#yahwist

[daught3rofyahweh]

Prayer to Archangel Michael for Palestine

ᴮʸ ᵐᵉ ♡

Archangel Michael, heavenly defender, angel of peace and war

May you defend the people of Palestine with the power of the Divine Father

May your sword guide them and may the holy spirit shield them

Bring the enemies to their knees as your light opens their eyes

Wash away the fear of the children as your wings cradle them

Archangel Michael, warrior who fears not, and in the name of the Divine Father, Palestine shall not fall. Amen.

I said "Divine Father" cause I wanted to give people a chance to use Yahweh or Allah if they wanted to, so all people could use it :)

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

[yahiyshmatthyah613]

[eesirachs]

hashem fingers ten phrases into stone, passes them to moses. moses hurls these against sinai, shattering them. hashem then tells moses new phrases, similar but not the same. you shall be foreign, you shall not make votives, you shall keep festivals, you shall give to me the first of each womb entrance, you shall not appear to me empty-handed, you shall not hand me leaven yet you shall hand me ripe fruit, and, finally, you shall not boil a kid in the mother's milk. these are written on the stones that are placed in the ark, that chest, that body of hashem kept in a tent, fed brown bread and oil, through exodus. these phrases—the yahwist, ritual decalogue of exod 34:11–27—need to be held. festival, votive, womb, empty, milk, ripe, foreign

[yumemiyas-wips]

According to my scant, second hand knowledge of the Jewish religion (idek the proper name, don't @ me), Catholicism, and Christianity, back when Jews were nomads, way before they settled down in one place, their god Yahweh was, in two words, a vicious dickhead of a storm god, and only after they settled down in Canaan did they try to calm him down by doing the theological equivalent of murdering the real wise and kind skydaddy god, El, blessed be his name, and then have Yahweh wear his flayed skin like some sort of grotesque mask and eat the rest, and that frankly goes pretty hard. Anyways I'm SOOO co-opting that into my writing, imagine worshipping the god that killed the supreme skydaddy and ate his corpse to gain his might. That's baller.

Edit: After further study, I have concluded that Yahweh was once an aspect of Qos, a mountain, weather and war god of the Edomite people. The ancient Israelites of Canaan then did a systematic eradication of every other god in the greater Canaan religion, including such gods as El and Asherah, Yam and Lotan, Arsu and Azizos, Aglibol, Malakbel, Yahribol, Bel, and Ba'al Hadad. In their shame after the crushing of the ancient Jewish kingdom under Babylon, the Jews, jealous in the banning of sacrifices to Yahweh, later wrote into their own Bible the banning of sacrifices to all gods. But Yahweh took sacrifices, and Yahweh took sacrifices in human infants, for Yahweh was a fellow Canaanite god just like the rest of them.

Edit 2: THIS POST IS ABOUT THE PRE-JUDAISM YAHWIST CULT OF THE ANCIENT CITY STATE OF ISRAEL AND HOW IT BECAME THE MODERN CULTS. Having to add this because some fucking [REDACTED] in the comments think that literal historical facts (with added hyperbole) is antisemitic somehow. They know who they are.

[nem0c]

Fitness booth in town that when approached is blaring text2speech anti-Babylon conspiracy theories. Tangentially related but would love to run a pro-Canaanite religion booth in town one day. Yeah, you've been lied to by yahwists now put on this skirt and follow me to the brazen bull.

[gepgep2]

Any thoughts on Spinoza?

love a monist

few years ago i read most of delueze's book on spinoza which i thought was good at the time, might revisit

Atheist in the Attic is a really good book, and although brief, maybe the most vivid portrait of him ive gotten

david graeber, talking about his book bullshit jobs, offhandedly described part of his framework- centering care/caregiving, freedom, and play rather than terms like production and consumption- as his "spinozan feminist" intervention. he talks about "the Spinozan vitalist tradition, which you could say ultimately sees desire as freedom and play, the expression of life’s full capacities for their own sake" which is probably the most valuable single part of spinoza's influence and legacy for me. apparently he was one of graeber's favorite philosophers, but he doesnt seem to cite him much.

harold bloom's The Book of J is one of my all-time favorite books, and certainly seems to evoke the spirit of spinoza. J's Yahweh surely must be closely tied to spinoza's god, and is maybe the only true link between his disposition and kafka's. in bloom's Jesus and Yahweh, he says

