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Freethought
Association of West Michigan
Meeting Minutes for February 12, 2003; #132
Topic:
Secret Origins of the Bible
It was noted that this meeting date coincided
with "Darwin Day."
Jason Pittman of our group had hosted the first
Freethought Movie Night on March 7 at 7PM, where those in attendance
viewed Monty Python's "The Life of Brian", which incidentally
was a film our nascent group watched back when we were just a
collection of five or six guys assembling in a condo in Jenison,
MI. For more information on future movie nights and location or
to suggest films to see, e-mail Jason: jpittman@backpacker.com.
Our Annual Board Meeting is scheduled for March
22, '03 at 9AM and will be at the Seaver's house.
Our special guest speaker for this meeting, Tim
Callahan, was flown in from southern California to arrive to our
"lovely" Michigan weather in Feb. Callahan is the Religion
Editor of Skeptic magazine and has authored books that critically
examine the Bible including Bible Prophesy- Failure or Fulfillment?
and Secret Origins of the Bible. It is the latter one that he
took as his topic for this information-rich, well-researched presentation.
He had copies of this book for sale to our group. His main thesis
was that, rather than being a divinely inspired book of inerrant
material given to humankind by a single God to a single people
living at one time in history, the Bible is a collection of myths
and stories handed down from many ancient civilizations and strung
together with deletions, insertions and redactions to tell politically
and culturally biased mythic tales. Virtually all the central
elements of "The Greatest Story Ever Told" were in place
centuries before being reshaped to tell of the adventures of a
chosen Hebrew tribe. Callahan masterfully peeled back the familiar
layers of the Bible that have come down to us to reveal the original
underlying archetypal concepts, pagan rituals and ancient belief
systems that culminated in the Holy Bible.
The 59 year old animated movie artist and self-
trained scholar began by defining myths as stories of cosmological
significance with supernatural agency (the gods) as the explanatory
mechanism for how the world works, how a people came to be and
their place in the universe.
While many religious skeptics are not surprised
to learn that the Bible God, Jesus and even the Christian holidays
have earlier pagan origins, it was more of an eyebrow raiser to
learn how many of the Bible's other personages had their origins
as gods and solar heroes and to what degree the accounts of the
chosen tribe of Israel were based on pagan festivities. There
are several ways to determine that what one is reading is not
an historical account of actual events. One is where there are
at least two different accounts of the same event, creating internal
contradictions (an example being the two disparate Genesis myths
having an Adam and Eve created together and in the same book Adam
created first, then Eve created from his rib [after Yahweh had
paraded all the different animals before him, being clueless as
to what sort of creature should be his mate and "helpmeet"])
Another clue is different use of language-sometimes anachronistic
and sometimes with linguistic borrowings from tribes or nations
that would not have interacted yet with the people of the presented
myth. Supposed eyewitness accounts of events where glaring geographical,
temporal and cultural errors were made by alleged natives of the
region, also highlights the presence of non-contemporary redaction.
The first biblical person Callahan dealt with
was the Danite, Samson who was a local folk hero fused with the
character of a sun god. As with most of the people in the "Good
Book" who are given special attention, he was born of one
of the ubiquitous barren women who gave birth via supernatural
intervention from the obliging Yahweh and, of course, with an
angel announcing a coming son who would be a deliverer of his
people. Samson, being a Nazarite (a holy man), was supposed to
have no contact with the dead, abstain from alcohol and women
and keep himself apart from others as part of his holy vows. However,
he drank, partied and whored lustily and slaughtered famously,
so he seems to have been more than a "lapsed" Nazarite.
He is shown with little piety and relates more to the half-god
Herakles (Hercules) and Gilgamesh-also refashioned solar deities-
than any of the judges in the Book of Judges. The main thing linking
him top this holy order was his abundant mane of hair. The Nazarites
were not to cut their hair unless one dies around them (thereby
defiling them) whereupon they must resume, from scratch, their
lives as neophyte holy men. The actual reason for the attention
placed upon his hair was that this linked him to representations
of the sun. His name even translated to "sunlight" and
his birthplace was next to that which translated to "house
of the sun."
