THE BULL OF HEAVEN: The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the linguistic reconstruction of a common ancestor of the Indo-European languages spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Calvert Watkins, professor Emeritus of linguistics and the classics at Harvard University, professor-in-residence at UCLA, and editor of The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots (ISBN 0-618-08250-6), proposes a possibility that the Germanic root of the word bull is from Proto-Indo-European bhln, from the root bhel2; to blow, inflate, swell, and from Proto-Indo-European beu; both being roots that are supposed to have formed words associated with swelling. One synonym of the word swell, is expand. The reader will recall that, as a red giant, Aldebaran has – expanded – to a diameter of 44.2 times the diameter of Sol. If Aldebaran itself was considered the Bull of Heaven, it would appear as though our ancient forebearers infatuation with the heavens, lends an air of credibility to the Calvert Watkins analysis, and a degree of plausibility to the mythologies which speak of the gods descending to the Earth from the heavens, and bestowing their wisdom upon mankind. ʾĒl (written aleph-lamed; in Hebrew: אל; A-L or E-L in English) is a Northwest Semitic word meaning deity, and the bull was symbolic to him. ʾĒl is referred to again and again as Tôru ʾĒl (Bull ʾĒl or The Bull God). For the Canaanites, ʾĒl (el du yahwi sabaôt; YHVH Tzvaot) or Il was the supreme God, the father of mankind and all creatures. Cognate forms of the name are found throughout the Semitic languages. They include Ugaritic ʾil, pl. ʾlm; Phoenician ʾl pl. ʾlm; Hebrew ʾēl, pl. ʾēlîm; Aramaic ʾl; Akkadian ilu, pl. ilānu (cf. Anu and Alû). In Ugaritic the plural form meaning Gods is ʾilhm, equivalent to Hebrew ʾelōhîm Gods. The stem ʾl is found prominently in the earliest strata of east Semitic, northwest Semitic, and – South Semitic – groups. Personal names including the stem ʾl are found with similar patterns both in Amorite and South Arabic which indicates that probably already in Proto-Semitic ʾl was both a generic term for god and the common name or title of a single particular god or God. ʾĒl (the basis for the extended root ʾlh) is usually derived from a root meaning to be strong and/or to be in front. The reader will recall that the Babylonians described the constellation Taurus as The Bull in Front. And, known as An in ancient Sumer, Anu (the patron of kings) dates back to at least 3,000 BCE in the archaeological record, making him one of the oldest of the gods. Like his Canaanite counterpart ʾĒl, he was once known as the Great Bull. In Mesopotamian mythology, GU4.GAL.AN.NA (lit. The Great Bull of Heaven < Sumerian GU4 bull, GAL great, AN heaven, NA of) was a Sumerian deity (husband of Ereshkigal) as well as the constellation known today as Taurus, whereas GU4.AN.NA, simply means Bull of Heaven (Taurus, or at least its head; the Hyades; cf. Aleph). In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Alû is the celestial Bull. Stephen Herbert Langdon, an American-born British Assyriologist with an impressive accreditation, cites a translation of a cuneiform script by Major-General Sir H. C. Rawlinson from v Pl. 50, A, line 42, and states that Alû is androgynous, which corresponds, virtually identically, to a female principle of the creator god Anu, An , whose early iconography suggests a celestial sky goddess in the form of a cow whose udders produce rain (cf. Hyades) and who becomes Antu in the Akkadian pantheon. In Sumerian, the designation An was used interchangeably with the heavens so that in some cases it is doubtful whether, under the term, the god An or the heavens is being denoted, quite possibly due to the fact that, to a degree, they are part of the same spatial expanse (ie. Bull of Heaven; constellation Taurus). Alalu (cf. Al Alû), also called Alalus, is god in Hurrian mythology. He is considered to have housed the Hosts of Sky, the divine family, because he was a progenitor of the gods, and possibly the father of Earth. Alalu was defeated by his son Anu. Anuʻs son Kumarbi also defeated his father, and Kumarbis son Teshub defeated his father as well (cf. Greek mythology