One reason there is so much misunderstanding about this is that the Jews of the last few centuries BC had a superstition that the YHWH/Yahweh, god's name was not to be spoken or written, contrary to the fact that Jehovah forbade the scribes to alter any scripture. Unfortunately the majority of translators have carried this superstition
I think you were right the first time, Buz. When your bible refers to God it can refer to any number of deities.
Since Genesis was written or re-written, depending upon whether we are talking of Genesis 2 or Genesis 1, during the exile in Babylon we can assume the overarching culture of the time had a major influence on the order and powers of the various gods within the text.
Since Anu was the chief god of Babylon, god of the highest heaven, his invocation would, of course, be the most prominent and thus placed first. Following then would most probably be the major designing or area gods such as Anshar (god of the heavens), Kishar (god of earth), Shamash (sun and justice), Enlil (weather and storms) and on and on.
So, under your new scheme of things Buz we would have:
In the beginning God (Anu) created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God (Anshar) moved upon
the face of the waters.
And God (Kishar) said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God (Shamash) saw the light, that it was good: and God (Enlil) divided the
light from the darkness.
How far do we have to go before the Brahman is evoked? Would Jupiter be a separate invocation from Zeus or would the one cover the other. Zeus first in either case, of course.
I think you have really hit on something here, Buz.
Oh, and by the way, Buz ol' bean, the crescent moon is definitely not a moslem accepted symbol for Islam.
During the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The Caliph Osman (emperor to you westerners), after his conquest of Constantinople in 1453, had a dream of a crescent moon stretching from one end of the earth to the other. He adopted it as the symbol of his dynasty. Islam has no symbol and moslems reject the crescent moon with or without star as an Islamic symbol.
It is strictly a European christian invention of the period since the Ottoman Empire was almost exclusively Islamic and thus the enemy of one of your gods (whichever one you want to invoke this round). As usual with christians the facts of the situation meant, and apparently still mean, nothing.
And before you go get all apoplectic, the use of the symbol on various modern flags is an Ottoman influence, not an Islamic one. After all, the remnants of the Ottomans did not fade away until just after WWI.
Edited by AZPaul3, : corrections.
Edited by AZPaul3, : spelin
Edited by AZPaul3, : Let's just say more edits and let it go at that.
Edited by AZPaul3, : Don't ask.
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