east.
The 10 lost tribes trope is a sham. They mix and assimilated only across the Semitic parts of the middle east, Egypt and peripheral areas.
Noah, you wrote: "we know the Bible verses later (...) tell us some moved south into Judah" - could you tell me which bible verses are telling us this?
I really enjoy watching your videos, but I am pretty sure you confused king Ahaziah of Israel and king Ahaziah of Judah. They lived only a few decades apart. In fact Ahaziah of Judah was probably born around the time Ahaziah of Israel died. (Maybe he was even named after him.)
I'm going to summarize what happened to each of the two Kings according to the books of Kings and Chronicles.
Mesha the king of Moab revolted against Ahaziah son of Ahab king of Israel and declared independence from the crown of Israel. (This is documented in both the book of Kings and the Mesha Stele.) The book of Kings blames Ahaziah's untimely death and the Moabite revolt on Ahaziah who sent messengers to consult Ba'al Zevuv, the god of Ekron. Ahaziah's brother Jehoram tried to retake Moab with the help of Jehoshaphat king of Judah and an unnamed king of Edom. They failed to retake Moab.
Jehoshaphat had made an alliance with the kingdom of Israel. He had fought alongside Ahab and Ahab's son Jehoram. As part of this alliance Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram married Ahab's daughter Athaliah. Then Edom rebelled against Jehoram king of Judah and declared independence from the crown of Judah. According to the book of Chronicles, Philistine and Arab raiders attacked Jerusalem and killed most of the royal family. Only Ahaziah, the youngest son of Jehoram and Athaliah, survived to take the throne.
Jehoram king of Israel was wounded in battle. While Jehoram was recuperating, one of his generals, Jehu, declared himself king and usurped the throne. Jehu tried to kill all of the decendants of Omri, the founder of the dynasty that Jehu was usurping. Among Omri's decendants was Ahaziah king of Judah, so Jehu killed Ahaziah to prevent him from claiming the thrown of Israel too.
The book of Kings says that Athaliah tried to kill all of the heirs to the throne of Judah, so Jehosheba, the daughter of Ahaziah, hid her infant brother Jehoash in the temple to save him from his grandmother. Athaliah may have actually been responsible for the purge of the royal family, but I suspect that Jehu had something to do with it, since the Kings of Judah had a claim to the Israelite throne. (Athaliah was the granddaughter of Omri.)
I hope this summary of both Ahaziahs and their respective contexts was helpful.
I agreeish with your stance on the lost tribes. But I think some families and clans were still dispersed across the Assyrian empire. I mean the Assyrians relocated Aramaeans across the fertile crescent as well.
1:16 Wow, you got the geneology of the Canaanite gods so wrong! I say this as a Canaanite Kohan. It would be like saying Adam and Mary Magdalene gave birth to Moses who married Sarah who then gave birth to the 12 tribes of Israel and a goat
You're a what?!
and could you please name one such mistake?
@@bluellamaslearnbeyondthele2456 I'm a canaanite priest of Baal. My expertise is in the Canaanite religion and history. Some in inaccuracies in his genealogy chart 1:16 are as follows: Melqart as a son of Mot. Melqart is the son of Baal and Ashtart. He portrays Sydyk and Nikkal as married, but Nikkal was the wife of Yarikh not Sydyk (this is common knowledge). Horon is not the son of Melqart and is not married to Arsay. Eshmun is not the son of Nikkal but the son of Resheph (not included on the chart) and one of the 7 kathirat goddesses. Dagon is not the son of El, but his brother. El is not refered to as Elyon in canaanite texts, Aliyan is the title reserved for Baal. Moloch is not canonically considered a canaanite god but is a biblical invention.
@@KohanKilletz why would you consider Baal as having a chance at valid divinity ?
@@KohanKilletz i know very little about this, but i do know of things like the atbash cipher, regarding changes that could occur. I mean, moloch could be a placeholder for something else, it could even just mean king. But decoding through that atbash you arrive at nchl - meaning deceive or perhaps even perpetual eater - in which case it's a prostitute.
I assume you're relying on Ugaritic or something?
@@bluellamaslearnbeyondthele2456 Because he is a good and relatable god, not a devil like Yahweh. He makes mistakes, but he learns, and he teaches wisdom and love to the people. Whereas the Abrahamic God is just pure evil.
