Israel and Humanity - El Elyon, the Most High God
CHAPTER SIX
ANCIENT MOSAIC MONOTHEISM
THE DIVINE NAMES
I.
El Elyon, the Most High God.
Among the many names for God in the Bible and which led the ancient Jews against the charge of polytheism, we should mention first that of El Elion , the Most High God, who Melchizedek in the mouth, seems to be the designation of a local deity, one who, among all the other gods, was the highest, so that the word implies the idea obviously polytheistic.
But we can answer that this designation would apply equally well appointed God Almighty, not in relation to other deities, but relative to all beings, in general, are inferior and that God so high above everything, the sky, remains the highest, assigned as a residence. We will also observe that speaking to the Gentiles the true God as the God Most High and Supreme, was employed with them the only language they could understand, since the idea of a God above all others they were quite familiar. The Jews would thus behaved vis-à-vis the Gentiles like Paul who in his speech at the Areopagus identified with the God he proclaimed this "unknown god" whom he had met the altar in the streets of Athens . The influence of [1] pagan world on Israel, at least in the manner of expression is undeniable and we have also seen that Kabbalah does not limit only to language.
Let us examine more carefully the famous passage in which the father of the Hebrews itself using the name he had heard pronounced by Melchizedek, the king of Sodom said, "I raise my hand to Jehovah, God Most High ( El Elion ), maker of heaven and earth: I will take nothing of all that is yours [2] ". The author of the Pentateuch had served a few lines earlier the same expression to describe the priesthood of Melchizedek, which was certainly the high priest of a particular god worshiped under the name of Elion (Very High) among the Gentiles: "Melchizedek, king of Sodom, brought out bread and wine: He was a priest of God Elion (Very High) [3] ". It is therefore likely that whenever we find the word adopted by the Jews, it must be a reference to the supreme God of the Gentiles. They identified with the God worshiped Israel, like that of Abraham Melchizedek identified with the God Elion which he was the priest to whom he attributed the victories of the Hebrew patriarch.
We find another proof of this identity in the religious homage to Abraham gives Melchizedek a tithe offering him a priest, but the terms in which the oath is made to the king of Sodom are even more conclusive: "I lift hand to the Lord (Tetragrammaton), El Elion (God Most High)! "How the addition of the sacred name of God in Israel that the God Most High, El Elyon , is eloquent and decisive! It proclaims that, as one who speaks for the reporter's words, the Lord (Tetragrammaton) and El Elion are one and the same God.
We must look now if, in other passages where we find the name of El Elyon , or Elion only, we can recognize in the writer intends to designate the same the supreme God of all nations. The last verse of the song of Moses, we have already had occasion to mention, is highly instructive, because it gives God the name of El Elyon about an act Providence prior to all Jewish and calling for all humanity: "When Elion gave a legacy [4] actions, when he separated the sons of men, he fixed the boundaries of peoples according to the number of children of Israel [5] ".
Elsewhere we find this name in the mouth of a nice, Balaam, who uses it as synonymous Shaddai , the former name of the Jewish God: Words of one who hears the words of God ( El ), of one who knows the intentions of Elion , of one who sees the vision of Shaddai [6] ".
The universal sense of the word Elion is perhaps less obvious but no less real in the following passage from Psalms: "I said, Ye are gods, you're all son of Elion , but you shall die like men, you fall like any of sarim [7] ". In this psalm, God is shown presiding at the meeting of the angels in heaven as he presides over one of the judges of the earth. We find the same image in the book of Kings: "I've seen," said Micah, the Lord seated on a throne and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right and left I [8] ". But we must notice how the word Elohim gods, applied to the angels, is used by the psalmist as a synonym for son of Elion , which makes this course last name as the equivalent of Eloh Elohim ha that we studied in the previous chapter. The author of the psalm, noting that the judges of the earth, as sarim (genius, heavenly principalities) degenerate, have failed in their mission, he calls God just called Very High (Elion ) to judge the whole universe, as proved by these final words: "Arise, O God, judge the earth! For all nations belong to you, where you have to see an allusion to the doctrine of distribution that God made the world between sarim each of them receiving in his custody a particular nation, while God has them all and the final judge.
The name of Elion back with the same universal meaning of God in Psalm XLVII <super> th </super>. All peoples are invited to celebrate the God of Israel, precisely because it is what God Most High or Supreme ( Elion ) which they themselves have the concept: "For the Lord Elion , is formidable. It is a great King over all the earth. " It should be noted that this may be as great king [9] of all the earth, we find the equivalent in Psalm XVC <super> th </super> "The Lord is a great God, he is a great King above all gods ", is the famous passage from the prophet Malachi that certifies the universal worship of God in precisely the same words:" My name is great among the nations ... my name is great among the nations, saith the LORD of hosts.
The author knew Psalm LXXXIII <super> th </super> mentioned as enemies of Israel, Edom, Ishmael, Moab and Hagrites, Gebal, Ammon and Amalek, the Philistines, Tyre and the Assyrians and in a burst of patriotism he invokes divine vengeance against them: "Treat them like Midian, as Sisera, as Jabin at the river Kishon! ... My God! Makes them similar to the vortex, the stubble before the wind! But alongside these curses patriotic here that are emerging Israel sentiments worthy priest of humanity: "That they may seek thy name, O Lord ... Let them know that you alone whose name is Jehovah, you're Elion (the Almighty) on the earth. " Thus the Jew hopes that these people will convert enemies, recognizing that the Lord God of Israel is the only true God whom they worshiped under the name of Elion, God Most High.
In the last verse of Psalm VII <super> th </super> the name of Elion is closer to the Tetragrammaton of the most significant: "I will praise the Lord because of His justice, I praise the name of the LORD, Elion "Now it is in this song of David universal justice of God:" Let the peoples' assembly surrounds you! Rises above it to the high places! The Lord shall judge the people. Similarly, in Psalm IX <super> th </super> we find paraphrased so there is no doubt that the author uses this name to the God of the universe: "I praise your name, O Elion ! ... For thou hast maintained my right and my cause, you seat on your throne judging righteously. You rebuked the nations ... The Lord reigns forever, He has prepared his throne for the trial, he judges the world with righteousness, he judges the peoples with equity ... Arise, O Lord, that man does not triumph! Let the nations be judged before Thy face! Strike the horror, oh Lord! that people know they are only human! .
Some critics have said that the name of Elion appears to have been common to all the families of the Semitic race. We ask if you can see in this word, whose philosophical sense, is far superior to the mental state of these tribes [10] backward, other than a persistent trace of monotheism. In any case, the worship of El Elyon limited to Jews would still be a formal denial of the alleged polytheism General Semites! Do not forget also that a significant difference exists between the High God of the Jews and the supreme God of the Gentiles, because the concept of divinity in paganism did not embrace the Jew as all nations, them to participate more or less, in one aspect or another, and wants the Hebrew conception, the idea of one God and universal.
If we do not deceive ourselves, what we have said so far about the meaning of these two names of gods and God the Most High God, by whom Judaism means the unit on top of everything, even Olympus pagan or divine world of the Kabbalah, is the most formal demonstration of monotheism. These names indeed exclude any possibility of polytheism, indicating that the alleged gods have a God above them, which is the very negation of their deity. The idea goes polytheistic absorbed in the design of God, whether we merely look at it as the supreme God and therefore only worthy of the name, so that his subordinates do the improperly name that they represent, or that, pushing further theological speculation, we see the gods in partial constitutive ideas of the true concept of divinity and, God Most High, their synthesis. Polytheism is not only neutralized, but what we seem to keep itself at the service of monotheism itself.
