Contradictions NOT in the Bible

[Goosey]

I guess we all know about the contradictions in the Bible, but what I'm interested in here are the contradictions that the Bible covered up.

For instance, it's generally thought that in the Elohist tradition, Abraham did sacrifice Isaac. The Jahwist tradition never mentions the sacrifice, but does talk about (a perfectly alive and well) Isaac after the sacrifice was supposed to have happened. It's therefore believed that the whole thing about God staying Abraham's hand was made up to explain the discrepancy.

I'm sure this kind of thing is the reason for a lot of the contradictions that do exist (the contradictions between Genesis 1 and 2 are most certainly explained exactly by the fact that one is Elohist and the other is Jahwist), but I have to wonder how many more were caught and glossed over like this.

So does anyone know any other examples?

[R. U. Sirius]

Could you explain the difference between Elohist and Jahwist, please? Because I have never heard either of those terms and have no idea what they mean, aside from (presumably) being two different ancient Jewish denominations.

[Goosey]

The Elohists and the Jahwists are two of the four different sources for the Torah (and thus the Old Testament) - the other two are the Deuteronomists and the Priestly source. (And I made a mistake in my previous post: The first two chapters of Genesis are from the Jahwists and the Priestly source, not the Jahwists and the Elohists, but the point still stands.)

The names come from what they believed to be the name of God. The Elohists are named for Elohim (supposedly what God was called before his name was revealed to Moses - it is actually the plural of Eloah, which in turn is the Hebrew cognate of the Arabic Allah, and is the reason so many of the angels (and Israel itself) have names ending in "-el").

The Jahwists, on the other hand, are named for Yahweh (and are sometimes called Yahwists instead).

There are other differences beyond the names, of course. The Jahwists saw God as more human-like than the Elohists, for example.

[Id82]

The documentary hypothesis. It claims that the ancient Israelites were polytheistic, basically because God goes by different names in the ancient Torah. Names such as El Elohim which means God most high, Baal, and Yaweh to name a few. It claims that these were actually different Gods which explains God's different behaviors in the old testament. These names for Gods were actually also based off of Caaninite Gods. In ancient times it wasn't uncommon for a region to follow one religion but each city state to worship one of the Gods in their pantheon. Yahweh was actually the God of war, and the God of the Israel tribe. Over time the Yahwist the deutoronomists and the priestly sources came in and edited the torah so it appeared as if they worshiped one God Yahweh. Knowing this makes more sense when Yahweh says "Thou shall have no other Gods before me." Why would he say that if he was the only God? I also believe the israelites after freed from the egyptians also say and I'm paraphrasing, "No God is as great as you Yahweh." It is also said that a golden calf was a symbol for El Elohim, which Moses is angry that his tribes men were worshiping after receiving the ten commandments.

Evidence does a better job at explaining this than I am: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlnnWbkMlbg&list=PLA0C3C1D163BE880A&index=19

[Barbarella]

I'm vaguely aware of this whole Elohim/Yahweh thing. I kind of get the impression that the Elohist tradition was older & for the most part, less deranged as far as God interpretations are concerned.

Think about it. Yahweh the WAR god! A whole religion based on a war god. Elohim seems more vague, androgynous & universal. In fact I think, in the Canaanite Pantheon, El/Eloah/Elohim are the big heads while Yahweh was just one of many of the deities below them.

But worshiping a WAR god who's very human-like...and thus reflecting humans...warts & all, certainly explains A LOT!

[PosthumanHeresy]

That video was awesome. Like, could you make that its own thread? I'd love for that to be a more-seen thing.