A Search For The Origins of God
Part 1: Ancient Myth
The god hypothesis is often classified in terms of
monotheism, polytheism, pantheism, and so forth. Here it is proposed that the
types of belief about god can be classified into the mythological and
philosophical. The mythological conceptions of god include those of the
polytheistic religions of the ancient world, and any belief in a deity grounded
in a particular religious tradition native to a part of the world. The God of
Jews, Christians, and Muslims would fall into this category. Other mythological
concepts of god include animistic conceptions of divinity and pantheistic
notions of god found in some eastern religions. However, it is mostly the
monotheistic and polytheistic versions of the god hypothesis that will be
addressed here, due to an inevitable western bias. The philosophical concepts
of god would be ones such as the prime mover of Aristotle, or the divine
architect of the Enlightenment era deists. The mythological concepts of
divinity and the philosophical ones are not mutually exclusive, as the
philosophical approach to the god hypothesis has origins in the mythological,
and have “cross-pollinated” many times since. Thinkers about god often fall
into one of three categories: those who do theology from cultural tradition,
those who sought to do theology independent from cultural tradition, and those
who sought to reconcile the two.
The western mythological concept of god has origins in
the ancient Middle Eastern and Hellenistic world. There were many gods in the
ancient world, as the religions of the time were polytheistic. Just a few of
the major gods included Zeus, Heracles, Enlil, Marduk, El, Baal, Aten, and
Horus. It will be shown that all of these gods have had something to do with
the god Yahweh, in whom followers of the Abrahamic faiths believe.
The monotheistic version of Yahweh took form over a
very long period of time. One deity that was important in the development of
Yahweh was El. El was a Canaanite god who ruled from his domain on Mt. Saphon
and also had many sons.¹ The Israelites initially considered Yahweh the son of
the god El, who was also referred to as El Elyon. This is evidenced in the oldest
version of Deuteronomy 32:8-9 in the Dead Sea scrolls which says, "When
Elyon divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he established
the borders of the nations according to the number of the sons of the gods.
Yahweh's portion was his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. “² El Elyon is often considered a title for Yahweh,
rather than a separate deity, by most Jews and Christians. However, Yahweh was
given Israel by El Elyon as an inheritance. It would not make sense for Yahweh
to give himself an inheritance. It also speaks of there being multiple other
gods, who also received a nation over which to rule. This comes from the early,
polytheistic days of the Israelites. Eventually, as monotheism developed among
the Israelites, El Elyon would be considered just a title for Yahweh. The
passage was later altered to read “according to the number of the sons of
Israel” in the Hebrew Masoretic text, and the Septuagint renders the verse as
“according to the number of God’s angels.” ³
El’s
son Yahweh was a fierce warrior god. Yahweh only means “he who creates”, and is
likely an abbreviated name Yahweh Sabaoth, which means “he who raises armies” –
a proper name for a war god.⁴ He was
known for his feats of strength, and his mastery in battle with other gods. One
instance is his battle with the Leviathan, mentioned in Psalms 74:14, which reads,
“It was you who crushed
the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert. “
Isaiah 27:1 reads, “In that day
the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the
piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the
dragon that is in the sea.” It was not only the sea dragon that Yahweh
battled with. Yahweh also did battle with the water god Yam. This is evidenced
in Habakkuk 3:8, which reads, “Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? Was
thine anger against the rivers? Was thy wrath against the sea, that thou
didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation?” As it turns
out, the Hebrew word for sea is yam, and the word for rivers nahar. These were
also the names of the Canaanite sea god Yam. Yam was also referred to as the
judge Nahar. Since it would make no
sense for Yahweh to be angry at the waters of the world, it seems more sensible
to read this verse as him fighting the god Yam. ⁵ Isaiah 25:8 mentions that Yahweh will “swallow up
death in victory.” Incidentally, the Hebrew word for death is mot – who was
personified in the god of death by the same name.
The early Yahweh is relatively easy to reconstruct. As
has been demonstrated, Yahweh was the son of the god El, and was given the
people of Israel to govern. He also was a fierce warrior, described as a man of
war by Exodus 15:3, and defeated the sea serpent Leviathan and the sea god Yam.
However, Yahweh is not the only god to have done these things. The god Baal,
which was originally a title given to various gods who later merged into a
single deity by that name, also had performed these feats. Baal was generally a
storm god. Baal was also a son of El.⁶ One version of Baal
was known as Baal Hadad, and wrestled with a seven headed sea serpent by the
name of Lotan.⁷ Baal was also known for defeating
Yam.⁸ After defeating Yam, Baal claimed that he
would no longer acknowledge the authority of the god Mot, who was the god of
death.
Throughout the Old Testament, Baal is
mentioned as the god of the Canaanites, the rival people to the Israelites.
