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Permalink Reply by Petros on 11th mo. 20, 2014 at 10:48am

There's a theory that the pronounciation of "Ea" was something like "yah".

David Nelson Seaman said:

Thank you for the wonderful link to Winston's work, Mike.    The Old Testament demands on other  God's in the levant submitting to YAHWEH, through the analogy of the whale in this case , seems like a mythical reference linked to the worhshipers of Dagon and Ea, whose  image was that of a human-fish with powers representing fertility and the Goddess.    The patriarchal God YAHWEH, being jealous and murderous of any God other than Himself, demanded even of fish- and their association with fertility cults- obedience and loyalty.     That praise to him must be sung by whales seems a  example of how the integration of pre-Judaic images and forms were  incorporated into the sacred texts of Judism as a way to eradicate the worship of other God forms that displeased YAHWEH.     The symbol of the "Fish" survived  Old Testament eradication efforts and is still found in Christian symbolism, although its origins are long forgotten.

  

 

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Permalink Reply by Mike Shell on 11th mo. 20, 2014 at 6:53pm

Interesting bit of reconstruction, David.  I've done a lot of reading in the literature of biblical criticism in the decades since I left seminary in 1973, as well as in anthropology and comparative religion.  These pre-Judaic connections, just like the analogous importing of so-called pagan elements into Christianity, always offer us a larger picture.

In my personal case, it doesn't deter me from living a faith and practice with roots in the "friend of Jesus" character of my childhood religion. 

Rather, it adds complex, contradictory, paradoxical nuances to "sacred story." I see scriptures and liturgies and doctrines and myths as human beings' attempts to describe their experiences of interaction with the Reality which is larger than our comprehension.

Unfortunately, people in every religion, especially those in power in any religion, then do the perverse human thing of claiming that these story-telling tools are rules written in stone.

They are not. They are poetry.

Blessings, Mike

David Nelson Seaman said:

The Old Testament demands on other God's in the levant submitting to YAHWEH, through the analogy of the whale in this case, seems like a mythical reference linked to the worhshipers of Dagon and Ea... That praise to him must be sung by whales seems a  example of how the integration of pre-Judaic images and forms were  incorporated into the sacred texts of Judism as a way to eradicate the worship of other God forms that displeased YAHWEH.   The symbol of the "Fish" survived  Old Testament eradication efforts and is still found in Christian symbolism, although its origins are long forgotten.

  

 

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