I found this discussion happening elsewhere and found it interesting. I don't believe I've ever seen it discussed here and was wondering about other opinions.

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Genesis 31:30-34. Laban had caught up to Jacob and demanded of him: "But why did you steal my gods?" Jacob replied "But if you find anyone who has your gods, he shall not live" although he didn't know that Rachel had taken the gods. Here we have Jacob recognizing Laban's gods

Exodus 20:3 (The first commandment): You shall have no gods before me. The gods of other nations are recognized, and the same in the next 2 quotes

Exodus 31:14 Do not worship any other god, for the LORD (Yahweh), whose name is Jealous, is a jealous god.

Exodus 23:24-25 Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. Worship the LORD (Yahweh) your god...

Deut. 10:17 For the LORD (Yahweh) your god is god of gods and lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, Yahweh is the chief god, like Zeus

1 Sam 5:2-3 Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD (Yahweh). Here is one of a number of competitions between Yahweh and the other gods showing that Yahweh is greater, but in so doing recognizing the other gods.

Exodus 12:12 'For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments--I am the LORD.

Gen 1:1 In the begining Elohim (the gods) created the heaven and the earth."
The plural, Elohim, is used.




Now, if there was only ONE GOD, why would he say he was a Jealous God? There was nothing to be jealous of, was there?

Why would he refer to himself as "God of Gods"?

yes i come to the same conclusion. although people who follow that faith are for the most part close minded thats why they follow it.

Just stop for a minute. This is a -huge- misinterpretation of Scripture.

First off, Elohim, while used Plurally, refers to the TRINITY. (Father, Son, And Holy Spirit).

Next off, any times 'gods' in the lowercase are referred to, it's talking about the idols that man has created to worship. To say that he is the Lord of lords and King of kings simply shows that he's above everything else, and nothing could measure up to him, not that there are actually other gods.

Having read the bible, cover to cover, numerous times, (once had a reading schedule to get through it 4 times a year, yeah, overkill), I noticed an interesting trend.

The bible treats most gods of other peoples as fake gods. But the bible treated most Cananite gods as real. And the bible old testament seems most angry with the Baal and Astarte.

Now, there are some interesting similarities between some of the names of God in the bible and some aspects. There are some interesting similarities between a sea god of the cananites and the hebrew god. And that is interesting because this god was co-husband to Astarte with Baal. And he frequently feuded with both.

There are some linguistic similarities with the Cananite 'all-god' that was over all the cananite gods and goddesses. Which is also interesting. Ties in nicely with the 'one-god' concept and the Yahweh aspect of the old testament God.

The very fact of the OT having so many names of God to show him in his different roles and aspects is a very strong indication of the Hebrews having come from an older, pantheistic tradition.

I'm dog sitting, not at home, and everything is in boxes. But a few years ago, I did a ton of research on God's relationships with other gods and this very issue you bring up. I should try and dig it up so I can give more specifics and cite my resources.

But the lower case is done by man. That was a decision/choice done by man. The point remain that other Gods are recognized.

Note that here I placed Capital 'G' on Gods, a conscious choice, as it would be the case for those who wrote the Bible.

Also note that the Bible wasn't written in English. It was however written in Hebrew which makes no distinction between upper and lower case.

no matter who you idolize they can be no greater than whom created them. just because you make someone a god he will never come close to the god of creation. and doing so you are saying i don't believe in you the god of all creation. does he have the right to be jealous? well i would think so we all want or children to look up to us. but ,when they don't and someone else takes our place it's only normal for jealousy to come into play. i geuss thats we were given a free will by our creator. other gods demand that you bend to their will.

But then so does he in the first commandment

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

Isn't that a direct command to not have other gods? He demands that you have no other gods.

Another good reference for your question...

Gen 6:4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

I have always believed to some extent that there were lesser Gods around at some point.

Since there is ample reference to "Gods" as well as "idols" throughout the Bible, I've always viewed that as a separation; a distinction between true, though lesser, Gods and false Gods.

Exod. 20: 1-5
And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

He is the god who brought the Hebrews out of bondage and wants them to revere only him as reward for it.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me; Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Take note that he doesn't state 'false gods' but 'other gods'.

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.

If there are no others then why be jealous of other gods?

LOL,

He's talking about gods such as cows and other animals on land, sea, or imagined gods like Buddha or Confucius that many people worship. Even the American Indian and other people around the world had different gods, often in the form of animals, they worshipped.
The interesting thing here is that even when separated on different continents by oceans, having no contact for ages, all people had an inner sense of something greater than themselves. Some inner feeling that there was a god. They all worshipped a God in one form or another.
That was/is a knowledge placed in all our souls by the one God. Only as time and oceans separated us that knowledge became confused and changed. Just as it is now on this thread.
The passages you are reading is God making himself clear to the people of Israel that he is the one and same God. He is putting it down in law and charging his chosen people the task of spreading the word and correcting the misunderstandings of who is God to all the peoples of the earth.

Spot on Glen! Post killer.

It all seems so very clear to me Steve.
I really find the confusion by others rather odd.

Buddha and Confucius are not called gods either. Both systems are a philosophical path to happiness and enlightenment.

What the Hebrew god is making clear is that they owe him for getting them out of Egypt. There is no denial of the existence of other gods, no stating that they are false gods.
The Bible was written by men promoting their god over another. Those who wrote it made it clear that there were, at least in their minds, other gods. What man reads into the actual words in all interpretation.



Far from post killer. It's still interpretation of what is written. What is written is still written by man.

Exodus 15:11
"Who among the gods is like you, O LORD ? Who is like you� majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?


Deuteronomy 29:18
Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.


Joshua 23:7
Do not associate with these nations that remain among you; do not invoke the names of their gods or swear by them. You must not serve them or bow down to them.


Joshua 24:23
"Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel."


Judges 10:6
[ Jephthah ] Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites and the gods of the Philistines.


2 Chronicles 2:5
"The temple I am going to build will be great, because our God is greater than all other gods."



Each of these acknowledges the existence of other gods. Again it states no where that they are false gods. Simply that the god of Israel is greater than the others.



There is no confusion. What is written is quite clear. It is recognition of and reference to other gods than the god of the Israelites.

Last one before I pass out.

Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.

Seems that the Hebrews had a pantheon of gods before one of them demanded exclusivity to their worship. So if this god is immortal then it follows that those who were worshiped with him, for a time at least, must also be.


Exodus chapter 7. Aaron throws his staff on the ground and it becomes a snake, but then the Pharaoh's magicians do the same thing with their staffs. Even though the Hebrew snake winds up eating the Egyptian snakes, it'd be pretty damn hard for an Egyptian god to transform a wooden staff into a snake if he didn't exist.


Nighty night.

Well actually God is always referring to warnings of not following other gods & to remember where the source of their blessings REALLY come from. Jehovah....

God is always in the business of letting humans know who the LIVING God truly is. All the others just glorify the devil.

There's no fence sitting here...the bible is clear when it says where your heart is there your treasure will be.

Ah but these other gods are not referred to as the devil or satan. They are simply other gods. So is the Hebrew god, like Zeus of the Greeks, simply the mightier of the other gods. Even the other religions had their own god who was a trickster, bad boy of the group.


Exodus 18:11
Now I know that the LORD is greater than all the gods; for in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, He was above them.�

Again a pantheon of gods is suggested here. That the 'one' god is greater than the others. As Zeus, Odin etc.

I was being facetious karma.