Table of Contents
The relationship between Jesus’ teachings and the portrayal of Yahweh in the Hebrew Scriptures has long been a topic of theological debate.
A closer look reveals a striking absence of explicit references to Yahweh in Jesus’ teachings. Instead, Jesus consistently refers to God as “Abba” (Father), which raises the question: Did Jesus recognize Yahweh as the God he referred to as his Father?
Yahweh was deliberately inserted
In the 6th century BCE, during the Babylonian exile, the name Yahweh was deliberately inserted throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. This editorial decision blurred distinctions between different entities mentioned in these texts.
Elohim, for instance, originally denoted a plurality of divine beings, yet later interpretations equated Elohim with Yahweh. By overlaying Yahweh’s name across various narratives, the Hebrew Scriptures gave the impression of a singular deity responsible for all actions, benevolent or wrathful, across the biblical timeline.
This conflation made it challenging for later readers to discern the original context of these texts.
Distinctions between various divine figures, including Elohim, El Elyon, and Yahweh, were effectively erased.
This editorial maneuvering may explain why Jesus, centuries later, distanced his teachings from the Yahweh-centric narratives of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Jesus’ Concept of God: Abba, the Father
Unlike the Yahweh of the Hebrew Scriptures, often depicted as wrathful and punitive, Jesus’ depiction of God is one of compassion and intimacy. He frequently refers to God as “Abba,” an Aramaic term for “Father” that conveys a sense of closeness and trust.
In a striking contrast to Yahweh’s actions in the Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus describes a God who is inherently good, loving, and nurturing.
For example, in Matthew 7:9-11, Jesus asks, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
This teaching directly challenges the portrayal of Yahweh as a deity who tested his followers with harsh trials and punishments.
For instance, in Exodus 17:6-7, Yahweh tests the Israelites by denying them water until Moses strikes the rock at Horeb.
Similarly, Numbers 21:6 describes Yahweh sending venomous snakes to punish the Israelites. By emphasizing God’s goodness, Jesus implicitly critiques the harshness associated with Yahweh and redefines the concept of divine fatherhood.
When I go to the teachings of Jesus, I see a great difference. Yahweh was all about: "You worship me and nobody else because I'm a jealous God." And Jesus said: "I didn't come to be served; I came to help you."
Yahweh believes that he can micromanage us to the point of telling us what we can eat and not eat, whereas in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus declares all foods clean.
Yahweh is unforgiving and will not be reasoned with, and Jesus says: "Your sins are forgiven."
Yahweh is all about: "You follow my orders to the letter even if they don't make sense to you." And there comes a moment when his king, King David, is nearing the point where he might question Yahweh's orders. What he does is he counts his armies because he's now old enough that he only wants to fight winnable wars. So he counts his troops, a very sensible thing to do. But for Yahweh, that's just too close to weighing up his instructions. You do not think for yourself; you do not use your own mind; you do not trust in your own judgment; you trust in Yahweh with all your heart. And as a punishment for thinking for himself, Yahweh slaughters 70,000 of David's troops.
Now contrast that with what Jesus says, because in his first message that he toured with for a year, according to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus not only encourages us to use our own minds, but he says: "Go beyond the mind", the root meaning says this: "go beyond the mind because the whole cosmic realm is available to you." That's the Kingdom of Heaven: the whole cosmic realm is available to you.
Elsewhere in the Gospel of Matthew, and you can find it in the Gospel of Thomas as well, the earliest Christian source according to many scholars, he says: "The whole of the cosmic realm is within you." Now can you imagine a more profound invitation to explore what's possible than that?
So on the one hand, you have Yahwism, where your role and my role is only to obey and worship and do what we're told. And Jesus here is saying: "Explore what's possible. The things you've seen me do, these and even greater things will you do, because the whole of the cosmic realm is available to you." One is demeaning, diminishing, disempowering; and the other is empowering, invitational, and inspiring.
Paul Wallis
The Elohim and the Separation from Yahweh
Jesus’ silence on Yahweh and the Elohim offers further insight. If Jesus had intended to align himself with the Yahweh-centric narrative, he would have invoked Yahweh’s name or referenced the Elohim explicitly.
Instead, his teachings focus on a universal and loving Father, distinct from the tribal deity depicted in many Yahweh stories.
Consider Jesus’ statement in John 8:44:
“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.”
John 8:44
This remark, when interpreted in the context of Yahweh’s violent actions in the Hebrew Scriptures, such as commanding the slaughter of entire populations (e.g., 1 Samuel 15:3) or sending venomous snakes to punish the Israelites (Numbers 21:6), raises the possibility that Jesus implicitly associated Yahweh’s actions with a malevolent force.
By contrasting Yahweh’s punitive nature with his concept of a loving and forgiving Father, Jesus may have been pointing to a fundamental separation, suggesting that Yahweh was not the God he identified as “Abba,” but rather an entity with characteristics akin to those he attributed to the devil.
The two covenants
In Galatians 4, Paul provides a striking contrast between two covenants, which can be interpreted as an implicit critique of Yahweh’s role in the Hebrew Scriptures. He writes about the allegory of Hagar and Sarah, stating, “Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother” (Galatians 4:25-26). By associating Mount Sinai, the site where Yahweh gave the Law, with slavery, Paul subtly critiques the harsh, legalistic framework associated with Yahweh.
