What do you think of this link relating to the ancient Semitic religion? Is there archaeological evidence?

Question

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semitic_gods

Answer 1

Actually, there is evidence in the bible to support this as well as archaeological evidence.

The name for God in the bible is actually often El in the original, untranslated text. In fact, that is why so many angel names, prophet names, and place names end in "-el".

For instance, the name Bethel means "House of God".

In a lot of passages, another name used for God is Elohim. This is particularly interesting because the "-im" ending in Hebrew denotes plurality. This implies that, originally, the Hebrew god was actually a group of gods. In fact, it was quite possible a group of female gods.

You might notice that in some passages, seven sacrifices were given on seven altars, supposedly all to the one god, Jehovah. However, a lot of pagan religions had seven primary gods. This is because there are seven things in the sky that move independently of the background of the stars, (These are the sun, moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. All the other planets can't be seen by the naked eye).

So, the practice of offering seven sacrifices on seven altars seems to indicate that there were originally seven primary gods in the Hebrew pantheon, just like there were for all the neighboring pagan peoples.

The references section of the Wikipedia article you posted the link for contains authentic academic books that discuss the archaeological evidence.

I did see one mistake in the Wiki article, however. At one place it states that Elohim means "Sons of God". "Sons of God" would actually be ben'Elohim, rather than just Elohim.

Answer 2

Lots of archaeological evidence. After all, these were the first people to invent writing and brother, once they had, it appears to be something they did all day and every day! You wouldn't believe how many clay tablets they left behind.

Let this be a lesson to those, especially Fundamentalist Evangelicals, that you don't know diddly about Scripture.
And you need to learn that God's power, His authority, His message are NOT dependent upon literal inerrancy. He's bigger than that, folks, and He's paid you all the compliment of showing you that you're capable of more smarts than you literalist types seem desirous of evidencing in your teachings.

Once more into the breach, dear friends.
The message of Scripture has nothing to do with history, biology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, genetics or even sociology. It's lots simpler than these.

A) There is a God. There is only one true God. All the rest of man's bright ideas are but shadowy attempts to arrive at this truth.

B) God is the Author of ALL being. How and when is totally UNimportant. What IS important is that HE did it His way.

C) We are made in His image and that image has NOTHING to do with our physical bodies. It speaks to our minds, our hearts and our immortal spirits only.

D) At some point in man's past, he sc****d up big time and lost some of the original gifts had given our species. Nothing they earned, nothing they deserved, just extra freebies from the Hand of a loving Father. So He withdrew those extra freebies until such time as we were more ready to possess them without mucking them and ourselves up, down and all around.

E) In the fullness of time we got to the point where we could start to make use of at least some of those gifts, so He sent the Second Person of the Trinity, His Son, into humanity as a truly human being, to show us what we could have if we'd just shove our pride down the nearest oubliette and follow Him. His sacrifice was intended for US, NOT for His Father. It lets us know just how important we are to God and how much He wants us to become the wondrous beings He created us to be.

F) He promised that eventually, we'd ALL get to that point. Our resolve, therefore, should be to listen up, straighten up and fly right. Right back to our God, our Father, our Love, our King, our Glory.

G) It's all about free will, children. And that's something so precious to God that He will not abrogate it for any reason. Your choice stands and He will stand behind it no matter what.
That's why it's taking so long to get His act together. We ain't co-operatin'.

Answer 3

I guess the first thing that pops into my head is... since there is archeological evidence of castles and writings about witchcraft, does that make Harry Potter real?

Just a rhetorical question, not meant to offend anyone.

The wiki article was interesting, there is archeological evidence of poly and monotheism in the near east.

Answer 4

While i enjoy clicking wikipedia I'm largely skeptical about it's accuracy. A number of 'colleagues', as the owner states, contribute articles such as this. Anyone is free to edit or 'correct' the content. One research traced particular entries and found a small percentage of people who edit, one of whom as many as 1,000 edits. There are a continuous line of edits, edited, etc. 'aaron-somebody' - can't remember his name. it's just not wholly reliable. but then doesn't one need to research a topic by reading countless books, etc. related to it, to arrive at a satisfactory resolution?

Answer 5

The word semetic covers both Arab and Hebrew peoples !!!

Abraham was the first person by faith who God had given special promises concerning peoples and land and the worship of ONE God and not many gods !!!

Answer 6

It seems fairy scholarly, but I have no data to decide whether it is correct. if I read it in a real journal i would be more inclined to beleive it with less access to data.