How Were The Titles
Lord And God
Transferred To The Scriptures?
The prophets of Yahweh were not ignorant of the deception
of using pagan titles in the place of the Name of Yahweh.
The Prophet Yeremyah (Jeremiah) plainly tells us this.
Yeremyah 2:8—
The priests did not ask; Where is Yahweh? Those who deal with
the Law did not know Me! The pastors also transgressed against
I and the prophets prophesied in the name of Baal; the Lord,
and walked after things of worthlessness; worthless gods (Elohim)!
As we have found in Deuteronomy 11:16, those who follow
after these pagan Gods are also deceived. Even though a
person is deceived, that person is still in error. The Prophet
Yeremyah then tells us how the people whom he was prophesying
to were in error.
Yeremyah 23:26-27—
26 How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy
lies? Yes, they are prophets of the deceit of their own minds;
27 Who devise; plan and scheme, to cause My people to forget
My Name through their dreams, which they tell every man to his
neighbor, just as their fathers have forgotten My Name for Baal;
Lord.
Yes, the people were in error because they forgot the
Name of Yahweh for the name of Baal, which is merely the
Canaanite name of Lord. However, be assured that this
changing of Yahweh’s Name did not take place overnight.
This came about through a systematic, organized conspiracy
to hide Yahweh’s Name in the Holy Scriptures.
Yeremyah 11:9-10—
9 Then Yahweh said to me: A conspiracy is found among the
men of Yahdah and among the inhabitants of Yerusalem.
10 They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers,
who refused to listen to My Laws, and they have gone after the
hinder gods (Elohim) to serve them! The house of Israyl and the
house of Yahdah alike have broken My covenant which I made
with their fathers.
Yes, the House of Israyl first, and then the House of Yahdah,
turned back to the sins their forefathers had committed.
They refused to obey Yahweh. They served Gods. They
broke the Covenant which Yahweh had made with them.
Yahweh inspired Yeremyah to show us how this conspiracy
was accomplished, saying in:
Yeremyah 8:5-9—
5 Why, then, has this person slidden back; turned away, with a
perpetual backsliding; turning away? They hold fast to deceit; they
refuse to return!
6 I have listened and heard, but they do not say what is right;
no man repents of his wickedness,
saying; What have I done? Each
pursues his own course, as a horse rushing into battle.
7 Yes, the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times of
migration. And the turtledove,
the swallow and the crane observe
the time of their coming; return, migration; but My people do not
know the judgment of Yahweh.
8 How can you say; We are the wise, and the Law of Yahweh is
with us? Behold, the lying pen of the scribes has falsified them, and
written them wrong!
9 The wise are ashamed; they are dismayed and taken. Behold,
they have rejected the word of Yahweh, the Law, and the Prophets,—
so what wisdom is in them?Yes, the false pen of the scribes has falsified the scriptures
even today. The people in this world worship Lord and God
due to the scribes systematic, organized conspiracy to first
hide, and then to replace Yahweh’s Name in these same
Holy Scriptures.
To understand how these pagan titles came into the scriptures,
we must first understand that it was the added words,
the deleted words, and the incorrect replacement of words,
which have caused all the confusion and deception in these
same scriptures.
The Yahwist Source
It should now be a well-known fact that the scribes used
the word Elohim, translated God, to replace the Name of
Yahweh in the Holy Scriptures.
The plain simple fact is that the Creator was never known
as a god in any of the original writings! The earliest writings,
known as the J or Yahwist manuscripts, use the Name of
Yahweh exclusively in its writings. The J source is the oldest
source of writings we have, which makes it the inspired writings
of the scriptures. The Interpreter’s Dictionary, Volume 2,
page 777, tells us about the Yahwist
The Anchor Bible, Genesis, Volume 1, pages 37-38, Introduction
and Commentary by E.A. Speiser, Doubleday &
Co., 1983, Garden City, NY, confirms that the J Source is
the oldest (and therefore the first and inspired) source of
the Scriptures.