"Baruch Spinoza’s magnificent admonition has haunted me for more than half a century: “It is necessary that we learn to love God without ever expecting that he will love us in return.” Ethically, that has a certain poignance, but is it humanly acceptable? If you substitute Hamlet for God in Spinoza’s observation, then I might understand it far better than I do. The popular Christian definition “God is love” fades away in the aura of Spinoza’s inspired “intoxication,” to use Coleridge’s characterization of the great Jewish moralist as a “God-intoxicated man.” If my reader is God-intoxicated, then she wisely will smile benignly enough at my qualms, but was Spinoza not talking about Yahweh and not Jesus Christ’s God the Father? Spinoza’s family, Iberian Marranos, had returned to Judaism in tolerant Amsterdam, where the synagogue, doubtless motivated by nervousness in regard to its Calvinist hosts, reluctantly excommunicated its best mind for his supposed “pantheism,” in which Yahweh and his creation would not always be distinguished.

It makes little sense to say “Yahweh is love,” or that we must love Yahweh. He just is not, never was, and never will be love. Many, if not most, of us at one time or another fall in love with someone who neither can accept love nor return it, though she or he perhaps demands it anyway, if only as worship or tribute. Until I Chronicles, Yahweh sets the pattern for such destructive role-playings, best exemplified in Shakespeare by Cleopatra—until Act V, when she apparently is transformed in the wake of Antony’s death. Even there, Shakespeare endows her with an equivocal quality that is an endless challenge to actresses: how do you play the part of someone who no longer knows whether or not she is playing herself? When Yahweh, perhaps in love with David, as he may have been with Joseph, David’s precursor, promises that he will be a father to Solomon, can we interpret the promise as other than divine dramatism?

...An unrequited love can be an imaginative benefit to poets, but not to most of us. Spinoza, though cast out by his fellow Jews in Amsterdam, was intoxicated with Yahweh rather than with the Christian God the Father. Love and the fear of Yahweh are one; I cannot recall the New Testament speaking of the fear of God the Father. The Yahwist's God did not create out of love, though his motive was to make a human in his own image. Moses (Deuteronomy 6:5) commands the Hebrews to love God with all their heart, soul, and might but he does not say the love will be reciprocated..."

and in Ruin the Sacred Truths: "The Jewish God is a personality and a subjectivity, and only if He is indeed dead is the death of the subject more than a currently fashionable Gallic trope. We can cite Spinoza's wholly Jewish apothegm: "Wisdom is meditation not on death but on life." Spinoza might have quoted the fundamental Jewish admonition of the rabbi Tarphon, in Pirke Abot: "You are not required to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it." The work cannot be completed in time, yet we must work as if there will be time enough to complete it, "to give time to time," as in a Sephardic proverb."

also these all look interesting:

https://tinyurl.com/2w4t54k3

https://repository.ubn.ru.nl/handle/2066/162321

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/books/review/18bloom.html

[dailydemonspotlight]

I’m feeling in a Devil Survivor mood today, care for me to ask for Jezebel?

Jezebel - Day 33 (Request)

Race: Bel

Alignment: Free Palestine! 🇵🇸

May 7th, 2024

Abrahamic faith and SMT go hand-in-hand. There's a reason YHVH is such a recurring figure in the series, and it's not just due to ATLUS wanting to see god be dethroned every entry. Hell, in mainline, a good amount of theming is based around abrahamic religions, such as things like the Law-Chaos dichotomy or literal Lucifer being a major character in almost every game in the series. However, if there's one game in the series famous for its Christian roots, it'd have to be the first Devil Survivor. Whether it be the main character literally being Abel, the demonic invasion having heavy ties to a biblical apocalypse, or many other characters in the story being reincarnations of biblical characters, Devil Survivor is rife with Christian themes. Admittedly, I haven't played it yet, being a mainline and DDS fan first and foremost, but its themes being so explicitly connected to abrahamic faith to the point it makes even mainline blush is notable to me.

Now, what does this have to do with anything? It has to do with our demon of the day! Great segway, I know. Today's demon of the day is the wicked witch and promoter of Baal, Jezebel! Being an infamous figure for good reason, Jezebel was responsible for many things associated with false prophets- whether it be propping up fake gods like Baal and Asherah or slaughtering Yahwist priests, she was responsible for the fall into heresy that the Omride dynasty experienced. In spite of how unpopular the dynasty grew to be to the common israelite who lived under her, Jezebel promoted growth, eventually leading to conflict with her own people. Only being a princess, she could only promote worship of Baal, however she often went out of her way to kill people who worshipped capital-g God, leading to Panic! At Jerusalem.

