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The Archaeology of God: Scholarship, History, Myths and Legends The Restoration of God’s Eternal Family

By Kerry A. Shirts

Director of Research

FAIR

(Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research)

(Kerry's note: I will add the footnotes as I have time, there are over 500 of them)

What I will do in this paper is discuss critics arguments against God as understood by Mormonism. Then, in response to their criticisms, I will present the archaeological "proof" of God and his family from the ancient Near Eastern and Old Testament perspectives. I also discuss the significance of the ancient Jewish Messiah Ben Berechiah Joseph Legend, since his ancient symbols were the bull and unicorn, both symbols used for a specific purpose of Deity in the Bible. I also discuss the significance of the Cherubim, as they "prove" a concept of Deity also via archaeology which Evangelical Christian anti-Mormon critics are ignoring. This is the groundwork for moving into the New Testament and early Christian milieu. Several themes are examined such as the councils of Gods; the battle in heaven; souls of humans and angels of light existing in a pre-mortal existence, the Heavenly Mother, the Prophetic forerunner named Joseph in ancient times and our day, the theme of Adam’s garment restored, and Adam having the Gospel from the beginning, as well as the Eternal Married Heavenly Family. The discussion will end on the fullest possible meaning of Christ’s Infinite Atonement, which is literally the restoration of God’s Eternal Family.

This will be quite a direct paper responding to very blunt claims of several critics against the Mormon understanding of God. Virulent anti-Mormon critics rely on a shock value inciting an emotional response in their audience, instead of a thinking response. I intend on increasing that shock value through archaeology and Biblical scholarship of the highest caliber. Archaeology has "proven" that God is not an incorporeal, immaterial sexless spirit everywhere, yet nowhere present, three in one consubstantial, inconfusedly, unchangeably, the defined undefinable, indivisibly, immutable person(s) which are not person(s).

This method of archaeology as "proof" is an illustration and object lesson so we can see when critics use archaeology (for whatever reason, usually against the Book of Mormon) there is no reason to be overly concerned with their conclusions. Many critics inadequately assess the full archaeological "proof" available. I emphasize that I am dealing with the archaeological picture concerning God, (a much more important subject than whether Jericho is excavated as "proof" of the Bible) not that this "proves" any of this is Mormon doctrine.

Through the years anti-Mormon critics have claimed that "The Bible’s accuracy and reliability has been "proven" and verified over and over again by archaeological finds...." They use the Dead Sea Scrolls as irrefutable proof of their claims. Critics claim Mormons are wrong to think the Bible teaches polytheism, because "The Bible... teaches that man was originally monotheistic."

I’m not aware of a single archaeologist who uses the word "proof" for anything discovered, but to humor the critics we resort to saying "proof," "proven," etc. I am not talking about just any God either, but the God of the Bible. Let me make that perfectly clear. I discuss archaeological "proofs" about the God in the Bible. Granted I will use Israel’s neighbors to help illustrate what Israel took from them and used for her own. Israel did not live in isolation from Canaan, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Babylon, or the Phoenicians. The Deities involved in this discussion, however, are Israel’s Deities found in the Old Testament, El the Father and Yahweh the Son.

Of course, from the critics’ view, the Latter Day Saint Christians (nicknamed Mormons) are wrong about God. Protestant, Evangelical Christians contend that polytheism (the idea of there being multiple Gods to worship) is pagan and non-Biblical. They argue that God does not have a physical human form body; nor does God have a father himself; God is not married; men do not become Gods either. Corollary to God being married, there is no Heavenly Mother either. The Gods do not have literal children through sexual relationships either. The very idea that Jesus and Lucifer are brothers is ludicrous to critics of Mormonism. That is the critics’ stance. It is time to see what archaeology "proves" on all these points. First the "proofs," then an elaboration of them from the archaeologists and Bible scholars themselves.

Archaeology "Proves" the following of the Biblical God:

1. God is not alone. The Bible is polytheistic, in that it knows of many Gods.

2. The Biblical God in the Old Testament is modeled after the Canaanite God El, and is married.

3. The Bible God is a polygamist. His wife is Heavenly Mother, and Gods have sex together in holy Marriage, the Hieros Gamos. The result of this marriage is children.

4. God and his wives are married for all eternity.

5. God’s name, as "El" shows he is an individual and separate God from His Son Yahweh.

6. Yahweh is married, has sex with His wife and produce children

7. The God of the Bible has a family unit, namely wives, daughters, and sons.

8. Men and women on earth having sex together, are actually imitating the Gods in heaven who have sex with their wives, as they have been commanded to do. The Cherubim is the symbol for this.

9. Souls of earth lived in a premortal existence and were intelligent light beings.

10. The souls participated in a Council of Gods concerning their future. The discussion became a battle in heaven with some of the souls being cast out. The battle from heaven continues on earth today. Jesus Christ’s Infinite Atonement is literally a restoration of God’s eternal family unit, from the battle and separation of the Heavenly Family in the premortal existence. (This is the theological point logically following the archaeological "proofs.")

The above ten points, I say, are abundantly "proven" with Biblical Archaeology and scholarship. I am not contending that since they are "proven," that they are then considered valid Mormon doctrines. I am contending that these ten points prove the Evangelical Christian’s argument wrong about archaeology. The Christian God is not proven archaeologically to be the Biblical God. This does not prove that the Mormon God is "proven," however. We do not get our doctrine from archaeology. So far as I am aware, officially, Mormonism does not teach that God had sex to produce Jesus or other children. At this time it is enough to know that the result of God and Mary was the divine God-Man, Jesus. If Jesus was truly human then he received 23 chromosomes from Mary, and 23 from God, His Father. How he received them we are not told. As Stephen Robinson has said "I am not talking about a sexual conception, only a divine conception and a divine sonship." From here out, I give the archaeological point of view.

El: The Head God of the Gods

Mircea Eliade, one of the world’s foremost mythologists and scholars of scripture, noted that El, the same El in Genesis was the head of the Canaanite pantheon of Gods. El, as the Catholic Encyclopedia informs us, "was used... as a proper name for God." His presence arouses reverence as well as awe in his worshippers. The Hebrew text of Genesis 28:17 says after Jacob dreamed of God, he exclaimed how awesome was the place of his dream, that it was the myhla tyb (Bayith Elohim) i.e., the house of the God, El.

El is !wylA la #raw ~ymv hnq the "creator of heavens and earth." The Arabic cognate of the epithet of El is "to be high," and Oldenburg translates an epithet of El meaning "the King, the Exalted Father." Oldenburg notes Aistleitner’s comment that the Ugaritic snm is a designation of the elevated residence of El. The Bible notes that El was a family God as tradition says at Genesis 49:25:

m’l ‘byk wy’zrk

w’ [l] sdy wybrkk

From the god of your father who supports you.

El-Shadday who blesses you.

An Egyptian inscription "proves" that the name "Shadday" was in use in the biblical tradition before Yahweh became popular. Shaddai[y] was a god of the mountain, which early on combined with the El element, as did other names of deities and human in the Bible. Shaddai was also a play on words of the mountain of a woman’s breast.

Many Bible scholars and archaeologists have demonstrated the multiplicity of gods, not only of the ancient Near East, but actually in the Bible as well. Dead Sea Scroll scholar, Frank Moore Cross demonstrated archaeologically El, the El of the Bible (also Elohim), was the head God of a pantheon of gods, hence a polytheistic picture in the Bible. William F. Albright says even Satan was in this council of the gods. I will return to this below. The late Jewish scholar, Raphael Patai, noted the Kabbalah had a plurality of persons in the deity. He also established that the divine Tetrad in ancient cultures, including the Bible, was clearly polytheistic. These tetrads consisted of Father, Mother, Son and daughter, obviously heavenly families. We know "in at least one letter written by an Elephantine Jew to another, blessings are invoked of Yaho and another deity, which proves that the Jews of the island could and did worship, along with Yahweh, other deities as well."

Patai dispelled the myth that the Hebrews did not worship other deities. "Unbiased reading of the Biblical text, combined with the archaeological evidence shows irrefutably that the great majority of the people, including most of their kings, princes, priests, and prophets did not reject other gods... they were followers of assortments of deities chosen from among Yahweh, Baal, Asherah, Asarte, Anath, the Queen of Heaven, to name only the most popular ones." Bible archaeologist Nelson Glueck has found a high expression with a clear and well developed pantheon of deities, religion, ethics, etc., among the Nabataeans, showing that polytheism is not a degeneration or wickedness of life at all. Yigael Yadin, Israel’s foremost archaeologist of his day, found many deities and their symbols in his study of Zinjirli in the 1950’s. Many of these deities were familiar and worshipped by the ancient Jews in the Bible lands.

On close inspection of the various deities’ names in Genesis, John Marshall Holt divulged that El "is the name that turns up with the greatest variety of forms among the divine names in Genesis." Among others he mentioned !wyl[ la (El Elyon) in Genesis 14:18, the deity Abraham made sacrifice to during his visit with Melchizedek. He listed la tyb lah (El Bethel) at Genesis 31:13, and yar la (El Roi) at Genesis 16:13, and includes ~lw[ la (El Olam) at Genesis 21:33. What makes this significant is Holt’s assessment that "The patriarchs may have been on the way to monotheism, but they were practical, if not systematic polytheists." This is obvious since "the polytheism of the patriarch’s neighbors is plain in all the records we have from Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Egypt... the religion of the patriarchs must have shared many ideas with the dominant religions of the various peoples with whom they had contact." This influence is demonstrated by Gerhard Von Rad when he shows, among other things, that Jahweh has "horns like a wild bull" and he also has the designation of Baal as the "Rider on the Clouds," which increases our understanding of the different wording about Jahweh at Psalms 68, twbr[B bkrl ("riding on the clouds") "Many of the cultic usages too, were taken over by Jahwism."

Von Rad finds that even after Yahweh worship was established in the Bible, a different god was worshipped at Bethel, the traces of the cult being "demonstrable over a wide area in Israel." The god worshipped at Tabor as well as on Carmel, was one of the El deities. Shechem worship was offered to a tryB l[B (Baal Berith - who he says is a Baal of the Covenant), while Beersheba was worshipping an ~lw[ la (El Olam), as well as an yar la (El Roi) to the extreme south. Morton Smith claims that the Canaanite gods ‘El ‘Elyon, Shaddai, and Tsur "have been identified with Yahweh." Smith also shows that Jeroboam set up golden images of Yahweh at both Dan and Bethel in the form of a calf, (bhz ylg[) which reflects the identification of Yahweh with El, as El was commonly called a bull. This is demonstrated because Numbers 23:22 indicates that El brought Israel out of Egypt, they being strong as wild ox, an epithet for El - wl mar tp[wtK myrcMm maycwm la "El, brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox." At Deuteronomy 33:17 the horns and strength of the wild ox are transferred to Joseph, qua first-born of Yahweh, "his bull." Like father like son. ~ym[ ~hB wynrq ~ar ynrqw wl rdh wrwv rwkB ("In majesty he is like a firstborn bull; his horns are the horns of a wild ox.") Albright said the wild bulls were translated as unicorns in the KJV. This in turn, is tied in with the Messiah ben Berechiah Joseph legend and the apocalyptic battle against Gog and Magog in the last days, which we understand, as in the Dead Sea Scrolls, as the continuation from the war in heaven. This will be examined below.

When critics remark that the Mormon concept of a hierarchy of endless Gods is ridiculous, the archaeological picture is not flattering. Names found in the Egyptian Execration Texts of the eighteenth century B.C. such as El, Hadad, Amn, Anat, Horon, Shamash, Shahar, and Rapha indicate the deities in Canaan which were worshipped, while Ugarit and the Old Testament add such names as Ba’al, Dagan, Asherah, Astarte, Elyon, and Mot. From Israel’s nomadic past, R.B.Y. Scott says "There may also have been belief in a supreme sky-god El, recognized as the power behind all phenomena, in a lunar deity and in a goddess of fertility originally associated with oases." One key to understanding the ancient Near Eastern god(s) is to recognize the chain of God the Father, who had a son, who was a father, who had a son, etc. There appears to be no ultimate "unmoved mover" as in Aristotelian thinking, nor of an ultimate "First Cause," as in Greek philosophical thinking, adapted by both Jews and Christians. This is precisely how Joseph Smith understood it.