Solar heroes were also associated with lions
(the male lion's mane- like solar rays- referenced the sun as
well) and could tear them apart with their bare hands (also like
Gilgamesh and Herakles). The story of him collecting honey for
a wedding feast from the carcass of a lion that bees inhabited
relates to many earlier traditions. Bees were thought to spontaneously
generate from animal bodies and this was symbolic of rebirth,
a major theme of sun-worship (the dying and reborn sun; the "unconquered
sun"= Mythra, later being refashioned as Jesus) and that
Samson was harvesting the honey when the sun was in the constellation
Leo (the lion) further heightens the mythic tale. His bride to
be deceives him by providing the answer to the riddle he posed
to the hated Philistines (who were referred to disparagingly as
"the uncircumcised"). The betrayal is seen as adultery
or "plowing with my heifer." The cow was associated
with fertility goddesses in Egypt and Canaan. He burns with anger
and kills 30 Philistines. Bindings "melt" from him,
or he burns through them or is possessed with a fiery rage throughout
this tale, betraying his solar god association. He leaves his
betraying wife-to-be and returns to find that she has wed his
best man. Furious, he ties foxes tails together, sets them on
fire and releases them into Philistine fields, seemingly expending
a great deal of unnecessary effort in this destruction. But foxes,
being reddish, are likened to the sun and were used in the same
way as part of a Roman festival for Demeter (or Ceres; where we
get "cereal" from) with the association of this deity
with grain and fields. This practice was imported from the Near
East. This was seen as a sacrifice to the gods to avert grain
blight, which, being reddish and coming from the strong sun (after
grain was rained upon) furthered the associations. The Philistines
burn the father of the bride and Samson's erstwhile betrothed
in retribution, causing him to go on a massive killing spree.
Then the Philistines locate Samson at his "lair"
a term associated with wild animals, themselves related to solar
heroes. But he slays 1,000 of them with his great strength (again,
like Herakles) and the jawbone of an ass. As in other myths both
biblical and extra-biblical, after he becomes thirsty from his
lethal effort, the rocks split and bring forth waters. This relates
to the ancient idea of a divided water above and below the Earth,
kept apart by the gods with the potential of destructive release
from both sides (see the Bible's creation myth with the firmament
and Noah's -and many other non-biblical flood gods- Deluge.) The
ass related to the destructive aspects of the sun. The dry, hot
desert wind- sirocco- means "the ass' breath" and related
to the Egyptian ass-headed god, Set. Solar deities (Shamash, Gilgamesh,
Amon-Ra, Marduk, [= "brightness of day"], etc.) are
usually depicted carrying sickles. The ass' jawbone was sharpened
and used as such a tool in ancient societies. This links up with
the harvest festivals from pagan myths.
After whoring in Gaza, this putative Nazarite's
enemies wait to capture him at dawn. Representing the sun, they
could not take him in the night-because he was not there-and the
sun was seen as weak in the dawn. The famous story of him ripping
posts from the ground and carrying them great distances represented
the belief of the sun entering and exiting the sky through "gates"
standing between pillars of the East and West.
Delilah asks him point blank how to destroy him
and after sufficient pestering, gets him to tell her (though he
takes her down blind alleys a few times first-never seeming to
"get it" that she is striving to do him in!). His hair
(the symbol of his potency) is shorn and his captors (aided by
Delilah's treachery) blind him-these being solar allusions-the
"hair of the sun" and the sun seen as an eye. He is
set to toiling at a mill wheel-the circuits of the wheel, like
the sun's travels, having to do with his solar identity that the
Yahwists tried to hide by making him a Nazarite. He is brought
to the Temple of Dagon where his hair grows back and he pulls
down the pillars killing thousands of Philistines and himself.
