uh-oh, it's October again
Seek the Truth,
Come whence it may,
Cost what it will.
Not my own idea, but the challenge of the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia that I attended part-Time every semester at my bishop's guidance, to round out my full-Time theology studies at the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
The search, to Seek, has been and is a central joy of my life in this retirement Time, a hobby, an avocation, continuing my priestly vocation, a favorite past-time that is constantly opening a new door, and odd streets going in other directions.
Cost what it will - - where Faith is acceding to doctrine and dogma that are the result of ancient people's thinking - - beginning in seminary days and accelerating over my decades of life, the search has been ruinously costly to the simple and satisfying naivete of my Faith: this is no surprise revelation, I've said it here often.
As to Coming whence it may, the search carries me here and there, most often into the far reaches of the Universe where seeing a personal God back here for us specks on a speck is more challenging than imaging a Pantokrator Generale; but also, and currently, down an avenue that I hadn't bothered with that much:
which is Prof Bart Ehrman's current blogposts about the Name of God, and farther back into Israel's prehistory, a field extensively explored by scholars, when Israel's predecessor generations were just one of many Palestinian tribes, nations, peoples; all polytheistic, with many Gods, El Elyon, God Most High at the top with his companion Asherah, with YHWH, Baal, and various others of their Sons among the well-inhabited heavenly place.
This seems to have become a rambling blogpost. Remember that in my Bible Study and Sunday School classes, no topics were off the table. Just so, if a topic offends a reader, that reader is invited to read the Sunday Funnies, which also can be found online.
Scholars may say there seems to have been no Time in human history when humans did not have gods - - out of fear, hope, explanations of life, death, nature, the world around them, beneath them, above them.
In Time (some scholars have said that it was late, the appearance of the P and J writers upon Israel's return from Exile, in response to what they found among Judeans who had remained behind and assimilated with Palestinian culture), Israel's priestly caste reworked Israel's heilsgeschichte to write all other Gods out of the stories in favor of One God, YHWH, God of Israel exclusively. The first creation story, Genesis One, may bear this out, and it's not a new thought by any means.
The essence is that there was a Time in Palestinian/Israel theologies, when Elyon, or Elyom, or El Elyon, God Most High, reigned, with his partner Asherah - - anthropological likenesses of deity imaged by humans in the only terms that the humans could fathom: human likeness, human-like characteristics, relationships, and passions.
In holy stories, including remnant stories found in the Hebrew Bible, Elyon separated the nations of Earth, and assigned nations to various of his Sons, as their charge, assigning Israel to his Son YHWH. Remnants of this theology may be perceived at least in Deuteronomy 32, Psalm 82, and Psalm 89 (snippets copy and pasted below, scroll down).
Over Time, Israel came to regard Elyon and YHWH as one and the same God. Asherah being the wife of YHWH.
Over more Time, Asherah was written out of the picture and separated as an evil god or goddess, and YHWH was alone and as Elyon, God Most High - - Israel thus having the most powerful, and eventually one and only true God, all other (Palestinian) gods being false gods.
? Is coming across these things in my search shocking? No, enjoyable to explore, and just further into it.
Humans have perceived Gods, and developed their characteristics, as long as humans have existed as creatures capable of and susceptible to self-perception and thinking outside ourselves. Schleiermacher wrote that in every human there is a sense of the infinite: I have it as surely as any other man, and I like to explore it, to Seek. There's Someone or Something "out there," Who/That, so far, is beyond human knowing. Asking questions and wandering into places where others have gone before (this is not Star Trek), I'm trying to get a peek, and my Seeking has a sense of getting closer and closer, circling my target (which is Truth) - - hopefully without being struck down, but that too if it's part of the Cost.
Wednesday, 7 October, a hurricane developing in the Gulf of Mexico, and scientifically tracked to head our way as the week progresses. We have our plan.
RSF&PTL
T91
PS - - if being struck down because of my search is part of the Cost of Seeking the Truth, that demolishes any theology of Grace.
Deuteronomy 32:8–9 may preserve an early stage in which Elyon (God Most High) assigns nations to divine beings and YHWH receives Israel.
Would it therefore be reasonable, in broad terms, to imagine an early stage in which El was the supreme deity, Asherah was his consort, and Yahweh was one member of the divine council particularly associated with Israel?
Deuteronomy 32:7-13
7 Remember the days of old,
consider the years of many generations;
ask your father, and he will show you;
your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High (Elyon) 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.
9 For YHWH’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted heritage.
10 “He found him in a desert land,
and in the howling waste of the wilderness;
he encircled him, he cared for him,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 Like an eagle that stirs up its nest,
that flutters over its young,
spreading out its wings, catching them,
bearing them on its pinions,
12 YHWH alone did lead him,
and there was no foreign god (el) with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth,
and he ate the produce of the field;
and he made him suck honey out of the rock,
and oil out of the flinty rock.
Psalm 82
82 God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked?Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I say, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you;
7 nevertheless, you shall die like men,
and fall like any prince.”[a]
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for to thee belong all the nations!
Psalm 89 (various English translations)
6 (7) For who in the heavens can be compared unto Hashem (YHWH)? Who among the bnei elim (Sons of Elyom) can be likened unto Hashem (YHWH)?
6 For who in the sky, Compareth himself to Jehovah (YHWH)? Is like to Jehovah (YHWH) among sons of The Mighty (Elyon)?
6 For who in the heavens can be compared to YHWH among the sons of Elyom?