In Mesopotamia and Syria, Artemis was identified with the goddess Nanaya. Martu, in Akkadian known as Amurru, was the divine personification of the nomads who began to appear on the edges of the Mesopotamian world in the middle of the third millennium BC, initially from the west, but later from the east as well. 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. He was the son of Anu and was derived from an earlier Sumerian God, Iskur. Silili is an obscure goddess who was apparently the mother of all horses. [77][78][79][80] In any event, Tacitus, John the Lydian, Cornelius Labeo, and Marcus Terentius Varro similarly identify Yahweh with Bacchus-Dionysus. 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? 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. Shuwala, the tutelary goddess of Mardaman, a city located in the north of modern Iraq, is attested in sources from the Ur III period. [81] Jews themselves frequently used symbols that were also associated with Dionysus such as kylixes, amphorae, leaves of ivy, and clusters of grapes, a similarity Plutarch used to argue that Jews worshipped a hypostasized form of Bacchus-Dionysus. [36] Although the Biblical account draws a clear distinction between Israelites and Canaanites in this period, and this was followed in early scholarship, the modern consensus is that there was no distinction in language or material culture between these groups and scholars accordingly define Israelite culture as a subset of Canaanite culture. Yahweh as the all-powerful creator, preserver, and redeemer of the universe was then later developed by the early Christians as their god who had sent his son Jesus as the promised messiah and Islam interpreted this same deity as Allah in their belief system. Bau was a prominent goddess of Lagash, and some of its kings regarded her as their divine mother. Meskilak was a Dilmunite goddess and the wife of Inzak. Cite This Work atumdug was a goddess from the early pantheon of Lagash. [45], Yahweh filled the role of national god in the kingdom of Israel (Samaria), which emerged in the 10th century BCE; and also in Judah, which emerged probably a century later[46] (no "God of Judah" is mentioned anywhere in the Bible). Scholars J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes write: The origins of Yahwism are hidden in mystery. Tweet. [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. 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. [87][88][89], This article is about the national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah. God has no shortage of names--He is called by almost 1000 different ones in the Bible. 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. The temple was built by Amenhotep III (r. 1386-1353 BCE) and the reference to Yahweh established that this god was worshipped by another people long before the time when the events of the biblical narratives are thought to have taken place. He is the son of the couple Anshar and Kishar (heaven and earth, respectively), the second-born of the primordial couple Apsu and Tiamat. Nintu is a Sumerian mother goddess associated with childbirth. Kus is a god of herdsmen referenced in the, Kusu was a goddess of purification, commonly invoked in Akkadian, Lagamar, whose name means "no mercy" in Akkadian. Dumuzi-abzu is a local goddess who was the tutelary goddess of Kinunir, a settlement in the territory of the state of Lagash. Suhurmau was a creature likely imagined simply as a type of fish by the Sumerians, but as a fish-goat hybrid by the Akkadians. According to scholar Nissim Amzallag, however, Yahweh was a god of metallurgy. For Yahweh's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. Thus, the tetragrammaton became the artificial Latinized name Jehovah (JeHoWaH). Whoever Yahweh was originally, and however he was worshipped, today he forms the basis of the three great monotheistic religions of the world. Ninkarrak, most likely of Akkadian, rather than Sumerian, origin, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 07:56. [40], In the earliest Biblical literature Yahweh has characteristics of a storm-god typical of ancient Near Eastern myths, marching out from a region to the south or south-east of Israel with the heavenly host of stars and planets that make up his army to do battle with the enemies of his people Israel:[17], Yahweh, when you went out of Seir, When the temple was destroyed and the kingdom sacked, the Jewish clergy had to find some reason for the tragedy and concluded it was because they had not paid enough attention to Yahweh and had angered him through the acknowledgement and worship of other gods. YHWH. Ninkilim was a deity who was associated with mongooses, which are common throughout southern Mesopotamia. The figure has been interpreted as depicting Yahweh as a local variety of Bacchus, that is, Dionysus. 