He argued powerfully that the elohim and Yahweh stories should not be read as if they were portrayals of the God and Father of Jesus.
Indeed, he said that if we took the elohim and Yahweh narratives at face value we would have to believe of God, “such things as we would not believe of the most savage and unjust of men.”
See Yahweh (The Lord God) versus Jesus
They honor the "Powerful Ones" (Elohim, a Hebrew word in plural form often meaning "God") along with YHWH (meaning "Lord God") in the Old Testament of the Bible, alongside Jesus, who refers to "Abba" an Aramaic word for "father" that suggests a close, trusting bond like a child's call.
Firstly, Jesus never used the name Yahweh as a name for God.
Jesus however questions the actions of YHWH in Matthew:
YHWH (The Lord God) is a label used to combine many gods from the Old Testament—gods with very human characters and extremely cruel demands: genocides, animal offerings, and punishments by death, floods, or plagues when not pleased.
In the end, Yahweh demands worship of only one and orders the others to be called idols.
Man’s God to-day, to-morrow is not God.17. The nations of the earth see God from different points of view, and so he does not seem the same to every one.18. Man names the part of God he sees, and this to him is all of God; and every nation sees a part of God, and every nation has a name for God.19. You Brahmans call him Parabrahm; in Egypt he is Thoth; and Zeus is his name in Greece; Jehovah is his Hebrew name; but everywhere he is the causeless Cause, the rootless Root from which all things have grown.20. When men become afraid of God, and take him for a foe, they dress up other men in fancy garbs and call them priests.21. And charge them to restrain the wrath of God by prayers; and when they fail to win his favour by their prayers, to buy him off with sacrifice of animal, or bird.22. When man sees God as one with him, as Father-God, he needs no middle man, no priest to intercede;23. He goes straight up to him and says, My Father-God!
All names for God (e.g., God, Goddess, Allah, Jehovah, I Am That I Am) represent different archetypal perspectives of the same source—all that is.
The text presents itself as a new revelation from Jehovah (the Creator) and angelic beings.
The text presents itself as a new revelation from Jehovah (the Creator) and angelic beings.
He argued powerfully that the elohim and Yahweh stories should not be read as if they were portrayals of the God and Father of Jesus.
Indeed, he said that if we took the elohim and Yahweh narratives at face value we would have to believe of God, “such things as we would not believe of the most savage and unjust of men.”
In this detail the narrator reveals his clear conviction that YHWH is superior to Dagon.
Represented respectively by the Ark and the statue, Dagon in effect bows down to YHWH on day one, and is destroyed by YHWH on day two.
These texts had to be edited to present a seamless narrative of Yahweh as the sole God.
These reforms aimed to centralize worship around Yahweh and eliminate other priesthoods.
Evidence from Kuntillet Ajrud and Khirbet el-Qom (archaeological sites in Israel) indicates her association with Yahweh, suggesting she was worshiped as his consort.
Yahweh and Dragon Stories
All names for God (e.g., God, Goddess, Allah, Jehovah, I Am That I Am) represent different archetypal perspectives of the same source—all that is.
Man's God to-day, to-morrow is not God.17. The nations of the earth see God from different points of view, and so he does not seem the same to every one.18. Man names the part of God he sees, and this to him is all of God; and every nation sees a part of God, and every nation has a name for God.19. You Brahmans call him Parabrahm; in Egypt he is Thoth; and Zeus is his name in Greece; Jehovah is his Hebrew name; but everywhere he is the causeless Cause, the rootless Root from which all things have grown.20. When men become afraid of God, and take him for a foe, they dress up other men in fancy garbs and call them priests.21. And charge them to restrain the wrath of God by prayers; and when they fail to win his favour by their prayers, to buy him off with sacrifice of animal, or bird.22. When man sees God as one with him, as Father-God, he needs no middle man, no priest to intercede;23. He goes straight up to him and says, My Father-God!
In all the world there is one force; Jehovah is Almighty God.4. Jehovah wrote upon the heavens and Moses read,5. I am Almighty God and you shall have no God but me.6. There is one force, but many phases of that force; these phases men call powers.7. All powers are of God; and they are manifests of God; they are Spirits of the God.8. If men could seem to find another force and worship at its shrine, they would but court illusion, vain,9. A shadow of the One, Jehovah, God, and they who worship shadows are but shadows on the wall; for men are what court.10. And God would have all men to be the substance, and in mercy he commanded, You shall seek no God but me.11. And finite men can never comprehend infinite things.
