First draft of things I have posted here over the years
Offline I have posted a lot of odd ideas over my year or three here. I have attempted here to put it all in one place. This link is far from all that I have said but a ver 0.1 shot at putting it all in one place.
www.giwersworld.org/ancient-history/book-0.1.pdf
If anyone is interested beyond the ramblings of an occassional contributor give it a look.
For the record, at my current rate of adding and correcting the material in this PDF there is little risk of a final version ever being produced.
Funny thing though. The Brit series Bible's Buried Secrets this week on Yahweh having a wife has one researcher saying monotheism can only be traced to the Maccabes. That is the same thing I call the Yahweh cult as the religion of the priests is not the religion of the people.
Jews stole the land. The owners want it back. That is all anyone needs to know about Israel. That is all there is to know about Israel.
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well, it's easy to tell from the hebrew bible itself that there's always been friction between the monotheistic priesthood and the common israelites who enjoyed a very syncretistic popular piety. the books of samuel and kings are basically propaganda not only for the cult of yahweh but for the exclusive rights of the jerusalem temple as the proper place for yahweh worship, as opposed to similar sanctuaries at shiloh and mt. gerizim. it's quite simple: by making yahweh the only god and jerusalem the only proper place of worship, the zadokite priesthood got a monopoly on the wealth deposited in the temple and the neverending enormous barbecue.
there's evidence that for a very long time the israelites, and later the jews, were very loath to give up their mother goddesses like astarte. surprise surprise, they found them more relatable than perpetually pissed off daddy yahweh. there's even evidence this piety has never really stopped completely, in things like the hymns to the sabbath (personified as female) and the adoration of the shekinah, which developed into a female aspect of god.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
One of my reasons for making this public in rough draft form is to be reminded of what I left out.
It is most likely Yahweh was originally typical of the other male gods in the region, not particularly blood-thirsty. But with the imposition of the cult the god was converted to such a vengeful god in order to give divine authority for the death penalty for the most trivial things. If the Yahweh cult is to be imposed there is no reason to suppose people would go along with it. As with any imposed ideology force is required so that was also added.
The Maccabes made themselves the priest-kings of this new cult. This gave them divine authority to strengthen their iron fisted rule on the people.
Jews stole the land. The owners want it back. That is all anyone needs to know about Israel. That is all there is to know about Israel.
www.ussliberty.org
www.giwersworld.org/made-in-alexandria/index.html
www.giwersworld.org/00_files/zion-hit-points.phtml