1:10 Nice chart! I'm definitely gonna refer back to this in my own research on the ancient Judaic (is that what they'd be called at that time?) religion. Idk if you do this in a later video but could you go into more detail on the tribes of Israel? In the last one you mentioned there were more then 12 and here you mention the North had 9 so I'm curious about the story there. Great video!
That chart is wildly inaccurate. That being said, Canaanite mythology is insanely interesting, so enjoy.
They are ten tribes because part of the tribe of Levi that lived in the Northen Kingdom is also counted.
This was quite interesting.
Jews are seen as offshoot Canaanites. Not even just Mesopotamians or Egyptians mix with Canaanites. But actual genetic offspring. Which archaeologically and genetically as proven. Even the Bible just days Jews let them live didn't obey God spare them and mix with them.
Ammon, Moab, Edom, Aram and the Amalekites are probably also Canaanites. Infact so are Phoenicians. Except Phoenicians were more sedentary and advanced than their southern cousins. And basically 70% to 80% of Levantine Semitic ethnicities and tribes in general are probably just Canaanite offspring ignoring all that lineage stuff in Bible. Some Semitic Levantine and non Levantine Semitics (obviously) don't have a Canaanite root.
This is controversial for the biggest literalists of Bible readers rather than spiritualists and parablist hyperbolic and symbolic interpretation of the Bible which Casual Historian (a Lutheran Jewish Historian) has brought about.
I always wonder that does it mean YHVH is actually a foreign deity from Midian that replaced Elohim among the Israelite Judeans and then later they merge the two deities together when Judaism became monotheistic hence the name YHVH Elohim. And only from this merge the Christians and the Muslims refer as God the Father and Allah respectively
It's probably not that complicated. Much like in Egypt, there was a tendency to merge gods into a smaller pantheon, like with Amun-Ra. יהוה was likely the local god of Judah who was merged into El.
@@SamAronow so YHVH is a proto-Canaanite god and not brought by Jethro? Maybe I haven’t watched the whole video episodes yet. Did you do about the stories behind Moses receiving the revelation?
Great stuff, but slow down a little on the rate of speech delivery. Each sentence is so chock full of information it needs time for proper digestion.
Thank you, thank for this great contribution
Thank you 🙏
Please write out the names of all people, places, and things of significance so we can then research it on our own; with the most accepted spelling.
the ten lost tribes is 10 because one of the tribes split into two...ephraim and menasseh.
Is the music in the middle part from the Spirit Temple in Ocarina of Time?
yes
Why after Solomon/Sulayman Kingdom ended923 BCE?
I think you're guilty of assuming the Assyrians and the Babylonians were just carbon copies of each other in the way they dealt with conquered populations. If only the creme de la creme of Israelite society was taken into exile by the Assyrians, then how do you explain THIS
And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof. (2 Kings 17:24)?
Or THIS...
“I crushed the tribes of Tamud, Ibadid, Marsimanu, and Haiapa, the Arabs who live, far away, in the desert (and) who know neither overseers nor officials and who had not (yet) brought their tribute to any king. I deported their survivors and settled (them) in Samaria.” (annals of Sargon of Assyria). If only a small minority of Israelites were exiled why the need to replace them? An Assyrian governor could easily have been placed in charge of the remaining Israelite peasantry, backed by a garrison and overseers
0:30 aong name?
What was is the music playing in the background?
Thank you Sam.
Isn't around this time that the Samaritans emerged?
More from the lad himself (that's Sargon II)
Iamani[1] from Ashdod, afraid of my armed force left his wife and children and fled to the frontier of Musru which belongs to Meluhha (Ethiopia) and hid there like a thief. I installed an officer of mine as governor over his entire large country and its prosperous inhabitants, (thus) aggrandizing (again) territory belonging to Ashur, the king of the gods. The terror inspiring glamor of the Ashur, my lord, overpowered the king of Meluhha and he threw him (i.e. Iamani) in fetters on hands and feet, and sent him to me, at Assyria. I conquered and sacked the towns Shinuhtu (and) Samaria, and all Israel (Omri-Land Bit Hu-um-ri-ia). I caught, like a fish, the Greek (Ionians) who live on islands amidst the Western Sea.
Note the text mentions ALL Israel, (Bit Hu-um-ri-ia in Assyrian. As in "The Land of Omri" being conquered and sacked. And, in case anyone was under the misapprehension that Assyrian aggression was limited to the Middle East, it also mentions campaigns against the Ionian Greeks.
