Paper 96 Overview: Yahweh—God of the Hebrews

This paper traces the evolution of the Hebrew concept of Deity from tribal polytheism to monotheism, highlighting the crucial influence of Melchizedek's teachings. It examines how the primitive volcano god Yahweh was gradually transformed through the efforts of spiritual leaders like Moses into the concept of a universal Creator. This evolutionary process was marked by periods of progress and regression as the Hebrews struggled to maintain the higher religious concepts amid changing social and political circumstances.

The paper details the significant contributions of Moses in establishing Yahweh as the exclusive God of Israel and explains how later spiritual movements, particularly reflected in the Psalms and the Book of Job, further elevated the concept toward that of a loving and merciful Universal Father. Throughout this evolutionary process, the religious heritage of Melchizedek acted as a persistent influence that prevented the complete regression to primitive nature worship and prepared the way for advanced spiritual concepts.

In the development of Deity concepts, humans first include all gods, then subordinate foreign gods to their tribal deity, and finally exclude all but one supreme God. The Jews synthesized their concept into the Lord God of Israel, while similar monotheistic developments occurred in India and Mesopotamia around the time of Melchizedek's appearance at Salem in Palestine. Unlike evolutionary monotheism based on inclusion, subordination, and exclusion, Melchizedek's concept of Deity emphasized creative power and significantly influenced the highest deity concepts in several ancient civilizations.

Melchizedek's incarnation was partly intended to foster belief in one God and prepare for the earth bestowal of a Son of that God, as Michael could only appear among people who believed in the Universal Father. The Salem religion persisted among the Kenites in Palestine before being adopted by the Hebrews, whose religion was subsequently influenced by Egyptian moral teachings, Babylonian theology, and Iranian concepts of good and evil. Hebrew religion was fundamentally based on the covenant between Abraham and Melchizedek but evolved through unique historical circumstances while borrowing extensively from various religious and philosophical traditions throughout the Levant.

The early Semites believed everything was inhabited by spirits, including animals, plants, and elements of nature, creating a vast pantheon of deities to be worshiped and feared. Despite Melchizedek's teaching of a Universal Creator, belief in these subordinate spirits and nature gods persisted, and the Hebrews' progression from polytheism through henotheism to monotheism was marked by numerous regressions and inconsistencies. During any given period, various groups of Semite believers held different conceptions of God, and numerous terms were applied to their evolving concepts of Deity.

The most significant terms included Yahweh, the god of southern Palestinian tribes associated with Mount Horeb (Sinai volcano); El Elyon, the Most High God of heaven derived from Melchizedek's teachings; El Shaddai, a composite concept influenced by Egyptian and Melchizedek ideas; El, a term encompassing multiple divine concepts including Bedouin nature gods; Elohim, reflecting a Sumerian-Chaldean three-in-one God concept; and various appellations like "The Spirit of God," "The Lord," and "The Father in Heaven." The name Jehovah only came into use fifteen hundred years after Jesus, representing the completed concept of Yahweh that evolved through centuries of Hebrew experience.

The eastern Semites were well-organized horsemen who invaded the eastern regions of the fertile crescent and united with the Babylonians, while the Phoenicians held the western section of Palestine along the Mediterranean coast. Racially, the Semites were among the most blended of Urantia peoples, containing hereditary factors from almost all nine world races. The Arabian Semites repeatedly fought their way into the northern Promised Land but were typically ejected by the better-organized northern Semites and Hittites.

During a severe famine, many Bedouin Semites entered Egypt as contract laborers but soon found themselves enslaved as common laborers in the Nile valley. Only after the time of Melchizedek and Abraham were certain Semite tribes, because of their distinctive religious beliefs, called the children of Israel and later Hebrews and Jews. Abraham was not the racial father of all Hebrews, and most people who became part of the Israeli clans had never been in Egypt. The majority were fellow nomads who chose to follow Moses as Abraham's descendants and their Semite associates journeyed through northern Arabia from Egypt.

The evolution of the Hebrews' concept of a Supreme Creator began with their departure from Egypt under Moses, a leader of exceptional qualities whose mixed heritage—having a mother from Egypt's royal family and a Semitic father—gave him versatility and adaptability to manage the diverse group that would become his followers. Despite the cultural attractions of Egyptian civilization, Moses chose to align himself with his father's people, who at that time had barely developed a religious concept and lived with little hope.

No leader had ever undertaken to reform a more dejected, downtrodden group of human beings, yet these slaves possessed latent potential for development. Moses trained educated leaders as organizers and attempted diplomatic negotiations for their freedom, arranging a deal with Egypt's king that was later repudiated. Undeterred, Moses orchestrated a meticulously planned night escape when Egyptian military forces were occupied with external threats. The Hebrews successfully escaped despite being pursued, and even captured spoils of war that augmented the possessions of the escaping slaves as they headed toward their ancestral desert home.