Eventually, she led to the death of Naboth in an act of greed for a fellow Israeli citizen, executing the man for not wishing to share his prosperous vineyard with her husband, Ahab. Watching this flagrant disregard for his people, though, was God, who was utterly fuming. Seeing the fall into heresy that Jezebel led Israel right into, he gave Elijah a prophecy- one of the eventual death of Jezebel. The man would report that prophecy to King Jehu, who would give a solid order- one to execute the woman. Jezebel then proceeded to be thrown through a window and eaten by dogs. Yes, really. Death by defenestration is a biblical thing.

Ever since that story, Jezebel has become synonymous with false prophets and heresy in abrahamic faiths, with her name typically being referred to as shorthand for any who manipulate others through lies and gaslighting. As unpopular as she was until her death, though, she's still referred to by many in that same context, and you may find people referring to others as 'Lustful Jezebels' if they're lame enough. Her name was also attached, in the Book of Revelations, to a priest who began to spread sexual promiscuity to her people, hence the "lustful" part of that saying.

Now, in SMT, her design is utterly fascinating- appearing as a late-game boss fight in Devil Survivor, the flowers seem to symbolize promiscuity, while the many tendrils emerging from the torso seem to represent all manners of manipulation. Her design is packed with layers of metaphor, and the imagery of flowers can also represent both 'honeyed words,' as well as the spreading of lies, like pollen. Her design also is frankly sick looking- I really gotta play Devil Survivor, huh? Overall, Jezebel is a fantastically designed demon with some serious importance behind her, a representation of sin and manipulation that I adore.

[tanadrin]

I'm just here for the endless, needlessly hostile arguments in the Mars-Mormon apologetics/counterapologetics scene about whether the archaeological rediscovery of (ambiguous, contradictory) evidence of the Apollo program proves that Olympus Smith was right when he claimed that Ancient Americans walked on Mars.

Lmao, okay, look, the analogy is pretty imperfect as it stands, and it's easy to break it. AFAICT there is no evidence there was ever an ancient "united monarchy" including the kingdoms of both Israel and Judah; American civic religion does not function much like ancient Israelite religion; there's no parallel even in the counterfactual for the campaign of cult centralization under Hezekiah and Josiah that resulted in the Jerusalem Temple becoming the only Yahwist temple in ancient Israel; there's also no archeological evidence for the Exodus, the central narrative of culture-formation for the ancient Israelites (unlike the Revolutionary War, which probably happened); and of course the social dynamics and state dynamics of the early iron age in the eastern mediterranean are completely different from anything in modern North America.

But I think the Book of Mormon's compositional history is actually extremely interesting--but what it's interesting for is what it explicates about the religious dynamics going on during the Second Great Awakening and early 19th century America, and the way American Protestants in that period positioned themselves with regard to American identity and to the Christian religion. And unfortunately I think the compositional history of the Book of Mormon and associated Mormon texts is underexplored, because it raises too many uncomfortable questions for devout Mormons, but most non-Mormons don't care. You have some scholars with a Mormon background like David Bokovoy who do talk about it, and some scholars from outside that background like Robert Ritner who have contributed to the discussion, but it is in general kind of an underexplored topic.

[daught3rofyahweh]

Asherah aesthetic 🌱🌾🌤

[witchoftheouachitas]

Biblical Evidence of “divinely ordained” imperialism, settler colonialism, and indigenous genocide by the “God” YHWH

The UN Genocide Convention that was ratified in response to the Holocaust during WWII contains 5 “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” These five acts include:

1. killing members of the group

2. causing them serious bodily or mental harm

3. imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group

4. preventing births

5. forcibly transferring children out of the group

The convention further criminalizes "complicity, attempt, or incitement/encouragement” of genocide.

Monotheistic, Abrahamic Yahwist Jews are NOT the indigenous inhabitants of the so-called “Holy Land.” These people and their ancestors are the violent colonizers and perpetrators of genocide and ecocide on indigenous western Levantine land, and there are many biblical scriptures that confirm this and even fit the criteria for the biblical Israelites to be criminally tried for genocide under the UN Convention.

The fact that millions of people worldwide have and still blindly follow the narcissistic abusive, toxic, malignant Abrahamic religions, despite the fact that it all contains this sort of indignity (and so much more) within it disgusts me, saddens me, confuses me, and enrages me. I have personally connected so many of our world’s problems and injustices with the creation and maintenance of Abrahamic religion and Abrahamic religious supremacy.

If we are to have universal peace, love, joy, compassion, and liberation, all toxic, malignant, narcissistic abusive religions, theologies, ideologies, etc. must be abolished for good! The top of these are the Abrahamic religions, because due to centuries of violent imperialism, colonization, genocide, and ecocide, these religions have the most brainwashed and/traumatized converted victims (AKA “followers”).

