H. Abdul Al-Dahir<\/span><\/p>\n It has often been asserted that the god of Israel, YHWH, was aniconic or imageless. However, recent discoveries, as the Hebrew altar at Beersheba and the Migdal Synagogue stone found in ancient Galilee, prove that YHWH was depicted as a serpent throughout ancient Israel (later known as Samaria) and Judea. The myths surrounding the Israelite snake god, YHWH, are found throughout the Bible. Below are references to these Biblical myths which must be understood before interpreting the images on the Beersheba altar and the Migdal Synagogue stone.<\/span><\/p>\n In order to understand the mindset of the ancient Hebrews, one must comprehend their universe which consisted of the macrocosmic heavens where dwelt the gods as constellations and the earthly microcosmic world which reflected the macrocosmic heavens and where dwelt the Hebrews. Astral worship was an ancient form of worship in the Middle East. In Ugaritic literature, the astral gods or ‘phr kkbm’ (council of the stars) were a part of the council of the chief god, El or El Elyon. This Ugaritic god was also worshiped in Israel as El, El Elyon and Elohim.\u00a0 The god of the TaNaKh (Old Testament), El Elyon, presided over a similar council of astral gods according to Psalm 82. The native inhabitants of Ugarit, Israel and Judea were all Canaanites. Also, the Sumerians, one of the oldest Middle Eastern civilizations,\u00a0designated their gods with a star sign or dingir. This sign meant god, goddess and heaven.<\/span><\/p>\n The Sumerians greatly influenced the cultures that followed them which included the Akkadians, the\u00a0Assyrians,\u00a0the Babylonians and the Canaanites.\u00a0The Hebrews borrowed their religion from these cultures with whom they were associated. Like the empires which surrounded them,\u00a0\u00a0the Hebrews were star worshipers whose deities were astral gods (Deut 4:19, 17:3, 2Kings 17:16, 21:2,5, 23:4 etc). These astral gods are referred to in the Bible as the ‘host of heaven.’\u00a0YHWH was depicted as an astral god surrounded by\u00a0his fellow\u00a0astral gods or host of heaven in 1 Kings 22:19:\u00a0 “And Micaiah said: Therefore, hear the word of YHWH. I saw YHWH sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and his left.” It was this astral\u00a0deity populated macrocosm or heaven which influenced the people populated microcosm or earth. <\/span><\/p>\n The geography and political division of Canaan were also critical factors in the development of the Judean religion. Israel was a northern kingdom located in Canaan which was allied with her northern Canaanite neighbors, Tyre and Sidon. Israelites were a racial and cultural mixture of Semitic Canaanites, Arameans, Aegean Islanders and Egyptians. Israel was a foe of Judah, a Canaanite city-state located in the south.The Judeans were a racial and cultural mixture of Egyptians, Semitic Canaanites, Midianites, Kenites and Mineans. These last three tribal confederations originated on the southern coast of Arabia where they traded and intermarried with the African peoples of Abyssinia and Nubia. <\/span><\/p>\n The Assyrian Empire invaded the northern kingdom of Israel between 740-723 BCE; at which time many Israelites fled to the southern state of Judah. Judah came under Assyrian domination in 701 BCE. Babylonia defeated Assyria and captured Jerusalem circa 605 BCE at which time many Judeans were deported to Babylon. The Judeans were freed by the Persians and a remanent of the population returned to Judah between 520-515 BCE. Because the Kingdom of Israel was utterly destroyed by the Assyrians and the Judeans were able to survive foreign capture and domination, they retained control of the myths, history, culture and religion which they wrote in their religious texts. So, these texts favored the Judean view of the culture and history of Canaan even though they were interwoven with the cultural history and myths of their northern neighbor, Israel. The following list contains numerous references to the Arabic language.\u00a0 Archaic or Biblical Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah during the 11th to 7th centuries BCE.