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. From the sky the stars fought. Nisaba was originally a goddess of grain and agriculture. Judah was able to withstand the Assyrian military campaigns but only by paying tribute to Assyria. Erragal, also known as Errakal, is a relatively rarely-attested deity who was usually regarded as a form of Erra, Gareus was a god introduced to Uruk during late antiquity by the. Mark, J. J. Mark, Joshua J.. Submitted by Joshua J. Dagan was the main god of the middle Euphrates area, regarded as a god of prosperity. 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). 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 . (2018, October 22). Ninurta, also known as Ningirsu, was a Mesopotamian warrior deity who was worshipped in Sumer from the very earliest times. The inscription mentions how Mesha, after defeating the Israelites, took the vessels of Yahweh to Kemosh (the chief god of Moab), meaning the objects sacred to the worship of Yahweh in the temple, most likely the temple in Israel's capital of Samaria (Kerrigan, 78-79). Please note that some of these recommendations are listed under our old name, Ancient History Encyclopedia. Indeed, the meaning of Yahweh's name appears to have been a problem in search of an explanation even during the time when the Hebrew Bible was still being composed. Running a website with millions of readers every month is expensive. This article was most recently revised and updated by. Humhum was a minor god worshiped in Dr-arruku (also known as Sippar-Aruru) in northern Babylonia. a descendant). In Mesopotamia", "Agriculture as Civilization: Sages, Farmers, and Barbarians", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Mesopotamian_deities&oldid=1141283478, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with dead external links from July 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. You can get the definition (s) of a word in the list below by tapping the question-mark icon next to it. (111). 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). A freelance writer and former part-time Professor of Philosophy at Marist College, New York, Joshua J. (Deuteronomy 33:26-28), There is almost no agreement on his origins. [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. [13] The shortened forms "Yeho-" and "Yo-" appear in personal names and in phrases such as "Hallelujah! Last modified October 22, 2018. [86] Other Roman writers, such as Juvenal, Petronius, and Florus, identified Yahweh with the god Caelus. Mark, published on 22 October 2018. World History Encyclopedia. Mesopotamians knew him by his East Semitic name: Ea, or Aya. Sumerian God Weh. El was the chief deity of the Canaanite pantheon and the god who, according to the Bible, gave Yahweh authority over the Israelites: When the Most High [El] gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the Sons of God. Kumarbi was one of the main gods of the Hurrians, An Elamite deity known chiefly from a passage mentioning "the forest of Manziniri.". [5] The early Israelites were polytheistic and worshipped Yahweh alongside a variety of Canaanite gods and goddesses, including El, Asherah and Baal. The Assyrians had a weather god named Adad who carried lighting bolts in his hand and bore a striking . A prominent place in the Mesopotamian pantheon was occupied by healing goddesses. Although Christian scholars after the Renaissance and Reformation periods used the term Jehovah for YHWH, in the 19th and 20th centuries biblical scholars again began to use the form Yahweh. 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. Yes, the clouds dropped water. (Deuteronomy 32:8-9, Masoretic Text). The Moabite Stone was discovered in 1868 in modern-day Jordan and the find published in 1870. The Godchecker Holy Database currently contains 149 Mesopotamian deity names these are listed below. He was brought into the pantheon by the Amorites in the third millennium BC. Latin knowledge, translations and politics during the Palaeologan period / Costas N. Constantinides; Lateinische Texte und bersetzer der Palologenzeit in Konstantinopel: der B 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. At this time, scholars have established, the older works which eventually became the Hebrew Scriptures were revised to reflect a monotheistic belief system among the Israelites far earlier than was actually practiced. Pabilshag was a god whose worship is attested from the Early Dynastic Period onwards. A passage like this reflects the early beliefs of the Canaanites and Israelites in polytheism or, more accurately, henotheism (the belief in many gods with a focus on a single supreme deity). Rick's spiritual apathy is often represented in the depictions of these powerful beings and the devotion they inspire. [61] A number of scholars have also drawn the conclusion that infant sacrifice, whether to the underworld deity Molech or to Yahweh himself, was a part of Israelite/Judahite religion until the reforms of King Josiah in the late 7th century BCE. [12] During the Second Temple Period (c.515 BCE-70 CE) Judaism was revised, the Torah canonized, and a new understanding of the divine established which today is known as