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 Many "Gods": Transcript

(0:00:00)  You've been told the Bible is all about one God. Well, that's wrong. Because what if I told you hidden inside this very book is a God higher than Yahweh, a God he answers to. And that's just the warmup. Because what if I also told you the Bible admits there are many other gods, that God had a rival, that God had a wife, that other gods demand child sacrifices, and worse, Yahweh accepted one too. I went digging so you don't have to. And what I found is absolutely insane. We're talking about divine counsels, jealous deities, warring gods, and a cosmic power struggle hidden right in... 
(0:00:29)  front of you right there in the book that they told you was about one almighty all loving all alone god nope because we're about to blow this thing 
(0:00:36)  wide open. And we're going to kick things off with a God that even Yahweh had to answer to. So let me read you a little something from Psalm 82. It straight up says, God stands in the assembly of El. He judges among the gods. I'm sorry, among the gods? What was this, a divine Zoom meeting? And who the hell is El? Well, we're about to find out. My name is Morg. I'm an ex-Christian revealing hidden information to wake the world the hell up and make enlightenment go viral. And today we're exposing the many gods hidden in the Bible. So let's get into it. 
(0:01:05)  First, let's talk about El, or El Elyon. Ever heard of him? Of course you haven't, because you've been sold the Instagram-filtered version of the Bible. El Elyon means the Most High God, and he was the top god in the Canaanite pantheon, and the one who may have originally outranked Yahweh. He was the father of the gods and was surrounded by his divine counsel. Now, here's the mind melter. El is actually in your Bible. Let's go straight to the verse that should be headline news. 
(0:01:35)  inheritance when he divided mankind. He fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But Yahweh's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. 
(0:01:48)  So did you catch that? Elyon is basically handing out nations like monopoly properties to his kids. The text says that Elyon, most high, gave all the nations their own gods. And Yahweh? Well, he gets Israel. One nation. That's his turf. So this verse looks an awful lot like Yahweh isn't the most high. He's a divine heir, a member of the council, a son, not the source. You think I'm exaggerating? Well, here's what the Old Testament scholar Mark S. Smith had to say about that passage. 
(0:02:17)  Israel was El. 
(0:02:19)  This passage presents an order in which each deity received its own nation. Israel was the nation that Yahweh received. It also suggests that Yahweh, originally a warrior god, was known separately from El at an early point in early Israel. Okay, now that's not some edgy Reddit post. That's an Old Testament expert basically saying that Yahweh was originally not at the top. But wait, because it gets even messier. Because most modern Bibles, they quietly changed sons of- 
(0:02:48)  God to sons of Israel. Why? Because sons of God sounds like there are multiple gods, and that makes things kind of awkward. You're not supposed to know that Yahweh had siblings, or that your Bible seems like it admits it. Okay, sons of God sounds too polytheistic, and let's just change that to sons of Israel. Yeah. Nobody will notice. 
(0:03:07)  I remember the first time I found out that verses had been changed and not by accident, and I was stunned. I literally sat there thinking, well, hold on, isn't this supposed to be the perfect word of God and people just edited it? And if you want even more proof, go to Genesis 14, 19, where a priest named Melchizedek blesses Abram, aka Abraham, in the name of El Elyon. Bless Abram by El Elyon, creator of heaven and earth. There he is again, El Elyon, the creator, the most high God. And you want to tell me this is monotheism? 
(0:03:35)  Please. So, who was Yahweh then? 
(0:03:37)  Well, let's see what the Bible says. Yahweh is a man of war. Yahweh is his name. Yahweh is a storm and blood god, a warrior god who slaughters enemies and rides clouds into battle. Growing up, I was terrified of God. I mean, that fire and brimstone version who's just waiting to smite you if you screw up. I used to lie awake at night as a kid thinking, am I going to go to hell? Like if I didn't confess every thought was I done for? But now I see that that fear was never divine. It was all about control and I'm not afraid anymore. And I want that. 
