When I read Genesis with the Hebrew words left in place, Jacob is the patriarch whose story is most physical about the beings around YHWH.
"Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with the messenger of YHWH and with humans and have overcome."
On that page I also look at the hierarchy: even the powerful Yisra remained subordinate to YHWH.
Yahweh, far from being the one and only transcendent 'God', was simply one of the Elohim: the one who, as mentioned above, was assigned the task of ruling over a well defined territory and over a portion of a family, that of Jacob (Deuteronomy 32:8).
The same pairing returns when YHWH introduces himself to Moses on The Israelites as "the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob" (Exodus 3:15).
"Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: YHWH Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob, has sent me to you.
On The Lawgivers: Moses, Eawahtah, and the Echoes of Elohim I compare Moses with Eawahtah of Oahspe, and ask whether Elohim was the first giver of the law, later overlaid by YHWH.
On Who Is Yahweh?
and The Hierarchy of YHWH I look at the readings that see Yahweh as one of the Anunnaki or Elohim.
On Yahweh deliberately woven throughout the Hebrew Scriptures I follow the scholars who think the name was edited into the texts during the Babylonian Exile.
See also Jesus versus Yahweh.
Who Is Yahweh?
The hierarchy of YHWH: the kavod that fills the tabernacle and Solomon's temple, and that Ezekiel sees arriving from the north.
Who Is Yahweh?
What Happened at Sodom and Gomorrah?: Paul Wallis points out that Yahweh had given these cities no laws, so the moral reason for the destruction is unclear.
Did Jesus Worship Yahweh?: Wallis reads El Shaddai as "the powerful one" or "the destroyer", and notes that within a couple of chapters two cities are destroyed.
The origins of two great nations: if I set aside the destruction narrative and the YHWH-centered covenant, Genesis 16 to 21 reads as a story of two blessed nations through Ishmael and Isaac.
Who Is Yahweh?
It uses the personal name YHWH, which the ESV prints as "the LORD".
The Bible gives it to Yahweh.
Wikipedia calls it "a phrase applied by editors of modern English Bibles to Yahweh in Psalm 68.4".
Mauro Biglino points at it in his article "Yahweh versus Baal: the war between the gods of the Bible".
He writes: "Baal is also called the ‘knight of the clouds’, an epithet which in the Bible is also applied to Yahweh." Biglino does not name Hadad in that article.
In my Editorial Insertion of Yahweh page I noted that "This psalm praises Yahweh using language strikingly similar to Canaanite hymns to Baal, the storm god.
Some scholars argue it was originally a Baal hymn adapted to Yahweh worship." The Esoterica video on Baal makes the same point and then adds: "The similarities between Baal and Yahweh, both storm gods, created theological competition in the region."
In his words from The 5th Kind interview, "Enlil wants a cull, wants to get rid of the human beings, just the same as the Yahweh character in the Bible." Wallis does not name Adad in the passage I read.
One more possible trace of Hadad is in Isaiah 66:17, which the Hierarchy of YHWH page covers.
Yahweh-Jehovah was basically a fictional character made by combining aspects of Enki and Enlil, but primary Enki as he was made to be an adversary of Baal, the storm god, who is Enlil.
Wallis says it plainly: "Yahweh is one of the Elohim".
Yahweh (YHWH)
The Hierarchy of YHWH
YHWH says it was not him.
The prophet Micaiah sees YHWH on a throne with "all the host of heaven" around him.
With it, the Most High hands out the nations to the sons of God, and Yahweh gets Jacob as his share.
In his view Yahweh was one of the Elohim, and he was given Jacob's family to rule.
Paul Wallis puts it this way: "Yahweh appears to be a junior Elohim because the other Elohim get land".
Read this way, the Old Testament is about many rulers, and Yahweh is the one assigned to Jacob.
He kept Yahweh as the Most High.
See also The Gods in the Bible, Elohim, Yahweh.
They want to ask YHWH a question.
In Jeremiah 7, YHWH says he never commanded this.
So YHWH is clearly not the only one being worshipped in Judah here.
If it never came into YHWH's heart, which Elohim told Abraham to burn Isaac?
And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
In Hebrew that is the malakh of YHWH, the messenger of Yahweh.
The order to stop comes from YHWH's messenger.
He says that in the flood story the conflict between Enki and Enlil has "all been rolled into the internal thoughts of Yahweh or God." With that in my head, Genesis 22 looks familiar.
On that view, verses 14 to 18, where YHWH swears a blessing, are a later addition by the Yahwist writer.
Later prophets have YHWH deny he ever wanted child sacrifice.