Paul Wallace: "King Hezekiah initiated a reformation, removing standing stones and altars to focus worship on Yahweh.
By the 6th century BCE, it was rewritten to appear as a seamless story of God, using Yahweh uniformly.
Yahweh, one of the Elohim, is depicted ordering genocides in Joshua and First Samuel, actions incompatible with divine morality.
Viewing Yahweh as a violent leader among many Elohim, rather than God, resolves these moral contradictions.
Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82 reveal Yahweh as a junior Elohim assigned to Jacob’s family by Elyon, the commander.
This family, landless and nomadic, was guided by Yahweh to conquer territory, not as a universal God but a regional governor.
Israeli archaeology, including the eighth-century BCE Yaho Ezer seal near Temple Mount, supports biblical narratives.
The debate over their superiority mirrors the Cain and Abel story in Genesis, though the Sumerian tale ends in reconciliation, with Inky favoring grain, unlike Yahweh’s preference for Abel’s offering.
Elohim, Yahweh, Olam, and so on.
And the hero, the protagonist of the Bible—Yahweh—it was just one of the Elohim, one of multiple Elohim, just like the others.
And Yahweh needed to fight against the others in order to conquer lands, to rule over.
And so it is clear in the Bible: they are named, they are fighting each other, they were ruling over various nations, and Yahweh had one of these nations.
Yahweh had the people of Jacob, which was assigned to him by the chief of the Elohim, that in the Bible is named Elyon.
That's why I mentioned this ontological shock, you know, like the chosen people are not the chosen people; they are those ruled by a particular Elohim, Yahweh.
But it's interesting to read in the Bible that when Yahweh wants to conquer a land, he needs to fight.
And this, for example, is clearly written in the Bible of the Judges, where it is written that Yahweh is as Chemosh, the so-called god of the Moabites, and it is written that it has the same power.
And it is written that when the kavod or the ruach of Yahweh, when it arises from the ground, produces a loud noise.
And Ezekiel in that case doesn't see—cannot see—the kavod because it is behind him, but he hears clearly the loud noise produced by the kavod of Yahweh when arising from the ground.
Because Jesus is clearly different from Yahweh, that is presented as father of Jesus—as a godfather.
I've got a friend who was an ancient Hebrew scholar, and he mentioned that the—the word Yahweh is consists of two letters which—this each describe a different direction.
I—I understood from you that Yahweh is just one of the Elohim—so it's like a—uh—an offspring of the same family, so to speak.
But perhaps you could say something about Yahweh, since Niels asked, and we didn't talk about that.
So about Yahweh, we know something—basically, we don't know.
For example, in the Book of Ezekiel, and in the Book of Exodus, the kavod of Yahweh is clearly described, that when Moses asked Yahweh for the possibility to see his kavod, and Yahweh told him "you cannot stay in front of kavod because if you are in front of kavod you will die," and—this is important—Yahweh cannot do anything, so God is impotent, not potent, in front of the danger of the kavod, and this is very interesting—Yahweh tells Moses "you can hide behind these rocks," so the rocks can do what God cannot do.
Yeah, let's dig deeper into this question of El and Elohim, and Yahweh or YHVH.
In that moment Aramaic was the international language, as with English now, but we don't know in what language the so-called Yahweh spoke, but for example we do know that the vowels of Yahweh were inserted two thousand years after their first pronunciation, so nobody knows so the real sound of this name.
Right, so this entity called YHVH, or Yahweh, we don't know what language he spoke to Moses in then, no we don't know but since Moses was reared in the household of the Pharaoh it's most likely to be in the ancient Egyptian language, yes.
And how do they relate to Yahweh, or YHVH?
There are many Judaisms, but there are many Christianities too, but they are they all share the view that there's—they're monotheistic religions as indeed is Islam; they would define themselves as monotheists, yes, but there are many important Hebrew exegesis' that clearly state that El, Elohim, Eloah, and Yahweh, do not refer to the same person.
Okay and Yahweh was in charge of the population named The Sons of Israel that is Jacob not the leader of all Hebrews, but only of the family of Jacob.
There is a stone of the Moabites in which it's written that they fought with Israelites and they won, and they won against the people of Yahweh and they were ruled by their Elohim.
I think it's what is written in the Bible could be true because the The Ark is defined as an object that produced or contained some form of energy and was also an instrument for the communication between Moses, or the people of Israel, with their Elohim, named Yahweh.