(0:04:06)  you too. And doesn't it make way more sense when you realize that Yahweh was originally a war god? You start to see the pieces line up. Yahweh in the earliest stories is a member of the divine family as a war god, not a boss yet. He rises to dominance over time because basically eventually his PR team rewrites history and makes him the only one who ever was. Tired of being a tribal war god? Rebrand today. With monotheism, you can be the one and only. 
(0:04:36)  But if you read closely, the early texts remember the old days when El Elyon ruled the heavens and Yahweh ruled the Israelites. That's the part they don't want you to know. Oh God, please stop this terrible typhoon. 
(0:04:49)  Typhoon. Is that the one that goes woofy, woofy or spinny, spinny? All right. And if you think that was wild, you think Yahweh having a boss was the peak? Well, sit down because we're not done because Yahweh wasn't the only member of El Elyon's divine family. There was another one and he effectively becomes Yahweh's arch nemesis. And no, it's not the devil. No, no. This is God versus God. Now I'm talking about Baal. You might know him from Diablo 2, but he's right there in your Bible. The name Baal means Lord and he's the Lord. 
(0:05:19)  of storms, fertility, thunder, and apparently Yahweh's biggest headache. You know how every other page in the Old Testament is Yahweh throwing an angry fit about idols? Yeah, he's usually talking about this guy. But Baal wasn't some cardboard cutout pagan statue. According to Ugaritic texts, he was one of El Elyon's top sons. You know, the same divine family that Yahweh came from. So let's get this straight. Baal and Yahweh are straight from the same divine family. And now they're in a full-on holy war for who gets to be Israel's favorite. And Baal? He was... 
(0:05:48)  popular, like Taylor Swift at the temple popular. He's associated with bulls, lightning, rain, and power. So when the Israelites made that golden calf in Exodus, guess who that was probably a nod to. So Yahweh sees the cow statue and flips his divine lid. Like, are you kidding me? I literally just brought you out of Egypt. Stop with the cow statues. Pretty awkward, but Baal doesn't just have one cameo. He's everywhere in the Bible as a real threat. Yahweh is jealous, angry, and totally obsessed with this guy because people... 
(0:06:17)  keep burning incense to Baal, praying to Baal, worshiping Baal. The Bible talks about those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, the constellations, and to all the starry hosts. 
(0:06:28)  So one of the most dramatic stories in scripture is basically a magical duel, like some kind of episode of Yu-Gi-Oh Bible edition. It's Elijah, the prophet of Yahweh, versus 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. And it went like this. Each side gets a bull, prepares a sacrifice, and whichever God answers with fire from the sky is the true God. 1 Kings 18.21 says, Prophets of Baal, pray to your God, and I will pray to the Lord. Whichever God answers the prayer and starts the fire, 
(0:06:57)  is the true god. That's Elijah laying down the challenge. He says, pick a side like a cosmic showdown, Yahweh versus Baal, and then let's see who shows up. You have selected Baal, Storm God Vern, with bonus rain and full strength. 
(0:07:13)  And while Baal's prophets are screaming, dancing, and slicing themselves open, literally Elijah starts trolling them like a savage. Perhaps he has too much to think about. Or maybe he has gone to the toilet. Or perhaps he's away on a trip. Maybe he's sleeping. You might have to wake him up. Yeah, that's really in the Bible. Elijah's basically saying that Baal's too busy taking a shit to do anything. So what happens? Baal stays silent. No answer, just disappointment. Then Elijah stands up, douses his altar in water just to flex, and then prays once and... 
(0:07:41)  boom, fire rays down from heaven, consuming everything. In other words, Yahweh kicks his ass. Okay, so now we've seen Yahweh, Baal, El Elyon, which raises one hell of a question in this divine family drama. Where's the mother? All right, well, you thought it couldn't get wilder? Wrong, because let's talk about Asherah, the literal wife of God. Yeah, you heard me, not metaphor, not symbol, wife of God, the queen of heaven, the divine feminine. You're saying God's a woman? Was there a doubt in your mind? Originally, she was the wife of El Elyon, and she was... 