J traced back the name Yahweh to the dim past, while
E and P attributed the usage to Moses, both views may be
justified depending on the point of vantage. The worship
of Yahweh was in all likelihood confined at first to a small
the body of searchers under the aegis of the patriarchs; it was this movement that found a worthy recorder in J. When
Moses set out to fashion a nation out of an amorphous conglomerate
of sundry ethnic and tribal elements he had to
concentrate on three major features of nationhood: a territorial
base, a body of laws, and a distinctive religion. The last
was normative in more ways than one; it was necessarily the
faith of the same forefathers who had already tied it to the
Promised Land, with Yahweh as its fountainhead. To that
extent, therefore, Yahweh revealed himself to Moses: and it
is this personal revelation that both E and P celebrate. To
J, however, who chronicled the progress within the inner
circle of the patriarchal pioneers, the personal participation
of Yahweh had been the dominant fact from the start.
The Elohist Source
The E or Elohist Source is derived from the Hebrew word
for God, the word Elohim, the use of which is characteristic
of this source. The Elohist Source came after the Yahwist
Source. We see this in The Interpreter’s Dictionary, Volume
2, page 1.
The Interpreter’s Dictionary, Volume 2, page 94, also shows
that this source is commonly associated with the Northern
The Kingdom of Israyl, and dates approximately 100 years later
than the Yahwist Source.
ELOHIST μl” ½ h¹st, i l½” h¹st. The author or
the compiler of the E source of the Pentateuch (see
E), which is commonly associated with the N
kingdom and dated to the 8th-century b.c.
Then The Anchor Bible, Proverbs-Ecclesiastes, Volume 18,
page xxxi, tells us that the E (Elohist) Source shows its origin
to be in the Northern Kingdom of Israyl, after the kingdom
split in two following the death of Solomon.
The fact that the E document in the Pentateuch shows
evidence of origin in North Israel after the division of the
kingdom at Solomon’s death, but follows the outline of the
Judean J document which it later was used to supplement,
indicates that both stem from a common source before the
kingdom split in two.
Do we grasp the significance of this? This says that both
the Yahwist and the Elohist Sources stem from a common
source before the kingdom split in two. What this means is
that they used the same work, but one retained Yahweh’s
Name in the scriptures, while the other replaced Yahweh’s
Name with the pagan title Elohim.
The pagan word God comes from the word EL (singular,
God) or Elohim (plural-Gods). The Interpreter’s Dictionary,
Volume 1, page 817, tells us what the words El and Elohim
really mean.
A. IN THE OT. 1. Daemons. a. Daemon. The
Hebrew equivalent of “demon” (daemon) in the original
sense is simply אל or אלהים (’elōhîm), commonly
rendered “god.”
I would like to draw your attention to the Greek word Theos
which has been translated to God in what is known as The New
Testament. I would also like to draw your attention to the
fact that demon and Theos were virtually interchangeable as
The Interpreter’s Dictionary, Volume 1, page 817, shows.
In the original sense, a demon may be defined
broadly as an anonymous god—i.e., as a personification
of one or another of those vaguer, less identifiable
powers and influences that were believed to operate
alongside the major deities and to condition
particular circumstances and experiences. In Homer,
e.g., “demon” (δαίμων) and “god” (θεός) are virtually
interchangeable.
The words El and Elohim (God), like the words Baal-
Adonai (Lord), came from the Canaanite vocabulary and
worship. These Canaanite words were accepted into the
Hebrew language many years after the Yahwist writings of
the Holy Scriptures. The Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 7,
page 674, shows us this.
Most of these terms were employed also by the Canaanites,
to designate their pagan gods. This is not surprising; since on
settling in the Promised Land of the Patriarchs and early Israelites
made ‘‘the language of Canaan’’ their own (Isa. 19:18), the Hebrew
the language would naturally use the Canaanite vocabulary for
terms designating their own Deity.
After these Canaanite titles were incorporated into the Hebrew
language, the people of Yahweh slowly, but surely, forgot
the Name of their Creator. Indeed, His Name came to
be never mentioned, except on the Day of Atonement, and
then only by the High Priest who was in office at the temple
in such a low voice that no one was even able to hear it. The Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 7, page 679, tells us
about Eloha and Elohim.