\u00a0 The archaic form of the language ceased to be a spoken language during and after the Babylonian exile at which time Aramaic became the day to day language of the Judeans. The bulk of the Biblical texts are written in classical Hebrew while a few texts are written in Aramaic. Classical Hebrew further evolved into the Mishnaic form which became extinct as a spoken language between 200 & 400 CE.\u00a0 The Hebrews translated their scriptures into Koine Greek in Alexandria, Egypt around the 2nd to 1st Centuries BCE. At that time, Egypt was dominated by the Macedonian Ptolemaic Dynasty<\/a>. There were several Greek translations of the Judean texts, but the translation most often used\u00a0was the Septuagint.\u00a0 Greek became the language of scholarship and was used by the authors of the New Testament, which includes the Gospels.<\/span><\/p>\n The Romans defeated the Judeans in 135 AD and they remained suppressed in Palestine under various regional powers until the area fell under the rule of the Arab Caliphates, beginning with the conquest of Jerusalem by Umar Ibn Al Khattab in 637 CE.\u00a0 Jews were finally allowed to re-enter the city of Jerusalem from which they were banned by the Christian Byzantines. Around this time, Hebrew scholars, called the Masoretes<\/a>,\u00a0began to reconstruct their confusion of Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew\u00a0scriptures (of which no original\u00a0copy survives)\u00a0from\u00a0the 7th Century to\u00a0the 11th Century,\u00a0in\u00a0areas\u00a0controlled by\u00a0the\u00a0successive Arab\u00a0Caliphates of the Rashideen, the Umayyads and the Abbasids. By the time the Masoretes began work on their texts, archaic Hebrew had\u00a0fallen out use\u00a0for more than 1000\u00a0years and Mishnaic Hebrew had ceased to be spoken for at least 200 years. So, Masoretic scholars\u00a0relied on the Arabic language and scholarship to understand and reconstruct their Hebrew texts.<\/span><\/p>\n Masoretes\u00a0worked to reconstruct their variant\u00a0scriptures in\u00a0Tiberias and Jerusalem in Palestine and in\u00a0Babylonia in southern Iraq;\u00a0regions controlled by the\u00a0Arab Caliphs.\u00a0\u00a0Because the\u00a0Masoretes were immersed in the Arabic language and\u00a0culture during the time of the compilation of their texts, Arabic language and scholarship\u00a0greatly influenced their efforts to\u00a0establish uniformity in\u00a0their scriptures.\u00a0 According to research entitled ‘An Arabic Hebrew Comparative Study of Genesis 1-3<\/a>‘,\u00a0 there is evidence that the Masoretes used transliterations of Classical Arabic vocabulary when they back-translated the Old Testament from Koine Greek into Classical Hebrew. Furthermore, the Palestinian Masoretes\u00a0borrowed the Arabic system of diacritical marks to vocalize and punctuate their Hebrew and Aramaic texts, imitating the Arab Muslim scholars\u00a0of the Quran. (The Masoretes used diacritics to\u00a0establish the\u00a0grammar and thus the meaning\u00a0of their\u00a0biblical\u00a0Masoretic texts).\u00a0Consequently, Arabic should always be considered when the translation of a word makes little or no sense in Hebrew.<\/span><\/p>\n In addition, according to the Wikipedia article entitled Proto-Semitic Language<\/a>: <\/span><\/p>\n “The reconstruction of Proto-Semitic (PS) was originally based primarily on the Arabic language,whose phonology and morphology (particularly in Classical Arabic is extremely conservative, and which preserves as contrastive 28 out of the evident 29 consonantal phonemes. Thus, the phonemic inventory of reconstructed Proto-Semitic is very similar to that of Arabic, with only one phoneme fewer in Arabic than in reconstructed Proto-Semitic….” Classical Arabic, unlike Classical Hebrew, retains the characteristics of the parent Proto-Semitic language. According to the Old Testament, all of the Biblical characters preceding the Babylonian exile, lived before the advent of Classical Hebrew. So, in order to reconstruct the meaning of their names, one must rely on Classical Arabic for the correct interpretation and etymology of the names of the characters that preceded the Babylonian exile.<\/span><\/p>\n An Explanatory List of Biblical Terms:<\/span><\/p>\n The Bible<\/span><\/strong>: A compilation of Near Eastern literature\u00a0that\u00a0can be briefly summed up as an account of a people who were attempting to establish hegemony over the very lucrative incense trade routes that ran through\u00a0Canaan\u00a0later known as Palestine.