• March 24, 2025

Freethought Nation

presented by Acharya S and Truth Be Known, online since 1995

Apparently YHWH as 'Yahu' in a winged 'throne chariot,' holding a bird. Coin from Gaza, 4th century BCE.
Acharya S/D.M. Murdock

Yahweh as sun, storm and pestilence god

YHWH as 'Yahu' in a winged 'throne chariot,' holding a bird. Coin from Gaza, 4th century BCE.
  YHWH as ‘Yahu’ in a winged ‘throne chariot,’ holding a bird. Coin from Gaza, 4th century BCE.) For a further discussion, see Gosta W. Ahlstrom’s ‘The Persian Period: The History of Ancient Palestine.’ Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993/1994; p. 898.

Today’s inspirational Bible quote: “He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind…”

Who can see the solar and meteorological imagery here?

It is obvious that the biblical god Yahweh is a combination of numerous Sumero-Semitic and Egyptian deities and godly attributes. The creators of this tribal god incorporated as many such characteristics as possible from around the known world of the time. They had much to draw from, with a long and rich tradition of deities permeating the Levant, Fertile Crescent and North Africa, as well as Greece, Persia, India and Arabia.

One of the most obvious attempts at subordinating all these other gods and goddesses under Yahweh is the overkill of the 10 plagues in the Exodus myth. This tale is blatantly unhistorical, with one desolation after another, when there would be practically no one left after the first couple of plagues.

As I demonstrate in Did Moses Exist? The Myth of the Hebrew Israelite, the biblical scribes gathered together these many plague narratives from the myths of earlier eras and cultures, specifically those of various pestilence deities such as Nergal and Seth. In order to make Yahweh more powerful than either of these two very well-known pestilence gods, the Bible’s writers heaped on the miraculous, God-sent plagues to the point of absurdity!

Yes, we get it – your God is bigger and better than everyone else’s.

Further Reading

Did Moses Exist?
The Astrotheology of the Ancients
Astrotheology of the Ancients (forum)
Jesus (and Yahweh) as the Sun throughout History

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10 thoughts on “Yahweh as sun, storm and pestilence god”

  1. Amazed …
    I’m always amazed that we continue, in the 21st century, to drag these ball and chain personifications of the forces of nature around with us century after century.

  2. You’ve stated Yahweh is a combination of numerous sumero-semitic and Egyptian dieties and godly attributes. My question is do you believe that there is a God? I clearly understand your thesis that the concept of the Judeo-Christian God is an unorigial concept to the Judeo-Christian faith, what I’m not to clear on is your position regarding a creator, do you believe in one, and if so what do you perceive of him. Everything else you teach I’m crystal clear on except, how you perceive a creator, since you don’t believe in the personal God of the Judeo-Christian faith, at least as far as my understanding allows me?

    1. Thanks for the query. I don’t believe in anything. I try to experience and know various concepts. If you are interested in my views on God, prayer and so on, you will probably enjoy my book The Gospel According to Acharya S. You can read in it through Google Books, which is linked here:

      http://stellarhousepublishing.com/gospel.html

  3. Hi, I cannot register for the forums, despite my repeated attempts. It requires that we give the number of people in the banner at the top of the page, but no banner with people is at the top of the page. I notified AcharyaS about this, and she emailed me and said the answer is 6. I tried this, but it was rejected. It seems I finally was able to bypass this particular question today, and I was informed that an activation email was sent to me. No such email ever came. Can somebody please help me?

  4. The idea that Yahweh comes from non-Jewish sources and cultures, was a theory bandied about by the German anti-Semitic history of religions school of thought, but has been rejected by scholars today. The Germans wanted a pagan Yahweh and pagan Christ. Their thesis was ideological, not based on archaeology and scholarship.

    1. The idea that Yahweh comes from non-Jewish/Canaanite/Semitic sources has NOT been rejected by scholars today. That’s a completely false statement. The best educated scholars know that Yahweh is a pre-Israelite name and that he appears to have been one of the Canaanite Elohim or “sons of El.” If you would like to know the facts about the subject, please see my book Did Moses Exist?

  6. Except the only name he claimed for himself outright, in plain language, was Jealous. Not sure why people call Him Yahweh. His name is Jealous.

    Exodus 34:14 King James Bible
    For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

    I usually refer to him as Old Jealous because He’s older than I am. (Note that His name is spelled with a capital J.) Fun stuff.

    Thanks for your work!

    -Braggi

  7. Yahwey appears in 2 vague Egyptian inscriptions & refer to a Semitic group to the southwest of Israel. Look at religions the way you look at language. English, Greek Spanish & many others are Indo-European; they all originated from one language spoken thousands of years before & still have similar sounding words from the same root. The same is true of religion. The Vedic religion of India has elements (horses) not native to those lands at the time. Zeus, Thor, Ba’al, Yahwey….all strikingly similar, but is it a case of stealing another gods attributes or the same religion separated by thousands of years.

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