‘Eloha, ‘Elohim. The word ‘eloha ‘‘God’’ and its plural, ‘elohim,
is apparently a lengthened form of ‘El.
The Encyclopedia Judaica, Volume 7, page 680, gives us a
very important fact about Yahweh’s Name.
YHWH. The personal name...written in the Hebrew Bible
with the four consonants YHWH and is referred to as the
‘‘Tetragrammaton.’’ At least until the destruction of the
First Temple in 586B.C.E. this name was regularly pronounced
with its proper vowels, as is clear from the Lachish
Letters, written shortly before that date. But at least by the
third century B.C.E. the pronunciation of the name YHWH
was avoided, and Adonai, ‘‘the Lord,’’ was substituted for it,
as evidenced by the use of the Greek word Kyrios, ‘‘Lord,’’
for YHWH in the Septuagint, the translation of the Hebrew
Scriptures that was begun by Greek-speaking Jews in that
century. Where the combined form ’Adonai YHWH occurs
in the Bible, this was read as ’Adonai ’Elohim, ‘‘Lord God.’’
In the early Middle Ages, when the consonantal text of the
Bible was supplied with vowel points to facilitate its correct
traditional reading, the vowel points for ’Adonai with one
variation—a sheva with the first yod of YHWH instead of
the hataf-patah under the aleph of ’Adonai—were used
for YHWH, thus producing the form YeHoWaH. When
Christian scholars of Europe first began to study Hebrew,
they did not understand what this really meant, and they
introduced the hybrid name ‘‘Jehovah.’’ In order to avoid
pronouncing even the sacred name ’Adonai for YHWH, the
custom was later introduced of saying simply in Hebrew
ha-Shem (or Aramaic Shema’, ‘‘the Name’’) even in such
an expression as ‘‘Blessed be he that cometh in the name
of YHWH’’ (Ps. 118:26). The avoidance of pronouncing the
name YHWH is generally ascribed to a sense of reverence.
More precisely, it was caused by a misunderstanding of the
Third Commandment (Ex. 20:7; Deut. 5:11) as meaning
‘‘Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain,’’
whereas it really means ‘‘You shall not swear falsely by the
name of YHWH your God’’ (JPS).
The true pronunciation of the name of YHWH was never
lost. Several early Greek writers of the Christian Church
testify that the name was pronounced ‘‘Yahweh.’’
We find the following on page 682 of this same Volume.
In The Talmud. The subject of the names of God in the
Talmud must be considered under two heads, the prohibition
using the biblical divine names, and the additional names
evolved by the rabbis.
THE PROHIBITION OF USE OF THE NAMES OF GOD.
The prohibition applies both to the pronunciation of the name
of God and its committal to writing, apart from its use in
sacred writings. The prohibition against the pronunciation of
the name of God applies only to the Tetragrammaton, which
could be pronounced by the high priest only once a year on
the Day of Atonement in the Holy of Holies (cf. Mishnah
Yoma 6:2), and in the Temple by the priests when they
recited the Priestly Blessing (Sot. 7:6; see also Ch. Albeck
(ed.), Seder Nashim (1954), 387). As the Talmud expresses
it: ‘‘Not as I am written am I pronounced. I am written yod
he vav he, and I am pronounced alef dalet’’ (nun yod, i.e.
’Adonai; Kid. 71a).
For those of us who may have been told at one time or
another that no one knows how to pronounce His Name,
please note that the true pronunciation of Yahweh’s Name
has never been lost.
By now we should clearly see why the true Name of
Yahweh was forgotten. In all instances Yahweh’s Name was
replaced with the titles of pagan Gods, and soon afterward,
people began to think the Lord God created the heavens
and the earth.
As we have seen in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the
Bible, Volume 1, page 817, the words El or Elohim from
what is commonly known as the Old Testament, rendered
Theos in what is commonly known as the New Testament,
which is commonly translated God, simply means demon or
demons.
For those of us who may have been told at one time or
another that no one knows how to pronounce His Name,
please note that the true pronunciation of Yahweh’s Name
has never been lost.