The evolution and elevation of Moses' teaching has influenced nearly half the world, continuing even into the twentieth century. While Moses understood advanced Egyptian religious philosophy, the Bedouin slaves knew little about such teachings but remembered their ancestral god of Mount Horeb, Yahweh. Moses had learned about Melchizedek's teachings from both parents, and his father-in-law was a Kenite worshiper of El Elyon. Educated as an El Shaddaist and influenced to become an El Elyonist, Moses formulated an expanded concept of Deity by the time the Hebrews encamped at Mount Sinai.

Moses wisely decided to proclaim this enlarged concept of Deity under the name of their traditional tribal god, Yahweh. He had initially attempted to teach the Bedouins about El Elyon, but realized they would not fully comprehend this doctrine, so he deliberately compromised by adopting their desert tribal god as their exclusive deity. Moses did not specifically teach that other peoples couldn't have their own gods, but maintained that Yahweh was superior to all others, especially for the Hebrews. He struggled with the challenge of presenting his higher concept of Deity under the guise of the ancient term Yahweh, which had traditionally been symbolized by the golden calf of the Bedouin tribes.

Moses represented an extraordinary combination of military leadership, social organization, and religious teaching. He was the most important individual world teacher between Machiventa and Jesus, attempting numerous reforms in Israel that went unrecorded. In one man's lifetime, he led the polyglot horde of so-called Hebrews from slavery and uncivilized wandering to establish the foundations of a nation and the continuation of a race. Few records exist of Moses' great work because the Hebrews had no written language at the time of the exodus, and the accounts of his achievements derive from traditions that emerged more than a thousand years after his death.

Many of Moses' advances beyond the religious practices of Egypt and surrounding Levantine tribes stemmed from the Kenite traditions dating back to Melchizedek. Without Machiventa's teachings to Abraham and his contemporaries, the Hebrews would have emerged from Egypt in hopeless darkness. Moses and his father-in-law Jethro preserved these traditions and combined them with Egyptian learning to create an improved religion and ritual system for the Israelites. Moses believed in Providence and was influenced by Egyptian doctrines about supernatural control of natural elements. He sincerely taught the Hebrews that obedience to God would bring blessings, prosperity, and health, but he struggled to adapt his sublime concept of El Elyon to the comprehension of the illiterate Hebrews.

Upon Moses' death, his elevated concept of Yahweh deteriorated rapidly. While Joshua and Israel's leaders maintained the Mosaic traditions of an all-wise, beneficent, and almighty God, common people quickly reverted to older desert conceptions of Yahweh. The extraordinary personal influence of Moses had sustained a progressively expanding concept of God in his followers' hearts, but when they settled in Palestine, they evolved from nomadic herders into settled farmers, necessitating changes in their religious viewpoint.

During this early transmutation of the austere desert god of Sinai into a later concept of love, justice, and mercy, the Hebrews nearly lost sight of Moses' lofty teachings. They came dangerously close to losing their opportunity to become the people who would conserve Melchizedek's teaching of one God until the incarnation of a bestowal Son of that Father of all. Joshua desperately sought to maintain the concept of a supreme Yahweh, proclaiming that Yahweh was a holy and jealous God who would not forgive transgressions. The highest concept of this period portrayed Yahweh as a "God of power, judgment, and justice," though occasional solitary teachers continued to proclaim Moses' more sublime concept of divinity.

Under the leadership of their sheiks and priests, the Hebrews became loosely established in Palestine but soon drifted back to primitive desert beliefs and adopted Canaanite religious practices. They became idolatrous and licentious, and their concept of Deity fell below Egyptian and Mesopotamian standards. However, certain Salem groups preserved higher concepts of God, which are recorded in some of the Psalms and in the Book of Job. The Psalms were composed by about twenty different authors, many of whom were Egyptian and Mesopotamian teachers who still believed in El Elyon, the Most High.

No other collection of religious writings expresses such a wealth of devotion and inspirational ideas of God as the Book of Psalms, which covers a vast timespan from Amenemope to Isaiah and shows the evolving concept of God from a tribal deity to a loving ruler and merciful Father. The Book of Job was composed by more than twenty Mesopotamian religious teachers over nearly three hundred years and represents the best preservation of the concept of a real God during dark times in Palestine. From Ur came the teaching of salvation and divine favor through faith, proclaiming that God is "gracious to the repentant" and delivers those who acknowledge their sins, which was the most cheering message of human salvation since Melchizedek.