\u00a0These trade routes originated in the incense growing regions on the southern coast of Arabia and extended into Canaan, the Levant, Egypt, Mesopotamia and the horn of Africa. These tribal confederations fought for control of these trade routes with regional rivals as Egypt, Assyria, Aram, Babylonia\u00a0and various tribal\u00a0federations from the Arabian Peninsula as the Midianites and the Ishmaelites etc. They also fought with local rivals (Jebusties, Edomites, Moabites, local Hittites, Philistines etc.) some of whom were settled in\u00a0Canaan before the advent of the Hebrews. Many of these pre-Hebraic tribes (with the exception of the Philistines), also originated in the Arabian Peninsula. (The Nephilim and Raphaim are Biblical references to these ancient non Hebraic Semitic tribes who occupied the land before the advent of the Hebrews). The authors of the Biblical mythology presented their particular deity, whom they believed was their sire who ‘begat’ them (Deut 32:18), as the source of their ‘right’ to control the land and the lucrative trade routes that ran through it. This hugely mythologized ‘history’ has influenced modern politics and commerce in the same region.<\/span><\/p>\n Reasons for the modern disputes have little to do with incense trade routes and everything to do with strategic location, oil and oil trade routes (pipelines, sea routes etc.). The Western gods of commerce and military might have replaced the ancient local tribal, fertility-storm deities who appointed their particular devotees as beneficiaries of this land of milk, honey and trade routes. Modern merchants of war and commerce use this ancient account of the conflicts of a long extinct culture, whose history centred on now\u00a0long\u00a0obsolete\u00a0trade routes, to establish their own hegemony over the area. Except for a Western religious\u00a0subscription to this mythologised history, there seems to be little real connection of\u00a0 modern conflicts\u00a0to the Biblical accounts of this\u00a0extinct Hebrew\u00a0culture.<\/span><\/p>\n Microcosm\/Macrocosm<\/span><\/strong>: A philosophical representation of the earth (microcosm) as the mirror of heavenly events (macrocosm) represented\u00a0by the constellations. The constellations represented the gods and their myths.<\/span><\/p>\n Garden of Eden<\/span><\/strong>: (Genesis 2:15) Biblical earthly paradise which was most likely a reference to Aden, the land from whence came gold, frankincense and myrrh that were traded by the Hebrews from the caravan tribes (Midianites\/Minaeans) in the Negev desert. The name ‘aden’ means ‘to mine ore’. Ancient Yemen, especially under the Sabeans, was renowned for its gold and gemstone mines which, along with frankincense, myrrh and lucrative trade routes, made this land famous for its wealth. The Hebrews established trade relations with the Sabeans (1 Kings 10) and traded these goods from the caravan merchants in the Negev from whence they transported these goods to Egypt according to\u00a0Isaiah 30:6,7. This Biblical garden was inhabited by 3 serpent gods; Ningizzida\u00a0 (Sumerian snake god often portrayed as a caduceus and as a man with 2 snake heads protruding from his shoulders) , YHWH and Hwh. Adam was the only human residing in this garden.<\/span><\/p>\n Ya\/Yhh\/Yhhwh\/YHWH (Hebrew)\/YHWY (Arabic equivalent)<\/span><\/strong> are all\u00a0names for the Biblical god who sired the Judeans (Deut 32:18).\u00a0The 4 letter name (tetragrammaton)\u00a0for the Hebrew god is YHWH or YHWY in Arabic. The Hebrew suffix ‘h’ becomes a ‘y’ in Arabic and vice versa, which is the reason that the Arabic equivalent of YHWH\u00a0would be\u00a0spelled YHWY.\u00a0YHWH is one of 3 gods whose names are spelled with\u00a0a similar tetragrammaton. The other 2 gods are YGhWTh (‘gh’ & ‘th’\u00a0 are the English transliteration for 2 Arabic letters) and\u00a0YAWQ.