(0:08:10)  actively worshipped alongside Baal and Yahweh. In fact, many Israelites worshipped Asherah right alongside Yahweh for centuries. There were even cult objects called Asherah poles or sacred trees set up on hilltops and in temples. Mark S. Smith writes, during the judges period, the major deities in the territory of Israel included Yahweh, El, Baal, and perhaps Asherah. El, Baal, and Asherah were integrally related to Yahweh and the cult of 
(0:08:39)  this deity during the period of the judges. All right, the fact is that the name Asherah appears 40 times in the Hebrew Bible. So if she's such a big deal, how come you haven't heard of her? Because she's been scrubbed from your Bible like a bad Yelp review. See, for over 400 years, if you were reading a Bible in English, like your grandma's King James, you would have never seen her name. Why? Because they literally replaced... 
(0:09:03)  Asherah with the word groves, as in trees, shrubbery. So while the Bible's talking about a goddess, you'd think you're reading about landscaping. I mean, what the hell? Asherah was worshiped right alongside Yahweh for centuries, like it was normal. King Manasseh of Judah even put a carved idol of Asherah inside Solomon's temple in Jerusalem. He put the image of the Asherah that he had made in the temple, which Yahweh had said, in this temple, I will put my name forever. Yeah. 
(0:09:28)  in the temple. The literal temple of Yahweh had Asherah's idol inside it. Manasseh basically turned the temple into a polytheistic shrine. Later, King Josiah comes along and launches a purge. He took the Asherah pole from the temple of the Lord to the Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem and burned it there. He ground it to powder and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people. God damn, Josiah, tell us how you really feel. But it wasn't just Asherah. There were Baal temples in the temple too. The king ordered him 
(0:09:58)  Hilkiah the high priest 
(0:10:00)  remove from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem. And get this, the Bible says that there were even male cult 
(0:10:10)  prostitutes in there, as well as women weaving ritual hangings for Asherah. So let that sink in. Yahweh's temple was, at times, shared with Asherah and Baal, complete with ritual sex and weaving offerings for the goddess. This isn't Game of Thrones, it's right there in the Bible. And why was Josiah so aggressive about all this? Because before his time, worshipping Yahweh and Asherah together was apparently common practice. Why? 
(0:10:35)  Well, that's simple because the ancient Israelites weren't originally polytheistic. They believed in multiple gods, not just tolerated, but actively worshiped. During Israel's early history, you had your rain god, your war god, your sex goddess, your cosmic sky daddy. And yeah, you could mix and match depending on your vibe. And here's where it gets embarrassing because the very word for God in Hebrew, Elohim, is plural. That's right. So the book... 
(0:10:59)  The Bible opens with, in the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth. Elohim, a grammatically plural noun. Now sure, some say that it can be interpreted as singular depending on the context, which is true. But then, why does God start talking like he's in a freaking group chat? Let us make man in our image. Man has become like one of... 
(0:11:22)  us knowing good and evil come let us go down and confuse their language us are we who's he talking to this is divine counsel language remember psalm 82 god stands in the assembly of l he judges among the gods among the gods you can't get clearer than that so here's what's really going on the bible records a time when yahweh was not the only god he was one of many specifically a war god that was associated with storms but as time went by he gradually rose to the top 
(0:11:51)  in the Israelite religion. And as Yahweh rose to the ranks, he didn't just replace the old gods, he absorbed them. Let me explain. The Yahweh you get in early texts is nothing like the Yahweh you get by the time of Isaiah. Early Yahweh is like, hey, I'm your tribal warlord God, sacrifice the goat and let's go kill your neighbors. The reviews are awful. What do you mean too much smiting? That's literally my brand. 
(0:12:18)  But later, Yahweh is like, hello, I am the creator of heaven and the earth, the most high one, the one and only. So how did this shift happen? Well, over time, Yahweh merged with El Elyon, the most high of the Canaanite pantheon. In other words, Yahweh takes El's place, absorbing El's titles of creator of heaven and earth, and even adopting the very name El in compounds like El Shaddai. It's like Yahweh started a fake Instagram account and started posting like he's El. And you thought that was it? 