Delilah represents the night or the sun's demise
and in countless myths the agent of the sun-stand- in's death
asks him how to bring about his own destruction. This makes the
winter solstice events occur, keeping the cycle of life abiding.
The shearing of the hair is emasculating and humiliating, countering
the sun as strong, proud, and vigorous. The sun as an active,
volatile, masculine deity is overcome by the constant, cooler,
feminine agent. As a side note, Michelangelo's famous "Day"
and "Night" sculptures are depicted as a man and woman
respectively. Delilah's counterparts in other mythologies change
to night hunting owls whose taloned legs perch atop a vanquished
lion (the sun). The names of many of these sun-destroyers relate
to lunar beings and are seen also as fertility figures (keeping
the cycle of life abiding). Of course the lunar cycle and its
association with female menstruation is well known. In the Judgment
of Paris, we see the Greek counterparts of lunar phases related
to female deities: the waxing moon= virgin= Athena; the full moon=
mature woman in prime= Aphrodite; the waning moon= crone= Hera.
Also Zeus, representing the sun, carries off Europa who represents
the moon in a grand fertility myth.
As noted in a presentation by one of our members
regarding the holidays, Christianity, having no system of greater
and lesser gods, had to transfer the pagan gods' attributes to
saints, displacing the older concepts (just one example being
Brigit.) Sometimes they become heroes or sorcerers. Ancient death
goddesses wove and bound and Delilah binds Samson in a portrayal
of enshrouding the Earth in darkness. These goddesses were associated
with the power of the night and deep seas-mysterious, unfathomable
wombs out of which creation flows and harkening back even to the
chaos and darkness that all of Creation is made from and that
even God emerged out of, before he became separate in the post-Exile
myths. Later supplanting of the feminine power gave them negative
connotations and the sun was to overcome the night.
Next, Callahan turned to the worship of Yahweh
before the Exile, a time of henotheism, where local tribal gods
ruled over distinct lands and had little or no power beyond those
borders. They were more like kings ruling over subjects, before
the time of mortal kings among these people. A major point Callahan
makes is that there was in no sense a monotheistic notion among
the Israelites at the time. Other gods were freely acknowledged
and worshiped but they could be worshiped one at a time only,
and the one being worshiped at that time held sway and was honored
over the others. But when one addressed a different deity, that
one took its place as the most highly regarded god. Later, when
the Yahwists make a major break with tradition and create a single
God that rules over all the Earth, he is shown as a "jealous"
god, frequently commanding that other gods, idols and images (that
reference other gods) be destroyed or ignored; not something a
sole Creator of all should have had to worry himself over if there
hadn't been such a vast number of gods that were already firmly
established.
The henotheistic gods made covenants with their
people, ordered wars, commanded genocide, made real estate deals
and gave over spoils to their chosen people. They demanded human
and other animal sacrifices (and were pleased with the odor of
burnt flesh) and gave divine justification for taking over lands
the people had nothing to do with. If one lost a war to another
people who worshiped a different god, it was not seen as being
a shortcoming of one's own god but rather that your people's deity
"lifted its protection" from your tribe because it was
displeased. This primitive belief sounds eerily familiar regarding
modern America when the same thing was said about the God that
"blesses" the U.S. "lifting His protection"
over us for our sinful ways when we were attacked on September
11.
The stories in the Bible of the Exodus and Joshua's
gory conquest of Canaan have no historical or archeological support
but were tales of a people making their own myths to satisfy political
and national desires and wishes. Another member of our group once
spoke of the numbering done in the Bible and when we look at the
numbers of people vanquished in these god-directed slaughters,
we see an account far over-reaching the population densities of
the time in many cases. Yahweh made strict and specific laws regarding
diet, what clothes and materials could be worn, what customs could
be practiced, the great importance of circumcision and countless
other seemingly insignificant orders if they came from that later
"God the Father Almighty" but were perfectly in keeping
with a god sovereign only over a single specially chosen people
who sought precise codes of dress, diet, etc. to remain distinct
from other tribes. The harsh penalties for breaking them (seen
as "sins" more than "crimes") related to the
context of the times. The problem that arose centuries later was
when this henotheistic god of one people became melded with the
monotheistic "true" God of all. The fundamentalists
took the ways and beliefs of that ancient tribe out of the context
of their location in time and geography as well as their knowledge
level and culture and, believing that their account was divinely
inspired, sought dogmatically to use this local, ancient mythic
system to address global and modern concerns.
