The Priests are Pretending the Powerful One is Still in the Tent..

From the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures comes a surprising clue... In it, a book called Bel and the Dragon mocks a competing society who have all the same pattern of worship that surrounded Yahweh, including the regular task of providing their powerful one with continual edible offerings.

The joke in the story of Bel and the Dragon, is that the huge tent supposedly holding their dragon is empty. The priests are pretending the powerful one is still in the tent, pretending to visit him as the people's go between. In reality, it is the priests who are eating all the edible offerings brought by the people. This story is told to contrast the competing people group with the people of Yahweh.

The people of Yahweh had a real powerful one who really was eating the offerings himself, who really was kept hidden in the furthest recesses of an enormous tabernacle, hidden in darkness and surrounded by smoke. But does that sound like the story of an almighty God? Could these ancient stories of a fearful dragon ruling over his humans have been mistakenly translated as stories of Yahweh?

How can a name associated with Almighty God also be associated with such a fearful, fiery figure? In the final edit of the Hebrew canon, did the editors paste the Holy name of God over stories of completely different kinds of entity?

#yahweh #elohim #powerfulones #dragons