I may say—mistranslated in the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark as "a radio for talking to God," talking to God, talking to Yahweh whatever he was.
Kavod is always translated as Glory of Yahweh but in the Book of Ezekiel there are some clear translations that can allow us to think that it was a technological tool.
Oh it's a very interesting topic because the narration of the Tower of Babel is very strange because those people wanted to reach the sky so Yahweh wanted to intervene to destroy it and after the Bible says that Yahweh divided languages but if you read carefully the previous chapters of the Bible, you read that the languages were already divided.
Each people had their own language so when Yahweh destroyed this tower and divided this alliance, he distributed these people among the others so he didn't create a new language, because the diverse languages already existed.
There's a case to be made that almost all religions arose out of visionary experiences first that people had people had visions of entities and encounters of course it's possible but I wanted to tell you another thing—the term in Hebrew translated with "bush" is present also in other parts of the Bible and it means "rocky mountain" and so it's possible that Moses saw a fire over a rocky mountain so it's another case of mistranslation exactly rocky mountain and in effect in reality in other parts of the Bible it is translated as "rocky mountain" so we can think that it was not a bush on fire but this fire was on a rocky mountain where there was the kavod of Yahweh this glowing burning energy with sound so, since we know that in that region where many archaeologists found, for example, the 12 Stones cited in the Bible, etc in those stones there is some substance like petrol so when the kavod of Yahweh is over the Earth it could provoke fire it could create fire, yeah so we are not sure if this term means "bush" or "rocky mountain" we are not sure and my system is to always have an open mind to all possible solutions.
Yahweh wanted to have, every day, from 2 to 5 liters—because I don't know how many gallons—of shakar that was an alcoholic drink where is this stated?
It is stated in the Bible, in the Torah and every day he wanted also the smoke of burnt meat because for example in the Book of Numbers Chapter 28 this smoke that he wanted to smell was able to calm him yes I remember that passage absolutely, so it's possible that—and in this smoke there are some molecules that are similar to endorphin molecules I don't know how to say endorphins, yeah endorphins that our brain produces when we are in a state of stress right and in the Book of Numbers, Yahweh says several times that this smoke calmes you he says this smoke calms me, because these smoke calmes me several times so it's clear and you wouldn't expect the one God, the creator of the universe, to need to be calmed by smoke no interesting but it's clear—it's not my translation, it's the normal translation it sounds more like a human being, and the needs, and wishes, and weaknesses of a human being so does the bible tell us give us any hint as to where these entities, these Elohim, this Yahweh, where they come from?
No the Bible doesn't say where they come from and so I don't speculate on that but in Psalm 24 it is written that Yahweh with his kavod, were passing through a gate that opened after an order and opened le-olam i.e.
Give me an example for example in the Book of Ezekiel, and in the book of Exodus in the book of Exodus the kavod of Yahweh is clearly described that when Moses asked Yahweh of the possibility to see this kavod and Yahweh says to him "you cannot stay in front of kavod, because if you are in front of kavod you die" that is important—and so Yahweh cannot do anything about it so God is impotent, not potent, in front of the of the danger of the kavod and, this is very interesting—Yahweh tells Moses "you can hide yourself behind these rocks" so the rocks can do what God cannot do I absolutely get your point Impressive Yes, very much so.
The Hebrew of Elephantine knew the wife of Yahweh they knew the wife of Yahweh!
Okay, fortunately we are living in other times yeah fortunately we are, but those times are relatively recent when when the church was capable of burning people at the stake, in extremely painful and awful ways I find a great deal of hypocrisy in the church in this matter I draw your attention particularly to the Spanish conquest of Mexico between 1519 and 1521 those Spaniards who were brutal murderers of the worst kind claimed to be horrified when they witnessed human sacrifice of the Aztecs the Aztecs would carry out acts of human sacrifice but not a single one of them was able to contemplate the possibility that burning a fellow human being at the stake is an act of human sacrifice they are sacrificing that entity to what they believe is God it's no different they were in no position to—but also Yahweh asked for human sacrifice of child tell me more, I didn't know that, please talk to me some more about that in the book of Jeremiah it says that he had the necessity to request these human sacrifices because the people wanted to obey his orders and of course there's the case of Isaac, who Yahweh instructs to kill his—is it Isaac?