The Creation stories derive from the ancient,
virtually universal Combat Myth. There is chaos that a god emerges
from and has to organize and he must vanquish a great sea dragon.
The Genesis story breaks from this in that there is a God existing
already that fabricates out of nothing, rather than from the sea
of chaos. There are, however, translations with sprinklings of
the standard myth where God breaks the dragons of the water and
crushes the head of Leviathan. The beast is usually divided (as
God does the waters in Genesis). Some aspects are retained from
those of Baal and Marduk but others are removed-it would make
no sense for a Creator who starts out with nothing to make his
own beast to battle, so they become the elements he has to master.
Originally gods were deemed flawed and intricately linked to the
Creation-often their own bodily parts made things appear-- but
the Bible God existed outside of that which emerged, so was allowed
as perfect but with evil forces (not of Him) inherent in Creation.
This allowed for the creation of Satan not seen in other myths.
Life was begotten by the union of male and female deities (the
many myths of a Father Sky fertilizing a Mother Earth or a more
sexual union) in most creation myths but "made" with
the Bible God after the transition from a female Creatrix (or
at least co-Creator) to a sole, male Creator. The Combat Myth
still comes down to us in fairy tales. The goddess becomes a princess
guarded by a dragon that a knight has to slay. She is often asleep
and the male represents the sun god kissing the dormant winter
enshrouded Earth with warmth and beginning anew the cycle of life.
There are also many stories where the sea beast swallows one who
later emerges alive and this represents resurrection from the
primordial death and chaos.
Those who ruled-kings and gods-were the ones
who "rested" so by having Yahweh rest after Creation,
he is asserting his divine rule. Changes in society were seen
as "unrest" and caused gods to send down plagues and
floods. As to the latter, there are a great many Deluge myths
often in the same basic pattern of Noah and the ark. Noah's name
means "rest." The Flood narrative has internal contradictions
of the kind seen throughout the entire Bible, including making
a distinction between "clean" and "unclean"
animals and the deluge from rain alone or no such clean/unclean
distinction made and the waters coming from below as well as above
(relating to the firmament and divided waters again) and even
the number of days of flooding (150 in one account!). Forty is
a common number in the Bible because it was a sort of all- purpose
number that meant a long duration. In one account, a raven seeks
land-in another a dove does and thrice. In one myth God forgives
and is satisfied but this becomes a God who realizes inherent
evil in humankind (a manufacturer flaw perhaps?) and vows never
to drown all the beings on Earth again. Older myths have a deity
holding back the waters of chaos and destruction, making an ordered
world. The bow in the sky echoes Marduk's action to show established
order. All seem to be based on the older tradition of gods of
limited intellect and control over their creations (and certainly
not omniscient), retained in the Bible even though that god was
later reworked into representing a perfect being.
Noah's drunken state (typical for him; the best
Yahweh could find to restock humanity) causes him to be seen naked
by his son, Ham. In true biblical fashion of assigning grave sin
to a minor offense and afflicting someone other than the perpetrator,
Ham's descendants are cursed for all time by being slaves and
this begins with Ham's son, Canaan. This becomes a later justification
for the war against the Canaanites. Tribe names were often derived
from a god or special hero name, i.e. the Moabites from the deity
Moab, and so on. In modern times, since the descendants of Ham
were regarded as dark-skinned and "divinely" cursed
into slavery, justification was seen for African bondage in the
U.S. by fundamentalist believers. That there is a code of rules
as to the treatment of one's slaves in the Bible, rather than
any problem seen with the practice itself, only fueled this sense
of justification.