We all need to return to our pre-Abrahamic, indigenous “pagan” roots that we all have. And all those who may want to jump to conclusions and accuse me of being antisemitic or Islamophobic—let’s not be hasty and irrational. Jews need to remember that there was widespread “pagan” polytheistic Judaism before the creation and oppressive maintenance of the toxic and malignant monotheistic Yahwist Judaism. Yahwist Judaism is NOT the indigenous Jewish religion and the “Holy Land” supposedly set apart by their “God” YHWH is NOT the indigenous Jewish land either. And Muslims must remember that Islam is simply a 700s AD plagiarization of Christianity and Yahwist Judaism, and before the violent takeover of these religions, their indigenous ancestors practiced their respective native polytheistic religions. All of these should also remember that they are ALL semitic-speaking peoples, therefore the term “antisemitism”—which has been now ceaselessly weaponized by Zionist genocide apologists—needs to be repaired to where it’s not exclusive to only Jews, but defines ALL semitic-speaking peoples, including Arabs.

Pre-Abrahamic Jews were EQUALS with all other pre-Abrahamic pagans/Gentiles until the creation and maintenance of monotheistic Yahwist Judaism, in which Jews were supposedly “set apart” and “set above” all other “pagan”/“gentile” peoples of the world by this “God” YHWH. Tell me, how is this theology ANY DIFFERENT than, for example, Adolf Hitler claiming that his white Aryan race was the superior human race of the entire earth? How is Adolf Hitler’s ideology ANY DIFFERENT from the Bible, in which the Israelites were repeatedly commanded and encouraged by their “God” YHWH to violently colonize and commit genocide against indigenous western Levantine peoples?

Exodus 23:23-33

“For mine Angel shall go before thee [Israelites], and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off. Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images. And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil. I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods. They shall not dwell in thy land, lest they make thee sin against me: for if thou serve their gods, it will surely be a snare unto thee.”

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭23‬:‭23‬-‭33‬ ‭KJV‬‬

This particular scripture fits the UN criteria for genocide. First, killing members of the group:

“For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.”

“I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come”

Second, causing them serious bodily and/or mental harm:

“thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.” (Cultural genocide)

“I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come”

“I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

Third, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group:

“I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come“

“I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.”

Deuteronomy 20:10-20

“When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: and when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: but the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: but thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee: that they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God. When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege: only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down; and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee, until it be subdued.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭20‬:‭10‬-‭20‬ ‭KJV‬‬

This biblical scripture fits the UN criteria for genocide. First, killing members of the group:

“when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword“

“of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: but thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee”

Second, causing serious bodily and/or mental harm:

“the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.“

Third, imposing living conditions meant to destroy the group:

“of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: but thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee”

Fourth, forcibly transferring children out of the group:

“the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.”

This is still a project in progress. I am re-reading the Bible cover-to-cover so I can record all contradictions and indignities within it to be exposed for all to see. To truly decolonize and give native land back, we must realize that the abolition of the violent, settler colonial Abrahamic religions is a requirement.

[literally-1894]

Had a thought recently that since, from the invention of American Popular Culture, to the volumes upon volumes of Yiddish jokes and over-the-top curses, to all of the odd asides and off the cuff remarks in the Talmud, going all the way back to the proto-Jewish Classical Yahwists calling Canaanite gods they didn't like poopyheads, humor has historically been the single most important form of expression and discourse in Jewish society, one of the most damning signs that Israel and Zionists do not have the Mandate of Heaven is how painfully unfunny they are.

[durn3h]

Still think it’s so funny that I made a post about Yahwism and months later some Catholic witch told me that those people weren’t worshiping god properly, then the next day she posted about how she was researching Yahwism and it scared her and like a week later said she was no longer a Catholic, but a Yahwist

[eesirachs]

yahwist child sacrifice happens in topheth, a valley named from the vocalized bōsheth (shame) and its assyrian calque, bašum (to father). no child sacrifice happens, in the bible, unless it is by the father. like freud hanging brouillet’s leçon above his analysand's couch, or, like what they did to that boy from nazareth, this ritual needs the father

[deity-archetype-project]

The first very obvious archetype I have found is the creator archetype. It classifies as specifically creator of the universe, world and humanity. The following is a list of some creator deities: Yahweh, Phanes, Abassi, Bunjil, Yaldabaoth, Izanami and Izanagi

Yahweh: National god of the Israelites. Unknown origin but thought to have emerged as a divine warrior as he was at first associated with Seir, Edom, Paran and Teman. Worship of his dates back to early Iron age and late bronze age. Shares similarities with the "weather deities" and "war deities" (both of which will likely be featured as other archetypes). Actually was worshipperd in a pantheon with El, Baal and Asherah but in later practices these gods were absorbed into Yahwist religion.