Yet, Yahweh and Baal seem to be essentially the same deity. It is likely that
in a theological tug of war, Yahweh’s characteristics were copied from Baal.
Baal is not the only deity to which Yahweh bears resemblance. He also shares
many characteristics with even more ancient Babylonian gods.
The Epic of Gilgamesh holds many parallels to the Old Testament stories
of Yaweh. While humanity had already been created in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the god Anu was responsible for creating
Enkidu, a man with superhuman strength and agility, in order to put a dent in
King Gilgamesh’s ego. Enkidu lived in the wild, by himself. However, he was
tempted by the female Shamhat, sent by Gilgamesh to seduce him from his natural
ways, and fell into temptation. In Genesis, Adam was created by Yahweh. Eve too
was also created by Yahweh, but still played the role of the temptress. Rather
than a king sending her to tempt the man, it was a serpent. The parallels do not end there. There is also
a strong parallel to the story of Noah in Genesis 6-8. Just as Yahweh flooded the Earth, had Noah
built a ship and gather two of each animal, so to did one of the gods in The Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Epic
of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim was
instructed by the god Ea to build an ark because Enlil was tired of humanity
being so noisy, and was going to flood the planet. The details in the story are nearly identical,
right down to Noah sending out a dove, whereas Utnapishtim sent out a swallow.
The oldest version of the Epic of Gilgamesh is dated to the 18th century BCE. The
earliest version of the flood story in the Old Testament is sourced from one of
the various early sources for the books of the Hebrew Bible called the J
source, around the 9th century BCE.⁹ This puts the earliest
version of the Epic of Gilgamesh
around 900 years before the earliest Israelite stories of Noah. However, the Mesopotamian flood story comes
from a story older than the version found in Gilgamesh called Atra-Hasis. In that version, the heroes
name is not Noah or Utnapishtim but Atra-Hasis. This shows that the flood story
is not only indigenious to the middle eastern region of the world from which
Judaism sprang, but also that the name of the hero varied from verstion to
version. The biggest difference between these Mesopotamian versions and the
story in Genesis is that Yahweh plays the role of both Ea and Enlil, and
humanity is not being destroyed for their noisiness but their lack of
obedience. The Atra-Hasis text also
mentions that the goddess Mami shaped humans out of clay, just as Yahweh
fashioned Adam from dust.
The Enuma Elish is yet another ancient Mesopotamian scripture that
bears strong similarities to the stories about Yahweh in the Old Testament. It
begins on the first tablet by saying that all that existed before the Earth was
created were two primeval gods, Abzu and Tiamat. They were akin to divine water
serpents. They give birth to Anshar and Kishar, respectively the god of the
earth and goddess of the sky. They in turn give birth to Anu, a sky god, who in
turn fathers Ea. After finding out that
Apsu plans to destroy all the new gods, Ea kills Apsu. Tiamat takes up a new
husband named Kingu, and vows revenge on Ea. Damkina and Ea give birth to
Marduk, and build their home on Apsu. In the second tablet, Ea and Anu both
challenge Tiamat and fail. Marduk later defeats Tiamat, and in the fourth
tablet fashions boundaries for the ocean out of her corpse, and created heaven.
This has been pointed out to be similar to the waters above and below the
firmament of heaven mentioned in Genesis 1:7.¹⁰ Through the
course of the story, Marduk is elevated to the status of the highest god, and
praised in similar language to Yahweh in the Old Testament. For instance in
Tablet VI:141 and VII:14, refer to Marduk as “Lord of All the Gods… No one
among the gods shall make himself equal to him.” This is similar to Psalm 135:5
and 136:2,3 which reads, “Our God is above all gods...God of gods, Lord of
lords.” Marduk is referenced in Tablet VI:22,129 and VII:89 as having created
“mankind…creatures with the breath of life…creator of all people.” Genesis 2:7
says that God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”In Tablet
V:3,5,8,12,13,23,44, and 46, Marduk is said to have “Patterned the days of the
year…established the positions of Enlil and Ea [the rotation of stars in the
sky]…made the moon appear, entrusted to him the night…assigned to the crown
jewel of night time to mark the day, defined the celestial signs..the doorbolt of
sunrise…the watches of night and day.” In Genesis 1:14, 16-17, “God said, let
there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the
night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for das, and years...And
God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light
to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of
the heaven to give light upon the earth.”¹¹ In Tablet VI:107, Marduk is referred
to as the shepherd of his creatures, just as Psalm 23:1 says, “The Lord is my
shepherd.”¹² These are just a few of the
similarities between Marduk and Yahweh.
Just like Baal and Yahweh were sons of El who ascended to the
metaphorical throne in their respective followers minds, so to did Marduk, son
of Ea.