Yahweh (YHWH)
In Hebrew it is Sefer Milchamot YHWH.
It shows that the writers of the Torah used older written war records about YHWH.
It was a record of the wars of YHWH.
The Jewish Encyclopedia suggests songs of victory "led by Yhwh".
The Bible itself calls YHWH a warrior.
In several of these wars YHWH takes part directly.
It would have listed where YHWH fought, against whom and with what.
That’s my interpretation." On the idea of a female counterpart to YHWH, see "His Asherah".
Some of those sources called YHWH's actions "wars".
On YHWH's rank among the Elohim, see The Hierarchy of YHWH.
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.
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.
I read the kavod as the vehicle and field presence of YHWH.
On the rank of the kavod in YHWH's world, see The Hierarchy of YHWH.
And it is written that when the kavod or the ruach of Yahweh, when it arises from the ground, produces a loud noise.
The Psalms let YHWH ride a cherub.
The Hierarchy of YHWH
I use the ladder from my page The Hierarchy of YHWH.
Where the WEB prints "Yahweh", I write YHWH.
When a stranger lives as a foreigner with you, and would like to keep the Passover to YHWH, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it.
I am YHWH your God.
The third rule puts him level with Israel before YHWH.
As you are, so the foreigner shall be before YHWH.
YHWH answers by limiting human life: "his days will be one hundred twenty years" (Genesis 6:3).
I will make you swear by YHWH, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live.
The next verse explains the status behind it: "For you are a holy people to YHWH your God" (Deuteronomy 7:6).
Deuteronomy 23 lists who may "enter into YHWH’s assembly".
A person born of a forbidden union shall not enter into YHWH’s assembly; even to the tenth generation shall no one of his enter into YHWH’s assembly.
An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into YHWH’s assembly; even to the tenth generation shall no one belonging to them enter into YHWH’s assembly forever,
The Edomite and the Egyptian get a softer rule: "The children of the third generation who are born to them may enter into YHWH’s assembly" (Deuteronomy 23:8).
YHWH rewards him:
He shall not profane his offspring among his people, for I am YHWH who sanctifies him.
"Of them I will also select priests and Levites," says YHWH, about people gathered from the nations.
YHWH defends Moses, and Miriam turns "leprous, as white as snow" (Numbers 12:10).
In the paleo-contact frame, YHWH is one of the Elohim, the powerful beings of the divine council.
It is a sign in the flesh that YHWH can check.
Slaves receive it as well, so it marks who serves YHWH's house, not who is born of it.
Mauro Biglino reads YHWH's people as a family assigned to one Elohim.
He writes: "Yahweh, the protagonist of the Old Testament, was just the leader of the family of Jacob" (Biglino, Gods of the Bible).
On the same page he says YHWH was the Elohim of the family of Israel, and only of them and their descendants.
He also writes that the "holiness" of Israel "non riguarda una particolare purezza morale, ma semplicemente il fatto di essere ‘messo da parte’ per Yahweh, separato dagli altri popoli" (maurobiglino.com).
In my translation: it is not about moral purity, but simply about being set apart for Yahweh, separated from the other peoples.
Elsewhere he writes: "The Israelites were to serve Yahweh.
Not because the other Elohim did not exist, but because Yahweh demanded exclusive loyalty from his people" (Biglino, "Yahweh versus Baal").
The Hierarchy of YHWH: the full ladder from Elyon to the nations, and the garden.
Who Is Yahweh?: the wider YHWH trail.
Scripture (World English Bible, public domain; "Yahweh" written as YHWH)
Mauro Biglino, "Yahweh versus Baal: the war between the gods of the Bible".
Mauro Biglino and Gian Matteo Corrias, "Yahweh, Israele e la Sardegna".
YHWH stands below him, as the god who received Jacob.
Below YHWH come Moses, the priests, the Levites, the tribes of Israel and, at the bottom, the nations.
Where the WEB prints “Yahweh”, I write YHWH.
YHWH tells Moses to “give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons” (Numbers 3:9).
The Creator is at the top, the Nine serve the Creator, and YHWH, as Jehovah, heads one civilization with many under him.
ANDREW: Jehovah?
So the Jehovah is one of the Twenty-Four.
For YHWH’s portion is his people.
In 1 Kings 22:19 the prophet Micaiah sees “all the army of heaven” standing at YHWH’s right and left.
YHWH received Jacob, meaning Israel.
YHWH was one of them and received only Israel.
In his own words: “Yahweh, the protagonist of the Old Testament, was just the leader of the family of Jacob” (Biglino, Gods of the Bible).
