Historians Discover Diety Of The Abrahamic Religions Had A Wife

http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/torahaccuracy/

SUCCESS OF THE SYSTEM

Maintaining the accuracy of any document as ancient and as large as the Torah is very challenging even under the best of circumstances.

But consider that throughout history, Jewish communities were subject to widespread persecutions and exile. Over the last 2,000 years, Jews have been spread to the four corners of the world, from Yemen to Poland, from Australia to Alaska.

Other historical factors make the accurate transmission of the Torah all the more difficult. For example, the destruction of the Temple 1,900 years ago saw the dissolution of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish central authority which traditionally would unify the Jewish people in case of any disagreements.

Let’s investigate the facts as we have them today. If we collect the oldest Torah scrolls and compare them, we can see if any garbling exists, and if so, how much.

How many letters are there in the Torah? 304,805 letters (or approximately 79,000 words).

If you were to guess, how many letters of these 304,805 do you think are in question? (Most people guess anywhere from 25 to 1,000 letters.)

The fact is, that after all the trials and tribulations, communal dislocations and persecutions, only the Yemenite Torah scrolls contain any difference from the rest of world Jewry. For hundreds of years, the Yemenite community was not part of the global checking system, and a total of nine letter-differences are found in their scrolls.

These are all spelling differences. In no case do they change the meaning of the word. For example, how would you spell the word “color?” In America, it’s spelled C-O-L-O-R. But in England, it’s spelled with a “u,” C-O-L-O-U-R.

Such is the nature of the few spelling differences between Torah scrolls today. The results over thousands of years are remarkable!

Dear TexasGuy: Well said, and so true. FR invite on its way.

G-d bless, Enoch.

Not necessarily, remember that she's likely just his rib...

Could be. Either way, I wonder if God was good in bed? Maybe she left b/c he wasn't "all that". LOL

If you really want to be naughty: was He circumcised?

I wonder if God was good in bed?

He could make her scream "oh you!" anytime... lol

Now that could be a handy trick.

Hmmmm....with a hot lover that sounds interesting.

It's not a matter of just saying "idolatrous or not, they had goddess figurines." because that's the definition of idolatry in Judaism! You can't say "thief or not, he stole my stuff!" because when you say "he stole my stuff" you are saying "he is a thief." Likewise, when you say "they had goddess figurines" you are making the "or not" part of your sentence meaningless. I mean, if I were to say that "murderer or not, John Wayne Gacy Jr. killed people" it would seem like a nonsensical phrase because, well, it is.

This discovery does not mean that the Jews were not monotheists, but that the monotheists were a minority - a claim made in 1 Kings 19:13-18 (from the New American Standard Bible):

And behold a voice came to him and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

Then he said, "I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."

The Lord said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you have arrived, you shall anoint Hazael king of Aram; and Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint king over Israel; and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall come about the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall put to death. Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him."

7000 in all of Israel - not a very big number. You know why Elijah was hiding in the desert? Because he accused the king of being idolatrous and his pagan, who did like worshiping her many gods, wanted him killed and Elijah knew that the Jezebel had ordered the deaths of many prophets. 2 Kings details the Law being rediscovered in 22 and 23, Josiah reforms religion to conform to the Law, and by 23:28 there is a new king who goes back to the old ways.

Sorry, this is not shocking news to people who know their Bible. My professors have said for years that for most of their history the Israelites were not monotheists and guess where their proof for that came from - the Bible.

Idolatry or not, all this proves is that maybe the Bible is right when it says that even God's elect committed idolatry.

Why can't God have a wife?

She's there. She doesn't work outside the Heaven.

She still exists, but like all women, she's under appreciated and does a thankless job with no recognition. Only men feel the NEED to have constant recognition, praise and appreciation for their work.

Melchizedek is the preincarinte appearance of Jesus Christ. See the Book of Joshua before they cross the Jordan among others. You are actually looking for Jesus Christ.

It's a sad state of affairs when you can disprove this professors thesis by copying-and-pasting the search results from BibleGateway. If I were to try a thesis like this, I'm pretty sure my professors would fail me for not actually knowing the material, but apparently you do this at a secular school and you get a three-part documentary. Maybe I'm old fashioned for thinking that a supposed expert should actually be an authority on the subject.

What's even better is that according to what Texasguy01 wrote:

It is a pagan deity adopted by some Israelites and worship was forbidden to anyone but Yahweh under Mosaic Law.

So only Yahweh was allowed to worship this idol! I never knew that god (or God as the case may be) worshipped Idols... so who/what is the god of a god?

That's not the whole truth TexasGuy.

Worship of Ashtarte did become outlawed in Israel, but that wasn't always the case. There is ample evidence showing the worship of Astarte in temples to YHWH having been quite popular. Many Ashtarte holy relics have been unearthed in multiple temples to Jehovah.

There is also strong evidence showing that the practice became controversial among monarhic faction of the Semitic community.

The truth of the matter is that kind of stuff happened all the time within Pagan religions. Greece, Rome, Babylon, Sumeria... the story doesn't change much.

To be perfectly honest, the ancient history of Judaism looks rather identical to most every other now dead religions of those days.

What is different is that they managed to eventually reduce the number of their deities down to one, but saying that yours in the only true god isn't the same thing as saying the others weren't recognized jewish deities as well.

There's also plenty of evidence of worship of Ba'al in jewish temples; a practice that went on for quite some time.

Differences of opinion about the bible and the Abrahamic religions today are similarly completely common as well as vastly different interpretations regarding the true history and true meaning of the bible.

The bible is no more immune to revisionism than any of it's believers are.