Almost universal in mythology is the idea of
gods fashioning beings that either become or threaten to become
"as one of them" and evoke a response from the gods
of limiting the created beings. The Nephalim, created by the union
of the "sons of God" (shouldn't this itself be a problem
for modern believers?) and mortal women (a very common mythic
theme) were the giants and long- lived ones, begetting tales of
humans living for hundreds of years in the Bible. God shortens
their life span to take them out of the semi-divine status. It
became too close to ancestor worship for the mythmakers. Of course,
other famous stories spring to mind in this vein, including the
building of the Tower of Babel where Yahweh sees fit to confound
languages to halt the construction of this structure going into
heaven (good thing our space launches didn't likewise bother Yahweh-or
bang into the firmament, for that matter) and the Original Sin
myth where the first humans would have knowledge belonging only
to the gods and be immortal. Again Yahweh curtails and curses
them. The Tower of Babel myth is another later version of one
where one god is angry that a rival god is getting too much attention
from the people so he confounds their language so they cannot
worship the rival. Prometheus and countless other intercessors
can be found in other myths, who sought to give forbidden power
or knowledge to the mortals.
In this vein, Pandora (translates to "gift
of all") is as Eve; both commanded not to release godly things
upon the humans. Pandora began as a fertility goddess before mythic
changes. Women are used in myths as symbols for ushering humanity
into maturity. Eve hauls Adam into adulthood where they realize
shame, know of their own mortality and are no longer in the childlike
state of dwelling in a carefree world made just for them that
is free of pain and toil. The serpent tells Eve she will be like
a god if she eats the forbidden fruit. Serpents are related throughout
mythology to immortality (the shedding of their skin akin to rebirth)
healing (Moses uses a bronze snake on a staff to heal his people
in the Exodus, and we have the caduceus as the symbol of medicine,
among countless examples), and wisdom (Jesus said to his disciples
to be as wise as serpents.) So it is an apt creature for its role
in the Garden of Eden. Serpents are also seen as representatives
of the original primeval goddess, the divine "mother of all
things" and life-giver. Goddesses are often depicted with
snakes in world iconography (holding them, suckling them, giving
birth to them) and with trees-being a tree goddess with a snake-or
part of a tree of wisdom with a snake entwining it. Asherah, who
was the consort of Yahweh in the older traditions, was depicted
as half tree and there are many other "pillar figurines"
of this type. Eve is not surprised at a talking snake, showing
a possible affinity.
Myths abound with goddesses who are able to give
or withhold a sacred life and/or wisdom conferring fruit that
is guarded by a serpent (see as one example Herakles and the Golden
Apples…when he becomes fully divine he marries the Greek
counterpart of Eve!) In the older version of the story, Yahweh
and a goddess (who transforms into what we know as Eve in later
renditions) create humankind. A seraph (winged snake; again see
the caduceus and other similar icons) shares the secret of being
godlike to "ha-Adam" and Yahweh clips the seraph's wings
and drives mankind from paradise.
The rib story relates to a Sumerian myth of the
god Enki eating forbidden herbs who is then cursed with death
by the goddess Ninhursag. She relents and makes deities to heal
parts of Enki's body. Nin-ti ("lady of the rib") is
in charge of healing his rib. Nin-tu ("lady of life")
is actually created from Enki's rib in some versions-all long
before the biblical stories. Gods and goddesses sprouting from
the bodies of other deities is a very common mythic theme (Athena
from the head of Zeus being just a single example.) As noted,
many patriarchs and other "special" people of the Bible
are born from virgins, barren women, women too old to conceive
or by other extraordinary means. In many older myths, the Goddess
makes the mortal beings but is under a male deity's supervision.
