I know I shoult do it but it is just a habit but hey your not gonna go to hell for this(considering you accepted Jesus)

Elara : I thought His name was Yahweh....

play4fun : A non-sinful subsitute for 'God'. I stopped saying 'Oh my God' back in 2010, because I finally releized that saying that is just a sin that adds itself infinitley. Now I say gosh. Like, all the time. =)

totaldramaman2 : That is another one. I forget how many names God is supposed to have. Those are the main two.

Elara : Okay. This is the name that God gave Moses at the burning bush, correct?

totaldramaman2 : Yahweh is that name (well, YHWH, which apparently is a ancient form of a word meaning "to be").  Jehovah is the anglicized version of Yahweh, and the version used in the KJV. Elohim is another common title/name, as is Adonai. Based on my research in Judaism, the actual name of God is El... which basically is just a generic word for "god" and thus usually has descriptors attached to differentiate from gods of other religions. The most commonly know would be Eli (Hebrew, specifically Canaanites) and Allah (Arabic). I saw some reference to the Torah which talks about the use of El Shaddai in the prehistory, including Exodus 6:2-3... it was in wikipedia though so I don't really know for certain.

Elara : Awesome post, it is nice to see other people doing research into areas of religious origins and history. It is my understanding the ancient Jews/Israelites had an entire pantheon of gods until the return from Babylon when religious scripture was written into its modern form. This is why there are many words in the bible that today now are attributed to just mean Yahweh. In my opinion, the best show case of this in the bible is found simply in a few words. El Elyon today means YHWH/Yahweh/Jehova/YHVH (pick what ever one you want haha) but Elyon traditionaly means the "highest". As you pointed out El is a common word meaning "god" so El Elyon translates to the "highest God". This only makes sense if there are more than one God.

Another word you mentioned was Elohim. Obviously the root word of this is El. In Hebrew an -im suffix makes a word plural, functioning very similar to adding an -s to a word in English. So then what does Eloh mean? To put it simply it means "child of El" which again points to there being more than one god in Judaism. Of course today this just means Yahweh, or in some instances it is translated to "angels" or "those from the heavenly court".

You also mentioned El Shaddai, which would mean the God Shaddai. The first mention of this in the bible, If I remember correctly, is when El Shaddai talks to Abram. Originally, Abram/Abraham was from the Akkadian/Sumerian city of Ur. In their language Shaddai or Shadu means mountain, so El Shaddai means Mountain God. In my opinion this is why Moses climbs the mountain.

Aside from a few words that show that there was originally different Gods in Judaism there are still parts of the bible that suggest this. Here is one well known verse that clearly shows it. Genesis 1:26 " Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” "

The use of "God" in that passage is actually "Elohim" and not"El" in the Torah. It makes much more sense when using Elohim with the definition I gave.

smotpoker86 : Yeah, as a historian I really enjoy looking into things like this. Learning about the past is the best way to understand the present and to truly understand where the future may lead us.

smotpoker86 :
You're omitting key parts of scripture (especially from the Torah for this matter) resulting in this misinterpretation of multiple gods in Judaism.

Deuteronomy 6:4 - "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one (emphasis added).

God is called many names in the Bible, and all of the names represent his character. So to say that there was a 'mountain god' is really taking the name out of context. I have limited time to spend at the computer right now so I can elaborate on this later...

tRIUNE : Dueteronomy wasn't found (or written as scholars believe) until the 5th century BC. Prior to this you have two major branches of Judaism, one from the kingdom of Judah and another from the kingdom of Israel. This is part of the reason why there are many names for god in the bible, as the two tribes grew more apart so did their religions. Under the rule of King Josiah in Judah, he combined the two religions into one using the newly discovered "book of the law" (aka deuteronomy) that his preist found in the temple. If you have your bible handy, 2 Kings 23  describes the lengths that Josiah went through.

I would also suggest you read the few paragraphs that are at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ancient_Israel_and_Judah#Iron_Age_Yahwism

It does a decent job summarizing this transition from polytheism to monotheism. Here is a quote from it, "With the emergence of monarchy at the beginning of Iron Age II the king promoted his own family god, Yahweh, as the god of the kingdom, but beyond the royal court religion continued to be both polytheistic and family-centered, as it was also for other societies in the Ancient Near East. "

It would be very similar if I denied that you believe in one god, as you deny that ancient Jews believed in multiple gods. Either one of us would be wrong. I don't mind discussing this as long as you keep an open mind and don't just out right deny a Judaic pantheon.

smotpoker86 :
I'm not denying that Jews of the Old Testament served other gods, but it wasn't their God that they were worshiping. I'm pointing out here that in Genesis where God said "Let us make..." he wasn't referring to himself as being equal to multiple gods, in all of scripture God refers to himself as being the one and only God.

There are various scriptures in the Old Testament (not only the New Testament) that point to the Trinity - one God in three Persons.

tRIUNE : I would prefer not discussing the trinity as it is completely different than polytheism. Unless you are trying to relate the trinity to polytheism by saying all the deities previously worshiped were the same god, than feel free to elaborate.

"I'm pointing out here that in Genesis where God said "Let us make..." he wasn't referring to himself as being equal to multiple gods, in all of scripture God refers to himself as being the one and only God. "

How exactly is God saying "Let us" and "in our image" portraying only one God?

In my opinion,  the usage of us and our in that verse are there because it is basically the Sumerian/Babylonian creation myth, in which there are multiple Gods. Genesis borrows a lot from those stories and myths, like the creation in Enuma Elish or the great flood in The Epic of Gilgamesh. There is a reason why the tower of babel story takes place in Babylon ... the story was originally created there. Of course in the modern bible it is no longer dedicated to Marduk, but only one God.

The point I am trying to make (and alluded to in the previous post) is that the Bible was largely edited to make Yahweh the one and only god. I am pretty sure your priest or bishop or whatever won't touch this issue with a ten foot pole, but the historical evidence is there.

smotpoker86 :
Ok, you can come to these conclusions if you truly believe that the Bible was edited to something other than what God wanted us to read... but have you considered the 10 Commandments - Exodus 20:3 "You shall have no other gods before Me." He doesn't say before 'us'. That's where the Trinity is portrayed; he says in one passage 'us', then in other passages 'me'.

tRIUNE :   Having read (just now as you pointed it out) Exodus 20:3 , it clearly doesn't say "us". Whether or not this was edited in some fashion I am not sure. I am looking into it and trying to match it up with a Hebrew or Aramaic version of the Torah. This is easier said than done as the books aren't structured the same in Hebrew. My initial assumption is that it is either edited or added in some time after the return from exile, when they converted to monotheism.

With that being said, I find the next few verses in Exodus 20 very interesting.

2 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Yes, he does say that he is "your God" and to not worship anything in the heaven above or the earth beneath, but he is not saying he is the only God. He doesn't tell the Jews not to worship other gods because they don't exist, he is telling them not to because he is jealous. So jealous in fact that he punished them by letting neighbouring countries invade, kill , and remove them from Israel.  

One of the reasons why I believe this is a later addition or revision to the bible is because of this punishment we find in the later books. In my mind, it is no coincidence that the idea of Israel being punished for worshiping multiple gods happens during the same time period of King Josiah and his priests enforcing monotheism. I mean if the priests went around telling the population "We suffered because we worshiped false idols" then the people would have fear and a reason to convert to monotheism.

I don't think "gosh" or "goodness" are blasphemy.