These days we've got Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Pentecostals, Southern Pentecostals, United Pentecostals, Baptists, Southern Baptists, Calvinists, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Unitarians, Universalist Unitarians, Methodists, Church of Christ, Church of England, Voodoo (yes, they invoke Jehovah too) not to mention an entire barrage of sects and offshoots from those groups who also have their own beliefs about what the bible actual says or means to say.

If you think the Bible is bulletproof against being edited... check out the host of differences between the dead sea scrolls, the Catholic bible, the King James Bible and the Torah... woof.

At the end of the day, you can quote the bible til you're blue in the face and it won't change the fact that there is strong evidence that jews who worshipped YWHW also worshiped other deities simultaneously. Your side one, but if it hadn't... would you instinctively somehow know Jehovah was the one true God if even the bible said differently?

If you think you would, ask a Mormon about South America sometime.

Of course there are idols unearthed in these temples, just a very simple of the reading of the old testament would tell you that....it would also show you the results of it over and over again.

you can quote the bible til you're blue in the face and it won't change the fact that there is strong evidence that jews who worshipped YWHW also worshiped other deities simultaneously.

That's what his evidence says, if you read it.

Yes there is....it says so in the Bible its self so this so called discovery is nothing more than repeating what is all ready known.

On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.

Exodus 12:12

So..

If two gods are in a forest, but one loses his followers - does he exist?

It depends on the type of forest.

It's a quantum forest.

It does make me sad when I see all of these long academic explanations and not seeing a personnel touch from God in peoples lives. To me it was all of the same and dead until you get that personal encounter. I hope you all will have one someday.

Dear KSilvers: Malchezidek refers to Enoch who came to teach Moses the law. See The Kabbalah. Reference to Shadai (El Shadai - Eloheem Shadai (Mountain G-d - Shadu) is found prior to Judaism.

Hell, or Gehennah is not part of Judaism. Olam Ha Bah (World to Come) is. As Rabbi Yochanan Ben-Zakkai wrote in Pirke Avoth (Sayings of the Fathers). "The Righteous Among all Nations Shall Have A Share in the World To Come".

Thanks for bringing forth many good points here. A FR invite is one its way to you.

G-d bless, Enoch.

It does make me sad when I see all of these long academic explanations and not seeing a personnel touch from God in peoples lives. To me it was all of the same and dead until you get that personal encounter. I hope you all will have one someday.

Texas, it makes me feel so sad knowing you will burn in hell for not believing what I believe. I truly want to bring you into the true light, but you're just too blind to see the truth that I know, that only my god can bring to you.

I will pray every day that you can find the true faith that I know. We could have a debate to prove who's right, if you'd like. We could have our gods as our referees. Or, if neither of our gods show up, we'll have people who are trained in debate moderation ... how's that?

No kidding. I remember that name and I haven't read the bible to any extent in quite awhile.

Dear Friend KSilvers: Things do indeed change. We do what we can with what we have to make sense of things. The best among us us what we have to make things better as well.

Your wish to all for eternal love and blessings is at the very foundation of what religion is here to do.

G-d bless and keep you and yours. Enoch.

No, rather it proves that these "historians" are open-minded while some "others" are pretty closed to any ideas, or facts that would prove them wrong.

Simply proves that these "historians" haven't studied the Bible.

More historians have studied the Bible than Christians that claim to live by it.

Just a very simple reading of the old testament by a 5th grader and he could tell you to expect to find these idols....but it goes on to show the results of the worship of them also.

The results of their worshiping them were, in many cases, torture and extermination by Christians - just as people of all faiths have tortured and exterminated those who didn't buy into their beliefs.

We are talking Israelites....the results of their worshiping them was slavery, punishment from God.

God didn't punish them any more than he started the Crusades or the Inquisition. The monotheists who were trying to extinguish the old religions so they could have the power were responsible for the atrocities done to the Israelites.

yadayadayada..read scriptures, they were warned and it happened even if you refuse to recognize it.

I choose historical fact over myths, as you know. Do you really think your God is petty enough to suffer from the human emotion of vanity, anyway? He wouldn't be much of a supreme being if that were the case.

But then you turn around and ignore the FACTS when they agree with scripture.

No, when the facts agree with scripture, I don't ignore them. When they disagree with scripture, though, I pick the facts over the scripture. What fact am I ignoring because it agrees with scripture?

The fact that if you read scripture you would expect to find these idols in the ruins, plain and simple. All the other claims made about them are conjecture and not facts.

Scripture isn't fact. That's what you don't seem to understand. There are idols all over the world - some very beautiful, creative ones too. The fact that they're generally found in ruins is because their civilizations collapsed, as all civilizations eventually do.

Which claims do you say are conjecture? The ones actually derived from scientific research as opposed to stories some dudes wrote down centuries ago, with absolutely no scientific research behind them? BTW - hearing voices isn't a sign of angels, it's a sign of mental illness.

But when facts agree with scripture....the conjecture that because they find these idols in the Hebrew ruins that the Hebrews though God had a wife...when one reads scripture we find that down through the years the Hebrews at one time or another turned from God to idols, so it would stand to reason that there would be idols found in the ruins, nothing more nothing less.

You're ignoring the textual references mentioned in the seeded article. The idols found in the ruins simply support the textual references. What is so disturbing to you at the thought that God may have had a wife? Of course it's still conjecture, although tangible evidence is always more compelling than scripture.

Your pronouns do not seem to indicate gender neutrality?

Ohh, wow, what if God had a gender neutral relationship, or even a same gender relationship!

CuriousG WHAT?!?! GOD's GAY??? /sarc & tongue in cheek

Don't know about gay, but Carolyn-1144975 seems to think (s)he is asexual. So, (s)he could go either way I guess. ;~)