<\/span><\/p>\n One must also understand that the name YHWH is a compound name which contains the theophoric (deity’s name)\u00a0prefix, Y(a) or Yh, which is followed by the attribute ‘hwh’ which means both living and snake. This name\u00a0construction, a theophoric prefix followed by an attribute,\u00a0is common throughout the Bible. The following list of Biblical names illustrates this point:<\/span><\/p>\n Yaalam=Ya hides, Yaanai=Ya answers, Yaasau=Ya makes, Yabin= Ya discerns, Yaazah=Ya helps, Yehoahaz=Yh posseses, Yehoash=Yh fired or Yh gave, Yehohanan=Yh gave, Yehoiachin=Yh has strength, Yehoiada=Yh has knowledge, Yehoiakim=Yh avenges, Yehoiarib=Yh fights or multiplies,\u00a0 Yehonathan= Yh grants gifts, Yehoram=Yh exalts, Yehoshaphat=Yh is judge, Yehosheba=Yh’s oath, Jehoshua=Yh saves, Yehozabad=Yh’s dowry, Yehozadak=Yh’s justice, Yehu=Ya is He etc .<\/span><\/p>\n Semitic gods often had compound names. Among these names is the Aramean god mentioned in the Tayma Stele found in the Arabian city of the same name. Among the gods mentioned is the Aramean god Singl which means ‘the god Sin is great’.\u00a0 Another Semitic god with a compound name is the Tyrean god Melkart whose name means ‘king of the city’. The god of Carthage was known as Balhamon or ‘the Lord of Hamon’ and the Phoenician god of the Baaqa Valley was known as Balbek or ‘the Lord of the Baaqa Valley’. The Sumerian gods also had compound names as is indicated by Enki (Lord of the Earth), Ninlil (Lady of the Open Fields), Enlil (Lord of the Winds), Ningizzida (Lord of the Good Tree) etc.<\/span><\/p>\n As for the compound name, YHWH, it appears that\u00a0early Yahwists created a double entendre by appending ‘hwh’ to their god Ya\/Yhh who became YHWH. ‘Hwh’ meant the living but\u00a0the word\u00a0also included YHWH’s sacred animal, the nehushtan or snake. YHWH was worshiped in the form\u00a0a snake according to 2 Kings 18:4. Hebrew grammarians have attempted to give a grammatical explanation for the name by claiming that it is a ‘hiphil form of the root ‘hw’. However, the name YHWH, as well as similar compounded deity names, predate any formalized explanation by millennium. Hebrew grammar did not become formalized until the Masoretes who lived under the Arab Caliphates between the 7th & 11th Centuries CE. So, YHWH’s name follows an ancient Near East pattern of appending an attribute to the name of a deity.<\/span><\/p>\n Yah \u2013 snake guardian of the tree of life<\/a> “Sing to God, sing praises to His name;<\/span><\/span> Extol Him who rides on the clouds,<\/span> By His name Yhh<\/span>,<\/span> And rejoice before Him.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Psalm 68 is one the pre-exilic Psalms in the TaNaKh (Old Testament). <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The name Yhh is repeated in Exodus 15:2:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYhh is my strength and my defense<\/span><\/span>,he has become my salvation.<\/span> He is my God, and I will praise him,<\/span> my father\u2019s God, and I will exalt him.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Indeed, Yhh, appears over 50 times in the Tanakh, and is used not only in Psalm 68:4 and Exodus 15:2 but also in Exodus 17:16; Psalm 77:12; 89:8; 94:7, 12; 102:18; 105:45; 106:1, Isa. 12:2; 26:4; 38:11, etc..<\/span><\/p>\n Yhh’s name is written in the Negev inscriptions as a snake’s head with a protruding forked tongue. (Old Negev script Y + H, which is written: >—–O). According to Dr. James R. Harris, the Hebrews carved YHWH’s full\u00a0image as a ‘radiant serpent’\u00a0among these inscriptions.\u00a0 Harris’ conclusion\u00a0that\u00a0the early Hebrews were responsible for these inscriptions\u00a0is supported by the many carvings among these inscriptions\u00a0of\u00a0what later became known as the\u00a0Jewish menorah.\u00a0These inscriptions<\/a> date to circa 1200 BCE.<\/span><\/p>\n “Place names\u00a0found in the compositions are appropriate for the time, location, and context in which they are used. The persona of Yah is associated with radiance, as from the sun and the head of the radiant Serpent. The glory of the radiant serpent was to be extended to his people so that their countenances would shine as they become a holy nation (a sanctified people). It is possible that the serpent (as an icon of Yahweh) would have survived in greater numbers had it not been for the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah. The serpent symbolizes Yah as the healer, and God of the storms, rain, sun, and Prince of Life. Yah was the disciplinarian, judge, protector, deliverer, teacher, purifier, and Father of his covenant people.”