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[Puck]

Reminds me of Electronic Light Orchestra everytime...

[Jude]

The original Hebrew of the old testament is weird and cryptic; the entire Jewish intellectual tradition is based on arguing about what it means, but none of THEM take it literally.

In any case, it's also a mishmash of theological concepts and middle eastern myth; hence the two creation stories in Genesis, the two identities of God as "Elohim" and "YHWH", the flood which is a common archetype, and so on. The idea of a god of a particular place or ethnic group was commonplace; the Hebrews would have had their own God like everyone else. But somewhere that evolved into the Hebrew God being more powerful than everyone else's, or more able to transcend geography, and then eventually into the only one. Also, there's plenty in Genesis that sort of paints God as not an omnipotent creator, and the same kinds of things show up ALL the time in Jewish midrashim.

Anyway, make of that what you will.

[Vester]

I did read a Freud book about that phenomenon (was called "Moses and Monotheism") where he posits that YHWH's root is in an early Hebrew volcano god called Jahve, or something. Also he theorizes that the first Moses was in fact an Egyptian priest-king (which actually matches the bible account if you think about it for a little bit) while the second was really a Hebrew.

[sonerohi]

The Old Testament is called the Creation stories for a reason. They weren't written with historical accuracy in mind, they were tales to help give Jews a common faith foundation during and after the Exodus. They were a struggling people with little group identity, so someone stepped up to the plate and started uniting them with those stories. That and some of the Old Testament wars are badass.

[Vester]

Especially the Book of Judges, 1:19. Okay maybe not badass but hilarious if you look at it the wrong way.