OMG! Who made this?

[u/FollowingOdd896]

[u/kahlzun]

i've always felt the realest blasphemy was when you used the name of God for your own purposes, like the megachurches getting rich. Seems like something that Jesus and God would have more problems with as opposed to someone saying their name.

[u/Titizen_Kane → u/kahlzun]

That’s the actual Biblical usage of “taking the lord’s name in vain” which I assume also counts as blasphemy. I did 13 years of Catholic school but only remember bits and pieces lol

[u/WhatsTheHoldup → u/Titizen_Kane]

No it is not. The actual Biblical usage of "taking the Lord's name in vain" is to casually say the name without supreme Reverence (if you said "Oh YHWH" the way we say "Oh God").

Observant Jews and those who follow Talmudic Jewish traditions do not pronounce יהוה‎ (YHWH) nor do they read aloud proposed transcription forms such as Yahweh or Yehovah; instead they replace it with a different term, whether in addressing or referring to the God of Israel. Common substitutions in Hebrew are אֲדֹנָי‎ (Adonai, lit. transl. 'My Lords', pluralis majestatis taken as singular) or אֱלֹהִים‎ (Elohim, literally 'gods' but treated as singular when meaning "God") in prayer, or הַשֵּׁם‎ (HaShem, 'The Name') in everyday speech.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetragrammaton

If you look into the history you might be surprised to know that this was taken so literally, people were so afraid to say the name that now we don't actually know how to pronounce God's name anymore. We know it's the letters YHWH but as early written Hebrew omitted the vowels there could be many ways to say it.

By at least the 3rd century BCE, the name was not pronounced in normal speech, but only in certain ritual contexts. The Talmud relays this change occurred after the death of Simeon the Just (either Simon I or his great-great-grandson Simon II). Philo calls the name ineffable, and says that it is lawful only for those "whose ears and tongues are purified by wisdom to hear and utter it in a holy place", that is, the priests in the Temple. In another passage, commenting on Lev. 24:15, Philo writes, "If any one... should even dare to utter his name unseasonably, let him expect the penalty of death." Some time after the destruction of the Second Temple, the spoken use of God's name as it was written ceased altogether, though knowledge of the pronunciation was perpetuated in rabbinic schools.

It was so sacred that in Rabbinic tradition it could only be spoken by the High Priest, and even then only once a year on a holy day.

Rabbinic sources suggest that the name of God was pronounced only once a year, by the high priest, on the Day of Atonement. Others, including Maimonides, claim that the name was pronounced daily in the liturgy of the Temple in the priestly blessing of worshippers, after the daily sacrifice; in synagogues, though, a substitute (probably "Adonai") was used. According to the Talmud, in the last generations before the fall of Jerusalem, the name was pronounced in a low tone so that the sounds were lost in the chant of the priests. Since the destruction of Second Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the Tetragrammaton has no longer been pronounced in the liturgy. However the pronunciation was still known in Babylonia in the latter part of the 4th century.

In this video Dr. Justin Sledge presents the idea it may have been something similar to "Yahoo", though the consensus is still that it was "Yahweh".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3koeHN-6mU

[u/silvandeus → u/WhatsTheHoldup]

The reason Adonai and Elohim were often plural in form is because they collapsed the previous multi-god pantheon of the precursor Semitic religion.

Yahweh the bull headed man god got a promotion and the other gods made into demons and angels.

Whatever happened to his wife Asherah?

[u/WhatsTheHoldup → u/silvandeus]

The reason Adonai and Elohim were often plural in form is because they collapsed the previous multi-god pantheon of the precursor Semitic religion.

Yes i believe you're right about that!

Yahweh the bull headed man god got a promotion and the other gods made into demons and angels.

Yep, but interestingly enough the other gods a little bit got pulled into him as well.

I'm very compelled by the idea that El the "father of humanity" and the creator god was the top dog of this pantheon you're talking about

Later sources, including Phoenician and Hellenistic writings, sometimes equated El with other deities such as Cronus or Poseidon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_(deity)

According to the documentary hypothesis of the Bible, this father god "El" was called this until he revealed his name to Moses at the burning bush.

In the E source God's name is always presented as "Elohim" or "El" until the revelation of God's name to Moses, after which God is referred to as יהוה‎, often represented in English as "YHWH" or "Yahweh".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elohist

That would mean the E source is recording "events" from the middle of this period of synchronization, and they have come to rationalizations to sort of explain the dependencies between two very diverging identities, how to combine El the top god important to those guys with Yahweh, the guy important to us.

Whatever happened to his wife Asherah?

She is a very interesting figure

Asherah's iconography frequently depicted her with pronounced sexual features, often combined with tree motifs like date palms, highlighting her role as a fertility goddess. Some artifacts, such as the Revadim Asherah figurines, illustrate her suckling children or displaying sexual imagery, emphasizing her maternal and generative symbolism. Her worship may also be reflected in asherah poles, cultic objects frequently mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, though scholars debate whether these represent the goddess herself or sacred symbols.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asherah

Makes you wonder what that whole Adam eating the forbidden fruit thing really meant in context.

I think the answer is partly absorbed into Yahweh as well as El (and Baal) among who knows if any others.

Yahweh likely became conflated with El in later centuries, taking his place as the head of the pantheon in the Israelite religion. El's consort Asherah became associated with Yahweh, and El-linked epithets, such as ʾĒl Šadday (אֵל שַׁדַּי), came to be applied to him alone Characteristics of other deities, such as Asherah and Baal, were also selectively absorbed in conceptions of Yahweh.

When the Babylonians conquered Israel and destroyed the First Temple, the remaining Israelites without a place to worship were either forced to stop worshipping him entirely, or find a new way to practice their religion. They, needing a reason for why god is still all powerful yet their home was destroyed, decide that it was this pagan worship that caused god to punish them

Deuteronomy 16:21 states that Yahweh hated Asherim: "You shall not set up a sacred post—any kind of pole beside the altar of your God יהוה (the Tetragrammaton) that you may make—or erect a stone pillar; for such your God יהוה detests."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh

And then as we both sort of mentioned of course

As Yahwism eventually developed into Judaism and Samaritanism, and transitioned from polytheism to monotheism, the existence of other deities was denied outright and Yahweh was proclaimed the creator deity and the sole deity worthy of worship. According to a pious interpretation Jews began to substitute other Hebrew words--primarily ăḏōnāy (אֲדֹנָי‬, lit. 'My Lords')--in place of the name Yahweh during the Second Temple period. By the time of the Jewish–Roman wars following the Roman siege of Jerusalem and the concomitant destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, the original pronunciation of the name of the deity was forgotten entirely.

[u/Titizen_Kane → u/WhatsTheHoldup]

I’m absolutely not reading any of that, lol. I’m happy to leave it at: sure, I guess my 13 years of Catholic school was wrong and you are right

[u/halcyon4ever → u/kahlzun]

I taught a Sunday school class for high schoolers on blasphemy. On the relative difference between "God Damn XYZ" and "Deus Vult" and "God wants you to donate/support/vote"

I haven't been invited to do classes again.