By now we should clearly see why the true Name of
Yahweh was forgotten. In all instances Yahweh’s Name was
replaced with the titles of pagan Gods, and soon afterward,
people began to think the Lord God created the heavens
and the earth.
As we have seen in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the
Bible, Volume 1, page 817, the words El or Elohim from
what is commonly known as the Old Testament, rendered
Theos in what is commonly known as the New Testament,
which is commonly translated God, simply means demon or
demons.
The Lord Of Heaven
However, as we have previously read, our forefathers did not
listen to Yahweh. They did not obey Yahweh. Instead, they
took the names and titles of the Canaanite Gods (Lord and
God) in prayer and worship. They also substituted the name
of Baal for the Name of Yahweh in the Holy Scriptures that
He inspired to be written, which caused His people to forget
His Name, as the prophet Yeremyah, was inspired to write
in Yeremyah 23:26-27. By this conspiracy to hide Yahweh’s
Name, through the lying pen of the scribes, the Name of
Yahweh has been forgotten to this very day and age.
Keep this fact in mind as we read these authoritative
references, The words Lord and God are not righteous titles, and should never have been used by the translators to
replace Yahweh’s Name. Yet, even after these authorities
admit this fact to be the truth, they erroneously continue
to write the words Lord and God in their translations of
the scriptures rather than using the Name of Yahweh our
Creator.
This deception has spread so deeply throughout today’s
society that it takes some people months, or even years, to
avoid the use of these pagan titles, Lord and God.
As we have also seen in II Kings 17:16, when these deceived
people worshiped Baal, they were worshiping the host
of heaven. I have had more than one person say to me, ‘‘I
only worship the Lord of Heaven.’’ To those who are most
certainly deceived about who they are worshiping, Unger’s
Bible Dictionary, page 413, tells us that Baalzebub was the
Lord of the Heavenly Habitation.
Ba′al-ze-′bub (bā′ăl-zē′bŭb). the form of the
name of Baal as worshipped at the Philistine
city of Ekron. Baal, under this aspect of worship,
was viewed as the producer of flies and
hence able to control this pest, so common in
the East. He was consulted by Ahaziah of
Israel, c. B. C. 849 (II Kings 1:2-16). A N. T.
rendering of the name is Beelzebul (R. S. V.)
Beelzebub (A. V.) meaning, “lord of the
(heavenly) habitation.” Pharisees called Beelzebub
(Beelzebub) the “prince of the demons”
(Matt. 12:24).
The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Abingdon Press,
Nashville, TN, Volume 1, page 13, also gives us some very
interesting information about who the Lord of Heaven really
is.
In Mattithyah 12:24, Yahshua Messiah was accused of casting
out demons by the power of Baalzebub-Baalzebul, the
ruler of demons, who is none other than Satan the devil (the
ruler of the demons). Of course, Yahshua cast out demons
by the power of Yahweh, which is the only way demons can
be cast out. The world did not understand this fact then, and
the world does not understand this fact today.
As we have seen, Baal was worshiped under different
attributes. In Yahshua 11:17, we read about Baal-Gad (pronounce
each in the following examples as the sound ah).
Baal Gad (Lord God) was the Lord of Good Fortune.
In Numbers 32:38, we read of Baal Meon, the Lord of
the Dwelling. In Deuteronomy 4:3 Baal Peor is written,
which means the Lord of the Opening. Then Judges 20:33
mentions Baal Tamar, the Lord of the Palm Tree.
All of these various and sundry names for Baal had special
meaning to those who understood the Religion of Mystery
which had spread throughout all the Earth. But do not
be fooled, Baal, the Lord, is none other than the Adversary,
Satan the Devil, as this passage from the Lexicon In Veteris
Testamenti Libros, by Koehler and Baumgartner, E.J. Brill,
Leiden, Netherlands, 1985, page 137, shows.
However, today, just as in the days of the Apostle Shaul,
people do not realize who they are worshiping when they
pray to Lord or God. They may think they are worshiping the Creator, but in fact, they are worshiping Baal when they
use the titles of Baal. It is as simple as that.
