Christ Conspiracy_ The Greatest Story Ever Sold - Acharya S [57]
Elohim
The plural term Elohim appears over 2500 times in the Old Testament but is falsely translated in most versions. This fact of plurality explains why in Genesis "Gods" said, "Let us make man in our image." As stated, Elohim refers to both "gods" and "goddesses," and its singular form, El, served as a prefix or suffix to names of gods, people and places, whence Emmanu-El, Gabri-El, Beth-El, etc. Even "Satan" was one of the Elohim, as Walker relates:
In the original wording, Satan was one of the bene ha-elohirn, sons of "the gods"; but Bible translators always singularized the plurals to conceal the facts that the biblical Jews worshipped a pantheon of multiple gods.'
Of the Elohim, Taylor says:
The Jewish Elohirn were the decans of the Egyptians; the same as the genii of the months and planets among the Persians and Chaldeans; and Jao, or Yahouh, considered merely as one of the beings generically called Elohim or Alehim, appears to have been only a national or topical deity.?
The Elohim were in reality a number of "El" gods, such as El Elyon, the "God Most High"; El Sabaoth, the "God of the Heavenly Hosts"; El Chay, the "Living God"; El Neqamah, the "God of Vengeance"; El Ma'al, the "God Above"; and El Shaddai, the "Almighty God." El Shaddai was the name of the god of Abraham, or the "God of the fathers," who was replaced by Yahweh in the 6th chapter of Exodus:
And God spake unto Moses and said unto him, I am Yahweh: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of El Shaddai, but by my name Yahweh I was not known unto them.8
Charles Potter relates that El Shaddai was later demonized in Psalms 106:37, condemned as one of the "devils"-the Canaanite Shedim, to whom the Israelites sacrificed their sons and daughters. Psalms 106, in fact, provides a concise chronicle of how the "chosen people" "whored after" other gods, i.e., were polytheistic.
In a somewhat common development of the human mind, which allows for polytheism, pantheism, monotheism and atheism at once, the Elohim became perceived as one "EL." The word El also represented a deity both male and female, but the later Jews generally interpreted it exclusively as male. El was the sun or "day star," as well as the planet Saturn, which at one point was considered the "central and everlasting sun" of the night sky. El/Saturn's worship is reflected in the fact that the Jews still consider Saturday as the Sabbath or "God's Day." Furthermore, El is Elias, "the sun god Helios to whom Jesus called from the cross. .."9 Since El is the sun, the many Elohim of the Bible also represent the stars.
The Elohim were not only Phoenician and Canaanite gods but as "Ali" were originally Egyptian. The Ali were considered the "associated gods" or "members, i.e. the lips, the limbs, the joints, the hands, etc., of Atum, or Amen, the son of Ptah."IO Therefore, as in the Indian system, we have a sort of polytheistic monotheism in the Elohim. The "son of Ptah" is also called Iao/Iau/Iahu/Iu, the same as Yahweh. Therefore, the two accounts of Genesis, the Elohist and Jahwist, may be understood as reflecting the older Egyptian religion: "Thus the Elohim are represented in the first creation of man by the maker, Ptah, and in the second by lu, the son of Ptah; and Iu, the son of Ptah, is lahu-Elohim [the biblical LORD God], who becomes the creator of the second Adam [Atum] in the second chapter of the Hebrew Genesis.""
Baalim and Adonai
The god "Baal" and gods "Baalim" are mentioned dozens of times in the Old Testament, as the Israelites are frequently castigated or murdered by "their own" priests for "going after Baal." Like the Elohim, the plural Baalim or Baals were often represented by the singular "Baal," or "Ba'al,"