Some Bible scholars have come to a basic conclusion based on archaeological and literary analysis of the Bible that "when we speak of God as our Father, we are employing an analogue which depends on an intrinsic likeness, in some respects at least, between the parent-child relation and the relation of God to his creatures." Even the later Hermetic writings claim "And the other name of God is ‘Father.’ He is called the Father, because he is the maker or begetter of all things; for it is the part of a father to beget. And for this reason the begetting of children is held by those who think aright to be the most weighty concern in human life, and the most pious of deeds." We are involved with a family situation concerning both men and Gods.

A Babylonian prayer says: "I, Balasu, son of his god, whose god is Nabu, whose goddess is Tashmetum..." this is similar to the Creation Epic which notes Ansahr made his firstborn (Anu) like unto himself, and Anu begat his own likeness Nu-dim-mud, who was far stronger than Anshar, the begetter of his father, without equal amongst the gods his brethren. He is a son of Anu, although he is also considered elsewhere as father of the gods. The idea that El can be the Head God of the Gods, is a valid archaeological "proof" of the concept of the Gods as a chain of Fathera and Sons in the ancient Near East.

El, The Head God of the Gods: Polygamous, Sexually Active & Married For Eternity

For critics of Mormonism who say God is not married; does not have sex, and is not a literal father, the archaeological picture proves depressing. El has a wife named Anath (often called "the progenitress of the gods") and they have a son, who appears as a storm god, perhaps Shaddai himself, according to Albright. Another one of Els’ wives was Asherah, commonly called his consort or wife. El’s council of gods are called "the holy ones," usually associated with his consort as well. "Thus we find in Ugarit alongside ilm/bn qdsh, - "the gods/holy sons," ilm bn atrt,, "the gods, the sons of Athirat," which "proves" that the sons of the mother-goddess Asherah are identical with the sons of El, "the holy ones."

El is "the bull" or "the father bull." We read in a poem of Baal and Anath, of a prince Yamm who wishes to build a palace, wherein a prayer is offered beginning "Thy father Bull El favors Prince Yamm...[...]... [Sh]ould thy father Bull [E]l hear thee...." The reason for this epithet in archaeological information gleaned from various texts around the ancient Near East is the concept of "fertilizing power," or "virility." Many of these bulls with men are pictured on cylinder seals from the ancient Akkadian world. The exact counterpart to this in Egypt was Min, the god of fertility par excellence, whose sacred animal was the bull. Both Min and Amun were called "Bull of his mother," clearly reflecting the fertility aspect of their nature. The Pharaoh was often called the ka nkt - "the victorious bull."

The Ka-bull besides having sexual connotations also indicates "the highest hierarchal position within a group." El "proves" this as he is the head of the council of the gods, and Ba’al has to approach El’s throne reverently. The ~yhlah (ha-Elohim) of Gen. 5:22, 24, may reflect an earlier source in which Enoch entered the assembly of gods or angels. El, the Patriarch of the gods; the creator; the highest conceivable god; the leader; the father of the gods; the head god of the council of all gods; the number one god, who fought to establish his headship in the family of the gods, as Frank Moore Cross remarks, (hence certainly a victorious bull!) also had a father, and so on and so on. This is the El Elyon of the Bible, archaeologically speaking here. He is also called El Olam, "the God of Eternity", and is sometimes described as an old man with a grey beard. The Gnostic Tripartite Tractate, notes this same principle in later Christian times also: "Yet he is not like a solitary individual. Otherwise, how could he be a father? For whenever there is a father, it follows that there is a son."

These epithets of El leave us with no doubt concerning his being a fertility god. This is the same El as the larfy yhla la (El elohe yisra’el,) meaning "El, god of (the Patriarch) Israel," (Gen. 33:22). El is the father and creator. He is sometimes called abu bani’ ili meaning "father of the gods." It is noteworthy that the patriarchal god Abir Ya’qob, "the bull of Jacob," is known. Bible archaeologists say that the presence of bulls in the pantheons of the Gods was a natural and proper object or animal, especially for supplicating for protection and fertility.

When critics against Mormonism declare the idea of a Heavenly Mother to be grossly and wildly wrong, it is obvious they have not consulted archaeology. The Mother Goddess of European, and ancient Near Eastern lands is one of the firmest established archaeological discoveries of the last century.

Since the Bible never stigmatizes the Canaanite worship of El, whose authority in the societies affairs was recognized by the Bible Patriarchs, we need to recognize the seriousness of the archaeological "proof" concerning him and his family. Asherah, the mother-goddess, was his consort, that is wife, while Baal was the executive god, as it were, of the pantheon of gods. The archaeological discoveries of the Bible God "proves" that the pantheon or divine council of Gods was polytheistic. Many ancient civilizations understood this concept as in the Scandinavian north countries our Norse ancestors had the Old Norse word regin which meant "the gods (regin) sat in council in their judgment seat and directed the course of the world’s events." Bible archaeologist G. Ernest Wright noted "The great polytheisms of Biblical times were by no means primitive religions, no matter the primitive features which survived within them." To belittle polytheism as the anti-Mormon James R. Spencer does is archaeologically indefensible.

H. H. Rowley "proves" it is impossible to trace the ancient biblical religion from a development from polytheism to monotheism and vice versa. In fact, he contends that William F. Albright, the great biblical scholar and archaeologist, "established Mosaic monotheism by giving a new connotation to the term monotheism." Rowley noted that John Bright said if monotheism is taken in an ontological sense meaning that there is only one God which exists, then "one may question if early Israel’s faith deserves the designation." Rowley quotes another scholar who contends "It is hard to find any evidence that Moses either believed or taught that Yahweh was the only existing God, and that He was therefore not alone the God of Israel but of all men." "[Albrecht] Alt has argued that each of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had his own special God. Moreover, while in the Old Testament Shaddai, El, Elyon, and Yahweh are all equated and identified, it is hardly to be denied that they were once regarded as separate deities."

The "God of the Fathers," the personal or family deity similar to the Accadian deity, was also the head of the pantheon of gods in the Amorite religion. This "God of the Fathers," is the Bible God El. Albright noted a votive inscription in Sumerian from the 18th century B.C. which calls Asherah (El’s wife) "the bride of heaven." The Enuma Elish reads "At the beginning, before heaven and earth were fashioned, there were the primeval mother Tiamat and her consort, the primeval father Apsu." Clearly, the concept of a Heavenly Mother is an ancient Near Eastern concept. Not that I am identifying the very Mother in Heaven with any of these ancient Goddesses. The concept is not a foreign one anciently. Archaeology "proves" Joseph Smith correct in teaching this concept of literal heavenly parents. As the Bride of Heaven, Asherah is said to have been the mother of 70 deities from the Bible God, El.

Critics have argued that there is no marriage in heaven. Archaeologically this is not a supported claim whatsoever. For Mormons to believe there is a continued marriage relation in heaven, from our marriages here on earth, the archaeological picture is indeed enlightening.

The Hieros Gamos that is, the sacred or divine marriage, tells of El marrying his two wives, thus archaeologically "proving" that El, the Bible God was polygamous. In a Sankunyaton text El is said to have married three women. El is the father of the gods by numerous goddesses in fact. Some of their children are Baal, the storm, rain, and fertility god, the maiden Anath, his sister, and Mot, the dreaded enemy of Baal. One discovered text discusses El’s lovemaking abilities:

El’s power is great like Sea’s

El’s power is like that of Flood

Long is El’s member like Sea’s

El’s member like that of Flood.

According to Frank Moore Cross, the words ark.yd.’il "Long is El’s member" also means "El’s penis is long." Archaeologically, The Bible God El, is "proven" to have a body, and has had his beard described, and now his sex. In an incredible analysis of the rainbow covenant in the Old Testament and Joseph’s coat of many colors, and the symbolism which the Rabbis attatched to that, Gerschom Scholem noted that Joseph was the guardian of the covenant, since he did not have the extra-marital affair with Pharaoh’s wife in Egypt. Hence the description of Joseph in Jacob’s blessing at Genesis 49: 24: "His bow abode in its original strength." Joseph’s faithfulness made him the prime example of this since he "maintained unsullied the covenant mark of circumcision on his body." Scholem further notes that the Kabbalists "ascribed the color symbolism of the rainbow to this sefirah, (the one equated with reproduction) called also in the Zohar, as the generating power, ‘life of the worlds,’ the rainbow itself in the cloud is understood as the "life of the worlds,’ hence God saying "I have set my bow in the cloud." I show below the Jewish tradition which holds that God is circumcised, which only works if man is created literally in God’s image.

El’s wives are also said to be given to him forever. Thus the heavenly family is a family forever. As El kisses his wives, they conceive, and as they embrace they are made pregnant. So the Bible God El is summed up by one of the greatest Bible archaeologists as: "a vigorous and prodigiously lusty old man as is fitting for the primordial procreator and patriarch." This was the Hieros Gamos, the sacred marriage, which perhaps can be best seen in the epithet of Asherah where she is called "Holiness," (Canaanite Qudshu - cf. Hebrew vdq for holy). "The Holiness of Asherah is a term with many ancient parallels, even in Rabbanic literature, where ‘the Holiness’ is a designation of God."

The wars that El was involved in established his headship of the gods in his family of the gods. In text 52 from Ugarit we read in a chiastic passage in a triad of speeches where women are addressing El first as his wives, then again as his daughters, and a third time as his wives, "whereupon he does impregnate them." El with his wife Asherah had seventy sons. In the poem The Birth of the Gods, "El has intercourse with his two wives, and by their childbirth he provides fertility for the whole land of Ugarit for the next two cycles of seven years. This was the most important function in the land, and its fertility and welfare depended upon the happy success of the hierogamy" [the sacred marriage of the Gods] The Gospel of Philip in later Christian times teaches this. "If earthly procreation is an intimate and secret thing how much more concealed is the undefiled marriage, a true mystery? It is not carnal, but pure, having nothing of lust and darkness. The marriage relationship should be ever modest, discreet, and withdrawn."

Albright noted that Anath, one of El’s wives was called "queen of heaven" in a recently described Ugaritic tablet, and "Mistress of Kingship", "Mistress of Dominion", and "Mistress of the High Heaven." She is also identified with the Carthaginian appellation Tennit pane-Ba’al which means "Radiance of the Presence of Ba’al." She was also called, as the Mother of the gods, batultu ‘Anat, "the Heavenly Virgin," even though she sired gods!

When critics argue that Mormonism denies the Virgin birth, because Mary had sex with God (not an official Mormon doctrine, though some individuals understand it this way) they fail to realize that archaeologically the ancient Goddesses could have sex, give birth, and yet remain virgins. Mormonism does not deny the Virgin birth of Christ. In later Christian times, Julian would thrash the Christians’ interpretation of Isaiah 7:14, saying "Why then, do Christians prattle about Mary being the mother of God if Isaiah nowhere says that the ‘only begotten Son of God ‘ or the ‘firstborn of creation’ is born of the virgin?" Wilken notes that Julian even argued "Christians, without any warrant from the Scriptures, had instituted a new law and deserted the Law of the Jews." The Romans argued well against Christians in their day, not that we Latter Day Christians accept such arguments. At the very least, Evangelical Christians don’t have much room for wrangling about Mormonism and the Virgin Mary.

The archaeological texts "prove" El has extraordinary procreative powers and with them have populated heaven as well as earth. That is, El has sex in heaven for populating heaven with heavenly beings, and has sex with other of his wives for earthly populating. The Book of Enoch says the Lord is the Lord of spirits no less. Charles points out the correlation to Numbers 16:22; 27:16 where he is "the God of the spirits of all flesh," again, indicating that critics are not aware of the archaeological and textual "proof" of the pre-mortal existence of our spirits. Charles expounds this, with references throughout the Book of Enoch that God is the Lord of Spirits of flesh.

Raphael Patai, proposed that the King and Matronit (God and his spouse) came together, and in the sacred sexual act through their Hieros Gamos actually produced souls and angels, thus showing that all belong to the family of God. The family of El are in the genus "god."

In this connection it is more than fascinating that El is also called the Father of mankind in the epics. We find his family members doing what he did, getting married and starting families. H.H. Rowley reads Micah 6:8 as meaning that Man must reflect the justice and hesed [piety, grace] of God, therefore, walking in the fellowship of God, "He [man] is the child of God, and must therefore be like God." Peter C. Craigie enhances the view that "the essence of ancient Hebrew theology is that God could be known in relationship with humankind... the image of God, which distinguishes human beings from the rest of creation, is in part the capacity of human beings to have a relationship with the God whose image they bear." Eichrodt has shown that "the old folk-sagas are able to tell of encounters with the deity in human form, and both Genesis 18f, and 32:34ff are marked by a descriptive realism"

The Bull, the Unicorn & the Messiah Ben Berechiah Joseph Legend

Why was the bull equated with the unicorn in the Bible though? And how are these in turn related to the Messiah ben Joseph legend fighting the apocalyptic fight against Gog and Magog preparing for the Davidic Messiah in the last days? The lessons here are rich, in light of Joseph Smith being a restorer of God’s family, bringing back the eternal Marriage covenant (D & C 132) through Christ, the Messiah (the bull/unicorn).