Eve giving birth to Cain says that she has gotten a man by the
help of Yahweh, where "gotten" can be translated as
"made" or "begotten." Enki, Marduk and Ea
all help mother goddesses make the first humans. Cain, by the
way, is associated with the Greek Hephaestos, the son of the chief
god and his consort. So Eve descended in status from being a goddess;
the "Mother of All" and consort and co-creator with
Yahweh to the cause of the "Fall of Mankind." Naming
held great power for the ancients and showed the dominance of
the name-giver, therefore in the later re-workings of the ancient
stories Adam came to name Eve, showing her subservient status.
As to Cain, just mentioned, we come to a story
with fascinating, seldom- explored underpinnings. God asks Cain,
the farmer, where his shepherd brother Abel is after Cain has
killed him (an odd question for an all-seeing/knowing deity).
This comes to us as a presentation of sibling rivalry (when Yahweh
prefers Abel's offerings-as is typical of myths, gods who can
do and make anything always need offerings from humans), but our
Bible scholar presenter showed us that Cain was the mythic progenitor
of the Kenites who were itinerate metal workers and how Cain assumes
the role of Hephaestos, the lame blacksmith (armor and weapon-
maker) of the gods. People with such skills were held in a degree
of awe and fear; admired for their rarefied "powers"
and often seen as sorcerers too. Cain is famously "marked"
by Yahweh, after slaying his brother, so that he will not be harmed
but must live apart from "his people" (yet another oddity
in the Bible, if it is understood as a literal record---since
there would have to be a world "peopled" for this story
to make sense, but he is the first offspring of the original two
humans! Also, his descendants would have had to be produced by
a mating between he and Eve- his mother- (as the only female around)
and the brothers and sisters that issued forth eventually would
similarly have had to commit incest to populate the world).
The mark of Cain associates him with the wandering
metal smiths who were not to be harmed but not assimilated into
the tribes they wandered amongst and these nomadic people "bore
a mark" to identify them with their elite clan. As mentioned
earlier, the myths often have the gods limiting people in power,
which is the reason the Greek Hephaestos and the Norse version,
Volund, are lame. This stops them from making weapons for rival
tribes ("hobbles" them).
One idea presented in another book this secretary
read has to do with Cain (representing one tied to the land) and
Abel representing the shepherd, is that Cain slaying Abel is a
way of showing civilization emerging from the pastoral existence:
when a people settle and are bound up with the land they need
to protect the crops grown and livestock raised, they need walls,
a protecting class and then those who farm, those who store and
distribute and trade-work for food, a monetary system, etc., etc.
The idea that Callahan presents is that Cain, in offering a blood
sacrifice (animal) is required to make an even greater sacrifice
to Yahweh-that is, his human sibling. He is condemned but exonerated
too-this, from a deity who slays without mercy over the tiniest
infractions (or "hardens the hearts" of some so that
he can be justified in perpetrating more lethal destruction) elsewhere
in the Bible. The mark is understood as representing that its
bearer is ritually cleansed. In many other cultures such a mark
would show that a person who had killed another's kin had made
payment to that family and therefore was protected against retribution
by the wronged family members.
The list of descendants of Seth (the replacement
son for Eve) and Cain are altered to take away from Cain and make
a more direct connection between Seth and Noah, the redeemer (who
brings humanity closer to its edenic beginnings, before the Fall).
The 1st two generations in Seth's line become essentially Adam
and Cain; Enosh= "mortal man"= Adam and Kenan= Cain.
In the reworking of the list, Noah's brothers become (by translating
the names intro their representative skills) the founders of music,
animal husbandry, metal smiths, etc.-or the occupations of humankind.
Cain's line becomes unnecessary if his descendants (that do not
include Noah) died out in the Flood.
