Yahweh is the name of the state god of the ancient kingdom of israel and, later, the kingdom of judah. Reading of the theonym LUM-ma is unclear. An Elamite goddess known from Susa who in Mesopotamia was regarded as analogous to Ishtar or. Sumugan (also spelled Sumuqan) or akkan was a god associated with quadrupeds, In Assyrian mythology, Tashmetu is the divine consort of, Tutu was the tutelary god of Borsippa at least between Ur III. The Bible does mention other nations worshipping Yahweh and how the god arrived from Edom to help the Israelites in warfare (Deuteronomy 33:2, Judges 5:4-5) but this is not the central narrative. Gazbaba was a goddess closely associated with Nanaya, like her connected with erotic love. For example: Howard the Duck: Inverted; Pazuzu is the patron god of the Doucheblade.Played straight with the other Mesopotamian gods, whose followers were . Scholars J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes write: The origins of Yahwism are hidden in mystery. It was not until 1957 that a team under the archaeologist Michela Schiff Giorgini, excavated the site and found reference to a group of people described as Shasu of Yahweh at the base of one of the columns of the temple in the hypostyle hall. https://www.worldhistory.org/Yahweh/. Mesopotamia is important because it witnessed crucial advancements in the development of human civilisation between 6000-1550 BC. In this passage from Deuteronomy, El gives each of the gods authority over a segment of the people of earth and Yahweh is assigned to the Israelites who, in time, will make him their supreme and only deity; but it is clear he existed beforehand as a lesser Canaanite god. In Mesopotamia and Syria, Artemis was identified with the goddess Nanaya. ", Ninhursag ("Mistress of the mountain ranges". In 931 BCE, following the death of Solomon, the kingdom split in two and a new political entity, the Kingdom of Judah with its capital at Jerusalem, emerged in the south. Please support World History Encyclopedia. "Yahweh." Dumuzi is also listed as having ruled as a king in both the Sumerian metropolis of Uruk and another Mesopotamian city called "Bad-tibira". His name is composed of four Hebrew consonants (YHWH, known as the Tetragrammaton) which the prophet Moses is said to have revealed to his people. It was the seat of government for Sargon the Great. The monotheism of the Hebrew Scriptures would later be appropriated by the adherents of Christianity who would continue veneration of Yahweh, eventually known as Jehovah and then, simply, as God, and Islam would also develop the deity under the name of Allah (the God) beginning in the 7th century CE. Particularly compelling are his arguments from biblical passages and the archaeological evidence cited from the ruins of the mines of Timna. His wife is the earth goddess Ki. 9. TEXT CUT BOOK Keep Your Card in Tins Poilet Books will be issued only on presentation of proper library cards. Enkimdu is described as the "lord of dike and canal". Uur-amssu was one of the deities regarded as children of Adad and Shala. The character and power of Yahweh were codified following the Babylonian Captivity of the 6th century BCE and the Hebrew scriptures were canonized during the Second Temple Period (c. 515 BCE-70 CE) to include the concept of a messiah whom Yahweh would send to the Jewish people to lead and redeem them. [37], Yahweh was originally described as one of the sons of El in Deuteronomy 32:89, but this was removed by a later emendation to the text. During the Second Temple period, speaking the name of Yahweh in public became regarded as taboo,[10] and Jews instead began to substitute other words, primarily adonai (.mw-parser-output .script-hebrew,.mw-parser-output .script-Hebr{font-family:"SBL Hebrew","SBL BibLit","Taamey Ashkenaz","Taamey Frank CLM","Frank Ruehl CLM","Ezra SIL","Ezra SIL SR","Keter Aram Tsova","Taamey David CLM","Keter YG","Shofar","David CLM","Hadasim CLM","Simple CLM","Nachlieli",Cardo,Alef,"Noto Serif Hebrew","Noto Sans Hebrew","David Libre",David,"Times New Roman",Gisha,Arial,FreeSerif,FreeSans}, "my Lord"). Mark, Joshua J.. [12], The god's name was written in paleo-Hebrew as ( in block script), transliterated as YHWH; modern scholarship has reached consensus to transcribe this as Yahweh. [25] The current consensus is therefore that Yahweh was a "divine