On the unicorn, most scholars and commentators have noted that the Bible suffers a mistranslation on this score. Willy Ley demonstrated the Greek translators of the Hebrew Bible mistranslated the Hebrew word re’em, which for the ancient Hebrews was a large, powerful and fearsome animal, into the Greek word monokeros, in English, the unicorn. For the most part, scholars have dealt with the unicorn in the medieval and alchemical eras and contexts, showing it associated with virginity, remedy against pestilence and poison, and in later centuries (13th and on) it represented the Virgin, the Mother of Christ, hence the reason the unicorn takes refuge in the lap of a true virgin, when only then can the hunters kill it. This legend made it symbolic of the incarnation and the redemptive sacrifice of the Son of God during the medieval ages. "The unicorn became the symbolic image of Christ, descending through his bodily birth into the bosom of humanity, represented by the maiden in the legend; and the hunter was the counterpart of the Jewish people who put the Savior to death."

One study deserves closer inspection. J. L. W. Shaper’s "The Unicorn in the Messianic Imagery of the Greek Bible," is perhaps the most serious attempt at understanding the unicorn from the Bible perspective. The Greek word used for the unicorn, monokerws (monokeros) is also found at Ps. 22:21; 6:92, Numbers 23:22 and 24:28, Deut. 33:17. This is the Greek word which translates the Hebrew word ~ymar (remim), meaning wild ox or wild bull, KJV translation of unicorn. "The power of the wild bulls is a positive attribute of God." He notices that in every single case in the Bible where the unicorn is mentioned, it is in a Messianic prophecy grouping of the scriptures. The point most important to his paper is that in "all the passages in the Hebrew show evidence of a strictly positive connotation of the ‘horns of the wild bulls’ as a symbol of might and power..." At Ps. 22:22 we see the horns of the wild bull as a positive attribute of God’s saving power. Num. 24:8 "further contribute to the understanding of the concept of a powerful god who leads Israel out of Egypt and displays a might which resembles that of a wild bull." Tied in with the Messianic applications of these scriptures with the unicorn, bulls, might, power, etc., is the "context of the speculation about the Messiah ben Joseph and the Davidic Messiah, the fight against Gog is of major significance." This Joseph cycle is a remarkable, yet fairly unknown thing. There are hints, and scattered fragments, Targums, and comments on this second Messiah, which, when taken together show a remarkably compact constellation of images which tie in with Joseph Smith’s life and achievments in numerous ways.

The first mention of the Messiah ben Joseph is in the Babylonian Talmud, Suk. 52 a-b. "It follows from relevant passages in Rabbinic writings that the Messiah ben Joseph will be the leader in the eschatalogical battle against Gog and Magog to introduce the messianic age. In the Baraitha of R. Simeon ben Yohai "the Messianic age itself comes after ‘the wars of the dragons’ and after the war with Gog and Magog. The military commander in these great battles can be none other than Messiah ben Joseph." These battles of course, are a continuation of the battle in heaven, with the armies of God (his family, Israel), against the Goyim, the nations of the earth.

While some legends claim that Adam offered up the unicorn as a sacrifice, the Hellenistic thought was a connection of the unicorn with the heavenly bodies, and in Jewish legend the unicorn was intertwined with the idea of primordial creation. The Book of Enoch 90:9 noted the horns of rams as well as a great horn of a sheep, clearly having messianic overtones. It also has mention of a great white bull, which had to do with birth-giving, hence "Jewish Messianism may have had an astrological substratum." These images tie directly into the Joseph cycle as we will now see.

The Joseph Messiah would arise from the Northern Kingdom, though he is eventually slain for his people. Charles C. Torrey even notes in his discussion of the two Messiahs in ancient Israelite lore, the David (Christians claim is Jesus) and Joseph messiahs, that they "resemble each other very closely. Two preexistent beings, kept in reserve for the Last Days; each destined to rescue Israel from hostile nations; each bearing the title ‘anointed; each assured of his triumphal reign."

J. Liver’s description of the Testament of Levi appears to describe the theme of Joseph Smith’s understanding of history. Since history as well as individuals are projected onto and from scripture in types and shadows, this is a most instructive discourse.

Together with the glorification of the descendants of Levi we find in the Testament of Levi the most violent denunciations of the priesthood. The misdeeds of priests in future generations are described with remarkable vividness. After this there comes an apocalyptic vision describing the decline of the priesthood from generation to generation - from the first who is anointed to priesthood and shall speak to the Lord, and his priesthood shall be perfect, down to the last priests who are lovers of money, adulterers, idolaters, and lascivious abusers of children and beasts. [the apostasy] God will take his vengeance upon the evil priests, and will then raise up a new priest, by whom all the words of the Lord shall be revealed... [Joseph Smith] In the time of his priesthood the expected end of days shall come... this new priest is described in the vivid colors of a Messiah... it is his priesthood that is emphasized. [Joseph Smith received both Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods]

Interestingly, Isaiah repeatedly spoke of a "Servant of the Lord" (Isa. 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12), which Raphael Patai, says refers in Jewish literature to the Messiah ben Joseph." Alfred Edersheim noted that this Messiah ben Joseph’s special mission was to call back the ten lost tribes of Israel, and to subject them to the Messiah.

Hugh Schonfield has examined the legend of Ben Berechiah and notes, among other things, that the Joseph-type of person was regarded as Zaddik gamur, the perfect righteous man. This is clearly reflected in the Testament of Benjamin, where the ecstatic reunion of the aging Jacob with his lost son Joseph has Jacob prophesying "Through you will be fulfilled the heavenly prophecy concerning the Lamb of God, the Savior of the world, because the unspotted one will be betrayed by lawless men, and the sinless one will die for impious men..." We also read "in the End of the Days there would arise a suffering Teacher of Righteousness and a suffering Messiah, Priest, Prophet, Precursor, whatever it might be. Joseph the Just merges with Elijah the Just." In fact, Deuteronomy 35:19; 30:4 are referred to in the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan as referring to the "gathering of dispersed Israel by Elijah, and their being brought back by Messiah." Compare Elijah appearing to Joseph Smith on Passover Day, 1836, to bring about the turning of the hearts of the children to their parents and vice versa, the great geneological work of uniting families not only throughout all of history, but through all eternity.

Joseph Fielding McConkie noted that Ginzberg in the Legends of the Jews wrote "Elijah’s chief activity will consist in restoring the purity of the family." "The assoication with Elijah, then, could imply a priestly motif as well as a prophetic one, and an eschatalogical High Priest could also have a prophetic persona." Joseph Smith certainly was a High Priest, and could certainly be explained as an eschatological "prophetic persona." The tenth century Karaites declared that the ha-kohen, the priest, of the Priestly Messiah in the scrolls was none other than Elijah, and in fact, "Elijah is not merely the herald of the coming redemption, but plays a vital and monumentous part in that redemption." A signal aspect of this work is Elijah anointing the High Priest and the Messiah, and then "make known the geneologies." Another function is that Elijah will restore the Lost Tribes of Israel, and restore the Messianic Priesthood.

The Rabbinic exegesis of the wild ox, buffalo, and the great horns, of Deuteronomy 33:16-17, are the emblem of Messiah ben Joseph. The Sifre, says "Let it come on the head (rosh) of Joseph, he came first (berosh) in Egypt, and he will come first in Messianic times." Torrey, on the Yalkut Shim’oni says: "The wild ox is the warrior Messiah... It thus seems assured, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the great animal of Enoch 90:38, as destined to appear in the very last days is the Messiah ben Joseph." It is significant to note that this Messiah ben Joseph is killed in battle, "and his death has no atoning power whatever." Elsewhere the ox is what Joseph is likened to, as the Son of David is to the ass (Zechariah 9:9). This reminds us of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of an ass.

Despite the death of the Messiah ben Joseph, the Parashah Behaalothekla on Isaiah mentions a discussion between God and Satan. God tells Satan he will be conquered by Ephraim, the Messiah ben Joseph. A tradition of the Rabbi’s mentions that in the latter days, the Fathers will say "Ephraim, the Messiah, our Righteousness, though we are Thy Fathers, yet Thou art better than we... and Thou hast been for laughter and derision [cf. the anti-Mormons today!] to the nations for the sake of Israel... Ephraim, Messiah, our Righteousness, be Thou reconciled to us, because Thou hast reconciled Thy Maker to us... Then the Fathers of the world say to Him: Ephraim, Messiah, our Righteousness, be Thou our judge, and do to them what Thy soul desireth." Zechariah 12:10 is applied to the Messiah, son of Joseph in the Talmud.

One point needs to be clearly understood of Messiah ben Joseph however. He was clearly subordinate to the service of the Son of David. Most interesting, "the doctrine of a ‘Millenium’ had its origin in the triumphal reign of the Son of Ephraim." Schonfield notes that from both the Mohammedan and Jewish views, the legend of Asaph [Joseph] ben Berechiah "is a princely figure... he knew the ineffible Name of God, [cf. Joseph Smith teaching the Name of Father is "Ahman"] and had the power to perform wonders by means of the Name." [cf. the translation of the Book of Mormon] He was also known as "Asaph the Younger, [cf. Joseph Smith, Jr.] Asaph the Physician [cf. D & C 89, the Word of Wisdom for the health of the Latter Day Saints], Asaph the Sage [cf. Joseph Smith’s instructions on how to build entire cities!], and even Asaph ben Berechiah the Astronomer, [cf. the astronomical aspects in the Book of Abraham and Moses, D & C 76, etc.]" Surely there is a type and shadow as well as an extension of the Joseph cycle from ancient times right up into our day. In fact, the Book of Mormon describes exactly this Joseph named after Joseph whose father was Joseph (2 Nephi, chapter 3). What is more remarkable still is that the Asaph (Joseph) group in the Dead Sea Scrolls learns about the properties of stones, which help them foretell the future. Compare the similar idea of the seer stones Joseph Smith used to bring forth the Book of Mormon, as well as the shining stones of the ancient Jaredites.

"The Teacher of Righteousness, as reflected in the Habakkuk Commentary, was also a seer like Asaph. He was a ‘priest whom God placed in the house of Judah’ to explain all the words of His servants the Prophets (and to expound from) the book of God all that will befall His people Israel. To him ‘God made known all the secrets of His servants the Prophets.’" The very expression ‘gathered together’ is in Hebrew ‘asaph’ and the name itself means ‘The Collector.’ This Asaph is definitely connected with Joseph and the Joseph cycle. Is this not precisely what geneological work is, the collecting of our families together for the eternities? These were the precise keys which Elijah himself restored to Joseph Smith (See D & C 100: 13-16). The Samaritans have this same notion, with one in their own Joseph cycle of legends, whom they call Taheb, "The Restorer." It is interesting to note that the Teacher of Righteousness’ (Asaph) teachings and revelations did not supplant the old covenants. "The New Covenant was a retelling of the Old for the present generation in the Desert." This was exactly the Book of Mormon Nephites view until the coming of Christ. They had kept the Law of Moses until Jesus came to give the New Covenant.

What continues to hold our interest in this ancient Joseph cycle of legends and lore is that the suffering Just One, mentioned in both the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and in Jubilees, identified with Joseph is that the Day of Atonement was instituted in Israel because of this Joseph. Perhaps, because Satan is completely powerless on this one day. "This is hinted at in the fact that the numerical equivilant of Satan is 364, i.e., there is one day in the year on which he is powerless (Yoma 20a)."

In a dream of Joseph, recounted in the legends, "... he had on one of his shoulders a luminous point like a star, a token that the spirit of prophecy rested upon him." Worth noting as well was when Joseph was cast into the pit he was in for three days and three nights, but there was no darkness. "The Angel Gabriel hung in it a precious stone to give him light." It is well known that Joseph Smith identified Noah as Gabriel. What is lesser known is that the Jaredites modelled their barges after Noah’s ark, and "in the oldest records of the human race the ark seems to have been illuminated by just such shining stones." It is exceptional that in an Ethiopic copy of the story of Joseph and Aseneth, among the hymns of the Ethiopic Synaxarion, we read "Salutation to Joseph, who was called the similitude of the chief of the army of God. All my bones sing to this wise man, the bearer of a gem..."