Yes He instructs Isaac to sacrifice his son and then changes his mind at the last minute very cruel behavior it was normal, and Abraham accepted it as normal, because Yahweh wanted to test the fate of Abraham and when he saw that Abraham was disposed to give his son in sacrifice, Yahweh sent a so-called angel in Hebrew "malach" that means "messenger" to stop it because Yahweh saw that Abraham was able to kill his son to demonstrate his faith, his availability to obey orders of Yahweh it was normal, absolutely normal so very cruel and obnoxious behavior absolutely Yahweh didn't accept criticism absolutely so he can not be the god of love, absolutely no he was a god of war only a god of war a god, not a god of course but to use this term—an entity of war, a human being who uses war.
Yes, but what is important, and in the conferences, in the lectures, I always say this—I don't say that God does not exist I don't know about God I don't speak about God I only say that in that book there is no spiritual God there are the Elohim, and the Bible is the history of the relationship between Yahweh—one of the Elohim—and one people because Yahweh didn't—he didn't much care about others no, the others did not exist for him, or if they didn't want to submit, they must be exterminated the Bible is this book, nothing else it's really important to get these translations correct in a book that is so influential yes and so I value and respect your work in putting some correction to this record you have a book coming out translated into English, and the English—Elisabetta it's ready?
They know that in the Hebrew Bible there is Yahweh who is the Elohim who chose them, who rules above them and they have to have faith in him only in him but the other gods can exist do they believe that the other gods do exist?
There are so many currents in Judaism that you can find every kind of thought in Judaism you can find, from atheism, pure atheism to the maximum of the orthodox beliefs all are present so in your translations of the Bible, your own interpretation of these different words, you've come to the conclusion that there's no God in the Bible at all Yes and there is Elohim which are powerful people of which Yahweh is one and so were these people just—you were saying they were just people, they were just normal people, but they were vastly more technologically superior Yes does that imply—is there any implication at all of them being a different species?
Or later or later it's not sure so is there any account of other Elohim from that period, from—yes, there was the Elohim that was ruling the land of Canaan and Yahweh had the necessity to fight with them and the Bible is clear in narrating this these wars clear absolutely and sometimes Yahweh won, sometimes lost, the Bible is clear But are there stories of Elohim from that period, from Moses' period, outside of the Bible?
Yes, for example there is the Stele of Mesha who was the king of the Moabites that tells us about a battle between the Moabites and the Israelites and he says that he won against those of Yahweh and he offered the prisoners to his Elohim named Chemosh so this account could be brought and put in the Bible, nothing would change and the King Mesha is quoted in the Bible so we also we have a double check, from the same time a double check and so finally the Bible—if I want to read the Bible today I can go and buy a Bible but it's going to be the King James translation or something like that it's going to be the standard translation that every priest will believe is there any way I can read a Bible as you believe to be the true translation?
Yahweh in a single assault killed 70,000 people.
And then we have Yahweh, which is a word with no meaning.
And many of the Yahweh stories fit into that scheme.
Well, Yahweh was part of the sky armies.
Yahweh in a single assault killed 70,000 people.
But Yahweh is saying, "No, no, no.
So I don't think you can read the Yahweh stories as stories of something benevolent that was looking after his people group.
It was a story of wars between Yahweh and other Elohim and thousands of people left dead through the years of those conflicts.
In a lot of Bibles, the name Yahweh is translated as the Lord with Lord in capitals.
But you go back to the beginning of Christian history and there were plenty of really central church fathers who said the Yahweh stories and Elohim stories cannot be understood as God's stories because they are morally incompatible with the teachings of Jesus.
The behavior of the entity Yahweh is incompatible with Christian morality.
The moment you leave Yahweh untranslated and go and read those stories, you will start evaluating the moral behavior of that entity and there's no way you will conclude that theos—about whom Jesus taught—had anything to do with the Yahweh of those old stories.
And it's a bit of a smoking gun that in all the gospels and New Testament, neither Jesus nor anyone who writes for him ever uses the word Yahweh as a word for God.
And there are plenty of places where Jesus distances himself from Yahweh.
Moses allowed you this, but I say this." And then there's a famous moment where he says, "What kind of father, when his children are asking for food, would give them a stone or snakes?" And he's referring to a moment when Yahweh did exactly that to the starving tribes of Israel.
If Jesus had been a worshiper of Yahweh, then Christians today would be Yahwists, all following Yahwist law.