warrior from the southern region associated with Seir, Edom, Paran and Teman". [51], In 587/6BCE Jerusalem fell to the Neo-Babylonians, the Temple was destroyed, and the leadership of the community were deported. Anunit She was the goddess of the moon and battle. The centre of Yahweh's worship lay in three great annual festivals coinciding with major events in rural life: Passover with the birthing of lambs, Shavuot with the cereal harvest, and Sukkot with the fruit harvest. Belet Nagar was the tutelary goddess of the Syrian city of Nagar. [83][84][85] According to Sean M. McDonough, Greek speakers may have confused Aramaic words such as Sabbath, Alleluia, or even possibly some variant of the name Yahweh itself, for more familiar terms associated with Dionysus. who rides through the heavens to your help and the clouds in His majesty. This is the time in Jewish history known as the Babylonian Captivity (c. 598-538 BCE). [57][58] From these ideas, Second Temple Judaism would later emerge, whence Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism, and Islam. Moses learns his true identity as an Israelite and, after killing an Egyptian, flees to the land of Midian where, in time he encounters Yahweh in the form of a burning bush (Exodus 3, 4:1-17). The way the Yahweh line was interpreted further supported the concept of Yahweh as the god of the Israelites alone since Mesha claims to have taken the Israelite god's vessels as tribute to his own. [38], With the notable exception of Yahweh himself, the deities worshipped by Israel were also Canaanite. Yahweh originates out of Canaan though he is described [sic] concerning his theophany with Baal. Yahweh. Urmahlullu was an apotrapaic creature with the lower body of a lion and upper body of a man, attested mostly in Assyria. Aruru was initially a distinct minor goddess, regarded as violent and connected to vegetation; Sherida (Sumerian) or Aya (Akkadian) was the wife of the sun god Utu/Shamash and the goddess of dawn. Adad - The mesopotamian Weather God. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/Yahweh/. World History Publishing is a non-profit company registered in the United Kingdom. Akkad - The northern part of Mesopotamia. [56] Greek translations of the Hebrew scriptures render both the tetragrammaton and adonai as kyrios (), meaning "the Lord". Ninmug was the tutelary goddess of metal workers. Dumuzi-abzu is a local goddess who was the tutelary goddess of Kinunir, a settlement in the territory of the state of Lagash. Shullat and Hanish were a pair of gods regarded as twins, and usually mentioned together. Nimintabba was a minor goddess who belonged to the entourage of Nanna, the tutelary god of Ur. Written in sumerian script but in a language closely related to hebrew, the tablets showed. Both are storm Gods. 4 3 299 Trey the Explainer @Trey_Explainer May 11, 2020 [12] The archangels Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Ouriel and Jewish cultural heroes such as Abraham, Jacob, and Moses are also invoked frequently. Zababa was a war god who served as the tutelary deity of Kish. I was wondering if anyone knew if this was true and could explain to me like Im five one way or the other? The figure has been interpreted as depicting Yahweh as a local variety of Bacchus, that is, Dionysus. [9] The notion that Yahweh is "to be venerated as the creator-god of all the earth" is first elaborated by the Second Isaiah, a 6th-century exilic work, though the case for the theological doctrine again rests on Yahweh's power over other gods rather than independent monotheistic reasoning. [9] [10] As such, cult statues were given constant care and attention [11] [9] and a set of priests were assigned to tend to them. [34] During this period, Israel was a confederation of tribes,[35] each of which was (by then) a territorial entity with boundaries and rights. Some Rights Reserved (2009-2023) under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license unless otherwise noted. An was believed to be a sky god, and was initially regarded to be the Lord of the Heavens, or the supreme deity of the Sumerian pantheon. All of these stipulations and details were applied to the god later, however; it is unclear exactly when Yahweh was first worshipped, by whom, or how. Philip King and Lawrence Stager place the history of Yahweh into the following periods: Other academic terms often used include First Temple period, from the construction of the Temple in 957BCE to its destruction in 586BCE, exilic for the period of the Exile from 586539BCE (identical with Neo-Babylonian above), post-Exilic for later periods and Second Temple period from the reconstruction of the Temple in 515BCE until its destruction in 70CE. Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel: Continuity and Change A History of the Ancient Near East ca. These included El, the ruler of the pantheon,[39] Asherah, his consort, and Baal. These early hopes were dashed (Zerubabbel disappeared from the historical record, although the High Priests continued to be descended from Joshua), and thereafter there are merely general references to a Messiah of David (i.e. [53] In the writing of second Isaiah, Yahweh was no longer seen as exclusive to Israel but as extending his promise to all who would keep the sabbath and observe his covenant. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. ", "Kinship and Kingship: The early Monarchy", "The Rise of YHWH in Judahite and Israelite Religion", "Proposals for the Original Profile of YHWH", "Jewish Religious Life in the Persian Period", "Yahweh, the Canaanite God of Metallurgy? Books In 1907, James Henry Breasted arrived and photographed the site but, again, engaged in no excavation. Ninkarrak, most likely of Akkadian, rather than Sumerian, origin, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 07:56. atumdug was a goddess from the early pantheon of Lagash. Ninkilim was a deity who was associated with mongooses, which are common throughout southern Mesopotamia. Shulpa-e's name means "youthful brilliance". 3538, Last edited on 21 February 2023, at 10:40, "The Role of Archaeological and Literary Remains in Reconstructing Israel's History", "A Land Divided: Judah and Israel from the Death of Solomon to the Fall of Samaria", "Into Exile: From the Assyrian Conquest of Israel to the Fall of Babylon", Journal for the Study of the Old Testament: Supplement Series, "El the God of Israel-Israel the People of YHWH: On the Origins of Ancient Israelite Yahwism", "Tracking Observance of the Aniconic Tradition", "Priests and Levites in the Hebrew Bible", "Yahweh's "Wife" and Belief in One God in the Old Testament", "The Divine Name Yahweh Alohim from an African Perspective", "Yahweh's Asherah, Inclusive Monotheism and the Question of Dating", "A Conversation with My Critics: Cultic Image or Aniconism in the First Temple? Nanna, Enzu or Zuen ("Lord of Wisdom") in Sumerian, later altered as Suen and Sin in Akkadian. The word 'mesopotamia' comes from the ancient words 'meso', which means 'middle', and 'potamos', which means 'river or stream'. During times of peace, the tribes will have depended heavily on Baal in his various local forms to ensure fertility. The biblical narrative, however, is not as straightforward as it may seem as it also includes reference to the Canaanite god El whose name is directly referenced in `Israel' (He Who Struggles with God or He Who Perseveres with God). Yahweh was a Canaanite god of metallurgy who was transformed by the ancient Israelites into the One True God, creator of heaven and earth. Last modified October 22, 2018. The so-called Song of the Sea in Exodus 15:1-18 and the Song of Deborah in Judges 5 are typical in their praise of Yahweh, the divine warrior who could be counted on to intervene on behalf of his followersThus it may have been primarily in connection with Israel's wars that Yahweh gained status as the national god. Levine, Lee I. Judaism and Hellenism in Antiquity: Conflict or Confluence? Musician goddesses always mentioned as a pair who were handmaidens of Shaushka. They did not, however, embrace monotheism at this time. Unless labeled otherwise, books may be retained for four weeks. Mami or Mama is a mother goddess whose name means "mother". For more information, please see our and you shall tread on their backs". During the night he traveled through the underworld and passed judgement on the dead. Muuu ("furious snake" or "aweful snake") was a dragon-like creature (sometimes a lion-dragon hybrid), depicted as a servant of various gods in Mesopotamian art. [77][78][79][80] In any event, Tacitus, John the Lydian, Cornelius Labeo, and Marcus Terentius Varro similarly identify Yahweh with