The condemnation of magic, divination, etc., in the Bible at Deuteronomy 18:14 speaks against giving heed to soothsayers and diviners, though Pseudo-Jonathan admonishes Israel to pay heed to the seer with the Urim & Thummim, which God had given Israel. This Urim & Thummim was thought anciently to be a shining stone. Epiphanus suggests the stone became bright when Zechariah ministered in the temple, so that the gold plate on his turban became glorified. It’s interesting to see that Rabbi Moshe ben Nahman (1194 ca. 1270) said the Urim & Thummim had "inscriptions of the holy Names of God, of heavenly origin, given by God to Moses, so that when the priest fixed his thoughts on the divine names in the Urim, some letters engraved upon the stones of the breastpiece would light up before the eyes of the priest who enquired of their judgment."

Back to this idea of Joseph being able to prophesy, what made the Asaph [Joseph] leader of the Dead Sea Scroll sect so important, was precisely because he could prophesy and receive revelations from God concerning his own community.

Raphael Patai produces the account in the apocryphal materials of the twelve brothers on the great sea, and he describes how Joseph broke away from his brothers and they almost drowned, which forcefully recalls the incidents of Nephi and his brothers on the sea in their ship. Eventually Joseph was separated from his brethren as was prophesied. As the Dead Sea Scrolls phrased it, "God is the source of knowledge which he gives to His chosen ones." The Damascus Document and others indicate as does Daniel 2:28-29, "But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets and He hath made known.... what shall be in the end of days."

And, the "Sons of Light," mentioned in the scrolls who entered the covenant are described as "these are also called children." The paternal speaker uses such phrases as "that I may disclose to you," and "that I may open your eyes." This expression is the same one applied to the seer in the Lachish letters, with the peculiar designation of the ha-piqqeah, "the open eyed," a designation of Balaam in Numbers. A Dead Sea Scroll fragment says, concerning the oracle of Balaam, "Oracle of Balaam, son of Beor, and oracle of the man whose eye is clear; oracle of one who hears the sayings of El, and who knows the knowledge of Elyon; who observes the vision of Shaddai, with eye skinned and uncovered. I see him, but not now..." The Dead Sea Scrolls CD 2:12, parallels the "anointed ones by His Holy Spirit," with "the seers of truth," which reflects Joseph of old, and Joseph Smith, both of the Joseph-cycle of seers and anointed ones. The "anointed ones" in the Dead Sea Scrolls however, "are not Messiahs, in the technical sense of the term, but prophets." Aune goes on to note that even a Maschiach is defined as one anointed with the Holy Spirit and called of God to reveal his will. Hugh Nibley has noted the exact same description of a seer is made of Lehi in the Book of Mormon, (1 Ne. 2:11) whose "open eyed," and "visionary" dreams from God were for the good of his family.

From another angle on this open-eyed visionary concept, dealing with the familiar device of the Urim & Thummim, we read "... The radiation of the Urim & Thummim has to penetrate into the heart [hence the reason for their being born on the heart of the high priest] the intellectual centre of the high priest, in order to enable him to ‘read’ the will of YHWH from the Urim & Thummim. So the high priest will be YHWH’s real representative and mouth." The y. Yoma 7.3 "mentions the tradition that the priest heard a voice (from God) that gave the answer... the high priest was to speak by the ruah haqqodes (by looking at the breastpiece in a prophetic vision and seeing the message in the projected letters)..." Van Dam noted that Y. Kaufmann associated the Urim & Thummim with the reference to light in an oracle to Esarhaddon. "In drawing the parallel between the Urim & Thummim and the light in the oracle, he wrote: ‘Here again, the divinely bestowed Jewel and its light an occult guarantees and tokens of the welfare for the Kingdom.’"

So what of all this? One Dead Sea Scroll fragment says "And there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse and a branch from his ro[o]ts will spring forth, and there will rest upon him the spirit of Yahweh, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel [and might] the spirit of knowledge..." This is clearly a reference to Isaiah 11. The Hebrew Bible reads "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots, a Branch will bear fruit."

The Doctrine & Covenants has an entire section (113) devoted to questions concerning this chapter in Isaiah. The implications are astonishing in light of the Joseph-cycle of legends. Who is the Stem of Jesse? "It is Christ." What is the rod coming from the Stem of Jesse? A servant, who is partly a descendant of Jesse as well as of Ephraim, or of the house of Joseph on whom there is laid much power. What is the root of Jesse? "It is a descendant of Jesse, as well as of Joseph, unto whom rightly belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom for an ensign and for the gathering of my people in the last days." Joseph Fielding McConkie notes "It is Joseph Smith that is being described by Isaiah." This is entirely in keeping with the ancient typology of the Berechiah legend, since we are explicitly told, "The prototype of the Moreh Sedeq [the Teacher of Righteousness in the Dead Sea Scrolls] is found is [sic] Isaiah 11:1-5, where the Messiah is described." This is the exact part of Isaiah which the D & C 113 is talking about.

In D & C 88: 8-10, Joseph Smith was told he could claim the Priesthood through the lineage of the Fathers. He certainly held the Keys of the Priesthood (D & C 35:17-18; 128:20-21; 27:13; 65:2).

D & C 110 proves Joseph received the Keys for the gathering of scattered Israel. The implications are far more reaching than just this however.

Observe the wording of D & C 113, which says the stem (Joseph Smith) as well as the root (Joseph Smith) was a descendant of Jesse, as well as of Joseph (2 Ne. 3:15 also identifies Joseph Smith as a descendant of Joseph). We know that Jesus Christ was a descendant of Jesse as well, according to the geneology in the Gospel of Matthew. That clearly means that Jesus Christ had to have had children, since Joseph Smith is a descendant of not only Joseph of old and Jesse, the Father of King David, but is also a descendant of Jesus Christ. Now that is a family tie-in. It is no wonder that Joseph Smith was chosen as the Prophet for the Restoration... of God’s eternal family, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. God is gathering his family, the "Royal Priesthood," literally, (1 Peter 2:9). The Greek clarifies this even further saying this Priesthood is a "Kingly Priesthood," (Basileion ierateuma). This Basileion hierateuma is the same Priesthood mentioned in the Septuagint at Exodus 19:6 and Isaiah 61:6, which latter Hebrew phrase, warqt hwhy ynk ~taw translates "And you will be called the priests of Yahweh."

D & C 113:4 says this descendant of Jesse will have much power laid on him, i.e., be literally a basileuo ("a reigning king"). Joseph Smith was told in a revelation, "For I have conferred upon you the keys and power of the priesthood, wherein I restore all things, and make known unto you all things in due time." This is the point of having the unicorn symbol in employed in the Bible, depicting power or might, as well as having Joseph in the Joseph cycle of legends equated with either the bull or buffalo, whose horns are powerful and mighty.

Joseph Smith’s power and might came with help from the heavens to a larger extent than some have realized. Brian L. Smith was asked "I am Impressed with the number of heavenly beings who appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith. Do we know the nature of their visits?" Joseph was visited by God the Father, Jesus Christ, Moroni, John the Baptist, Peter, James, John, Moses, Elias, Elijah, Noah (Gabriel,) Adam (Michael), Raphael, Divers angel’s, Lehi, Nephi, Mormon. Wherein Brian L. Smith proposed most of them were to instruct Joseph, confer sealing power, confer Priesthood keys, give Urim & Thummim and teach how to use it, accept Kirtland Temple (ordinances, coronations), Open the dispensation and Introduce the Son, give keys to the gathering of the lost tribes. Might and power of the bull/ox/unicorn of Joseph indeed!

The Cherubim as Graphic Images of God & His Wife

The Bible does not give us any physical descriptions of the Cherubim other than being winged. Yet here was one of Israel’s most significant symbols, depicting a male and a female (married) pair of deities. Raphael Patai has shown that the Cherubim of ancient Bible times, the winged human figures, were, at their last depiction, "a man and woman in sexual embrace." This is according to Rabh Qetina, from the late 3rd - 4th century:

When Israel used to make the pilgrimage, they [i.e., the priests] would roll up for them the Parokhet [the veil separating the Holy from the Holy of Holies], and show them the Cherubim which were intertwined with one another, and say to them: ‘Behold! your love before God is like the love of male and female!’

When Rabba bar Rabh Shila (an early 4th-century C.E. Babylonian Amora) reinterpreted the description of Solomon’s temple, especially at 1 Kings 7:36, where we read were decorated by engraved Cherubim, lions and palm trees, "according to the space of each, with wreaths," Patai noticed the words in the quotation marks twylw vya r[mk - "kmayar ish wyloyoth" are read by Rabba as "kyish hamyre byliwya (shelo)," that is the Cherubim were "Like a man intertwined with his wife."

Philo allegorized the cherubim as the revolving spheres of heaven (ouranou), with one cherubim symbolizing the outermost sphere of the fixed stars , the other the innermost sphere. Philo allegorized the flaming sword as the sun. He reads Exodus 25:19 ~ybrkh ynp wyhy trpkh la wyha la vya ~hynpw "The Cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover", as each representing two opposing spheres, "and so too, the hemispheres are opposite to each other and stretch out to the earth, the centre of all things, which actually parts them," (epeidh kai tauta antikru men estin allhlwn neneuke de epi ghn to meson tou pantos, w kai diakrinetai). For Philo, there were two spheres, one above and one below the earth. This is the cosmological dimension of putting man into the eternities.

Patai states further that Philo stated it was Reason the flaming sword symbolized; "elsewhere, however, he states that God the father is Reason, while Knowledge is God the mother, and these two aspects of the godhead are symbolized by the two Cherubim." The cherubim find their counterpart in the Assyrian sculptures, "which are often pictured in the act of fertilizing the sacred palm tree." In this respect, it is worth noting the tree birth in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo and the same in Buddhist scriptures as well as the Koranic Sura of Mary. "The mother stands beneath the tree (of life) clasping it to posses [sic] herself of its life-giving virtue which will enable her to bring to birth the ‘life’ of the world." Mary, as virgin, theotokos and the tree of life could not be kept out of the Christian consciousness, she eventually being identified with the tree, the "primal mater, materia," even being identified as the Cedar of Lebanon, the burning bush, as well as the Palm of Engedi. "she was the mirror image of the sinful mother Eva (Ave!) and as closely involved with the tree when Christ suffered on the tree..." It is of more than passing interest that Nephi in the Book of Mormon, also identifies the virgin as the tree in his vision of the birth of Christ! The Gnostics also understood this conception of Eve who becomes a tree to escape the evil sexual intentions of the evil Authorities. "The tree that she becomes is the tree of ‘Life.’"

Bible scholars Hugo Gressmann and Julian Morgenstern, on studying the Ark of the Covenant, conclude "originally there must have been two images in it, that of Yahweh and that of his wife Anathyahu, or Astarte." Another aspect is that the "two sacred stones in the Ark originally represented Yahweh and, in all likelihood, His female companion." Moshe Weinfeld says the marriage of the Most High with Israel represented the cosmic Hieros Gamos, demonstrated in Hosea 2:21-25, which also demonstrated marriage "as a source of harmony in the world below with the world above," as legitimate representation of the principle. Weinfeld reads Hosea 2:21 - ~lw[l yl $ytfraw - "I will betroth you to me forever," with the comment, "I will espouse you forever... then you shall know YHWH [as is well known, the verb yd’ in Hebrew can have the meaning of sexual relations]." This is crucial to a proper understanding of what is done on earth is done in heaven. Humans imitate the gods as they initiate fertility among themselves as well as an example for the land.

"The union of the Shekhinah with the Holy One is remarkable in the high priest’s worship on Yom Kippur. At his entrance to the Holy of Holies, he heard the voice of the wings of the cherubim being lifted up for intercourse. When the wings subside the cherubim copulate calmly (III 67b). The implications are obvious for ancient Israel. As their God was devoted to them as a nation through marriage, so likewise was He Himself married. Individual Israelite marriage mimicked their God’s marriage, as well as providing fertility to the land, as above, so below.

Louis Ginzberg noted the cherubim’s faces were turned toward each other when Israel was devoted to the Lord. He further noted the cherubim "even clasped one another like a loving couple. During the festivals of the pilgrimage the priests used to raise the curtain from the Holy of Holies to show the pilgrims how much their God loved them as they could see in the embrace of the two Cherubim." Gerschom Scholem, the great Jewish Kabbalistic scholar, reminds us that "What took place in this hieros gamos (zivvuga kadisha, as the Zohar calls it) was primarily the union of the two sefiroth, tif’ereth and malkhuth, the male and female aspects of God, the king and his consort, who is nothing other than the Shekhinah and the mystical Ecclesia of Israel." Scholem also notes that this mystical union between God and Israel, was for the Kabbalists the "merely outward aspect of a process that takes place within the secret inwardness of God himself."