Paul’s emphasis on freedom in Christ contrasts with the bondage of the Law, symbolized by Hagar. This contrast aligns with Jesus’ teachings, which focus on a loving Father rather than a strict enforcer of legal codes. The “Jerusalem above” represents a divine, spiritual relationship, one that resonates with Jesus’ concept of God as Abba. Paul’s allegory underscores the fundamental separation between the punitive covenant of Yahweh and the liberating message of Jesus and his Father.
The god of this world and the Elohim of the entire earth
There is one more line of verses that I keep coming back to. It is about who owns this world.
Paul gives a name to the power that rules here. He calls Satan “the god of this world”.
Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.
2 Corinthians 4:4, New Living Translation
In this verse Paul is speaking about people who cannot see his message. He blames a “god of this world” for blinding them. The NLT puts the name Satan in the verse. The Greek text itself only says “the god of this age”.
Jesus uses almost the same words on the last night before his arrest. He calls this power “the ruler of this world”.
I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.
John 14:30, New King James Version
Jesus says this to his disciples at the last supper. He means that this ruler has no hold on him and no claim over him.
In the very next verse Jesus says whom he does obey. It is the Father.
but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.
John 14:31, English Standard Version
So John places two powers side by side. One is the ruler of this world, who has nothing in Jesus. The other is the Father, whose commands Jesus follows.
Then I turn to the Hebrew Bible. There I find Yahweh claiming this world as his own property. The Concordant Literal Version (CLV) is a very literal English translation. It keeps the names Yahweh and Elohim where most Bibles write “the LORD” and “God”.
Moses, he ascended to the One, Elohim. Then Yahweh called to him from the mountain, saying: Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and tell to the sons of Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians when I bore you on vultures’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now, if you shall hearken, yea hearken to My voice and observe My covenant then you will become Mine, a special possession, above all of the peoples, for Mine is all the earth.
Exodus 19:3-5, Concordant Literal Version
This is the moment at Mount Sinai, just before the covenant. Yahweh picks Israel as his special possession. He gives his reason in a few words: all the earth is his.
Yahweh’s is the earth and its fullness, The habitance and those dwelling in it.
Psalm 24:1, Concordant Literal Version
This psalm is a song of praise. “Habitance” is the CLV’s word for the inhabited world. The psalm says that the land and the people on it belong to Yahweh.
For your Possessor is your Maker, Yahweh of hosts is His Name, And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, The Elohim of the entire earth shall He be called.
Isaiah 54:5, Concordant Literal Version
Here the prophet speaks to Israel as to a wife whose husband has come back. “Possessor” is the CLV’s word for husband or owner. The title at the end is the one that stays with me: “The Elohim of the entire earth”.
Then Yahweh will come to be King over the entire earth. In that day Yahweh shall come to be one, and His Name one.
Zechariah 14:9, Concordant Literal Version
Zechariah looks ahead to a final day. On that day Yahweh rules as king over the whole earth.
When I put these verses next to each other, I see a pattern. The New Testament speaks of a god of this world and a ruler of this world. The Hebrew Bible speaks of Yahweh as the owner of the earth, the Elohim of the entire earth and its coming king.
To me these sound like titles of the same figure. If the god of this world is the Elohim of the entire earth, then Yahweh is not the Father that Jesus obeys. He is the ruler who “has nothing in” Jesus.
This fits the reading of Mauro Biglino and other paleo-contact researchers. They read the Elohim as real beings who ruled parts of the earth. In that reading Yahweh is one of them, a lord of land and people, not the source of everything. I find that reading convincing here.
I want to be fair to the other side. Most Christian readers see it very differently. For them Satan rules this world only because he took power that was never his. They read the “god of this world” as a usurper, and Yahweh as the true owner who will win it back.
Isaiah also gives them a strong point. In the same verse that calls Yahweh the Elohim of the entire earth, he is called “your Redeemer”. A redeemer is someone who buys back and saves. That is hard to match with a blinding ruler, and I cannot explain it away.
Still, the words themselves keep pulling me back. Jesus never says that the ruler of this world is his Father. He sets the two apart in two verses that stand right next to each other.
Reclaiming the Original Message
Understanding Jesus’ teachings in this context sheds light on the deliberate confusion introduced into the Hebrew Scriptures. By conflating Yahweh with Elohim and other divine figures, editors of the 6th century BCE created a monolithic narrative that Jesus’ teachings later challenged. Jesus’ concept of God, a loving, compassionate Father, starkly contrasts the punitive and often capricious nature of Yahweh as depicted in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Jesus’ refusal to recognize Yahweh as his Father suggests he sought to redirect humanity’s understanding of the divine.
By emphasizing love, forgiveness, and compassion, he offered a vision of God that transcended the limitations of the Yahweh-centric narratives. This shift invites modern readers to reexamine the Scriptures with fresh eyes and question long-held assumptions about the nature of God.
In doing so, we may uncover a richer, more nuanced understanding of Jesus’ teachings and their implications for spirituality today.
The Good Sheperd vs the Benevolent Sheperd
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:11
Is Jesus pointing a finger here? When did shepherds not take good care of their flock, we find the answer in the Old Testament.
“Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.”
Ezekiel 34:2–4
Here, the “shepherds” are Israel’s leaders (kings, priests, prophets) who exploited the people instead of protecting them. Another interesting observation about the characteristics of these gods or leaders is the following:
“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! declares Yahweh. Therefore, this is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done.”
Jeremiah 23:1–2