Bacchus-Dionysus. [73], Yahweh is frequently invoked in Graeco-Roman magical texts dating from the 2nd century BCE to the 5th century CE, most notably in the Greek Magical Papyri,[74] under the names Iao, Adonai, Sabaoth, and Eloai. After watching an episode of Rick and Morty recently that was clearly taking a shot at Christianity, I was left with a question from something that was said in the show. Lugalbanda was an early legendary king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, who was later declared to be a god. By Nissim Amzallag, Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization. Your enemies shall come fawning to you, 3000 - 323 BC, 2nd Edition, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. The discovery of Amenhotep III's mention of the Shasu of Yahweh placed the god much earlier in history than had been accepted previously. Sumerian God Weh. [11] After the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE the original pronunciation of the tetragrammaton was forgotten.[11]. Hahharnum and Hayyashum were the Mesopotamian adaptation of Hurrian words for heaven and earth, In Mesopotamia, the cult of Herakles was syncretised with the cults of Nergal and the Persian deity, Humban was an Elamite god associated with the concept of kingship and divine protection (, abrtum was a goddess understood as either "she of. World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization. Our latest articles delivered to your inbox, once a week: Our mission is to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. Ishum was a popular, but not very prominent god. Rabbinic sources suggest that, by the Second Temple period, the name of God was pronounced only once a year, by the high priest, on the Day of Atonement.[15]. [44] The earliest known Israelite place of worship is a 12th-century BCE open-air altar in the hills of Samaria featuring a bronze bull reminiscent of Canaanite Bull-El (El in the form of a bull) and the archaeological remains of further temples have been found at Dan on Israel's northern border, at Arad in the Negev and Beersheba, both in the territory of Judah. In his prophecies, Ezekiel describes a divine being as `a man was there, whose appearance shone like copper' (Ezek. Yahweh-as-warrior is evident throughout the Hebrew scriptures which became the Christian Old Testament and warrior imagery is also apparent in passages in the New Testament which drew on the earlier works (ex: Ephesians 6:11, Philippians 2:25, II Timothy 2:3-4, I Corinthians 9:7, among others). Nisaba was originally a goddess of grain and agriculture. Zaz . [67] There is no universally accepted explanation for such aniconism, and a number of recent scholars have argued that Yahweh was in fact represented prior to the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah late in the monarchic period: to quote one study, "[a]n early aniconism, de facto or otherwise, is purely a projection of the post-exilic imagination". The story of Atram-hasis, the Mesopotamian "Noah," is the original story of the flood, in which the god Enlil decides to destroy humanity, because the people annoy the gods with their noise. The claim that Israel always only acknowledged one god is a later belief cast back on the early days of Israel's development in Canaan. Alala and Belili were ancestors of Anu, usually appearing as the final pair in god lists accepting this tradition of his ancestry. In the Bible, Yahweh is the one true God who creates the heavens and the earth and then chooses a certain people, the Israelites, as his own. The names of the principal gods of Akkad and Sumer, c.3100 BC. Utu, later known as Shamash, is the ancient Mesopotamian god of the Sun, Inanna, later known as Ishtar, is "the most important female deity of ancient Mesopotamia at all periods. Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. Running a website with millions of readers every month is expensive. The earliest portrayals of Yahweh as the principal deity to whom "one owed the powers of blessing the land" appear in the teachings of the prophet Elijah in the 9th century BCE, and was likely well established by the time of the prophet Hosea in the 8th century BCE, in reference to disputes between Yahweh and Baal. [63] Prayer played little role in official worship. The top 4 are: babylonians, mesopotamia, uruk and assyria. Mark, Joshua J.. These ancient gods of Mesopotamia had wings, wore horned caps, and possessed the ability to . They said something about how Yahweh was derived from a Sumerian god named Yah, and a Mesopotamian god Weh. [3] The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier,[4] and in the oldest biblical literature he possesses attributes typically ascribed to weather and war deities, fructifying the land and leading the heavenly army against Israel's enemies. Mesopotamian Gods Family Tree UsefulCharts 1.38M subscribers Subscribe 24K Share 1M views 1 year ago Watch Mythology with Mike's video about Ishtar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Anpre.. The Sumerians regarded Inzak as the chief god of the Dilmunite pantheon. The Masoretes, who from about the 6th to the 10th century ce worked to reproduce the original text of the Hebrew Bible, added to YHWH the vowel signs of the Hebrew words Adonai or Elohim. Nabarbi ("she of Nawar") was Hurrian goddess possibly analogous to Belet Nagar. What are the seven gods of Mesopotamia? [55], Towards the end of the Second Temple period, speaking the name of Yahweh in public became regarded as taboo. The rest of the Book of Exodus details the Ten Plagues which Yahweh sends on Egypt and how Moses leads his people to freedom. He was known as the god of wisdom, magic, crafts, and healing. Idlurugu was a god who represent the concept of, Ilaba was briefly a major deity during the. As with all ancient religions (as well as modern), the faith of the people was based on an understanding of quid pro quo (this-for-that) in which they would honor and serve a deity and, in return, would receive protection and guidance. The first to mention this were Haggai and Zechariah, both prophets of the early Persian period. Yahweh, name for the God of the Israelites, representing the biblical pronunciation of YHWH, the Hebrew name revealed to Moses in the book of Exodus. Yahweh creates the world, and hangs the sun and the moon in the heavens, as the Book of Genesis opens. The descriptions of Yahweh appearing as a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day as well as the other fire-imagery from the Book of Exodus were interpreted by some scholars as suggesting a storm god or weather-deity and, particularly, a desert god since Yahweh is able to direct Moses to water sources (Exodus 17:6 and Numbers 20). Imdugud, later known as Anz, is an enormous bird-like monster with the head of a lion described as so huge that the flapping of its wings was thought to be the cause of sandstorms and whirlwinds. (Deuteronomy 32:8-9, Masoretic Text). Secondly, the only source I can find for Yah immediately is. This in itself suggests a shift in cultural prominence from the ancient Sumerians to the later Babylonians. He creates animals and human beings, destroys all in a great flood except Noah, Noah's family, and the animals Noah saves, and elects Abram (later known as Abraham) to lead his people to the land of Canaan and settle there (Genesis 1-25). Yahweh, according to Amzallag, was transformed from one god among many to the supreme deity by the Israelites in the Iron Age (c.1200-930 BCE) when iron replaced bronze and the copper smelters, whose craft was seen as a kind of transformative magic, lost their unique status. Even so, the Israelite population continues to grow and so pharaoh orders all male infants killed (Exodus 1:15-22). Mesha Stele - Moabite StoneHenri Sivonen (CC BY). His association with the forge, and with imagery of fire, smoke, and smiting, worked as well in describing a god of storms and war and so Yahweh's character changed from a deity of transformation to one of conquest. Laguda was a god associated with the Persian Gulf. Moses never reaches the promised land of Canaan himself owing to a misunderstanding he has with Yahweh in which he strikes a rock for water when he was not supposed to (Numbers 20) but he turns over leadership to his right-hand-man Joshua who then leads his people in the conquest of Canaan as directed by Yahweh. Scholar Nissim Amzallag, of Ben-Gurion University, disagrees with the claim that Yahweh's origins are obscure and argues that the deity was originally a god of the forge and patron of metallurgists during the Bronze Age (c. 3500-1200 BCE). assem paramur traduco undeviceni tenuit in Hebrew Gematria equals 2575: a 1 s 90 s 90 e 5 m 30 0 p 60 a 1 r 80 a 1 m 30 u 200 r 80 0 t 100 r 80 a 1 d 4 u 200 c 3 o 50 0 u 200 n 40 d 4 e 5 v 700 i 9 c 3 e 5 n 40 i 9 0 t 100 e 5 n 40 u . Enlilazi was a minor god regarded as the "superintendent of Ekur. Annunitum ("the martial one") was initially an epithet of Ishtar, Asarluhi was originally a local god of the village of Kuara, which was located near the city of. For this reason, the Sumerian god was also known by the title Lord of the Sweet Waters. Related Content He has taught history, writing, literature, and philosophy at the college level. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Whoever the Shasu were, they were not Hebrew and the Habiru seem to be Canaanites who simply refused to conform to the customs of the land, not a separate ethnic group. Contents 1Major deities 2Lesser deities 3Primordial beings 4Demigods and heroes 5Spirits and demons 6Legendary beasts Major deities Adador Ishkur - god of storms, venerated as a supreme power especially in Syriaand Lebanon Anshur- head of the Assyrianpantheon, regarded as the equivalent of Enlil We have 73 individual gods listed in the Mesopotamian pantheon of gods and spirits. Lulal, also known as Latarak in Akkadian. As the traditional sacrifices to Yahweh (see below) could not be performed outside Israel, other practices including sabbath observance and circumcision gained new significance. He was the preserver of life on earth, and the protector of humans against the evil designs of their, and his arch enemy, GodEnlil, the future monotheist Satan. [64], The Hebrew Bible gives the impression that the Jerusalem temple was always meant to be the central or even sole temple of Yahweh, but this was not the case. We would much rather spend this money on producing more free history content for the world. They saw the messiah in Zerubbabel, a descendant of the House of David who seemed, briefly, to be about to re-establish the ancient royal line, or in Zerubbabel and the first High Priest, Joshua (Zechariah writes of two messiahs, one royal and the other priestly). Mesopotamians knew him by his East Semitic name: Ea, or Aya. Although the biblical narratives depict Yahweh as the sole creator god, lord of the universe, and god of the Israelites especially, initially he seems to have been Canaanite in origin and subordinate to the supreme god El. Kumarbi was one of the main gods of the Hurrians, An Elamite deity known chiefly from a passage mentioning "the forest of Manziniri.". The cult of YHWH as god of metallurgy originated among semi-nomadic copper smelters between the Bronze and Iron Age, suggests biblical scholar: And he was not worshipped only by Jews Archaeologists uncover remains of an Edomite copper production facility on the so-called Slaves' Hill in Timna. Adad or Hadad - the God of Storm and Rain The Mesopotamian storm god varied from place to place. Birtum was the husband of the prison goddess Nungal. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Anu (also known as An) is an early Mesopotamian sky god who was later viewed as the Father of the Gods and ruler of the heavens, a position which then passed to his son Enlil. Hendursaga was a Sumerian god described as "protective god with a friendly face" in inscriptions. erua was an Assyrian goddess associated with Ashur. Ea and Yah were the same name, representing the same god, and Yah, in turn, was the same god as Yahweh. The Israelites remained a henotheistic people through the time of the Judges, which predates the rise of the monarchy, and throughout the time of the Kingdom of Israel (c.1080-c. 722). Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. [72] Finally, in the national crisis of the exile, the followers of Yahweh went a step further and outright denied that the other deities aside from Yahweh even existed, thus marking the transition from monolatrism to true monotheism. Nin-MAR.KI (reading uncertain) was the daughter of Nanshe. Anunit - Mesopotamian mother or creator goddess derived from the earlier Sumerian Ki. The deities of Sumer were usually associated with aspects of nature, such as fertility of the fields and livestock. The reading of the name of this goddess, NIN.SAR (possibly to be understood as "Lady Herbs"), is uncertain, -ebarzida temple in Ur and other temples in, Ninsun was a goddess whose name can be understood as "lady of the wild cows.".