Perhaps one of the first things that I realized was that in the West, hostility towards the Modi Sarkar is going to work against me as I bring out core ideas behind "The H-Source of the Bible". At times, I was even fearful that the politics around Christianity in the United States and Israel might also work to nullify what should be understood from beyond the body politique - namely the factual ideas around "The H-Source".
It is simple, believe me. The early Canaanites had a full pantheon of Gods. David and Solomon were polytheistic, Ahab and the rest down to Hezekaiah were all polytheists. So there was likely a time when the Israelite Religion was Polytheist. The Merneptah Stele speaks of the "Hurro" and the Israelites in close relationship as though they represented a family. Just to be sure let me quote you the relevant lines in Merneptah -
The Canaan has been plundered into every sort of woe:
Ashkelon has been overcome;
Gezer has been captured;
Yano'am is made non-existent.
Israel is laid waste and his seed is not;
Hurru is become a widow because of Egypt.
If Canaan is seen to the South nad Israel to the North and Hurro is closer to modern day Syria, we then a clean reading as to how the Canaanites are quite related to the Hurrian and Madai peoples.
This relationship needs to be understood simply and perhaps the first thing people have to do is to learn to separate this from Modi Sarkar as this creates considerable doubt and angst in the reader.
By backing a plausible theory am I lending credence to loud voices in the Saffron Brigade??!! Well,
that is exactly the kind of thinking I don't want to be up against!
If at the time of Merneptah, which is 1208 BC, there existed all these entities, and there was the emergence of new kingdoms just before the destruction of Ugarith, the question is whether there did exist in the 200 years between 1208 BC and 1000 BC or so, a thriving polytheistic religion in Canaan replete with Yahweh, Baal, Anat and ofcourse El, the answer has to be "very likely". Kedar and Madyan are thus the likely parts of the geography that give us a very clear idea that there was once a
polytheistic religion.
We must therefore ask if therefore necessarily if there had been an Old Testament before the Torah, that was clearly Polytheistic. Richard Elliot Friedman is among the many scholars who believe that it did not just start with the Torah from one man, namely Moses. It began a lot earlier and one possibility was a Polytheistic Bible.
This is the Bible we are tracing from within the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the tale of David. This is the origins of the Noah story and that of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible is linked
inextricably to the scripture of the Hurro, and the Puranas and it remains so to this day.
It is simple, believe me. The early Canaanites had a full pantheon of Gods. David and Solomon were polytheistic, Ahab and the rest down to Hezekaiah were all polytheists. So there was likely a time when the Israelite Religion was Polytheist. The Merneptah Stele speaks of the "Hurro" and the Israelites in close relationship as though they represented a family. Just to be sure let me quote you the relevant lines in Merneptah -
The Canaan has been plundered into every sort of woe:
Ashkelon has been overcome;
Gezer has been captured;
Yano'am is made non-existent.
Israel is laid waste and his seed is not;
Hurru is become a widow because of Egypt.
If Canaan is seen to the South nad Israel to the North and Hurro is closer to modern day Syria, we then a clean reading as to how the Canaanites are quite related to the Hurrian and Madai peoples.
This relationship needs to be understood simply and perhaps the first thing people have to do is to learn to separate this from Modi Sarkar as this creates considerable doubt and angst in the reader.
By backing a plausible theory am I lending credence to loud voices in the Saffron Brigade??!! Well,
that is exactly the kind of thinking I don't want to be up against!
If at the time of Merneptah, which is 1208 BC, there existed all these entities, and there was the emergence of new kingdoms just before the destruction of Ugarith, the question is whether there did exist in the 200 years between 1208 BC and 1000 BC or so, a thriving polytheistic religion in Canaan replete with Yahweh, Baal, Anat and ofcourse El, the answer has to be "very likely". Kedar and Madyan are thus the likely parts of the geography that give us a very clear idea that there was once a
polytheistic religion.
We must therefore ask if therefore necessarily if there had been an Old Testament before the Torah, that was clearly Polytheistic. Richard Elliot Friedman is among the many scholars who believe that it did not just start with the Torah from one man, namely Moses. It began a lot earlier and one possibility was a Polytheistic Bible.
This is the Bible we are tracing from within the stories of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the tale of David. This is the origins of the Noah story and that of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Bible is linked
inextricably to the scripture of the Hurro, and the Puranas and it remains so to this day.
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