Mesopotamian mythology is closely
linked both geographically and culturally to the Canaanite myths from which
Israeli belief came. To put all of this
information into a chronological perspective, the Dead Sea scrolls are the
oldest versions of Old Testament writings we have, and date to around the late
second to mid first century BCE. The J-source dates to around the 9th
century BCE as mentioned before. The Epic
of Gilgamesh and Atra-Hasis date
to around the 18th century BCE, and the Enuma Elish to around 18th
to 16th centuries BCE. These Mesopotamian writings all date back several
hundred years before the first oral traditions of the Israelites took form. Yet, the Canaanite and Mesopotamian are not
the only ancient myths that parallel those about Yahweh.
During the 14th century in Egypt, the god
Amun was worshiped as the highest of gods. After armies who worshiped Amun had
several victories, his popularity surged. Amenhotep III however had favored
Aten-ra, an offshoot of the sun god Ra. Aten-ra was represented by a sun disc,
rather than an anthropomorphic deity.¹³ When Amenhotep IV came to power, he elevated Aten-Ra
to being not just an aspect of Ra, but a god unto himself. In the fifth year of
his power, he changed his name to Akhenaten and ordered all people to worship
Aten as the one and only god. He
persecuted priests of Amun, Thebes, and other gods. ¹⁴ The high priest of
Amun was sent to work at a quarry, never to be heard from again. Any names for
people or places containing references to Amun had to be changed. All
references to gods in the plural were censored, and a new capitol for Egypt called
Akhetaten was built. ¹⁵ Aten became the one and only true god. The parallels between
Aten and Yahweh are interesting. For instance, “Aten was the only instance of a 'jealous god' in Egypt, and this
worship was exclusive of all others, and claims universality.” ¹⁶ In Deuteronomy 6:15,
the Bible says, “for the
LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn
against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.” Aten was also worshiped in the same language as Yahweh.
A hymn to Aten had the lyric, “How manifold are all your works, they are
hidden from before us, O sole god, whose powers no other possesses you did
create the earth according to your desire” ¹⁷ This is similar to Psalm 104:24, which reads,
“ O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in
wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.”
More similarities to Yahweh can be
discovered by looking into the roots of Aten. As was previously mentioned, Aten
began as the god Aten-ra, an aspect of the solar deity Ra. Egyptian mythology
had two sun gods, one named Ra, and the other Atum. Sometimes these were
thought of as two deities, and other times as synonyms for the same god.
Regardless, Ra was associated with the rising sun and Atum with the setting
sun. The arch enemy of Atum was a divine sea monster named Apophis, which is a
parallel to the Mesopotamian sea-monster goddess Tiamat. ¹⁸ To Ra’s worshipers in Heliopolis, Atum was the
creator of he universe and all of mankind.
Just like Marduk, Baal,
and Yahweh, Atum had a rival that was a sea monster. Since Atum is regarded as
an aspect of Ra, and that Ra’s form Aten-ra became worshiped as the divine
force Aten, it is safe to say that Aten also had even more ancient roots in
myth. These myths all bore similarities to each other, and ended up with one
god being worshiped as either better than all the rest, as in the case of Baal
and Marduk, or the one and only god, as in the case of Yahweh and Aten. Another
historical parallel is how Yahweh-alone worship and Atenism came about. Pharaoh
Akhenaten founded Atenism. King Josiah, who was born much later than Akhenaten
in 648 BCE, had a large role in making Yahweh be worshipped as the one and only
god. ¹⁹
It was once thought that
Atenism was a major influence, or perhaps even the predecessor to Judaism. This
was proposed by Sigmund Freud in his book Moses
and Monotheism. While the previous explanations of Yahweh originating in
Canaanite and Mesopotamian mythology are more credible, links to Atenism are
not impossible. Most scholars now doubt that the Israelites came from Egypt but
rather were a tribe of Canaanites, but it is not implausible that some exiles
from Egypt would have joined their ranks. That would be a likely origin for the
story of the Exodus. There does seem to have been some Israeli contact with
Egypt. The Merneptah Stele, an engraving by the Pharaoh Merneptah, who reigned
from 1213 to 1203 BC, mentions Israel. The engraving occurs on the back of a
granite steele erected by Amenhotep III. The reference mentions that Israel was
defeated, and reads, “Canaan is captive
with all woe. Ashkelon is conquered, Gezer seized, Yanoam made nonexistent;
Israel is wasted, bare of seed.” While connections to Egypt and perhaps Atenism
are not only possible but likely, it is safest to assume nothing about
connections between Judaism and Atenism.
The middle east is not
the only place where parallels to Yahweh can be found. In Ancient Greece, Zeus
was one of the most popular gods among the people. Zeus was the son of the
Titan Kronos, and ruled from Mount Olympus. Zeus was a thunder god, and
commanded lightning bolts as his weapon. Zeus fathered many sons, one of the
most famous being Heracles, who is commonly known by his roman name Hercules.
