Hosea the prophet

Actually there is tweenty eight words for G*d in Hebrew text.

El (the supreme god of Babylon), Elohim (plural for El), El Shaddai (mistranslated Almighty, it actually means breasted god or god of the mountains), El Elyon (god most high), and others. All represent various polytheistic gods of the ancient Hebrews, and all have become conflated with Yahweh.

Adonai (Lord) is substituted for Yahweh in Hebrew since it became illegal to write out the tetragrammaton.

As far as I know, all the other names are Yahweh Something or Other, such as Yahweh of Armies ("hosts").
 
Makes sense (if we know that ancient Israel had many gods).
 
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Hence all the Biblical stories about how God gets pissed when we "have any other gods before Him." The new religion was pushing out the old.
 
Hence all the Biblical stories about how God gets pissed when we "have any other gods before Him." The new religion was pushing out the old.

Yes. Other gods meant other priests with power, and alleigence to other kings and cultural practices as well. The powers that be in Jerusalem at that time wanted to consolidate their power in that city, to make sure the peasants tithed to the nobility, the Levites, at the yearly festivals, especially Passover. So they decried the house of Yahweh in Samaria, and destroyed other houses of Yahweh across Judah and Israel, while also killing the priests and priestesses, and destroying the altars in the groves and high places of Asherah and Baal.

Religion is always political. And politicians will always tell the populace that "God" wants them to do thus and so (which will of course increase the power of said politicians/nobility).
 
I didn't realize that other houses of Yahweh were targeted. Interesting.

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"Religion is always political."

Amen.
 
I didn't realize that other houses of Yahweh were targeted. Interesting.

You really should read the Old Testament, Kevin! It's fascinating rich stuff. I love history and poetry and symoblism, which is why the Bible is one of my favorite books (should say library of books) even though I am pagan! There's plenty of paganism in the Bible. The Song of Songs is actually a pagan poem that has been taken over by first, the Jews, and then the Christians, for example.

Don't use King James. Borrow a copy of the New Oxford Annotated Bible from the library. It has tons of footnotes and essays that explain a lot of background about how all the different books were written, by whom, and most importantly, WHY.
 
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Thanks Magdlyn. I think polyamorists sometimes look for poly validation in the Bible when it isn't there. There's a difference between how we'd like to interpret something personally, and in this case, the accurate and objective interpretation which is what you provided. I appreciate and prefer that.

Multiple wives were two things, women were second class at the time and more hands lead to better financial security.
 
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