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Each pithos has an inscription that refers to Yahweh and to his Asherah (or, as I prefer, asherah).1 Pithos A, in the most commonly accepted interpretation, speaks of “Yahweh of Shomron (Samaria) and his asherah (or Asherah).” The inscription on Pithos B states, “I bless you by Yahweh of Teman and by his asherah (or Asherah).”
Our study of these religiously meaningful representations will prepare us for and lead us back to the drawings on the pithoi from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud. On the journey, we will learn not only that Yahweh did have a consort, but that at a very early period—the Taanach cult stand dates to the tenth century B.C.E.—Israel conceived of Yahweh abstractly and non-anthropomorphically. At this same time, Yahweh was also symbolically represented—at least occasionally—by the sun. All these strands of theological understanding of Yahweh and Yahweh worship existed simultaneously—a most elevated and abstract understanding within a pagan (though Yahwistic) context.
On the highest of its four tiers are two freestanding pillars typical of entrances to temples in Syria-Palestine. The stand seems to represent four temple scenes complete with the deities venerated in the temple. Although some of the scenes appear to be pagan in character, the four vignettes belong to the same (Yahwistic) complex, both physically and ideologically
Tier 1: An animal, either a horse or a bull, above which is a sun-disk with wings (or the sun with rays). The scene is flanked, as previously noted, by freestanding pillars.
Tier 2: A pair of ibex reaching into a “tree of life.” This scene is flanked on either side by a lion.
Tier 3: A vacant space between two cherubim.
Tier 4: A nude female between two lions virtually identical to the lions on tier 2.
On the sides of tiers 2, 3 and 4 are the sides of the animals that flank the central part of the tier. On the sides of tier 1 are griffins (as lions are on tiers 2 and 4). The back of the stand is smooth, except for two square holes typical of fenestration on cult stands.
beansidhe
reply to post by zardust
Hi zardust. What a great first thread!
S&F for you.
Your proposal is interesting, because as you know I'm struggling at the moment with the idea of pagan vs Christian, or more specifically, the supposed transition.
From a number of sources, it would seem as if the transition was not as simple as I would have previously believed. I am referring specifically to Roman-era Scotland here, so I don't want to drag you too far from your premise 'From Egypt to Israel'...but it might still be relevant.
I'm wondering at the moment if there were more similarities between the pagan Druids and the Abrahamic religions than believed before, and whether the main differences were geographic rather than belief systems, hence pagan/christian is maybe a false dichotomy?
Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading more from you, and seeing how your thread progresses.
B x
And yes to answer your question I think Pagan/Christian is a false dichotomy. Instead the dichotomy is those that worship in spirit and truth vs. those who worship the symbol, or the letter, or the idol. Its a fine line, but that is partly what I was referring to in my opening about dwelling in the midst. The middle road is the path, its easy to swing to extremes, but if we walk that tight rope, we can get across the chasm.
beansidhe
reply to post by zardust
And yes to answer your question I think Pagan/Christian is a false dichotomy. Instead the dichotomy is those that worship in spirit and truth vs. those who worship the symbol, or the letter, or the idol. Its a fine line, but that is partly what I was referring to in my opening about dwelling in the midst. The middle road is the path, its easy to swing to extremes, but if we walk that tight rope, we can get across the chasm.
I'll be interested to read what you have to say, and keeping up with this thread even if I can't add much to help. Particularly the cross-cultural comparisons. I agree about trying to avoid extremes, and that spirit vs symbol is a more useful dichotomy.
Please bear in mind that I am a 'biblical idiot' and have a next to useless knowledge of the bible, so any questions are asked out of curiosity and not malice!
And it seems like the more I read about Scotland, the less I really know about it, so you're in good company
zardust
Literal circumcision is about as good as literal castration.
The vessel that carried Moses was a woven basket. A tale is woven, or the old saying of "he spun a yarn", or even a thread on the internet.
zardust
reply to post by Utnapisjtim
I'm glad you brought up Osiris and Moses. I'm going to explore that theme in the future. There are so many it's hard to stay on track.
Abjad is thought to be based on the first letters (a, b, g, d) found in all Semitic language such as Phoenician, Syriac, Hebrew, and Arabic. In Arabic, "A" (alif), "B" (bā’), "J" (jīm), "D" (dāl) make the word "abjad" which means "alphabet". The modern Arabic word for "alphabet" and "abjad" is interchangeably either "abajadīyah" or "alifbā’īyah".