If Jesus had been a Yahwist, the Jerusalem Council could not have come to the decision it did in Acts 15, which was to say, "We're not building Christianity on faith in Yahweh's laws or the stories surrounding him."
So really it's a story of discontinuity between these experiences of violent colonization by entities including Yahweh and what Jesus was teaching about.
He addresses the source as abba which means dad or sir—a word in between those—but he never once takes the word Yahweh on his lips.
So, I'm convinced it's a story of discontinuity and it makes sense once you begin reading the paleo-contact narratives and understand that the Yahweh stories fit in the pattern of invasion stories that you can find told by cultures all around the world.
Elevating this Yahweh character into God—and in The Eden Conspiracy, I show how that happened—means you've just empowered your kings and queens and emperors to use violence and force and brutality to manage their own societies and invade other people's countries because they can do all that in the name of God.
Once we disentangle this and realize, yes, there are God's stories in the Bible, but the Elohim and Yahweh stories are something else, we break the chain of that logic.
Questioning Yahweh's Character
So how is it that for the best part of 2000 years, Christianity has run with the idea that the Yahweh character in the Hebrew scriptures is a portrayal of God, and that that is the God that Jesus worshiped?
Samuel said to Saul, "I am the man whom Yahweh has sent to anoint you as king of his people Israel.
Then Yahweh sent a message to Samuel: "I regret having made Saul king, since he has fallen short of obedience to me and has not carried out my precise instructions." Samuel was appalled and cried out to Yahweh all night long.
When Samuel reached Saul, Saul said, "May you be blessed by Yahweh; I have carried out Yahweh's orders." Samuel replied, "Then what is this bleating of sheep in my ears and the lowing of cattle that I hear?"
Saul said, "They have been brought from Amalek, the people having spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice them to Yahweh your God; the rest we have consigned to the curse of destruction."
Let me tell you what Yahweh said to me last night.
Yahweh anointed you as king of Israel.
When Yahweh sent you on a mission, he told you: 'Go and put those sinners, the Amalekites, under the curse of destruction and make war on them until they are exterminated.' Why then did you not obey Yahweh's voice?
Why did you fall on the booty and do what is wrong in Yahweh's eyes?"
Saul replied to Samuel, "But I did obey Yahweh's voice.
I went on the mission which Yahweh gave me.
And from the booty, the people have taken the best sheep and cattle and what was under the curse of destruction only to sacrifice them to Yahweh your God in Gilgal."
To which Samuel said, "Is Yahweh pleased by burnt offerings and sacrifices or by obedience to Yahweh's voice?
Because you have failed Yahweh's instruction, he has rejected you as king."
Saul then said to Samuel, "I have sinned, having broken Yahweh's order and your instructions.
Please forgive my sin and return with me so that I can bow down and abase myself before Yahweh."
Samuel said to Saul, "I will not come back with you, since you have failed Yahweh's word, and Yahweh has rejected you as king of Israel."
Samuel then said, "Bring me Agag, king of the Amalekites." Agag came towards him unsteadily, saying, "Truly, death is bitter." Samuel then butchered Agag in the presence of Yahweh at Gilgal.
That is not the character of Yahweh in the Hebrew scriptures, what we call the Old Testament.
This behavior that we read about in 1 Samuel 15 is the same character revealed by Yahweh whenever he is an active character in the Hebrew scriptures, from start to finish.
Just like Samuel, the spokesperson for Yahweh, executes this brutal slaughter, so Moses does the same.
Now note that when Yahweh rejects Saul, he is rejecting Saul because he isn't brutal enough.
So on what basis do we consider genocide the worst crime against humanity, and yet we excuse it if the Yahweh character does it?
And how is it that Christianity, for the best part of 2000 years, has run with the idea that the Yahweh character of the Hebrew scriptures is a portrayal of God, and that that is the God that Jesus worshiped?
What I argue in The Eden Conspiracy is that although Yahweh later became used as the holy name for God, originally Yahweh referenced an entity which colonized our Hebrew ancestors and governed over them with brutality.
And that Yahweh was not a portrayal of God and was certainly not the God whom Jesus called Father.
The idea that Yahweh was in fact originally a violent colonizer is emphasized by another name that Yahweh identifies with himself, and that's the name El Shaddai.
However, you go to the root meanings of those words, and what you reach is "the powerful one," "the destroyer." And Yahweh says in a later text that he introduced himself to Abraham as the powerful one, the destroyer.