<\/span><\/p>\n YHW<\/span><\/strong>: Yhh\/Yhhwh\/Yhwh was recorded as Yhw in the Soleb Temple by the ancient Egyptians as the god of the Shasu (Bedouin in southern Canaan or the Midianites). Current scholars pronounce the hieroglyphics as ‘Yahoo’ although they could also be pronounced as ‘YaHooWehHoo’. Yhw\u00a0was adopted by the Hebrews through the Midianites where he became known\u00a0 as Yhh.\u00a0 ‘Yh’ or ‘Yhh’ is thought to be the Sayhadic (Old South Arabic)\u00a0word for an ancient Semitic word for life or ‘hy’. In Sayhadic ‘hy’ would be written as ‘yh’. The ‘h’ in Sayhadic was the definite article ‘the’ written as a suffix to the word\u00a0‘y’.\u00a0 In Hebrew, the definite article ‘h’ is written as a prefix. Thus, the word YHWH is written as the word Yh + the word ‘hwh’; both words mean life and snake. ‘Hawa’\u00a0is the ancient West Semitic word for snake, which in Arabic is ‘hyh’ (haya). Hwy in Arabic means to coil. (The ‘w’ and the ‘y’ are interchangeable in Semitic languages). So, Yhhwh\/YHWH means ‘the living snake god’ or\u00a0‘Yhh’, the coiling one’. This god originated as a serpent cult . His ophic (snake) image was carved by the Hebrews on their Beersheba altar (800 BCE) and on the Galilean Migdal synagogue stone, which existed as part of that synagogue during the time of Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\n Shasu of Yhw<\/span><\/strong>: (meaning \u2018The Bedouin who worship Yhw\u2019) Egyptian designation for the Midianites\/Kenites who mined copper ore in the Negev desert. These copper mines were under Egyptian control from the 14th to the 12th Century BCE. The Midianites and other Bedouin worked the mines for the Egyptians during this time. Shasu of Yhw can be found in the Soleb Temple inscription in Egypt.<\/span><\/p>\n Midianites<\/span><\/strong>: (Exodus 3:1) The tribe into which Moses married who\u00a0were\u00a0also known as Qynites\/Kenites (Judges 1:6). They settled in Edom, Moab and the Northwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula. They have been identified through their Qurayyah ware. They were miners mining copper in this area as the Shasu of Yhw. The Midianites were also merchants who controlled the trade routes which ran through Midian or modern day Tabuk Province in northwest Saudi Arabia.<\/span><\/p>\n Macrocosmic YHWH as the Heavenly Snake<\/span><\/strong>: This snake constellation is known as Draco in the West and AtTinneen or the Dragon in the Middle East. The word ‘tinneen’, which means snake\/dragon, can be found in Isaiah 27:1 and Exodus 7:10. In Isaiah, the word ‘tinneen’ describes the sea monster, Leviathan, while the same word in Exodus describes Aaron’s staff which transmuted into the snake that defeated Pharaoh’s magicians. The snake constellation, AtTinneen, was the location of the pole star, AthThuban (meaning the snake). The ancient Semitic peoples believed that the pole star was a deity or a central pole around which all of the constellations revolved. The pole star, now known as Polaris, was later moved to the constellation Ursa Minor making it appear that Draco was wrapped around Polaris, a pole star, which the Hebrews thought of as the celestial tree of life. The symbolism can be seen in the nehushtan (brazen serpent\u00a0coiled around\u00a0a pole) and in the references to YHWH seated on his throne surrounded by the host of heaven (1 Kings 22:19) as well as the Biblical portrayal of YHWH as a storm god whose image was a flying, fire breathing dragon in 2 Samuel 22:4-16:\u00a0 These verses state that as YHWH descended from his starry throne to the earth: “There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it (vs 22:9)…\u00a0<\/sup>He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.<\/span>” <\/span><\/i><\/strong>This image is repeated in Psalm 18:6-15:<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0 “In my distress I called to the <\/span><\/span>Lord (Yhwh)<\/span><\/span>;I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice;my cry came before him, into his ears.