The story of Moses can be found in parallel myths,
including that of Sargon of Akkad whose mother, a priestess, knew
her children were to be slain so she gave birth in secret and
placed the male (of course) baby in a tar- daubed basket woven
of rushes, and placed it in the Euphrates River whereupon it was
later discovered by a royal gardener. This tale predates the one
of Moses by 800-1100 years and since pitch was not found in the
Nile Valley but was in Mesopotamia, this indicates that the story
was imported. The earliest record of this type originated some
2000 years prior the one of Moses! Typically, these narratives
hold that a male child will be born who will overthrow a king
and he is told that this will come to pass by an oracle. Why,
Callahan asks, would it just be the male children killed by the
ruler (in the Moses rendition), except that it fits the older
motif? Moses' name a play on the words "to draw out"
in Hebrew but the princess who finds Moses would not be speaking
this language.
Callahan talks of typologies-repeated mythic
themes with understood meanings by the people of the time. One
such is the meeting at the well in the Moses tale. This results
in marriage as it generally does in these stories.
History and the presented story of the Exodus
do not jibe as to the timeframes of ascendancy or reduction in
power in Egypt, roles of major players, Thutmose's loss of army,
lifetimes related to events, etc. To make some people fit their
alleged times, we have to lose others ("…if we find
Joseph, we lose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" in Callahan's words.)
There are references to common camel use before they were widely
domesticated and coins used that were not in circulation and expressions
referred to that were not used until centuries later. There are
later wars between people where some involved tribes would not
be "a blip on the radar screen" at the time. After the
liberation, Jethro proclaims that now he knows that Yahweh is
greater than all other gods. This is a major idea in Callahan's
presentation-there simply was no monotheism before the Exile in
those lands and times. There was "monolatry", during
the time of divided monarchies. This refers to worshiping one
god exclusively but accepting the existence of others that are
seen as lesser gods. But even these times of monolatry are rare
in the history of the Israelites who believed and worshipped many
gods, pre-Exile).
The story of Aaron and Moses confronting Pharaoh
to let their people go cannot be seen as any more believable than
a couple of slaves before the Civil War in the U.S. confronting
the plantation owner with the same demands. Callahan regards the
Exodus story as second only to the Creation in the quantity of
miraculous elements. Only that it appears in the sacred Bible,
he asserts, are the fanciful stories of plagues, the Passover,
the miracles at the sea, manna, and the pillars of fire and cloud
given any serious attention in this tale of a 40 year sojourn.
Again we have the number 40 and this is echoed when Moses ascends
Mt. Sinai for 40 days. This was also considered the length of
a generation but in one account of the time of descendants in
Israel we have 400 years, yet in another it is rendered as four
generations (so each would have to be 100 years in duration).
This secretary took another 13 pages (front and
back each page) of notes on this oral presentation, and culled
from Tim Callahan's book, but I will pick up the pace here. Perhaps
I will write up a separate summary of other points neglected or
glossed over here at another time. Before a more full treatment
is given to another major theme, I will present a number of smaller
concepts in abbreviated fashion:
Besides the goddesses being eclipsed in the biblical
redactions, actual historical examples of the matrilineal society
at the time has been altered to make them reflect the later male-biased
one. There are many passages left intact that indicate inheritance
was passed on from the female line. This creates further internal
contradiction in the Bible where the older tradition has not been
totally extirpated amid the patriarchal one. Sarah, to name just
one Bible woman (and who was bold and headstrong), named Isaac,
and as mentioned, naming showed dominance, though this is altered
to have Abraham do the naming. Isaac, by the way, is referred
to as Abraham's only son, though there is Ishmael too, but this
would not fit the myth of Isaac's nearly completed sacrifice as
well, since he would have another lad to fall back on. Later Isaac
is ominously missing from further accounts making it seem likely
that in the original he was in fact killed by his father but that
this was later replaced by the alternate story (Yahweh's slight
of hand, replacing a ram for the boy) to make it more acceptable.
The "Twelve Tribes" probably originated
with the twelve months of the year and the lunar phases within
related to lunar cults. Moon deities can be seen in modified manner
in the names of the tribal leaders.
Esau was one of a vast number of biblical people
who originated as a god. His name relates to his animalistic,
"hairy" nature; a hunter governed by his appetites (like
Herakles, Samson, etc.).
