Yahweh was the national God of the kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah, with origins in the Canaanite religion. In the oldest biblical literature he is a warrior deity who leads the heavenly army against Israel’s enemies.
From the 9th into the 6th centuries BCE the Yahwistic religion separated itself from its Canaanite heritage and Yahweh became the main God of the of Israel and Judah. Over time the royal court and Temple in Jerusalem promoted Yahweh as the God of the entire cosmos. By the end of the Babylonian captivity (6th century BCE), the very existence of foreign gods was denied, and Yahweh was proclaimed as the creator of the cosmos and the one true God of all the world. During the Second Temple period, speaking the name of Yahweh in public became regarded as taboo. Jews began to substitute the divine name with the word adonai (אֲדֹנָי), meaning “Lord.”
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.” ― Albert Einstein. I recall listening to a fella who had suffered more than a few up close and personal rock-bottoms. He said that these days all he wanted “was to step out easy.” That struck me as a fine metaphor for […]
God’s Name is Peace Read More »
“The name of God is mercy,” so says the current Pope, who is seriously big on the mercy thing. Just in case you are wondering, I am a self-confessed, practicing Catholic. Although, given my various misfit mystic musings on this blog and elsewhere, there would be more than a few among my Catholic brethren who
The Name of God Is Mercy Read More »
I am utterly spent and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart. (Ps 38:8). This does not sound like the sort of spiritual blessing that anyone would put their hand up for. When we think of the spiritual life there an innate desire for comfort and ease, the sort of heavenly places
Don’t Leave Before The Miracle Happens Read More »
If, like me, you regularly howl at the moon, you might just be suffering from a severe case of what the Hebrews called hard-heartedness. In my last post I identified the emphasis that Aristotle, the father of western philosophy, placed on the heart, as the “seat of the soul and the source of reason”. When
Spiritual Heart Surgery For Moon Howlers Read More »