<\/span><\/span> In 2 Samuel 22:9 & Psalm 18:6-15, YHWH’s portrait is almost identical to the description of the evil sea monster, Leviathan, in the Biblical Book of Job, Chapter 41:<\/span><\/p>\n 12\u00a0<\/span><\/sup><\/span>\u201cI will not fail to speak of Leviathan\u2019s limbs,its strength and its graceful form.13\u00a0<\/sup>Who can strip off its outer coat?Who can penetrate its double coat of armor?14\u00a0<\/sup>Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth?15\u00a0<\/sup>Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together;16\u00a0<\/sup>each is so close to the next that no air can pass between.17\u00a0<\/sup>They are joined fast to one another;they cling together and cannot be parted.18\u00a0<\/sup>Its snorting throws out flashes of light;its eyes are like the rays of dawn.19<\/sup><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/sup><\/i><\/strong>Flames stream from its mouth; <\/span><\/i><\/strong>sparks of fire shoot out.20\u00a0<\/sup>Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.21\u00a0<\/sup>Its breath sets coals ablaze,and flames dart from its mouth.”<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n Ancient creator gods, whose images were snakes, were very common in the ancient Near East. Enki was the ancient patron god of Eridu in Sumer, who begat the gods of the Sumerian pantheon. His image was the double helix snake, or caduceus. His cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Canaanites, Hittites and Hurians. He became Ea in Akkadian mythology. Ea is thought by many scholars to be the origin of the name Ya\/Yah which became the Hebrew god YHWH. Ea may be a corruption of the Semitic word ‘hy’ (life) or ‘hyh’ (snake). Ea’s constellation was Asiku, the field, which is currently the square of Pegasus.<\/span><\/p>\n It is also interesting that the Assyrian god, Ashur, was portrayed on cylindrical seals riding on the snake<\/a> whom the Assyrians\u00a0named Usumgallu, which means ‘prime venomous snake’ or dragon. The name Ashur is thought to be an Assyrian form of the Akkadian word, anshur which\u00a0means sky pivot\/sky axle or pole star. It appears that the Assyrians thought of the pole star as their chief deity. The pole star was guarded by the snake constellation, Draco or the snake. The reverse was true for the Hebrews who viewed the pole star as the tree of life and the snake constellation, Draco\/YHWH, as their chief deity (2 Sam 22:4-16).<\/span><\/p>\n Microcosmic YHWH<\/span><\/strong>: The\u00a0Hebrew god of Judah,\u00a0 the divine sire who ‘begat’ the Judeans (Deut 32:18) and guardian of the tree of life; a\u00a0combination of Yh & Hwh (\u2018Hawa\u2019 is the West Semitic word for snake. ‘Hwy’ means to coil in Arabic.) making YHWH, which means both\u00a0‘Yah the living\u00a0and Yah the snake god’. This god came from 3 different locations according to Deuteronomy 33:2 & Habakkuk 3:3. These directions were the Sinai, Seir and Paran where was located Teman. The Sinai was the desert through which the Hyksos and the Hebrews\u00a0travelled upon their expulsions from Egypt. Seir was located in Edom, the land of the copper mines that produced the snake images and Paran, located in northwest Saudi Arabia, was the home of the Midianites, aka the Shasu of Yhw to the Egyptians. They are accredited for passing YHWH onto the Hebrews through Moses.<\/span><\/p>\n Snakes were often worshiped as gods of fertility, protection, healing, wisdom and immortality. Snakes\u00a0were\u00a0common\u00a0phallic symbols, which often became the sacred animal of fertility gods like Wadd and YHWH.\u00a0\u00a0According to Gen 9:1, Gen 9:7, Gen 16:10, Gen 17:2, Gen 17:20, Gen 22:17 etc.,\u00a0YHWH’s chief mission was to multiply the sons of Noah through his son Shem; especially through Shem’s descendant, Abraham. Abundance of descendants, fertile\u00a0herds and\u00a0crops would ensure their prosperity and ascendancy in the land. YHWH’s guarantee of fertility and\u00a0protection\u00a0for Shem’s descendants was predicated upon the exclusivity of their devotion to this god and obedience to his laws.<\/span><\/p>\n While YHWH’s role as a fertility god who begat the Judeans (Deut 32:18) was represented by the phallic symbol, the nehushtan or snake, other fertility gods as the Canaanite gods El and Baal wore their fertility symbols as crowns. These conical crowns are clear representations of the male member (penis). Fertility goddesses as El’s wife, Asherah, are often portrayed bare-breasted and clutching a snake.