I love your videos. I would like to point out that a lot of Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe in double prophecies. Genesis 49 contains some of these, and of course there's Isaiah 9:6 the "a child is born . . . Prince of Peace" which doubly prophecies Ahaz's son-their future king-Hezekiah being born AND Christians believe it is about Jesus of course.
If by "a lot of Jews, Christians, and Muslims" you mean "Evangelicals, Seventh-Day Adventists and some other American Protestant churches" then yes, you are right.
You need more followers.
Do you worship ancient Canaanite gods? There is like the smallest movement ever of a few Jews and Palestinians worshipping ancient Canaanite gods
He is just one of the boring MAINSTREAM Jews. I am one of the ones who worships and promotes the Canaanite religion.
They add elements from EL and Yahweh.
I suspect that won't become very sticky.
@@KohanKilletz oh! A Judeopagan. Well, shalom!
יש הרבה שגיאות כתיב בכתוביות
It’s so strange to have a Jew living 2500 years after the Bible was put together completely refute the Bible and claim his family religion is totally made up.
Are you purposely misprouncing "Regent"?
...wait, Jews not originally monotheist?
im not an expert, but Abraham is considered to be the first monotheist, and jews are from abraham so, basically the whole bible is like the video puts it , "a struggle with god" as the bible god always gets angry with his "chosen people" ( sons of Israel, originally named Jacob) who stray and worship other gods. this actually goes on to this very day and is the source of the daily conflict between different religious groups within Isarel's jewish society. Today a person who considers themselves "Jewish" will practice monotheism. hope this helps =)
No!
Yes they were, but as it is stated multiple times in Jewish texts, people often straied from God's path and practiced idolatry. This happened over and over and it still happens, that's why there's archeological evidence of Jews workshiping other entities. But Judaism is and always was monotheistic.
1:11 I see a lovecraft reference
And, not a single shred of archaeological or historical evidence (other than the Bible) presented in the entire video.
Most of this is established via confirmed archeology and near-eastern history. Look up Christine Hayes, she lectures on all this out of Yale and pulls it apart to confirm pretty much everything in this video.
@@norswil8763 none of this is ‘established’. That is not how history works. This is just one opinion on an extraordinarily controversial area of history.
@@viper2148 no but it is, you think that found manuscripts and the mountains of recorded history are faked or planted? Early Hebrew temples and homes that hold effigies of El the Canaan god, or that temple, I forget where in the near-east that shows statue of 'Yahweh' and a 'Asherah' side by side, is that inscription that the sculpture chipped into the stone wrong? Because you Viper, 2800 odd years later don't like the truth. When there's endless support because of actual archeology people like you who disagree aren't really credible.
@@norswil8763 oh really? Tell me about these non-existent "found manuscripts and the mountains of recorded history" from 900-720 BCE, I mean considering the only real 'history' from this era is found on a handful of clay and stone fragments that could all easily fit inside a small suitcase.
@@viper2148 hahaha blatantly untrue, I'm not here to research for you, you can own your ignorance. But for one single and rather biblically damming example, the Flood tablet, containing the Epic of Gilgamesh, we have it... whether you like it or not, it pre-dates the Hebrew bible by 1,000 years and we observe a lot of adaption in the bible from these texts. Facts. Also just simple record keeping from communities and cities, a lot of what we eead from the Egyptian and Roman records counter what the bible claims. The census yeshua's family had to return to Bethlehem for never occurred and obviously so.
If you don't want to look into it no one's going to force you. You can easily google what i've shared and see the artefacts, google now - yahweh and asherah. Or here's a video presenting some evidence - m.ruclips.net/video/CnLSbIivz0M/видео.html&vl=en
Yeah, sorry, there's absolutely no evidence that the Israelites started off worshiping the Canaanite pantheon. All the supposed "evidence" is nothing more than circumstantial, a couple of linguistic coincidences.
Why are you so opposed to the idea?
@@x999uuu1 Because there's no evidence for the idea, and we already have a document that tells us what it was like?
@Pisca Gherila accordinɡ to what arbritrary metric?
Well a plurality definitely did worship the Canaanite pantheon at some point. Anyone who claims to know when or why or how is wrong because nobody knows.
I mean they were all canaanite so its only natural that they did and then have the religions diverge, The phoenicians becoming more distinct upp north and the hebrews leaning towards monotheism
How dare you say "gods" of Israel! Get out! Out!!!
Are you an atheist?
We all worship Baal falsely today Lord means baal