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.”
It is entirely appropriate that the Christians who adopt an active pacifist life, model their commitment on the life of the God with skin on man from Galilee, Jesus. He is for Christians the quintessential pacifist par excellence. Difficulty arises, however, when one enters the vast and varied terrain of Hebrew scripture. It is there […]