In his reading, Elyon shared out the human colonies among them, and YHWH was one of the junior members (Wallis and Biglino, “Elyon – The Commander of the Elohim”).
I place Elyon and the council above YHWH in the tree.
In the Psalms the title stands next to the name YHWH, or in its place.
Psalm 7:17, praise to YHWH under the title: “I will give thanks to YHWH according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of YHWH Most High.”
Psalm 18:13, YHWH thunders and the Most High speaks: “YHWH also thundered in the sky.
Psalm 47:2, the Most High as king over the earth: “For YHWH Most High is awesome.
YHWH alone led him.
YHWH tells Moses he appeared to the patriarchs “as God Almighty; but by my name YHWH I was not known to them.”
In Deuteronomy 32 YHWH is the god of one people.
I read YHWH as a regional ruler who later claims more than his share.
Both widen YHWH’s claim from Jacob to “all of the nations”.
My wider YHWH page is Who Is Yahweh?.
YHWH’s glory settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days.
The appearance of YHWH’s glory was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and YHWH’s glory filled the tabernacle.
Moses wasn’t able to enter into the Tent of Meeting, because the cloud stayed on it, and YHWH’s glory filled the tabernacle.
There “the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for YHWH’s glory filled YHWH’s house” (1 Kings 8:11).
He ends the vision with: “This was the appearance of the likeness of YHWH’s glory” (Ezekiel 1:28).
After meeting YHWH on the mountain, Moses came down and “the skin of his face shone” (Exodus 34:29).
He also writes that YHWH sometimes arrived on flying machines called “ruach” or “kavod” (Biglino, Gods of the Bible; summary of his kavod argument at Wheel of Heaven).
I treat the messenger and the kavod as the “field presence” of YHWH.
YHWH sets Moses above Aaron and Aaron above the people.
Moses is the only human who speaks with YHWH directly.
He wears a gold plate on his forehead engraved “HOLY TO YHWH” (Exodus 28:36).
Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before YHWH, which he had not commanded them.
Fire came out from before YHWH, and devoured them, and they died before YHWH.
YHWH tells Aaron, “I am your portion and your inheritance” (Numbers 18:20).
YHWH’s anger burned against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by God’s ark.
At Beth Shemesh, men “looked into YHWH’s ark” and were struck down (1 Samuel 6:19).
Later YHWH gathers seventy elders at the tent.
Numbers 15:15 adds: “As you are, so the foreigner shall be before YHWH.”
They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to YHWH, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says YHWH, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into YHWH’s house.
Of them I will also select priests and Levites,” says YHWH.
YHWH started with one allotted people in Deuteronomy 32:9.
“Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, following one in the middle, eating pig’s meat, abominable things, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together,” says YHWH.
The elders say, “YHWH doesn’t see us” (Ezekiel 8:12).
In the inner court, about twenty-five men stand “with their backs toward YHWH’s temple”.
Deuteronomy 23:1–3 keeps the emasculated, those “born of a forbidden union”, and Ammonites and Moabites out of “YHWH’s assembly”.
Heiser, writing as a scholar, says “each pagan nation was overseen by a being of inferior status to Yahweh” (Heiser 2001).
He writes that “Yahweh was constantly afraid that his people would turn to other Elohim” (Biglino, “Why the Bible does not talk about God”).
He adds: “The Israelites were to serve Yahweh.
Not because the other Elohim did not exist, but because Yahweh demanded exclusive loyalty from his people.” Of the losing powers he says: “When they lose, they are replaced, degraded, demonised” (Biglino, “Yahweh versus Baal”).
I read the garden cults as people who left YHWH’s chain of command for another lord.
YHWH God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
YHWH God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
YHWH himself is heard “walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Genesis 3:8).
Therefore YHWH God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.
YHWH gives Cain a sign, “so that anyone finding him would not strike him” (Genesis 4:15).
YHWH walked there in person.
YHWH’s garden has the tree of life at its center.
Who Is Yahweh?: the wider YHWH trail, from war god to demiurge.
The Divine Council: YHWH among the gods.
Genesis 22: the Elohim who orders the sacrifice and the messenger of YHWH who stops it.
Scripture (World English Bible, public domain; “Yahweh” written as YHWH)
Mauro Biglino, “Yahweh versus Baal: the war between the gods of the Bible”.
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 (the Jewish national name of God, rendered "the Lord" in the King James Version) 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.
In this site's reading, Jesus questions the actions of YHWH in Matthew.
In this site's view, YHWH is a label that joins many gods of the Old Testament, gods with very human characters and cruel demands, and in the end Yahweh demands the worship of 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