This so-called "inwardness" is hinted at in the Talmud as the "earthly union between man and woman... was taken as a symbolic reference to the heavenly marriage." The Cherubim was that symbol of fertility for Israel, as we read in R. Eleazer’s Commentary on Sefer Yetzirah, "as the sexual union of man and [his] partner, which were in the temple, in order to increase fruitfulness in Israel." This idea of fruitfulness was actually begun with Adam and Eve, who were "intertwined in one another - as symbolized by the form of the cherubim."

Jewish sages and Rabbis use texts such as Midrash Tadshe, for explaining that the two Cherubim symbolize the two holy names, Tetragrammaton and Elohim, which in Talmudic tradition "quoted in the name of R. Katina envisaged these cherubim as male and female, sometimes found in sexual embrace..." Idel noted that R. Joseph Hamadan taught that the two cherubim symbolize the Sefirot Yesod and Malkhut, which are manifestly viewed as bridegroom and bride. Idel goes so far as to note that the function of the temple in ancient Israel was none other than to attract the Shekhinah to sit between the two cherubim. Such a perfect state of union, Idel demonstrates, was a sexual union, the purpose of which "is a function of performing the will of God; otherwise, they will be separated. I assume," says Idel, "however, that only when their union is induced by human activity can the Shekhinah descend upon the cherubim, just as it does with a worthy husband and wife." The Shekhinah is none other than the Holy Spirit, to which I will return below in the New Testament context of Jesus’ baptism.

Yahweh: Son of El, A Married God

The notion of anti-Mormon critics against a married God is based on the crippling myopia of interpreting the Bible and other evidence based on Greek philosophy. The ancient philosopher Galen even understood Christian and Jewish teachings morbid and unacceptable. Why? Because "He considered Christians dogmatic and uncritical They were unwilling to submit their beliefs to philosophical examination." Like Peter in the New Testament, they didn’t need philosophy. But time changed that, and today the Evangelical Christian problem is their philosophical background of understanding God, which archaeology "proves" is not the God of the Bible. In the ancient Hebrew scheme of things, not only was the Father El married, but his beloved Son, Yahweh also was. This is archaeologically "proven."

Raphael Patai reads an inscription from 750-700 B.C. reading "Uriyahu the governor wrote it. May Uriyahu be blessed by Yahweh my guardian and by [his Asherah]." This archaeological discovery made earlier this century at Kuntillat Arjud has received momentous attention from archaeologists and Bible scholars John Day, William G. Dever, J.R. Engle, Mordekhai Gillulah, Andre Lemaire, Ze’ev Meshel, Ziony Zevit, and others. Patail says during Manasseh’s reformation in ancient Israel, Manasseh restored the Asherah poles in the temple as had Ahab - larfy $lm baha hv[ hrva f[yw - "And he made an Asherah pole, as Ahab King of Israel." Patai points out how the motherly figure of Asherah was dear to many worshippers and her restoration to her proper place in the temple perhaps was the "conviction that Yahweh’s consort, the great mother-goddess Asherah, must be restored to her old and lawful place at the side of her husband."

Moshe Weinfeld discusses the inscription reading to "Yahweh and his Asherah," from Arjud, comparing it with Asherah at the right hand of Yahweh in Deut. 33:2 "reminds us the consort, the paredros of the king; cf. 1 Kings 2:19; Ps. xlv 10." One premiere idea of goddesses as consorts of the Gods, has not escaped us, namely, the "goddesses were principally concerned with sex and war. In an Egyptian text of the thirteenth century B.C. Anath and Astarte are called "the great goddesses who conceive but do not bear, i.e., the goddesses who are perennially fruitful without ever losing virginity... Asherah is called in Ugaritic literature the ‘Creatress of the Gods,’ while Anath bears the appellation ‘Progenitress of the Peoples. In Biblical Hebrew the plural of the name Ashart (Astarte) is used repeatedly (Deuteronomy) in the sense of ‘(sheep) breeding...’" The goddesses can also be seen as various aspects of the fertility idea in the ancient Near East. There has been found a name Yw at Ras Shamra as a son of El, though some scholars, such as Marvin H. Pope are not so sure. Whether the question of a name being close to Yahweh as a son of El in various inscriptions is accepted or not, there is no question that Yahweh had a consort, or wife. John S. Kloppenborg noted that "Sophia’s relation to God [by this time Yahweh alone] and the King - [is] as mother of the King and wife of both..."

Gerhard Von Rad demonstrated that Baal’s relationship to the earth was one of ieros lamos, (Hieros Gamos) "he is the mystical generative power that fructifies the earth by means of the sperm of the rain. Human beings share in his fertilizing power by entering this mystery and imitating it." He demonstrates the idea of sacred prostitutes living in the sacred sanctuaries was an essential aspect of worship, and reads 1 Kings 15:12 (~yvdqh - haqedoshim"; 2 Kings 23:7 ((~yvdqh; Deut. 23:18 (hvdq) as showing they were in the sacred sanctuary of Yahweh. And as Weinfeld has noted, "Human intercourse - as it were - imitates the intercourse of the Holy One with the Shekhinah. The sacred marriage guarantees fecundity and fertility in the universe..." He further notes that Tishby declared the Holy of Holies in Yahweh’s sacred shrine was the holy couple’s bed-chamber..." Yahwism adapted the Canaanite elements of religion in many respects, none more so than the sacred Hieros Gamos both of the Gods and men. The whole point is, of course, archaeologically, God, whether El or Yahweh, are portrayed as married and having sacred sex with their wives.

The "Hosts of Heaven", Council of the Gods, Battle in Heaven & Premortal Existence of Souls Themes

When critics sneer about Mormon belief in a pre-mortal existence and Council of the Gods, they demonstrate an incredible ignorance of the archaeological and scholarly "proof" of just such themes in the Bible.

The Bible terms "hosts of Heaven, armies of Heaven," etc.," are identified archaeologically as the sons of El, the Bible God. Professor Cross notes that the term twabc (Seba’ot) in the expression twabc hwhy (Yahwe Seba’ot) as found in such books as Isaiah 37:16, means "the hosts of heaven" who correspond to "sons of El." The addition of "Elohe" in the full expression at Isaiah 37:16, larXy yhla twabc hwhy (yhwh seba’ot "elohe yisr’l) is secondary, hence the expression du yahwi saba’ot means "He who creates the (heavenly) armies." Eichrodt contends that the title seba’ot "was a favourite designation of God as a warrior, seeing that for a long time the Ark served as a palladium in war. Exodus 15:3 directly states, "The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name." Later in Isaiah’s time this understanding was retained, for he says (Isa. 42:13) "The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man... like a man of war..." The Hebrew word incidentally used for man, is the same one as used for earthly men, ‘ish.

Another explanation suggests that Yahweh was the name combined with the early name El, giving us something like "El who creates (yahwi) the hosts." For Israel this would have meant ‘hosts’ in a double sense; the armed hosts of heaven (natural elements such as stars, sun and moon, rain, hail, wind, and personifications of the divine agency such as the angel or messenger of Yahweh) and the armed hosts of earth (the citizen army of Israel)."

With the council of Gods, this time being influenced from Assyrian statecraft, John S. Holladay, Jr., produced research that the prophets were messengers of Yahweh, the Hebrew word aybn (nabi) being cognate with Akkadian nabi’um, "the called one," showing him to be an officer of the heavenly court. Richard J. Clifford has translated Psalms 89:6-7,9 as saying "The heavens confessed your wonderous act, Yahweh, Your fidelity, in the assembly of the holy ones. Who in heaven ranks with Yahweh, is equal to Yahweh among the divine beings? Yahweh, God of hosts, who is like you?"

Holladay demonstrates that Jeremiah 23:9-11 is based on the heavenly council or heavenly court idea, wherein Jeremiah asks who among the prophets of his own day actually had stood in the council and heard Yahweh’s word declared. Jeremiah had done so, but the false prophets had not, and therefore their prophecies were not fulfilled. Yahweh’s delivering of Israel (Judges 3:9) is based on the ancient Near Eastern idea of a far-off suzerain sending a commander and contingent of troops to the battle-worn armies. He takes note of the heavenly armies theme. The heavenly armies as well as the prophets had a premortal existence, which is why they knew of Yahweh’s decrees to the nations, since they actually were in those premortal councils of Yahweh.

The Bereshith rabba teachs "God takes counsel with the souls of the righteous before he creates the earth." Among these righteous who were in attendance we know of, were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Enoch and Moses. These human souls in the council of the gods were said to be "with God before the creation of the world, discussing the creation of the world." The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch distinguishes between righteous and common souls:

"The storehouses in which the foreordained number of souls is kept shall be opened, and the souls shall go forth, and the many souls shall appear all at once, as a host with one mind. And the first shall rejoice, and the last shall not be sad." We further learn that the Midrash Tanhuma Pekude tells of some spirits who "kept their first estate" and therefore they were "added upon", that is, they entered into another world which "is more beautiful than this." (Cf. Abraham 3: 26)

Pseudo-Zosimus teaches: "Penetrating through all bodies, illuminating the intellect of everyone, he gives them the urge to ascend towards the blessed region in which the intelligence dwelt before becoming flesh." The Zohar reads "And when these two, soul and spirit, have duly readied themselves, they are worthy to receive the ‘super-soul’[neshamah], resting in turn upon the throne of the spirit [ruah]. The super-soul stands preeminent, and not to be perceived." The Book of 2 Enoch 23:4,5 says: "all the souls of men, whatever of them are not yet born, and their places, prepared for eternity. For all the souls are prepared for eternity, before the composition of the earth.

The curious exegesis (explanation) of Genesis 3:19f causes Charlesworth to say it is unique, in that, "It implies that Adam, made in a heavenly Paradise from materials brought from the earth, is now sent back to his native element to live there." R.H. Charles said that this doctrine of the pre-existence of souls "made its way into Jewish thought in Egypt. This doctrine was also taught by the Essenes according to Josephus, and "it became the prevailing dogma in later Judaism. All souls which were to enter human bodies existed before the creation of the world in the Garden of Eden... These souls were conceived of as actually living beings. According to ‘Bereshith rabba’ c. 8, God takes council with the souls of the righteous before he creates the earth." The Essenes taught "the fall of immortal and preexistent souls who are enmeshed with bodies..."

3 Enoch, explicitly states that the souls of the righteous have not been created yet (meaning been born on the physical earth), and that the celestial palaces contain many treasuries and storehouses. There are also the archives wherein all deeds of man are recorded in the heavenly books, which will be opened at the heavenly court for judgement, and there is also a reference to the storehouse wherein the heavenly beings are kept. The editor’s comment at 3 Enoch 43:1 is interesting. "... the souls of the righteous and the spirits and souls which are yet to be created [i.e. to be born]... the pre-existence of the soul is implied throughout this chapter... and the benediction ‘Elohay neshamah’ recited on waking from sleep: ‘Oh my God, the soul which thou gavest me is pure.’" The Talmud itself refers to the pre-existence of souls with the curious comment: "The Son of David shall not come till all the souls are completed which are in the guph - (i.e. the pre-existence of souls is taught, and that they re kept in heaven till one after another appears in human form, and that the Messiah is kept back till all these shall have appeared), proof of this is derived from Isaiah lvii. 16."

In the Council of the Gods concept, the technical term "to stand" (i.e. participate as a member), in the court is used both in Accadian - uzuzzu and in Hebrew - ha’omedim in Zechariah 3:3, which compares well with omed in 1 Kings 22:19. The Puhrum - "assembly" of the gods was open to goddesses also. In the Gilgamesh Epic, "Ishtar reproaches herself for having advocated the flood in the assembly of the gods. We read that "In their (i.e. the gods) assembly her word is highly esteemed, is surpassing; she sits among them counting as much (with them) as Anum, their king. She is wise in intelligence, profundity, and knowledge." Later she relents some of the councils’ decisions, and a fight breaks out, ultimately between Ba’al and El. Professor Van Der Woude has noted the idea that the "Sons of Light" are saved from the "Sons of Darkness" in this "Council" and specifically, the heavenly host helps Melchisedek "fight against Belial and his angels." This is the famous war in heaven theme, also found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. "The concept of a preexistent struggle between the Creator and a mythological rival or rivals, characteristic of the combat myth, refined and transformed in the Bible, is further transmuted by the rabbis... An element of the old Babylonian combat myth has resurfaced in this talmudic tradition although it has been reshaped in a changed context. There is an allusion here to the monsters created by Tiamat to do battle with the younger gods."

