There are no names of God
There are no names of God
(Never mind what google turns up)
“The Names of God” is a sign-use construction of a very clever, cunning, even malevolent sort, from a Christian point of view. What the Bible “God” stands for, as the single term translating the various Old Testament tokens (“Elohim”, “YHWH,” “YHWH El Elyon”) is reformulated after the New Testament to “God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost”; one being, three persons. The alternate pre-Christian tokens are not different “Names of God”, as if the incarnation hadn’t transformed, by bringing together, the two major historical strands in the Pentateuch. These are 1. the Sumerian, Elohim tradition of Genesis 1, far older than the Hebrew Bible; and 2. the Semitic, YHWH tradition of Genesis 2. The unique designation “YHWH El Elyon” (“God Most High”) occurs at Genesis 14.18-20, and can be accepted by Christians as identical with (what) “God the Father” (communicates), since Hebrews 6.20f explicitly links the Melchizedek Priests of ancient (Jeru-) Salem, who accepted Abram/Abraham’s tithe (offering, sacrifice), with Jesus Christ’s Priesthood. Again, in John 8.58, Jesus asserts his identity with the “I AM” worshipped by Abraham’s descendants, the Jews. Whereupon they commenced stoning him.
One understands why. He was hijacking the spiritual side of their religion, leaving them only faithfulness to external observances, law and sacrifice, to perpetuate tribal origins.
In the New Testament, Jersus is quoted as repeatedly sets himself off, as relating to (what he called) “The Father”, from the god known only to descendants of Jacob (Israel) through Abraham.
(Never mind what google turns up)
“The Names of God” is a sign-use construction of a very clever, cunning, even malevolent sort, from a Christian point of view. What the Bible “God” stands for, as the single term translating the various Old Testament tokens (“Elohim”, “YHWH,” “YHWH El Elyon”) is reformulated after the New Testament to “God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost”; one being, three persons. The alternate pre-Christian tokens are not different “Names of God”, as if the incarnation hadn’t transformed, by bringing together, the two major historical strands in the Pentateuch. These are 1. the Sumerian, Elohim tradition of Genesis 1, far older than the Hebrew Bible; and 2. the Semitic, YHWH tradition of Genesis 2. The unique designation “YHWH El Elyon” (“God Most High”) occurs at Genesis 14.18-20, and can be accepted by Christians as identical with (what) “God the Father” (communicates), since Hebrews 6.20f explicitly links the Melchizedek Priests of ancient (Jeru-) Salem, who accepted Abram/Abraham’s tithe (offering, sacrifice), with Jesus Christ’s Priesthood. Again, in John 8.58, Jesus asserts his identity with the “I AM” worshipped by Abraham’s descendants, the Jews. Whereupon they commenced stoning him.
One understands why. He was hijacking the spiritual side of their religion, leaving them only faithfulness to external observances, law and sacrifice, to perpetuate tribal origins.
In the New Testament, Jersus is quoted as repeatedly sets himself off, as relating to (what he called) “The Father”, from the god known only to descendants of Jacob (Israel) through Abraham.
posted by Sid Thomas | 12:01 AM
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