Phanes: Creator god in Orphic cosmology. Said to have emerged from the cosmic egg intertwined with a serpent at the begging of creation. Often equated with Eros or Mithras. It was said that Chronos created the cosmic egg Phanes emerged from which is a bit confusing and means that Chronos technically created the creator of the universe. Phanes is often thought to have been a more androgynous deity. Phanes was considered to be a god of light and goodness who's name means "to bring light" or "to shine"

Abassi: Is the supreme creator god of the Efik, Ibibio and Annang people in Nigeria. Following the arrival of christians in Nigeria Abassi emerged in relation to the christian concept of god. Was said to be an all knowing and all seeing omnipresent figure. Was said to have created humanity but dosen't directly communicate with it instead communicating through a pantheon of spirits called the nedem.

Bunjil: regarded as a culture hero, creator deity and ancestral being in Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology. Most commonly depicted as a wedge tailed eagle. Was considered to be one of two moiety ancestors (with the other one being the crow). Was said to have two wives and a son called Binbeal the rainbow. He is assisted by a group of six Shamans who are supposed to represent the Eaglehawk clans

Yaldabaoth: often called the demiurge is the evil creator god of the material world in gnosticism. Seen as the false god who keeps souls trapped in they're fleshy bodies. In some sectors he is described as a serpent with a lion head. Was birthed by Sophia the personification of wisdom. He received powers of light from his mother however decided to use them for evil. Yaldabaoth decided to create six other angles who then decided to rebel against him. In order to keep them in check he created the material world

Izanami: also called Izanami-no-Mikoto she alongside Izanagi was the creator goddess of theJapanese archipelago in Japanese Shindo religion. She is the shinto mother goddess. She sadly died during childbirth and turned into a absolute monster in the underworld and was left by Izanagi. Izanami was also a goddess of death

Izagami: often can't Izanagi-no-Mikoto was a god of creation and life. Shaped the earth alongside Izanami by using a heavily spear.

that's all the creator deities I want to go over. The creator archetype is definitely one of the more Interesting ones. There are alot of deities I haven't added but who knows maybe I'll add some at a later time.

If you find any mistakes then please comment them :;)

[gepgep]

Prof. BLOOM: I think that Shakespeare probably founds his extraordinary figure of King Lear--irascible, jealous, intense, immensely awesome, angry, bereft, dangerous--on the Geneva Bible's version of--which is essentially not very different from what is now the authorized, the King James...

ELLIOTT: I mean, I've got to interrupt you and just say that those descriptions that you just gave are not what we think of when people of faith think of God.

Prof. BLOOM: No, they are not, dear. But if they would read the Hebrew Bible or read the authorized version of the Hebrew Bible, the King James Testament, we have a little problem here. There are four different layers in the five books of Moses. The original strata of Yahweh as written by the author we call the Yahwist is of a remarkably impish kind of a person. He is not God the Father. He is something of a mischief maker. He conducts on-the-ground inspections all the time to satisfy his curiosity. He is very much a human being. He prefers the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden because evidently he gets hot as human beings get hot. He picnics on the side of Mount Sinai with Moses and 70 elders of Zion, who stare at him silently while he sits there silently and he eats and they eat. He closes the door of Noah's ark with his own hands. With his own hands, he buries his prophet, Moses. And most of all, with his own hands, at the beginning, almost like a child playing with a mud pie, he plays with the moistened Earth and makes there a figurine. And then he breathes life into that figurine, and man becomes, as the Hebrew Bible says, a living soul and this is Adam. That is not what most people, I admit, think of as God.

ELLIOTT: No, I think most of us have this image of God the Father.

Prof. BLOOM: Yes. But God the Father is a later invention, on the one hand, of the Talmudical rabbis but primarily of Christian theology when they devise the Trinity, when Jesus of Nazareth, the more or less historical figure, has become an absolutely different figure, a Greek dying and reviving, God, a theological God. Yahweh is not a theological God at all. He is a human, all-too-human God. But I'm not saying any of this to startle or shock anyone. I'm doing this in the same spirit in which I teach my students to read "King Lear" or to read "Hamlet," to pay close attention to what is on the page.