This "council" as understood by Julian Morgenstern is the assembly of El, who were the elohim. The adat El was originally the "Council of El", though later it was also acknowledged as the "Council of Yahweh" which indicates "the mythological background of the expression and its North-Semitic origin...". The root of Yahweh’s name (hwy) means "He declares," or "he speaks," while the Ras Shamra texts use hwt to mean "saying" or "commanding," all of which is reminiscent of this "council of the Gods" with lively discussions going on concerning the fates of mankind. In the Old Norse sagas, "the gods who survive the cataclysm of the ragnarok (the battle in heaven) assemble once more upon the Idavollr and discuss (daema) the past events of their lives..." Israel’s neighbors, whether the Babylonians or Assyrians, knew the word awatu as "the word of the gods, their divine counsel, [which] was constantly sought and heeded. God speaks in effective words of power, sometimes cosmically but more frequently to make known their will for men, as law, instruction, encouragement, and promise."

Ancient thought forms and ideas as well as ideologies of the "Council of the gods" meet us in the Sumerian and Akkadian religions. Psalm 29 "... is a Yahwistic adaptation of an older Canaanite hymn to the storm-god Baal..." This democratic basis of discussion in the group we see where Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:6-8) made use of counselors and that the counsel of the wise is mentioned in Jeremiah 18:18. We also see the law and the priest and the prophet’s word as parts of the affairs of the area. As above, so below, as in heaven, so on earth.

Conrad L’Heureux demonstrated that the marzeah, or symposium (feast, gathering, banquet, assembly) of El that is found in the Rephaim Texts of Ugarit "must be a reflex in the divine world of the symposium celebrated by the members of the earthly marzeah of El... each guild apparently had a divine patron." The heavenly marzeah had participants called rp’m, which we also find in the earthly marzeah, e.g., "May Krt be greatly exalted among the rp’m of the earth... the rp’m constitute an aristocracy of which the Canaanite kings were a part." Moses, and the prophets following him were proclaimed as "Speakers for Yahweh," showing the people that "they are sent from the divine king, the suzerain of treaties, to reprove and to pronounce judgment upon Israel..."

Anciently even the earthly kings were considered to be "Sons of El." The prophets were also, as indicated in the account that when Rebekah died, God appeared to Jacob to comfort him, "and with Him appeared the heavenly family," which family was equated anciently with God’s court, of which the prophets were members and attendees during many of their visions and theophanies. All over the Mediterranean this concept flourished, as with the Greeks who held that "a divine family of six gods and six goddesses, headed by the co-sovereigns Zues and Hera and forming a Council of Gods in Babylonian style."

Professor Cross says the assembled gods in the council when dealt with in Israelite poetry "is generally applied to the host of secondary supernatural beings who surround Yahweh, and prostrate themselves before him." We are fairly sure that "the early poets of Israel were heavily influenced by the poetic imagery and modes of expression of the peoples with whom they came in contact." Robert Alter believes that it was Jacob, who subsumed the ancient Canaanite sky god, who was El, "the supreme god in the Canaanite pantheon," who now, thanks to Jacob’s actions becomes the God of the people of Israel. And later on into Israel’s history, we find such imagery in the vision in Zecheriah 3:1-10, which shows "the Heavenly Court over which Yahweh presides as chief judge. This setting is deeply grounded in mythology, with Yahweh’s Heavenly Court corresponding to the council of El. The concept of an assembly or council of the gods was a common motif throughout the ancient Near East."

The assembly of gods were rather frequently assembled at the Ubshuukkinna, that is, a large court, where they met friends and relatives who had come from afar to participate in the assembly as important business was to be transacted, usually beginning with an embrace as a welcome into the company of the gods. The leadership of the gods was usually headed by the head god of the gods, who began the discussion which was "largely in the hands of the so-called ‘ilu rabiutum’, the ‘great gods,’ or better yet, the ‘senior gods.’" This is strikingly similar to Joseph Smith’s translation of Genesis 1:1 - "The head one of the Gods, brought forth the Gods." Joseph Smith’s translation of the Hebrew word "Bereshiyth" according to the Hebrew Dictionary in Strong’s Concordance means "the first, in place, time, order or rank - beginning, chief, first (fruits, part, time), principal thing." Joseph Smith’s translation would come from "re’ shiyth / bara’ / ‘elohiym / ‘eth / hashamayim / v’eth / ha’arts," meaning - "The Head one of the Gods organized the heaven and the earth."

Morgenstern comments that in post-exilic biblical writings and apocalyptic literature, there was considered to be many troops or hosts of heaven (Cf. Ps. 148:2) each under its own leader or sar, i.e., "the God or Lord of all the hosts or troops of angels and therefore the Lord of their "princes," the sar sarim, as he is called in Daniel 8:25. "The function of this divine assembly were in part those of a court of law," as well as understanding that "the assembly is the authority which grants kingship." It is the same picture we find in the Book of Abraham, Ch. 3. Once the head god is chosen to carry out a particular function (Abr. 3:27) the god is clothed in a garment and having been armed, then carries out the battle against the gods who disagreed with him (Abr. 3:28)

Again, the hosts of heaven are also explained as the premortal existent patriarchs and peoples of Israel as well as the angels. We read in the Assumption of Moses that Moses knew God had assigned him his place, his topos, his calling as it were. "He designed and devised me, and He prepared me before the foundation of the world, that I should be the mediator of His covenant." Charles notes that "The Gentiles are foreordained to ignorance and blind conjecture, while Moses is the chosen agent of the true revelation... Moses is here assigned pre-existence as is the Son of Man in 1 Enoch. Later, Judaism, like the Alexandrian form of first century A.D., held the pre-existence of all souls alike." Many of the Patriarchs, Isaac, Jacob, Jeremiah, the Twelve Apostles, Peter, etc., are specifically said to have been chosen and set apart in the preexistence. In the theology of 2 Clement, a later document in Christian times, we read "this document speaks not only of a pre-existent church, but a pre-existent church which is in close association with the pre-existent Son." James H. Charlesworth reads the Enoch texts as saying the Messiah had a pre-mortal existence also.

In 1 Enoch the "elect and holy children will descend from the high heaven, and their seed will become one with the children of men." Concerning this, Eugene Seaich, a noted LDS scholar, says this relates directly to the "entry of souls into bodies." The "Prayer of Joseph" begins with Jacob speaking: "Abraham and Isaac were created before any work." The Odes of Solomon teach, among other things, "and he who created me when yet I was not, knew what I would do when I came into being."

The notion of pre-existence in ancient Jewish materials "was quite widespread" while it was less common to read the claim that "the patriarchs or Moses were pre-existent."

The war in heaven concerns the hosts of one side "fight against Belial and his angels." We know this is the case because at Job 1:6-12 and 2:1-7 we find Yahweh assembled with his heavenly host, designated as the "Bene Elohim", literally "the sons of God", and "One among their number, although one obviously discharging a particular and constant function, is hasatan." Namely the name of "the adversary" or "the accuser" is he who took on a "role of fixed hostility to mankind."

Morgenstern notes that the important thing in this picture, is not so much Satan as Yahweh, "the graphic picture of Yahweh, seated upon his throne, surrounded by His heavenly host, the ‘bene elohim,’ divine beings of rank inferior to Yahweh Himself, his personal attendants and ministers of his Will and purpose, gathered together as the ‘‘adat ‘el’ to pronounce judgment." Morgenstern is using a composite picture of Old Testament and Ugaritic, Sumerian, and Akkadian lore to come up with all this scenario. "The picture here is identical with that in Isaiah 6; 1 Kings. 22:19-23 and Zecheriah 3," though it "unhesitatingly designates Yahweh’s heavenly attendants as ‘elohim’, ‘gods’ obviously identical with ‘bene ha’elohim’ of Job 1:6 and 2:1. The tie in with the teachings of Mormonism is more obvious when we see Satan was cast out of heaven incurring God’s wrath, "but only some, and these were only a small group of the great hosts of angels. The rest, it says explicitly, restrained themselves."

Jesus and Lucifer’s Relationship to Each Other

Mormonism understands the notion a third of the hosts of heaven, which "restrained themselves." What was Satan’s sin? "Give me thy glory!" Or as Morgenstern puts it, "And one from out the order of angels, having turned away with the order that was under him, conceived an impossible thought, to place his throne higher than the clouds above the earth, that he might become equal in rank to my power." Unmistakably, Satan was one of the "Sarim", that is the leaders, the head prince of his group.

In Jewish thought, some angels were all for the creation and others were against it. We even read that "Certain angels through impious pride deserted God and were cast down from their high heavenly habitation into the lowest darkness of this air; but that number of angels which was left continued in eternal blessedness with God, and in holiness." Satan fell "he and his whole band" because he would not worship Adam. He and his hosts were stripped of their robes of glory and he was called "Satana, because he had turned away from God." In the Vita Adae Satan said to Adam "When thou wast formed, I was hurled out of the presence of God and banished from the company ["council"] of the angels." Satan appears in heaven under the title of "prince of Mastema" in Jubilees 17-18 as well. It was known in the early Jewish thought that Satan was in heaven, but a later redactor of the Testament of Abraham left out the name. We read in another text that Jesus harrows a dark underground prison administered by Hades with Satan as his worldly agent.

Lactantius in his Divine Institutes, says "Before creating the world, God produced a spirit like Himself, replete with the virtues of the Father. Later he made another, in whom the mark of divine origin was erased, because this one was besmirched by the poison of jealousy and turned therefore from good to evil... He was jealous of his older Brother, who remaining united with the father, insured his affection unto himself. This being who from good became bad is called Devil by the Greeks." Though Jeffrey Burton Russell claims Lactantius’ language about Christ and the Devil being brothers is a metaphor and figurative, he then turns around and says "but Lactantius’ writings are not consistent as to what degree it was figurative. To the extent that Christ appears as an angel, his nature is parallel to Satan’s (no matter how opposite his function); to the degree that he is perceived as a part of the divine, both his nature and his function are different." The Christian scholar Arno C. Gaebelein acknowledged that Lucifer was a son of God - "The sons of God, revealed as morning stars, include Gabriel and Michael... Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, should also be included, though he became the enemy of God by his fall." He tells God, "You created us from the splendour of your Glory."

The reason for this biblically logical thinking is because Romans 8:29 claims Jesus was the firstborn among many brethren, who were known before [this world, apparently in a premortal existence], and who would also be conformed (summorfos - "symmorphos") into Christ’s image, that is, be his brethren. Colossians 1:15 also states that Christ is "the firstborn of all creation," (prwtotokos pashs ktisews). Ramon Smullin notes that Ephesians1:3-4 declares, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." The Sons of God shouted for joy before the foundations of the world, which shows we were there as the sons of God.

In the testamentary literature dealing with Abraham, Abraham is in a heavenly court scene with the "Angel of the Presence" and the "Prince of Mastema" juxtaposed, the "Prince of Mastema" accusing Abraham. He is put to shame though since Abraham remained faithful, so he was banished from court. The Hebrew Bible has a direct parallel as it describes Yahweh as presiding over the "Sons of Elohim," among whom was Satan himself, (Job 1:6; 2:1; Genesis 6:2,4).

Jesus Christ was known also as the "Angel of Great Counsel," among a hierarchy of angels who guarded souls, hence the reason Origen compared the image of the Son as Seraph from Isaiah 6 tying into Isaiah 9. In fact, Christ was believed to be an angel due to his being a messenger of God. As the Angel of Great Counsel, Christ is the head of a hierarchy of angels as "a priviledged revealer of esoteric truth."

With this idea in mind we now know who the "we" are in Genesis 1:26, who were involved with the creation. "This would seem to be a brief fragment of the creation tradition basic to Genesis chapter one, in its oldest, pre-literary form, as it must have been current in Israel for some time prior to the composition of the "P" source in Genesis about 400 B.C. According to this tradition Yahweh took counsel with his Heavenly host with regard to the creation [Cf. BofAbr. "we will go down for there is space there..."] of man."

Interesting, in today’s Torah commentary we read from the editor that the statement in Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man..." "is spoken to an angelic court" Rabbi Zadok taught however that "The Israelites are called sons of God, as it is said, ‘Ye are the sons of the Lord your God’ (Deut. 14:1). The angels are called sons of God, as it is said: ‘When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy’ (Job 38:7). And while they were still in their holy place in heaven these were called ‘Sons of God.’" God and man are even said to be "consubstantial."

Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics notes that Ezekiel 2:2; 3:12,14; 8:1-3 tells of a "spirit" who came upon Ezekiel and filled him with an ecstatic inspiration. "This spirit was one of the members of Jahweh’s court, of which 1 Kings 22 gives such a vivid description." In the Ugaritic poem of AQHT, at El’s benediction, El swears that Dan’el will live on, "by which is meant that he will produce a life which will be an extension of himself, his own ‘flesh and blood.’ The implication is that only sons can be considered fashioned in the father’s image, hence his continuity." In another Ugaritic text, El fathers two divine sons shahar and Shalem the latter appears at Ps. 139:9; and his son, according to Isaiah 14:12, was the fallen angel Hellel." The etymology of this name may perhaps be from the Old Norse heill which is connected to the Germanic Heilig, meaning "Holy."

Astonishingly, we find that Yahweh assigns mortality to the bene elohim. The word temutun means "ye shall become mortal." And it is to the bene elohim that Yahweh is telling this to, since "... it means that they must forfeit completely their original, divine nature, and with it undoubtedly whatever divine powers and prerogatives they possessed, and take on the nature of human beings and in particular become subject to death, become mortal." This whole picture has " a definite polytheistic basis, at least in its assumption that some divine being other than God Himself might claim supreme dominion."

In Job the "Sons of God" "are individuals of the class god..." Research has shown that "Just as El was called Baniyu binawati, ‘begetter of Creatures,’ so Asherah [El’s consort and wife] also has the appellation Qaniyatu elima,’ ‘She Who Gives Birth to the Gods...’" "The actual existence of the other gods is here assured."

The ha-Elohim of Gen. 5:22, 24, may reflect an earlier source in which Enoch entered the assembly of gods or angels. It must be remembered that El, the Patriarch of the gods; the creator; the highest conceivable god; the leader; the father of the gods; the head god of the council of all gods; the number one god, who fought to establish his headship in the family of the gods, as Frank Moore Cross remarks, also had a father. Albright notes that El was thought of as dethroning his own father, Heaven (Uranus). Maximus of Tyre (Diss. 17,5) "states that there is universal consent to the proposition that there is one God, the king of all and father, and that there are many gods, sons of God, co-existing with God. The hierarchy concepts in the Book of Abraham and Mormon theology are "proven" to have ancient historical precedents. Granted imagery varies between cultures, but certain basic motifs come through clearly, namely the Sons of God, and the Council of Gods, the Premortal existence of not only the Patriarchs, but of all souls, namely us, Satan in the heavenly councils, and the battle in heaven to throw him out. The Dead Sea Scrolls discuss this battle from heaven to earth theme prominantly as well: "Then the heavenly hosts shall raise their voice and the everlasting foundations shall melt and quake. The war of the heroes of heaven shall spread over the world and shall not return until an annihilation that has been determined from eternity is completed." Michael as an important component in that battle is the "Prince of Lights." Melchizedek has been identified with Michael. One reason, according to Joseph Fitzmyer, is because Jewish tradition regarded Melchizedek as a "high priest," and Michael as the heavenly high priest in the Babylonian Talmud (Hagigah 12b).

The reason the battle is taken here on earth is explained to Adam in the "Conflict of Adam and Eve with Satan," where Adam is told originally, the good angel has a bright light resting on him, but was deprived of it through transgression, and hence became dark. Mormonism understands that the dark angel, originally one of the very Sons of Elohim, became Satan and wages war on the saints to this day.

The Book of Jubilees also describe how the "prince Mastema" corrupts, destroys and fights the children of God here on earth. What actually infuriated Satan was having to worship Adam after he was made, yet Satan was Adam’s senior in creation.

New Testament and Early Christian Times; Souls of Light:

In our study so far, we have seen the prominant idea of the premortal existence of souls. Joseph Smith taught that God dwells in everlasting burnings. Immortal glory is associated with fire, light, heat, etc. The Dead Sea Scrolls depict this as well, when Enoch is seeing a vision in his dream of the throne of heaven dwelling in fire, and he saw pillars of heavenly fire. In the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice in the Dead Sea Scrolls, we read "and the spirits of the gods, forms of flames of fire around [...] wonderful spirits." The scrolls even claim that our very spirits are made up of "the substance of the spirit of glory like work of Ophir which diffuses light," hence the description of "shining spirits."

Ireneaus noted "Adam and Eve previously had light, and clear, and as it were spiritual bodies, such as they were at their creation; but when they came to this world, these changed into bodies more opaque, and gross, and sluggish." Obviously after the fall, our premortal shining souls were dimmed. In "The Conflict of Adam and Eve With Satan," is another account of God telling Adam that when he was in God’s presence he, Adam, had "a bright nature" and this enabled him to have super-vision, having the ability to "see things afar off." Adam lost his bright nature through his transgression however. The First Book of Adam and Eve, says "Then came the Word of God to Adam and Eve, and said to them, ‘This is he who was hidden in the serpent, and who deceived you, and stripped you of the garment of light and glory in which you were.’ "In some ancient Jewish Midrashim, when Adam sinned, it was his garment of glory which was taken from him, thus leaving him without the Cloud of Glory. When God dresses the Messiah in the garment, it "will shine from one end of the world to the other."

Garment of Abraham in Facsimile 1 Handed Down From Adam

The garment that Adam lost was a light garment as we have seen. Adam then donned the animal skin garment given him from God. This garment has a most interesting history especially in light of the concepts it symbolized, and Joseph Smith’s restoring the garment as well as the restoration of the Abrahamic Covenant in the Latter Days. First we go to Abraham on the lion couch in Facsimile No. 1, then we backtrack to the garments’ history and transmission.

The battle between Pharaoh and Abraham is also shown in facsimile No. 1 in a unique, powerful manner. Abraham is shown wearing a full body garment, as is the priest, though his is a different style. On all other lion couches to date, there is none that show the figure on the couch fully clothed in a garment as our facsimile No. 1. They are either mummies, or nude, but none have the garment and slippers as Abraham does.

What is this garment and how does it tie in with our theme The garment tells it all, showing just who has the true priesthood and who doesn’t, who is the covenant person, and who isn’t. A Mesopotamian parallel is instructive concerning garments which tie the individual wearer of the garment into the cosmos, and showing garments were definitely associated with kingship and who possessed the real authority.

Leo Oppenheim’s excellent study shows that by the end of the first millenium B.C. the kusitu garment "shifted from secular to ceremonial use. From then on, gods, kings, and priests are clad in it... the Neo-Assyrian texts refer to the kusitu as to the exclusive royal dress." Esarhaddon gave his son this garment, showing the people who the future king was to be. Alma P. Burton notes that "The words "to endow" (from the Greek enduein), as used in the New Testament, mean to dress, clothe, put on garments, put on attributes, or receive virtue." So this is the idea in the Biblical garments of Adam, the garment of Noah and perhaps the coat of many colors of Joseph, and finally in facsimile 1 in the Book of Abraham.

It is interesting that the priesthood of Eanna was threatened, "on repeated royal attempts to induce the priesthood of Eanna to send the kusitu to a rival sanctuary that the collegium refused." The authority over the entire earth as well as sky was at stake, as the garments had stars sewn onto them, especially of the late Assyrian kings, these nalbas same were literally "garment(s) of the sky." Not only the sky, but clouds, stars, and the sun were sewn into the garments, the wearer being called the gallab same, the "shearer of the sky," i.e. "he who cuts off the fleecy clouds." Is it coincidence that this was the garment of Marduk, and that Marduk was equated with Nimrod, the same who sheared the sky with his arrow and claimed he killed God? Also legendary is Nimrod establishing his priesthood line through the matriarchal line, while Abraham came through the patriarchal line, hence the rivalry. That contest of matriarchy verses patriarchy involving the -archy is noted as "the origin of a quarrel or a murder... command, power, authority, which is what the quarrel is about. The suffix -archy means always to be first in order, whether in time or eminence..." Is it coincidence that the stars on the Mesopotamian-Assyrian garments of the kings are connected "with the cult of the foremost goddess of the Mesopotamian pantheon"? Many goddesses are pictured on ancient cylinder seals as D. J. Wiseman has shown.

In the Aggadah, Nimrod’s hunting prowess came from his skin garment he wore, which he inherited down the line from Adam, it being the same skin garment. When the animals saw him in it, they would lie down for him, so he found easy prey, hence becoming a "mighty hunter" (Hebrew gibbor - "mighty"), or a "war-like giant." Another story indicates that Nimrod received the garment from his forefathers, it being Adam’s garment, "from Ham, who had stolen them out of the ark of Noah; when Esau saw them, he became jealous because Nimrod’s success in hunting was due to the fact that he wore these coats of skin that made the animals prostrate before him. Hence he slew Nimrod."

Hugh Nibley recounts the story that Ham stole the garments from Noah, hence Noah cursed Ham, and it was through his son Cush that Nimrod acquired them. This garment of Adam is said to have been a garment of light. The garment certainly did represent authority of the wearer, and it was passed down from Seth to Noah, and worn by Noah as he sacrificed on the altar. Interestingly, in the story of Esau, who killed Nimrod for the garment, it was this that Esau sold Jacob as his birthright, and also hence why Jacob, in his blindness blessed Jacob who had the garment as it had the fragrance of Paradise. This was later referred to as the coat of many colors of Joseph as well. The idea here is crystal clear. The garment had its origin in the celestial realms, hence garment of light, another tie in with the cosmos, and as such indicated the authority of the wearer. It is most interesting that nimrah according to Jacob of Serug means "tiger," "crown," and "striped garment." We read in the Apocalypse of Abraham that Abraham received the garment after sacrificing as God told him to. John Tvedtnes also traces a tradition which says "the garments though stolen by Ham, were recovered by Shem who, as Melchizedek, gave them to Abraham as his successor. Abraham passed the garments to his son Isaac and he to his eldest son Esau.

The confrontation is on, (carried over from the battle in heaven between the true and false priesthoods) and has been from time immemorial, Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, Cain and Abel, Abraham in Egypt, Moses in Egypt, Joseph in Egypt, Daniel and the lion’s den, etc. As Hugh Nibley has pointed out "contention is not discussion... war is beyond politics." "The wise man, his eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness." This is interpreted as alluding to Abraham and Nimrod. "The element of darkness is reminiscent of Philo’s description of Nimrod as the black one who does not participate in the light (and cf. also Gen. Rab. 42.4 where Nimrod is called a Cushite, i.e. Ethiopian, because his father was Cush).

This juxtaposition of light and dark is everywhere throughout the Abraham story, as per the priest in Facsimile No. 1 who is pictured as being black, while Abraham is white, which represents the idea of choosing between the light and dark, the ancient doctrine of the two ways. The Pseudo-Philo says God caused a deep sleep to overcome Abraham which encompassed him with fear because he was set in the place of fire to be enlightened The smoking furnace of Genesis 15 has been interpreted as the fire of Gehinom, Hell, and then he saw a burning lamp, which was the Law, an interesting contrast of the two ways.

Man in the Image of God

Alon Gottstein has shown that rabbinic literature and theology teach not only that man is made in the likeness (tymd - "demut") and image (mlc - "zelem") but that Adam, among many were actually born circumcised, because man was made in the image of God! "This proof text would only work if the correspondence between man’s body and the divine body is understood to be exact." In other words, in rabbinic thought, even God is circumcised! Expanding this angle of thought that man’s body is in the image of God’s, Gottstein shows that "Resh Lakish in the name of R. Simon ben Menasseya said: ‘the apple of Adam’s heel outshone the globe of the sun; how much more so the brightness of his face.’"

In fact, rabbinic thought associated the zelem with a body of light and Moses was thought of as a counterpart of the luminous Adam, because the image of God is radiant, and hence that of man’s originally was radiant. "The physical body is a reflection of the body of light." Stoic belief was that the soul at death passed as fire to the heavens. David H. Aaron, who takes some exceptions to Gottstein’s analysis, even notes that "it must ultimately be recognized that ‘the divine glory as a luminous form is prediacted... on the attribution of an anthropomorphic shape to that form.’ In short, even in the context of mysticism, where God as light is a prevelant motif, it is still impossible to sidestep the issue of God’s having an actual body whence the light derives, very similar in form to the human body." Indeed, this is natural considering the contact ancient Israel had with her neighbors, and the archaeological "proof" that whether they be Egyptian, Mesopotamian or Babylonian, their gods were anthropomorphic "having human characteristics and passions." It is worth mentioning that Eichrodt believed the various combined names with the God El in the Bible, meaning "strong," or "powerful," and even "Leader," and "Governor," demonstrates "at least a monarchic polytheism, and in many cases what amounts in effect to a practical monism with some inkling of a higher unity behind the multiplicity of gods."

