The Nazarene Way of Essenic Studies
~ The Genesis of "God" ~

 

YHWH? Elohim? Why do most of us refer to "Him" as "God"?


Genesis 30:11

“And LH said, ‘Fortunate!’ and she called his name GD.”

Remember! Biblical Hebrew had no vowels or spaces; the choices in current translations were added c. 600-700 CE; valid options are in [brackets]. This is excerpted from an article at Wikipedia (link below):

“GD was the name of the pan-Semitic god of fortune, and is attested in ancient records of Aram and Arabia. GD is also mentioned by the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 65:11 - some translations simply call him ‘the god of Fortune,’ as having been worshipped by a number of Hebrews during the Babylonian captivity. GD apparently differed from the god of destiny, who was known as MN. The root verb in GD means cut or divide, and from this comes the idea of fate being meted out.

“It is possible that the son of Jacob named GD is named after GD, although the text presents a different reason, the (ketub) quotation of Zilpa (GD's mother) giving the reason of GD's name could be understood that way.

“How widespread the cult of GD, the deity, was in Canaanite times may be inferred from the names BLGD, a city at the foot of Mount Hermon, and MGDL-GD, in the territory of Judah. Compare also the proper names Gaddi [or Godda] and Gaddiel  [or Godda-El] in the tribes of Manasseh [or Em-Nasa] and Zebulun [or Ish-Ab-El-An] (Numbers 13:10, 11). At the same time it must not be supposed that GD was always regarded as an independent deity. The name was doubtless originally an appellative, meaning the power that allots. Hence any of the greater gods supposed to favour men might be thought of as the giver of good fortune and be worshiped under that title; it is possible that Jupiter, the planet, may have been the GD thus honoured - among the Arabs the planet Jupiter was called the greater Fortune (Venus was styled the lesser Fortune).

See article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gad_(deity)


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