Posted by Baron Greenback [12.255.181.7 - 12-255-181-7.client.attbi.com] on 18 September 2002 at 00.35.09 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: hahaha posted by me on 17 September 2002 at 23.17.42 ZuluTime:

The modern christian god, which is the one I assume you're reffering to, is actually fairly interesting. While I'm not going to claim to know everything there is to know about the deity, I'll at least posit some of what I do know. Whether this makes me an "arrogant cyber-atheist" or "an asshole", is up to interpretation.

Most biblical researchers will agree that the Christian religion has at least two parentages, that of the Ugaritic, Semetic, and Hebrew traditions (Jewish, roughly), and that of the Greco-Roman traditions. Christianity, at the very least, admits this. There are speculations, heavily supported ones in fact, that also link to several assyrian, babylonian, egyptian, and hindu deities, but just so I'm "considering other viewpoints", I'll omit all of these but the babylonian influence, which is often quoted in the canonical tradition, and therefore "safe".

Anyway, as you've no doubt discerned for yourself, I feel the modern christian deity is best discussed by first examining it's parentage, so here goes.

Ugaratic:

Between 1927 and 1937, several examples of religious epic literature of Ugarit were found on the north Syrian coast by D.F.A. Schaefer. These documents gave credence and insight to the earliest pantheon of the religion in question. In this pantheon, El, the father of all the gods, had two wives, Asherah and Anath (although, the latter was attributed to being a sister/wife of baal instead in the canaanite tradition), and in some egyptian and canaanite texts, a third wife, Astarte is mentioned. They were eternally married, and Asherah produced seventy children. Among them are Yhvh, Baal (the original king of the gods before Yhvh's revolution, and the prototype enemy of yhvh), Mot (death; some theories that Mot became Mammon; Baal's enemy; the changing of seasons was sometimes attributed to the struggle between Baal and Mot for El's affections), Reshep (God of the underworld, equivelant to Hades or Nergal, also a companion of Anath), and several others. Eventually, Yhvh is supposed to have lead a revolt against Baal, and have claimed his throne. As time passes, the religion goes through a change similar to the change the Egyptians went through at the end of the age of the patriarchs. Yhvh and El are regarded as the same being, and Yhvh is married to Asherah. The other two female deities appear less and less frequently as years pass. Most of the deities that oppose yhvh are combined into an enemy of yhvh, reffered to in the current cannonical tradition as mammon and satan. There are also several beings that are not deities, most of which are covered in the now apocryphal book of enoch, in which there are angels that have fallen, half-angel giants known as nephalim, and various other equivelancies to beings equivalent to Loki, Heracles, or Persephone in other religions. These beings, in the popular culture, slowly become "Angels" and "Daemons" (or even "Demons"), and most, if not all, middle ground is lost; angels are no longer capable of the massive destruction, nor are those that fell from the firmament capable of kindness or attempting redemption. So, in the end, you have Elohim (or El, or Yhvh), the antithesis of Yhvh, angels, and demons.

Greco-Roman: While most of the bible's characters and backstories are from the Jewish tradition (with the Torah comprising it's first five books, and the next several books detailing it's history), most of the New Testament is hellenistic in nature. The bible makes a huge shift, from discussing miraculous events to discussing political heroes, morals, and ethics. This can be attributed most easily to the effects of the Roman conquest. The heroes in the bible's new testament are those that sympathise with religions conquered by rome. When one remembers the Bar Kochba revolution (in which Rome turned the largest temple in Jerusalem into a temple to Jupiter, and the locals fought back against the change), it is easier to understand why. Yeshuah is depicted as a miraculous being, but performs miracles of a more practical and less grand nature than the old testament, such as feeding masses with small amounts of food. Yeshuah is celebrated throughout the book for his political battla against they tyranny and oppression of Rome. This is important, largely, because it is here that the religion becomes it's most monotheistic. While the gentiles are sympathised with, and several Hellinistic concepts and morals are adopted in the face of the decadent Rome, Yeshuah preaches strict monotheism to his disciples, and goes so far as to prevent them from building temples. It is also here that the religion strays from being entirely miraculous and divine to fulfilling practical needs of the people, and where simple tithes and rituals begin to replace esoteric sacrifices and miracles.

Modern Christianity is a combination of Judiac and Hellenistic practices. This, of course, is speaking well before King James, and the various branches of protestantism.