Gershom Scholem discusses the Jewish elaboration on the Hebrew terms for God in the Old Testament. He shows that God has a three dimensional physical shape. In fact Scholem notes that when the Bible says God spoke, this is an anthropomorphism no less than God’s hand.

Anthropomorphism, the idea that God has bodily shape in the Bible, was well known anciently, and by the time Philo investigated the scriptures, he literally took out all of the anthropomorphism of the Bible concerning God and spiritualized everything. (This reminds us of Nephi’s statement, in the BofM, that they have taken away many plain and precious things out of the book of the Lamb of God). Alfred Edersheim noted that Philo separated God from matter, because philosophically then the scriptures would make sense. Philo is the one who is responsible for placing God outside of space and time. Philo is responsible for saying that God has not human qualities and therefore is unknown and unrecognizable to man. Holt admits that the anthropomorphism of ancient Canaanite religion, El sitting on his throne, being spoken of as a Father, a quiet old fellow with a gray beard and hair, "this kind of anthropomorphism must have had its place in the patriarchs’ actual religion, although the Biblical authors have done away with as much of it as they could." Thus fulfilling Book of Mormon prophecy in the process.

The Bible clearly says God has a shape, and that shape is human, as when God spoke to Moses face to face, or when God was unseen of Israel, Moses did see God’s back-parts as God was moving away from Moses. Numbers 12:8, the "discussion of the divine form was not meaningless, even if later exegesis attempted to interpret it away." Eichrodt notes its significance saying this selem elohim "the image of God, may once have been conceived in a quite concrete way... if therefore Man is created beselem elohim, in accordance with the picture of God, then it is certain that the original idea was of Man’s outward form as a copy of God’s; and here Man’s upright posture and movement may have been a major ingredient in the likeness."

Man is formed in effiegiem moderantum cincta deorum - in the image of the gods [note the plural!] the master of nature."Scholem also notes with some exasperation that "the Old Testament constantly speaks with great naivete about God’s form... God is thus conceived as a human being."

Importantly Philo said "the literal sense must be wholly set aside..." Philo, we are told, "would find an allegorical... interpretation" along with the rule he gave himself "which he claimed of freely altering the punctuation of sentences... a word which occurred in the LXX might be interpreted according to every shade of meaning which it bore in the Greek, and that even another meaning might be given it by slightly altering the letters." [!]

Edersheim also lamented "If such violence might be done to the text, we need not wonder at interpretations based on a play upon words, or even parts of a word."

And what was the foundation and basis for Philo doing violence to the sacred scripture? He adapted Plato and the philosophers for his ideas and definitions of God, and threw out the literal Biblical definitions.

Back to the idea of shining souls and spirits, a fascinating account of the birth of Noah, mentioned in one Dead Sea Scroll fragment (1QapGen) notes that Lamech was furious with his wife Bitenosh, when he noticed that their child Noah glowed. He was distraught and thought she had the child by one of the Watchers of Heaven. Lamech went to Methuselah asking about the situation. Methuselah then went to Enoch, etc.

All of this fits in well with the idea of our souls having a premortal existent glory as well. In the Book of Enoch, Noah resembles the offspring of heaven, in that "his eyes are bright as the rays of the sun; his countenance glorious... when he opened them [his eyes] he illuminated the whole house." In James H. Charlesworth’s rendition of 1 Enoch, Noah is also described as having hair white as wool, and his eyes causing the house to glow like the sun. One of the powers in the Gnostic text Apocryphon of John is described as having "a shining fire-face." The Sons of God who married the daughters of men in the early chapters in Genesis are said to have that name "because the divine light out of which God had created their ancestor Samael, Cain’s father, shone from their faces. I would suggest that that powerful glory was not veiled in many of the patriarchs, such as Adam, Noah, etc., whom we are told actually were actually the angels Michael and Gabriel respectively!

The Priesthood was given to Adam; he obtained the First Presidency, and held the keys of it from generation to generation. He obtained it in the Creation, before the world was formed, as in Genesis 1:26, 27, 28. He had dominion given him over every living creature. He is Michael the Archangel, spoken of in the scriptures. Then to Noah, who is Gabriel: he stands next in authority to Adam in the Priesthood...

Michael is described as "one of the holy angels, for (he is) obedient in his benevolence over the people and the nations." While Gabriel is described as "one of the holy angels who oversee the garden of Eden, and the serpents, and the cherubim." Michael is said to dwell in eternal light, to help the "Sons of Light," and give joy to all of Israel, even peace and is the actual intercessor in late Judaism.

We are explicitly told that angels are the "sons of heaven," equally called "gods." In other words, we are all the same species. Mormonism has always understood it that way since Joseph Smith’s day. In fact, Enoch himself became the angel Metatron in Jewish thinking, thus showing the exact similarities between men and angels. Metatron was described as God’s chief counselor whose "flesh was transformed into flame, his sinews into fire, his bones into ember, his eyes into torches, his hair into rays of light, and he was surrounded by storm, whirlwind, thunder and lightning."

Angels and men often have the same functions and perform the same duties as well, such as when the angel in Ezekiel 9:2-4; 40:3-5, appears as a supernatural man and "performs the functions of an angel." Although the conception of the nature of angels was not uniform, they were considered to be men, and "they are like men, said to possess bodies and spirits."

Adam, in the Gnostic writings, is described as the likeness of the perfect man, "that his name may become a power of light for us." This idea that Adam had the Priesthood and the Gospel in the beginning is now attested by numerous texts as well, again indicating a restoration of ancient concepts, especially concerning having the Gospel to save the eternal family unit of God here on earth, through the atonement of Jesus Christ.

And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me. And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth. Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore. And in that day the Holy Ghost fell upon Adam, which beareth record of the Father and the Son, saying: I am the Only Begotten of the Father from the beginning, henceforth and forever, that as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will.

M. Hengel translates the Greek word monogenes theos as "the only begotten," from John 1:18, clearly showing that Jesus was "begotten of His own Father. It is this Jesus who taught Adam His Gospel in the beginning.

Hans-Joachim Klimkeit’s translation of various Manichaean, Parthian, and Buddhist texts also show that the "Jesus of splendor, an emanation of the Third Messenger" came and taught Adam the true gnosis called "the saving knowledge of his origin and of the truth of himself. He made clear to Adam that his soul stemmed from the divine World of Light." In a Persian Cosmogonical Hymn we also read that "Resurrection was the destiny of the discerning soul of (that) fortunate one (Adam). He believed in the message of Ohrmizd, the good Lord. He eagerly accepted all the commandments, ordinances and seals of virtue, like a mighty hero; he put off the mortal body and was redeemed eternally."

In the Vita Adae et Evae, Eve and Seth are told by Michael the Archangel, "When five thousand five hundred years have been fulfilled, then will come upon earth the most beloved king Christ, the son of God, to revive the body of Adam and with him to revive the bodies of the dead. He himself, the Son of God, when he comes will be baptized in the river of Jordan, and when he hath come out of the water of Jordan, then He will anoint from the oil of mercy all that believe in Him."

The Apocalypse Mosis proclaims "yet when thou art gone out of paradise, if thou shouldst keep thyself from all evil, as one about to die, when again the Resurrection hath come to pass, I will raise thee up and then there shall be given to thee the Tree of Life." We further read that the Lord also promised the Resurrection, not only to Adam, but to "every man, who is of thy seed." Norman L. Geisler has demonstrated quite clearly that this resurrection is fundamentally physical, real, and tangibly material, involving not only God but man as well, and for eternity. "His [Christ’s] resurrection body is more than mortal, it is not less than physical." Clearly, the knowledge that Adam had the Gospel from the beginning, which Joseph Smith taught could be placed in the category as a restored knowledge of the Gospel, and its importance to Adam from ancient times.

The New Testament "Form of God" & "Invisibility"

There are a few instances in the New Testament indicating that God had a form. God is never once explained as being incorporeal or immaterial. Markus Bockmuehl discusses Philippians 2:6, and notes that the phrase en morfh qeou uparcwn "in the form of God" denotes a visible outward, even literal appearance of a person. The Greek word morfh (morphe) means what gives the person identity and status, and is in fact parallel with the phrase in verse 7 "the form of a slave" (morfh doulou) showing that this is "further complimented by ‘in human likeness.’" John R. Kohlenberger III shows morphe is the very nature, or character and form including outward appearance of whatever it is being talked about, in the Bible’s case, Jesus. Even Celsus in the second century complained rather loudly that the Christians were a carnal race in his day because they actually believed "that God is corporeal and has a human form."

The very precept of Imago Dei is summed up as "God being very much involved in history and a being who had a history. He sets himself purposes, changes his mind in response to events, enters into binding covenants, etc. To exclude these characteristics as the crude anthropomorphisms of primitive minds is to lose sight of the whole historical orientation of the Old Testament and to misunderstand the God of the Bible." (my emphasis) It was Plato who taught "to know oneself - the reflexive attitude par excellence - meant to attend to one’s soul, at the exclusion of the body." But Tertullian taught the exact opposite: "Cardo salutis cardo - "The flesh is the axis of salvation." And Iranaeus "insists so much on the humanity of Christ because he sees it as a warrant of the ‘salvation of our flesh, since were not the flesh to be saved, God would not have become flesh.’"

Ed Watson, in his critical new study, has shown Bible scholars and exegetes who declare "In the Greek world morphe theou was used for the external (usually human) form of a god." Christ’s appearance to the two disciples on the road (Luke 24:13-35) has the Greek word morphe not as a mystical essence, but a real, tangible outward form of appearance. As Watson observes, "the contrast between the morphe of God and the morphe of men in Phil. 2:6-7 isn’t about an outward physical appearance (non-material, formless omnipresence vs three-dimensional anthropomorphic discernable matter) since it is about nature instead of appearance." Richard Hopkins also has demonstrated that Phil. 2:6-7 is not about Christ divesting himself of his divinity at all, but is about Christ divesting himself of equality with God for his short mortal duration on earth.

The Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint - LXX) at Isaiah 44:13 "makes it clear that the ‘form of a man’ means the physical human shape. Visible shape or appearance is clearly also what is intended in several references in Daniel (4:36, 5:6,9,10; 7:28) and in the Deuterocanonical books (e.g. 4 Macc. 15:4; Wisd. 18:1; cf. Wisd. 7:10; 11:17; Sir. 9:8; 4 Macc. 8:10)." In fact, it is noted that the sons of Elohim are considered men, "Since the Old Testament affirms that men were created in the image and after the likeness of God, why... can it not also call men ‘sons of God?’ ... His argument has a certain logical force..."

Bockmuehl also takes note that the earliest Christian interpretations such as in the Ascension of Isaiah, show "the Lord of all the heavens transforms himself ‘until he becomes like you in form and in appearance’ (8:9-10; cf. 9:13); similarly, the Odes of Solomon 7:4-6 affirm that Christ became like us in appearance (demuta) and in form (tzurta). In relation to the human Christ, the word ‘form’ was evidently understood to carry certain palpably visual connotations." Josephus writes in Contra Apionem 2:190 that the morphe of God and even his greatness are hidden. Bockmuehl says "he [meaning God, in Josephus’s account] clearly has a morphe but it is not accessible to humans." In this sense as well, God is described as being invisible.

Jesus even told the Jews (John 5:37) that they had not seen the Father in Heaven’s shape nor had they heard his voice. The Greek word for shape, eidos, is always used in the New Testament as the exterior, visible, discernable appearance of objects and beings. Ed Watson asks a potent question at this point. "John 5:37 contains a statement concerning the ontological nature of God. His very nature. If God ontologically didn’t have a shape but was this omnipresent essence; why didn’t they argue the point with him and correct him?... this statement doesn’t mean God doesn’t have a shape. It means he does have a shape but these Jews never saw it. ‘You’ve never seen Colleen’s daughter’ doesn’t mean Colleen really doesn’t have a daughter." In fact, E. LaB. Cherbonnier, from Trinity College, notes that "Only if God is a definite, determinate personality can He take intelligible, purposive action. Only an anthropomorphic God can be omnipotent."

"Many verses in the New Testament describe his characteristics, e.g., all-seeing and all-knowing, "Lord of heaven and earth," Righteous, holy, merciful, a just judge of the world, and a great king." This is clearly an anthropomorphic deity. William F. Albright himself acknowledged that Moses’ monotheism had to include God the Creator, "who is in human form..." He contrasts this God of Mo