Unger’s Bible Dictionary, under the word Baalzebub on
page 413, tells us: ‘‘It is a matter of revelation that demonism
is the dynamic of idolatry.’’ The definition of the word
dynamic, from Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary
Of The English Language Unabridged, Second Edition, The
World Publishing Company, 1968, page 567, is:
dȳ∙namˊic, dȳ∙namˊic∙ăl, a. [Gr. dynamikos,
from dynamis, power, strength.]
- pertaining to energy or power in motion;
involving or causing energy, motion, action,
or change: opposed to static. - of or relating to dynamics.
- energetic; vigorous; forceful.
- relating to or tending toward change.Therefore, what this means is, it is a matter of revelation
that demonism is the power, strength—the energetic force,
of idolatry—Godworship. This is exactly what the Apostle
Shaul said.
I Corinthians 10:20—
But I say that the things which the Gentiles
sacrifice, they sacrifice
to demons and not to Yahweh; and I do not want you to have
fellowship with demons.
The word which has been translated demons in this scripture
is word #1140 in Strong’s Greek Dictionary, and means
the devil, or God!
Page 412 of Unger’s Bible Dictionary gives us the following
information.
In
Canaan, there was a tendency to employ the
plural forms of deities Ashtoreth (Ashtoroth),
Asherah (Asherim), Anath (Anathoth) to summarize
all the various manifestations of this
deity. In like fashion the Canaanite plural
Elohim (“gods”) was adopted by the Hebrews
to express all the excellencies and attributes of
the one true God. M. F. U.Just as the children of Israyl were deceived into adopting
the Canaanite word El (Elohim-God) to express all the excellencies
and attributes of Yahweh, most translators of the
scriptures are deceived into using the same words, El-Elohim-
God, even though they admit that God is not Yahweh’s
Name, and they know they should not use it as though it
were. Yahweh gave warning about this deception.
Deuteronomy 12:30—
Be careful not to be ensnared into following them by asking
about their gods (Elohim), saying: How did these nations serve
their gods (Elohim)? I also will do the same.
Yet they, like so many today, did not heed Yahweh’s warning.
They not only were deceived into following the heathen
in their god worship, they thought they were following
Yahweh by doing so. Therefore, they whored after Baal,
worshiped in the names of the pagan Gods, and forgot the
Name of Yahweh. Unger’s Bible Dictionary, on page 413,
shows us the following.
Yes, the Israylites were addicted to God worship because
they wanted to be just like all their heathen neighbors. They
wanted a God to worship, not a loving Heavenly Father. The
Canaanites worshiped El-Elohim (God-Gods).
Gods can be made of anything—wood, stone, animal,
bird, or man. The pagan terms which describe the attributes
of these things, these Gods were applied to Yahweh when
His Name was hidden, then removed from the scriptures and
replaced with the titles of these things.
The definition of the word God, from Webster’s Deluxe
Unabridged Dictionary, Simon, and Schuster, NY, is akin to
gott, goth, guth, and of various beings conceived of as supernatural,
a male god, an image that is worshiped, a person or thing
honored or admired.
The Canaanite-Hebrew words El and Elohim simply
mean demon(s). The Greek word Theos simply means demon.
The English word for God, which was directly translated
from the Greek word Theos, which was directly translated
from the Canaanite-Hebrew words El and Elohim, simply
means demon. Therefore, is it any wonder that Yahweh is
displeased because these pagan titles were used to replace
His Name in the scriptures?
Deuteronomy 32:39—
See that I, only I, am He, and there is no God (El) with Me!
Me, I kill, and I make alive! I wound, and I heal! Neither is there
any that can deliver out of My hand!
Isayah 43:10—
You are My witnesses, says Yahweh, and My servants whom I
have chosen; so you may know and believe Me, and understand
that I am He! Before Me there was no god (el) formed, nor will
there be after Me.
It is plain to see exactly what Yahweh Himself thinks about
God.
Now I'll go on to the next chapter "The First Commandment" tomarrow ...