<\/span><\/p>\n Iah\/Khonsu<\/a>:<\/span><\/strong> An ancient Egyptian moon god who protected travelers and became associated with YHWH.\u00a0 Khonsu’s name means ‘traveler’ in the ancient Egyptian language. According to the Wikipedia article, Iah:\u00a0 “Iah ( Egyptian: J’h, transliterated as Yah, Jah, Jah(w), Joh or Aah ) is a god of the moon in the ancient Egyptian religion. His name simply means moon<\/span><\/em>.” Yhw\u00a0seems to be\u00a0a variation of Jah(w), which would indicate that the Shasu of Yhw were a\u00a0Semitic people who worshiped the Egyptian moon god Iah under the name Yah and Yhw. The conflation of the snake god with the moon god took place during their enslavement as miners and smiths under the Egyptians between the 14th & 12th Centuries BCE. The Shasu adopted Iah, who was assoicated with Khonsu, because of Khonsu’s role as a protector of travelers who traveled by night.The Shasu were not only miners, they were also caravaneers, who often traveled at night to avoid the intense heat of the summer sun.<\/span><\/p>\n Iah\/Khonsu can be traced to the Old Kingdom where he became associated with Osiris, the Egyptian god of the underworld. \u00a0However, since this god was not popular\u00a0until the Middle Kingdom when the Hyksos ruled Egypt, it is unclear whether the\u00a0Iah of the Middle Kingdom\u00a0was imported into Egypt by the Semitic Hyksos\u00a0or was adopted into their religion from an\u00a0Egyptian source.\u00a0The name Iah and Yhw are spelled differently in hieroglyphics. This difference in spelling is due to the variations in pronunciation. The\u00a0word ‘Yhw’, then, is likely an Egyptian\u00a0transliteration of the Semitic pronunciation of this word. The name of the\u00a0Egyptian moon god, Iah, is pronounced similarly to\u00a0the ancient\u00a0Semitic word ‘yah’ which many scholars have translated as both snake and life. Iah (Yah) meant moon in Egyptian but the word meant ‘snake’ and ‘life in the Proto-Semitc language found in the Negev inscriptions where the word is written as a snake’s head with a protruding forked tongue (>——O).\u00a0 Perhaps, this is how the\u00a0moon god became conflated with the snake god in the Semitic religion. This conflation of the moon and snake deities would also explain why Yhwh was worshiped in the form of a serpent or nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4 & Ezekiel 8:10-12). YHWH was especially\u00a0associated with the moon as he appeared to Moses on\u00a0Har Sinai or Moon Mountain (Ex 33:23).\u00a0The sacred animal of the Semitic moon gods was the snake. The Hebrews worshiped YHWH in the form of the nehushtan or snake\u00a0coiled around a\u00a0pole or tree (2 King 18:4).<\/span><\/p>\n Nehushtan<\/span><\/strong>: (Number 21:8) The copper snake or viper idol coiled around a pole that cured the fleeing Israelites of snake bites. Because Moses was a Cainite\/Kenite and master copper smith, Yhwh ordered Moses to forge this idol and carry it before the fleeing Hebrews. The idol symbolized the constellation Draco\/YHWH guarding the pole star known to the Hebrews as the tree of life. The nehushtan was destroyed by Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4) because it was worshiped as an idol of YHWH. This incident compares to Moses destroying the golden calf forged by his fellow master smith and brother, Aaron. The idol was more than likely an image of El as a bull (Ex 32:20) just as Moses’ nehushtan was an image of YHWH as a snake.<\/span><\/p>\n Nachash: <\/span><\/strong>The Biblical word for snake. This word is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘naga’ (meaning snake), and was most likely borrowed from the Vedic language of the Indo-Aryan rulers of the Mitanni kingdom. The ancient Semitic word for snake is ‘hyh’ or ‘hwh’. It is the Semitic word for snake from which the name YHWH is derived.<\/span><\/p>\n The Galilean Migdal Synagogue Stone which dates from 100 BCE to 50 AD:<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n On the Stone face:<\/span><\/p>\n 2 trees of life: These are stylized images of the frankincense tree or the almond tree. Around the trunks of the trees, one can see a coiling snake.