[net.religion] Premises for the morals of G-d

bch@unc.UUCP (Byron Howes ) (01/16/84)

Sorry Ed, the Bible is at best ambivalent about this.  The question of
other god and their status as presented in the Bible is one that has
been up for debate since before Christianity.  There is a strong impli-
cation in the commandment "You shall not bow down to them or worship them;
for I, the Lord your G-d am a jealous god..." that there may be other
valid gods.  If Yaweh is the one-and-only god, than what has He to be
jealous of?  The early christian Gnostics developed quite a cosmology 
around this statement which helped account to them for the differences
between the OT and NT Deities.  Some believe that the references to,
and role of, the serpent in the Garden of Eden are direct references to
the Sumarian god Ningizzida, "Lord of the Tree of Truth." (sound
familiar?)  The Tree of Truth, or the "World Tree" was believed 
to be at the pivotal center of the world, from which flowed the four
rivers to the four quarters of the world (sound familiar again?)
-- 

					Byron Howes
					UNC - Chapel Hill
					(decvax!duke!unc!bch)