And when Yahweh El Shaddai hears this, he becomes so furious, and he says, "I'll show them." And what he shows them the next day is a total extermination, proving that he's not the powerful one of the mountains or the plains; he's the powerful one, the destroyer.
If Yahweh's character is so abominable, why is it that for so long Christians have identified their concept of God—a transcendent, loving God—with the character of Yahweh in the Hebrew scriptures?
By the time Jesus came on the scene, Yahweh was being used as the holy name for God; it was the name for the Jewish God.
And yet, when you read the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels and referred to in the New Testament, Jesus never once uses the name Yahweh, and neither does anyone who writes for him.
In fact, Jesus distances himself from the Yahweh character.
When he does refer to the Yahweh character, it is disparagingly.
Could he really be saying that about Yahweh?
On another occasion, Jesus completely mocks the idea that Yahweh could be considered any kind of father.
But he mocks the idea that Yahweh was any kind of father, and you can find it in Luke 11 and Matthew 7.
This is a scenario well known to anyone who knows the Yahweh stories, because there did come moments when the people of Israel were starving and thirsty in the desert.
And when they cried out for water, Yahweh provided them with a stone and said: "You can get water from there; I'll show you how you can find water from the stone."
Well, after a while, the tribes of Israel become tired of that provision: "We can't go on living like this; we're hungry, we're thirsty; we want to go home." And they put their complaint to Moses, Yahweh's deputy.
Yahweh is furious that these people are complaining about his provision, and so he sends snakes or serpents to attack them and kill them, and many die and many are made ill.
And Jesus in Matthew 7 and Luke 11 says: "What kind of father would treat his children like that?" He makes a mockery of the Yahweh stories as if they were depictions of the God whom he called Father.
Now, when Jesus spoke disparagingly of Yahweh, he was speaking in the tradition of ancient Judaism.
They spoke slightingly of Yahweh their powerful one, and they built themselves high places wherever they lived, from every watchtower to every fortified town.
They rejected the commandments of Yahweh their powerful one.
But they remembered being colonized by Yahweh as a very negative thing, and they had rejected Yahwism as their religion and as their law.
Now there's only the Jerusalem Temple honoring Yahweh.
There's the king and his God Yahweh; all the others will be forgotten.
So when Jesus speaks slightingly of Yahweh and rejects his laws, he is speaking in the tradition of primitive Judaism.
Yet in the early church, it was unclear whether Jesus really had repudiated the laws of Yahweh.
It took a while for the idea to bed down that Jesus really had rejected Yahwism and repudiated Yahweh's laws.
They put an end date on the laws of Yahweh.
Could Jesus really be saying that the moment was coming when we can completely forget about Yahweh and all his laws and move on to something better?
Well, this was the debate that the apostolic church had to have, because what it boiled down to as Christianity got going was: to become a Christian, do you have to obey the laws of Yahweh?
Do you have to believe in the Yahweh stories to be a Christian?
And they address this question: what do we do with the stories and the laws of Yahweh?
Yahweh's law is at an end.
But they were clear: Jesus had fulfilled—put an end to—the era of Yahweh.
Acts 15 is a very clear repudiation of Yahweh's law, because the apostles understood: Jesus never spoke in Yahweh's name; he never used the name Yahweh.
Whenever he referred to Yahweh, it was always to repudiate his laws or disparage his stories or mock the idea that Yahweh was any kind of father.
Now they knew Yahweh very well; they were Yahwists.
Of course, this echoes what Jesus had told the Jewish leaders in John 8, where he said: "You don't know me and you don't know my Father." So there is a dis-equation of Yahweh and the Father of Jesus.
So they pared it down to get rid of the paleo-contact aspect, so that people would forget about the seba' hashamayim, the sky armies, and the elohim, the council of powers, and remember only Yahweh.
So by the time we have the reconstruction of the temple and Ezra the senior priest overseeing that, we now have a set of scriptures teaching Yahwism: there's only one God, and his name is Yahweh.
The problem with gluing them together is that it sends the signal that this God whom we call Yahweh is the same God whom Jesus worshiped and taught about.
Though Yahweh came to be used as the holy name for God, originally it referred to this colonizing entity—this experience of colonization and brutalization by other non-human powers.
And that we do not consider the Yahweh figure of the Hebrew stories as God.
