Jehovah and the Hebrew Scriptures

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Is it possible that Moses was under the influence of some psychotropic drug when he had the "experience" recorded at Mt. Sinai? Yes, it is certainly possible, and even probable. But it is more common, among many scholars, to see the event as legend, rather than a literal (historical) event.

It is a part of the larger allegory called the "Hebrew Scriptures."
(This is usually mislabeled the "Old Testament," according to a Christian bias.) I can see, though, where the Scriptures could be either an allegorical (symbolic) tale, or else, a distorted and false "history."

Fundies assume that it is all history, and always literally true, even infallible. I would never go to this unhealthy extreme.

But if it is history, it seems to be the story of a primitive group of backwards, illiterate nomads who contacted one of the Elohim. This is the group of superbeings, "gods," or highly advanced extraterrestrials who colonized and brought life to earth. Earth became a vast biolab, for the creation of creatures that could be selfaware and even spiritual.

NOTE: The word translated "God" in Genesis is actually plural. It is not "God," then, but "gods." This is the word in Hebrew elohim, which means more than one god. But it was deliberately mistranslated in the King James Version of 1611, for the translators thought that polytheism (more than one god) was blasphemy!

One of the Elohim "went bad," and became obsessed with his ego. This grew into the Jehovah-myth, which some modern Christians, and a few modern Jews, still mistake for "God."

Early gnostics, mystics of the Christian tradition in the first two centuries, used to mock and dismiss Jehovah as the lower "creator," the creator of the "illusionworld." He was recognized as "father" by traditional, orthodox Jews, and it was of Jehovah that Jesus said, "Your father is an illusionist, and has been one from the beginning." It was also this Jehovah that Paul later identified as "the god of this age." (2 Cor. 4:4)

Mistaking Jehovah, the god of the Hebrew Scriptures, for the Lord of Love is the most serious, and one of the most absurd, errors in the history of Christianity. Again, the gnostics recognized Jehovah as a limited, ignorant, and even negative being-- provided that "He" ever really existed!

Legends and mythologies proliferated wildly and madly around Moses, Abraham, and other famous folk-heroes of the Jewish faith. We have no sound, reliable documents of pure history from those early times-- circa four millennia ago. All that we have is the Hebrew Scriptures, a document that has been amended, altered, and rewritten dozens of times.

That is why it is so good, and so dependable, to hold a faith that is not, in any way, text-dependent!
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The Allegory of "Eden"

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Most scholars believe that the entire story of Eden, related in the first book of the official Bible, Genesis, is an allegory. The only group that accepts it as literal are-- you guessed it!-- extreme rightwing fundamentalists!

Jehovah represents, in the story, legalistic religion, the type common in ancient Judaism. Adam and Eve represent the yang (active, male, intellectual) and yin (passive, receptive, intuitive, female) sides of the lower (human) nature.

The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" represents the illusion that anything in the cosmos is "absolutely bad," or free of, separate from, the perfect Mind (of God), without which nothing, or no thing, could ever exist.

The "sin" (error) that took the human mind from the state of uninterrupted bliss ("Eden" means "pleasure") was disagreement with God, who, after creation, declared His work "very good," and several times.

The human nature replied, "Yes, God is right-- sometimes. For some things are absolutely good. But others are absolutely evil. And this absolute evil is as real (a part of "truth" or reality) as is the good."

This kind of dualistic thinking removes us from the awareness of the omnipresence of God as Love. So, the Buddha tells us that one of our goals is the "all-embracing Mind" that, without any judgment, embraces the God (Love-nature) in all things.

If you dream of a little boy, little girl, red wagon, and blue ball, you are "in" the girl, "in" the boy, and "in" or "within" the wagon and ball. For they are all within you, or your dream. In this way,as the Dreamer or Creator of the cosmos, God-- the true God of Love-- is "in" everything.

Genesis is careful to distinguish the Creator from Yahweh. That is why there are really two creation-accounts, one in chapter one, and another in chapter two. For chapter one is about the spiritual creation of minds (Souls or spirits) emanated from the one Mind of God, and chapter two is about the dreaming of the illusion-world.

The writers used the Hebrew word elohim, which literally means, not "God," but "gods." So, Genesis 1:1 should not be translated, "God created the heavens and the earth," but, "the gods created the heavens and the earth."

At any rate, elohim is different, and separate from, Yahweh or Jehovah.

Jehovah, as legalistic religion, was the cause of all the problems introduced in Eden. He is the real deceiver in the Genesis allegory.

How do we know? Because Jehovah himself confirms as accurate the statements made by the "serpent." (Gen. 3:1-5) Early gnostics recognized that this "serpent" was not evil, but a teacher. Jehovah, they said, was the villain of the drama.
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Always Double-check!

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If you looked up the word Elohim, I congratulate you. It is always good and wise to double-check our sources. It is always possible that I can be in error.

But in this case, I am not wrong. The Hebrew word elohim is definitely a plural word. It does NOT mean "God," even though much tradition, based on the King James Version, supports this falsehood. The word definitely means "gods."

What was the name of the reference-work in which you looked the word up? For fundy churches have produced an entire library of false "reference" works that are unreliable, and it is possible that you used one of these.

Always remember this very valuable principle: Just because a statement appears in a book, that alone does not guarantee that it is correct. In the history of religion, especially, tens of thousands of falsehoods and errors have appeared in print, in books. Still, you are very wise to question everything that I say, and also, that everyone else says.

Thanks for staying "on your guard," and double-checking on this. This is precisely what a good student should do!
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