Jacob's famous ladder probably referred to a
stairway in the form of a ziggurat like those in Babylonian temples.
Also referred to as the "Gate of Heaven" or the "Gate
of God" which translates to Bab-ilu= Babylon. His wrestling
with an angel (or god) parallels other myths of Herakles, Proteus,
the Scottish Janet and others and shows that the god of this time
was not the later omnipotent one we are more familiar with.
Another typology is that of the rival twins.
One such is Perez and Zerah. Often they result from incestuous
relations---this itself is a common motif---the issue of such
a relationship goes on to make history.
A seven year drought foreseen is another typology
appearing in many other non-biblical myths including The Epic
of Gilgamesh, which many other major biblical themes can be traced
to as well, including perhaps the original Flood Myth.
Joseph's (of the "coat of many colors")
wife's father's name can be traced to Ra; his daughter's name
linked to the goddess associated with Baal and Yahweh. These are
just a couple examples of older myths that get fragmented and
resurface in pieces and parts throughout the Bible. Joseph's sons
end up as symbols of the typology of the younger son superceding
the older- usually favored- one. Joseph's "prophetic"
dream regarding "bringing in the sheaves" is out of
place for the nomadic shepherds of the time (Joseph's family even
proclaims this occupation to Pharaoh). His son, Benjamin, was
a child at the time of the migration but in a redaction he has
sired ten children in this same time period!
Solomon's Temple, supposedly to honor Yahweh
alone, in actuality is all about symbols of fertility and potency,
solar worship, and other more ancient traditions. Even its non-load-bearing
pillars represented the sun's passage between pillars and through
gates- this was represented for the ancients as a human-like god
riding a fiery chariot (see the Samson myth earlier). The earlier
deities sexed with mortals, needed weapons and conveyances and
had other human-like qualities-some of which are retained in the
Bible, as to God. He is highly anthropomorphic, showing that He
is a creation of the human mind.
Callahan makes clear that the Exile is a major
turning point for the religious practices and beliefs of the Jews.
It forever severed any ties the worship of Yahweh had with the
Canaanite pantheon, divorced gods from consorts and it is where
a tribal deity limited in scope and territorial reign became the
Almighty Creator of all; the "one, true God." The causes
are many but one major reason probably had to do with the exiles
in Babylon trying not to assimilate into the surrounding people
and cultures, so they adhered to strict laws and customs that
were distinct from those around them. Goddess worship dissipated
because it was too close to Ishtar (who would become Ashtart in
other versions). The Jews that returned to their homeland after
a half century away were determined to intensify their new belief
structure as they repopulated the region, extirpating the older
ways as they did so. Since the old flawed gods were replaced with
an all-good one, they had to make a clearer separation of good
and evil, and a system of reward and punishment for those who
adhered or broke from their Almighty God's directives. This made
for a clearer idea of an afterlife (before it was more nebulous
and seen as below ground and easily evoked by the fortune tellers
of the day). With a clearer Good vs. Evil concept, an evil protagonist
emerged with the eternal struggle between these forces (and beings).
Satan went from God's prosecutor to the focus of all and ultimate
evil. This set in motion the idea of a grand and ultimate battle-Armageddon--
at a future time.
The return from the Exile was seen as a second
Exodus with Nehemiah in the role of Moses. The pre-exile worship
of other gods was seen as sinful and the reason for God's wrath.
Humans were all guilty of sin and in need of salvation, setting
up the later Pauline ideas of a Messiah figure. Resurrection themes
became dominant, though probably influenced greatly from the myriad
of earlier fertility cults among people of the ancient world.
Osiris in Egypt, Ishtar and Tammuz in Mesopotamia, Baal in Canaan
and Dionysus in Greece among others exemplified these themes.
"When myths are distorted as literal truth,
they will almost certainly be used by agents of repression, burdening
society with unreasonable limitations and irrational directives,
and in extreme cases, inciting assassination and war." Tim
Callahan in Secret Origins of the Bible.
Secretary:
Charles LaRue
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