<\/span><\/p>\n Center of Stone: The flower of life, often referred to as the tree of life by the Hebrews. The flower contains 6 petals and may be a stylized depiction of the 5 petaled flowers on the branches of the frankincense tree<\/a>. However, the almond tree can have up to 20% of its flowers as 6 petaled.<\/span><\/p>\n The ouroboros<\/a>: the snake consuming its own tail surrounds the flower of life, also known as the tree of life to the Hebrews. The eye and the mouth of the snake are clearly visible on the right side of the flower. The ouroboros is ancient Egyptian in origin and is contained in \u201cThe Book of the Netherworld\u201d. The ouroboros is a symbol of\u00a0the cyclical nature of creation. Here, the ouroboros represents YHWH as the guardian of the tree of life.<\/span><\/p>\n The leaves: The 4 stylized leaves of the frankincense tree can be seen as heart shapes. These heart shapes can also represent the flared hoods of spitting cobras.<\/span><\/p>\n Geometric Designs: Cross inside diamond inside square: Stylized ankhs or the Egyptian key of life.<\/span><\/p>\n Menorah: stylized tree of life or frankincense tree. Also, a depiction of the Epigraphic South Arabic ‘H’ which is the same ‘H’ used to write the name YH in the Negev glyphs. The ‘Y’ is written as a stylized snake’s head and the ‘H’ is written as the forked tongue.\u00a0 This image\u00a0appears throughout the page cited below (>—–0). A good example is the third image under Section III, 2nd line, last image reading right to left, which is a snake head with protruding forked tongue<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Amphorae: Offering vessels, possibly wine offerings<\/span><\/p>\n Israel\u2019s Horned Altars<\/span><\/strong>: (Exodus 29:12, 30:2, 38:2) According to the above Biblical chapters, the altars were designed and commissioned by YHWH. However, the altars\u00a0resemble the horned Philistine altars\u00a0and the horned Egyptian altars<\/a>. Both the Philistines and the Egyptians were devoted to the worship of serpents.<\/span><\/p>\n Beersheba Altar which dates to the 8th Century BCE.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nYh\/Yhh (Yah)<\/span><\/strong> is spelled with a double ‘h’ (the letter ‘h’ or ‘hey’ accented with a mappiq) in the Hebrew scriptures just at is often spelled in the Negev inscriptions. Yhh is one of the\u00a0earliest forms of the name YHWH which the Hebrews originally pronounced as Yhhwh (YahHuwa). The double ‘h’ became a dividing point so that Yhhwh, originally 2 words; Yh ( the name of the deity) and hwh (the ancient Semitic word for serpent) was merged into a single word YHWH. However, the Hebrew god is addressed repeatedly by his most ancient name, Yhh. He is specifically named Yhh in Psalm 68:4:<\/span><\/p>\n
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\n7\u00a0<\/sup>The earth trembled and quaked,and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry.<\/span> 8<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/sup><\/i><\/strong>Smoke rose from his nostrils; <\/span><\/i><\/strong>consuming fire came from his mouth,burning coals blazed out of it.<\/i><\/b><\/span> 9\u00a0<\/sup>He parted the heavens and came down;dark clouds were under his feet.<\/span> 10\u00a0<\/sup>He mounted the cherubim and flew;he soared on the wings of the wind.<\/strong><\/span> 11\u00a0<\/sup>He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him\u2014the dark rain clouds of the sky.<\/span> 12\u00a0<\/sup>Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,with hailstones and bolts of lightning.<\/span> 13\u00a0<\/sup>The <\/span>Lord<\/span><\/span> thundered from heaven;the voice of the Most High resounded.<\/span> 14\u00a0<\/sup>He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,\u00a0with great bolts of lightning he routed them.<\/span> 15\u00a0<\/sup>The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, <\/span>Lord (Yhwh)<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span>,at the blast of breath from your nostrils<\/span><\/i><\/strong>.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/3943\/15516832526_e6dbe22a55_n.jpg\")
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