The first pure alphabets (properly, "abjads", mapping single symbols to single phonemes, but not necessarily each phoneme to a symbol) emerged around 1800 BC in Ancient Egypt, as a representation of language developed by Semitic workers in Egypt, but by then alphabetic principles had a slight possibility of being inculcated into Egyptian hieroglyphs for upwards of a millennium. Text Red
Eve in the Hebrew language is Ḥawwāh, meaning: "living one" or "source of life", and is related to ḥāyâ, "to live". The name derives from the Semitic root ḥyw.[2]
Hawwah has been compared to the Hurrian Goddess Kheba, who was shown in the Amarna Letters to be worshipped in Jerusalem during the Late Bronze Age. It has been suggested that the name Kheba may derive from Kubau, a woman who reigned as the first king of the Third Dynasty of Kish.[3][4]
The name Asherah, from the first millennium BCE derives from Chawat, or Hawwah in Aramaic, Eve in English.[5]
It has been suggested that the Hebrew name Eve (חַוָּה) also bears resemblance[6] to an Aramaic word for "snake" (O.Arb.: חוה; J.Arm.: חִוְיָא).
For example, Celtic coins minted many centuries before the Christian era may have an entire side showing this type of cross, sometimes with the cardinal points marked by concave depressions in the same style as in stone age carvings. Other coins may be showing the cross held by a rider on a horse and springing a fern leaf, sometimes identified as a Tree of Life symbol.
As of April 10, 2013, pictures of a possible contender for the first use of the cross symbol has been found at the Tell Khaiber excavation site in Ur, Iraq. The shape of one of the buildings, believed to be about 4,000 years old, is in the shape of a cross of the type used in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. A picture of the building's floor can be seen here:[1] This would predate the ancient Israelites Tabernacle in the wilderness and the first two temples by about 800 years.
Gen 28:1 Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. 2Arise, go to Paddan-aram to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. 3God Almightya bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 4May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!”
[Sng 6:10 KJV] 10 Who [is] she [that] looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, [and] terrible as [an army] with banners?
[Isa 30:26 KJV] 26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
Nanna is a Sumerian deity, the son of Enlil and Ninlil, and became identified with Semitic Sin. The two chief seats of Nanna's/Sin's worship were Ur in the south of Mesopotamia and Harran in the north.
He is commonly designated as En-zu, which means "lord of wisdom". During the period (c.2600-2400 BC) that Ur exercised a large measure of supremacy over the Euphrates valley, Sin was naturally regarded as the head of the pantheon. It is to this period that we must trace such designations of Sin as "father of the gods", "chief of the gods", "creator of all things", and the like. The "wisdom" personified by the moon-god is likewise an expression of the science of astronomy or the practice of astrology, in which the observation of the moon's phases is an important factor.
His wife was Ningal ("Great Lady"), who bore him Utu/Shamash ("Sun") and Inanna/Ishtar (the goddess of the planet Venus). The tendency to centralize the powers of the universe leads to the establishment of the doctrine of a triad consisting of Sin/Nanna and his children.
Sin had a beard made of lapis lazuli and rode on a winged bull. The bull was one of his symbols, through his father, Enlil, "Bull of Heaven", along with the crescent and the tripod (which may be a lamp-stand). On cylinder seals, he is represented as an old man with a flowing beard and the crescent symbol. In the astral-theological system he is represented by the number 30 and the moon. This number probably refers to the average number of days (correctly around 29.53) in a lunar month, as measured between successive new moons.
Nanna's chief sanctuary at Ur was named E-gish-shir-gal ("house of the great light"). It was at Ur that the role of the En Priestess developed.
Gen 28:10Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladderb set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13And behold, the LORD stood above itc and said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
18So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19He called the name of that place Bethel,d but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. 51And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
Samekh or Simketh is the fifteenth letter in many Semitic alphabets, including Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic, representing /s/. The Arabic alphabet, however, uses a letter based on Phoenician šin to represent /s/ (see there); however, that glyph takes Samekh's place in the traditional Abjadi order of the Arabic alphabet.
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Xi (Ξ, ξ).[2]
In ancient times, some local forms of the Greek alphabet used the chi instead of xi to represent the /ks/ sound. This was borrowed into the early Latin language, which led to the use of the letter X for the same sound in Latin, and many modern languages that use the Latin alphabet.
Although modern representations of the Chi-Rho sign represent the two lines crossing at ninety degree angles, the early examples of the Chi-Rho cross at an angle that is more vividly representative of the chi formed by the solar ecliptic path and the celestial equator. This image is most familiar in Plato's Timaeus, where it is explained that the two bands which form the "world soul" (anima mundi) cross each other like the letter chi.[7] Not only did the two legs of the chi remind early Christians of the Holy Cross, "it reminded them of the mystery of the pre-existent Christ, the Logos Theou, the Word of God, who extended himself through all things in order to establish peace and harmony in the universe,"
ש
In the Sefer Yetzirah the letter Shin is King over Fire, Formed Heaven in the Universe, Hot in the Year, and the Head in the Soul.