And in The Eden Conspiracy, I go into the root meanings of key words to show that Yahweh is just one of a number of non-human demographics with whom our ancestors had to deal in the deep past.
We have Yahweh, El Shaddai, Elyon, all the Elohim, the elohim adah—they are stories of paleo-contact, not of "Almighty God," which turns out to be an invented translation altogether.
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.
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.
Jesus didn't teach Yahwism; he didn't talk about Yahweh; and he certainly didn't worship him.
Our ancestors wanted us to know about what happened under Yahweh.
Yahweh came for slaves; Jesus came to set the prisoners free, so that you and I could have a better human experience.
The word translated as "Lord" (number 3068) refers to Yehovah or YHWH.
So, verse 1 can say: "The humans saw the presence of a distinguishing mark on Eve when the hybrid became pregnant and delivered the presence of the distinguishing mark on Cain and said: I have gotten a human servant from YHWH." This makes sense because in Genesis 2 and 3, YHWH created the hybrid by taking a cell from the humans and made the hybrid beautiful so the humans would marry them.
So, it is true that the hybrid has a human child because of YHWH.
So, Cain brought his offspring of the territory as a tribute to the Lord (YHWH).
Verse 3 can say: "And after a time, Cain (the possessor of the spear) brought his offspring of the territory as a tribute to YHWH."
So: YHWH looked at Abel’s offering (tribute).
And YHWH looked at Abel’s tribute."
So, the end of verse 4 into verse 5 can say: "And YHWH looked at Abel’s tribute and Cain’s tribute they looked at, and Cain was very grieved because his appearance fell short."
As a side note, YHWH refers to more than one person because in Genesis 11:6-7, it says the YHWH said, let us go down.
If YHWH are a group, they should be referred to in the plural.
The YHWH looked at both tributes, which were their children, and the tribe of the spear (Cain) was grieved because their appearance fell short.
Verse 6: The Lord (YHWH) said.
So: YHWH said.
Verse 6 can say: "And YHWH said, Cain is grieved because their appearance fell short."
Verse 7 can say: "If we make them beautiful they will raise up and be accepted but go wrong and rest at the door longing to rule." In other words, YHWH did not want to fix Cain’s distinguishing mark.
YHWH made the hybrids beautiful in Genesis 2 and 3, but now their offspring are born not using the image and have the hybrid's distinguishing mark.
YHWH decided not to let them use the image, as it might cause them to become lazy and covetous.
Genesis 4:1-8 can read: "The humans saw the presence of the distinguishing mark on Eve when the hybrid became pregnant and delivered the presence of the distinguishing mark on Cain and said: I have gotten a human servant from YHWH.
And after a time, Cain (the possessor of the spear) brought his offspring of the territory as a tribute to YHWH.
And YHWH looked at Abel’s tribute and Cain’s tribute they looked at, and Cain was very grieved because their appearance fell short.
And YHWH said, Cain is grieved because their appearance fell short.
The next video will cover Genesis chapters 2 and 3, discussing Yahweh and hybrids.
Usually Yahweh decides if He would grant this remembrance and then the pathway is started upon.
Or you go to Genesis 3—YHWH in Genesis 3 is just the later name that’s been put into that text.
In Genesis 3 in the Bible, any Christian or Jewish believer reading that text knows straight away they are not reading the earliest version of the story because the holy name Yahweh shouldn’t be in it.
The holy name Yahweh wasn’t revealed until ages later to Moses, and this is an event long before Moses.
You get to Joshua, and he says don’t work for the powerful ones of Egypt or Mesopotamia, don’t serve the dragon of Egypt, serve Yahweh, the leader of us.
There is an equivalence there that makes sense of the moments when you realize that Yahweh sees himself in peer-to-peer competition with other powerful ones in the land.
It doesn’t mean all the Yahweh stories of the Bible are dragon stories because that name then comes to be used differently.
You go to the later prophets, and you see that name Yahweh—they’re talking about God in the way the Apostle Paul meant.
Or you go to Genesis 3—Yahweh in Genesis 3 is not necessarily a dragon; it’s just the later name that’s been put into that text.
And YHWH of the Elohim said, my non-fysical appearance shall not always strive with humans, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be limited to 120 years.
The Major Judges are six figures prominently featured in the Book of Judges for their leadership in delivering Israel from enemies, often described as being directly called by Yahweh during times of crisis.
Gideon - Defeated the Midianites with a small army, as directed by Yahweh (Judges 6-8).