of Uranus, Cronus, and Zeus.). The word Alalu borrowed from Semitic mythology and is a compound word made up of the Semitic definite article Al (cf. ʾĒl; Hebrew: אל) and the Semitic supreme deity Alû (The Bull of Heaven). The u at the end of the word is a termination to denote a grammatical inflection. Thus, Alalu may also occur as Alali or Alala (cf. Al Ilāh; Allah) depending on the position of the word in the sentence. He was identified by the Greeks as Hypsistos (Greek: Ὕψιστος, the Most High God). In the Septuagint the word hypsisto- is used more than fifty times as a title for Yahweh (the Tetragrammaton) or in direct relation to him (most often in the Psalms, Daniel, and Sirach; Strongs #5310). Contemporary Hellenistic use of ὕψιστος (hýpsistos) as a religious term appears to be derived from and compatible with the term as it had much earlier appeared in the Septuagint. (Greek ύψίστος translating Hebrew elyon עליון English highest.) In Greek mythology, Hyperion (Greek: Ὑπερίων, The High-One) was one of the twelve Titan children of Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky or Heaven) who, led by Cronus, overthrew Uranus and were themselves later overthrown by the Olympians. With his sister, the Titaness Theia, Hyperion fathered Helios (Sun), Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn). Several pieces of evidence have led scholars to the conclusion that ʾĒl was the original God of Israel—for example, the word Isra-El is based on the name of ʾĒl rather than on that of Yahweh. Prior to becoming Yahweh, the national god of Israel, and taking on monotheistic attributes in the 6th century BCE, He was a part of the Canaanite pantheon in the period before the Babylonian captivity. Archeological evidence reveals that during this time period the Israelites were a group of Canaanite people. Yahweh was seen as a war god, and equated with ʾĒl, hence El-ohim. According to German theologian and Old Testament scholar, Gerhard Johannes Botterweck and Swedish theologian, Karl Vilhelm Helmer Ringgren, the earliest known occurrence of the name Yahu is its inclusion of the name the land of Shasu-y/iw (cf. el du – yahwi – sabaôt) in a list of Egyptian place names found in the temple of Amon at Soleb, from the time of Amenhotep III (1402-1363 BCE). The place name appears to be associated with Asiatic nomads in the 14th to 13th centuries BCE. A later mention from the era of Ramesses II (c. 1303 BCE – 1213 BCE) associates Yahu with Mount Seir. From this, it is generally supposed that this Yahu refers to a place in the area of Moab and Edom. Whether the god was named after the place, or the place named after the god, is undecided. Early worship of Yahweh likely originated in southern Canaan during the Late Bronze Age. It is probable that Yahu (or Yahweh) was worshipped in southern Canaan (Edom, Moab, Midian) from the 14th century BCE, and that this cult was transmitted northwards due to the Kenites. The oldest West Semitic attestation of the name is the inscription of the victory stela erected by Mesha, king of Moab, in the 9th century BCE. In this inscription, however, Yahweh is not presented as a Moabite deity. Regarding the Shasu of Yhw (Shasu-y/iw), Michael Czernichow Astour, professor of Yiddish and Russian Literature at Brandeis University and a professor of history (Ancient Classical Culture and the Middle East) at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, has observed that the hieroglyphic rendering corresponds very precisely to the Hebrew tetragrammaton YHVH, or Yahweh, and antedates the hitherto oldest occurrence of that Divine Name – on the Moabite Stone – by over five hundred years. Donald B. Redford, Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University, thinks it reasonable to conclude that the demonym Israel recorded on the Merneptah Stele refers to a Shasu enclave, and that, since later Biblical tradition portrays Yahweh coming forth from Seir the Shasu, originally from Moab and northern Edom, went on to form one major element in the amalgam that was to constitute the Israel which later established the Kingdom of Israel.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 17:56:28 +0000
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