monotheism the belief in a single deity. Later on, An's leadership role was either shared or taken over by other gods. Recently, Rick vanquished one of an implied multitude of Zeuses over some misguided paternity issues. Although the Bible, and specifically the Book of Exodus, presents Yahweh as the god of the Israelites, there are many passages which make clear that this deity was also worshipped by other peoples in Canaan. Updates? The name Yahweh (yah-WEH) occurs more than 6,800 times in the Old Testament. He has taught history, writing, literature, and philosophy at the college level. In this new age, the Israelites in Canaan sought to distance themselves from their neighbors in order to consolidate political and military strength and so elevated Yahweh above El as the supreme being and claimed him as their own. The top 4 are: babylonians, mesopotamia, uruk and assyria. In Isaiah 54:16, Yahweh is explicitly mentioned as the creator of both the copperworker and his workSuch an involvement of Yahweh is never mentioned elsewhere for other crafts or human activities. Ea and Yah were the same name, representing the same god, and Yah, in turn, was the same god as Yahweh. "God said to Moses, 'I am who I am.' And he said, 'Say this to the people of Israel: "I am has sent me to you."' The personal name of God was probably known long before the time of Moses. Yahweh is the name of the state god of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and, later, the Kingdom of Judah. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. [70] The early supporters of this faction are widely regarded as being monolatrists rather than true monotheists;[71] they did not believe Yahweh was the only god in existence, but instead believed he was the only god the people of Israel should worship. Although Amzallag's theory has been challenged, it has not been refuted. Your enemies shall come fawning to you, Lamashtu was a goddess with the "head of a lion, the teeth of a donkey, naked breasts, a hairy body, hands stained (with blood? Ereshkigal, Ninazu, Ningishzida, Tishpak; Bamu ("venomous snake") was a mythical horned snake who played an apotropaic role in Mesopotamian religion. According to some scholars, Yahweh was transformed into the Supreme Being by the ancient Israelites during the Iron Age c. 1200-930 BCE. [6] In later centuries, El and Yahweh became conflated and El-linked epithets such as El Shaddai came to be applied to Yahweh alone,[7] and other gods and goddesses such as Baal and Asherah were absorbed into Yahwist religion. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Thus, the tribe of Levi, to which Moses belonged, probably knew the name Yahweh, which originally may have been (in its short form Yo, Yah, or Yahu) a religious invocation of no precise meaning evoked by the mysterious and awesome splendour of the manifestation of the holy. 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. 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 In 1844, the ruins of the ancient city of Soleb in Nubia were excavated by the archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius who documented the site in detail but did not excavate. Nanshe was a goddess associated with the state of Lagash, Ninazu was a god regarded as either the son of. Web. Thanks in advanced for any information on the origins of this specific sky wizards name :), New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. [29] This ties together various points of data, such as the absence of Yahweh from Canaan, his links with Edom and Midian in the biblical stories, and the Kenite or Midianite ties of Moses,[28] but its major weaknesses are that the majority of Israelites were firmly rooted in Palestine, while the historical role of Moses is highly problematic. Shalash was the wife of the Syrian god Dagan. 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. Nin-MAR.KI (reading uncertain) was the daughter of Nanshe. Uumgallu ("prime venomous snake") was an apotropaic snake monster similar to bamu. In 1907, James Henry Breasted arrived and photographed the site but, again, engaged in no excavation. [41], Iron II saw the emergence of nation-states in the Southern Levant including Israel, Judah, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom and Phoenicia. 69, [Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, Cambridge University Press], 1979, pp. 40:3), and in another part of this book, Yahweh is even explicitly mentioned as being a smelter (Ezek. Yahweh is the name of the state god of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and, later, the Kingdom of Judah. While the great gods of the pantheon were worshipped by priests at . Yahweh[a] was an ancient Levantine deity that became the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. Nabarbi ("she of Nawar") was Hurrian goddess possibly analogous to Belet Nagar. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. 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. 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).