Zeus bears similarities to both the early conception of Yahweh’s father, El, as
well as later Yahweh. Zeus’s son Hercules also bears certain similarities to
Yahweh.
First, the similarities
between Zeus and El. El reigned from his
throne on Mt. Saphon, while Zeus
reigned from Mt. Olympus. Like El, Zeus also fathered many sons. Both had sons
that went on to become famous mythological figures. ²⁰ For Zeus, it was his son Hercules. For El, Baal and Yahweh
would become figureheads in major religions in the ancient world.
Zeus also bore many similarities to
Yahweh. Zeus is commonly known to have hurled lightning bolt spears, and in
Habakkuk 3, Yahweh is described as doing just the same thing. Habakkuk 3:11
describes the sun and moon being in awe of Yahweh’s lightning bolts; “The sun and moon stood still in their
habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy
glittering spear.” In Psalm 29, Yahweh is described as being the source of
thunder and lightning. Psalm 29:3 says, “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders”. (ESV) In
Psalm 29:7, his voice is described as flashing “forth flames of fire.” (ESV)
While these storm god aspects of Yahweh – who in his early days was a warrior
god named Yahweh Sabaoth—, likely were absorbed from the rival god Baal, the
parallels of the “later day” Yahweh to Zeus are interesting.
The parallels of the early Yahweh to
Hercules are also striking. Just as Yahweh was the son of the king of the gods
who ruled from a mountain, so too was Hercules.
Just as Yahweh wrestled down the many-headed sea serpent Leviathan,
Hercules wrestled the many-headed sea serpent Hydra.
Ancient Greece is the last stop for now on our journey
to find the origins of god, but before continuing on in ancient Greece, the
question remains: how did Judaism emerge from all of these polytheistic
origins? Let’s retrace our steps. The early polytheistic version of Yahweh was
a war god, whose full name was Yahweh Sabaoth. His father was the king of the
gods, El Elyon, who ruled from a throne on his mountain Mt. Saphon. The
Israelites’ rivals, the Canaanites, worshiped Baal. Baal also was said to be a
son of El. Baal had defeated the sea god Yam and the many-headed sea serpent
Lotan, and was a storm god. The Israelites, who regarded Yahweh as their patron
deity, likely stole these stories and affixed them to Yahweh in a case of
“anything your god can do mine can do better.” The Israelites began to regard
Yahweh and his father El as the same deity, and worshiped Yahweh as the
strongest and mightiest of all gods. The worship of other gods among the
Israelites became forbidden, and King Josiah helped push the monolatry of
Yahweh onto his people. Josiah’s attempts were a failure, and after his reign
Israel was subjected to the rule of both Egyptians and Babylonians – who were
worshipers of Marduk. ²¹ Stories of the Mesopotamian culture had become part
of Israelite legend long before the Babylonians ruled the Israelites after the
death of Josiah, but the presence of that theology was stronger than before. It
was after this that monotheistic Israelite religion took form and Judaism was
born as we know it today. By the 5th
century BCE, the five books of the Torah had gained authoritative status as
being the holy word of a single God, and by the 2nd century BCE the other books
now in the Tanakh were accepted as authoritative. The Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Tanakh, was completed
between the third and second century BCE, and the Dead Sea Scrolls dating at
the oldest to around the second century BCE.
Therefore, monotheistic Judaism had already taken form at least in the
third century BCE, likely in reaction to the first temple around 587–538 BCE.
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¹ Cotterell,
Arthur. A Dictionary of World Mythology. Oxford University Press, 1986.
; pg. 24
² Stark, Thom. The Human Faces of God.
WIPF and STOCK, 2011. ; pg. 71
³ ibid
⁴ ibid
⁵ Wright, Robert. The
Evolution of God. Little, Brown, and Company, 2009. ; pg. 121
⁶ Cotterell, 22
⁷ Wright, 120
⁸ Cotterell, 22
⁹
Campbell, Joseph. Occidental Mythology.
Penguin Compass, 1964.; pg. 112
¹⁰ Babinski, Edward. "The Cosmology of the
Bible." Loftus, John W. The Christian Delusion. Prometheus Press,
n.d. ; pg. 114
¹¹ Babinski, 117
¹² Babinski, 118
¹³ Wright,
91
¹⁴ Cotterell, 43
¹⁵ Wright, 91
¹⁶ Petrie, W. M. Flinders. The
Religion of Ancient Egypt. Project Gutenberg, n.d.
¹⁷ Ancient Egypt Myth and History.
Geddes & Grosset, n.d.
¹⁸ Cotterell, 43
¹⁹ Wright, 151
²⁰ Cotterell, 193
²¹ Wright, 165