(0:12:46)  No, because he didn't just steal El's job, he also absorbed aspects of Baal, his old rival. In Ugaritic texts, Baal is called rider on the clouds. But guess what? That's the exact same phrase later applied to Yahweh. Behold, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud. Sing to God, extol him who rides on the clouds. Basically, Yahweh starts cosplaying as Baal. Storms, lightning, cloud riding. He's basically like, yeah, Baal was cool, but I can do it better. 
(0:13:15)  And also don't worship him or I'll kill you. But always... 
(0:13:18)  too popular to kill off. So instead, Yahweh absorbed the titles. He took Baal's thunder, took El's titles, and then there's Asherah, the divine feminine, mother goddess, and the original consort of El. Guess what? As Yahweh replaced El, well, now she's Yahweh's wife. And no, I'm not kidding. We have receipts. We've literally found inscriptions, actual ancient artifacts that say, blessed be Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah. That's a literal reference to Yahweh having 
(0:13:47)  a divine partner just like Elle. So yeah, that means... 
(0:13:51)  God had a wife. The worship of Asherah wasn't originally a fringe heresy. That's why she had a pole inside the freaking temple of Yahweh for decades. And the prophets had to rage against her constantly because people just kept bringing her back. But guess what? There are a lot of other gods in the Bible besides El, Baal, Asherah, and Yahweh. So basically, here's what went down. The Israelites were not monotheists yet. There were still other gods. But as Yahweh was in the process of observing 
(0:14:20)  absorbing the roster, they went from polytheism to henotheism. I'm sorry, heno-what? Henotheism is the belief that many gods exist, but one is above the rest, and that god is typically worshipped exclusively. And that evolution is visible right in the text, in the Bible. That's why the first commandment is, I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me. Wait, don't worship other gods? 
(0:14:49)  There are other gods? 
(0:14:51)  In early scripture, Yahweh doesn't say, there are no other gods. He says, I'm the best god. It's like being in a toxic relationship with a storm god who checks your DMs. At this point, Yahweh's on a full-blown power trip. He's one god among many and fighting for dominance over a spiritually polygamous population. And as Yahweh gained power, military, political, theological, he starts to call the shots. The old gods demoted, their altars smashed, their worshipers exiled, executed, or re-educated. And we've been taught 
(0:15:20)  This was monotheism from the beginning. No. 
(0:15:23)  The Bible is not the story of one God who was always supreme. It's the story of one God who clawed his way to the top, absorbed the competition, while his followers rewrote the origin story. So now that Yahweh's wearing Baal's thunderbolt, El's crown, and Asherah's wedding ring, let's take a look at all the gods he had to beat to get there. But first, I want you to stop and really think about what we're doing here, because this is not just a YouTube channel. This is a revolution of consciousness. 
(0:15:52)  We're making the truth. 
(0:15:54)  go viral, ripping off the veil, exposing the lies, and waking the world the hell up. So if you're ready to be a part of that, then like this video, subscribe, and share it with someone who needs to wake up. Let's tear down the illusion and make enlightenment go viral. If you want to help out even more, become a member for exclusive videos, free downloads on inner transformation, and check out my books. Links are in the description of this video. Okay, so let's rewind to Yahweh's first major showdown, the Egyptian pantheon. We're talking about Ra, Osiris, Isis, Horus, Anu... 
(0:16:23)  The whole squad. 
(0:16:28)  Now you probably remember the story of Exodus. It's Moses versus Pharaoh, 10 plagues, yada yada. But guess what the Bible actually says? God himself declares, on all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. All the gods of Egypt. He doesn't say those aren't real. He boasts that he's gonna punish them. If those gods are just lifeless idols, why bother executing judgment on them? Are we supposed to really believe that? 
(0:16:58)  He's executing judgment on cardboard cutouts. You don't execute judgment on a rock. This is God declaring war on a rival pantheon. In fact, after the Israelites escape, Moses sings, who is like you, O Lord, among the gods. Among the gods. The Bible straight up admits here that there are other gods. This is not me talking. This is in black and white, but it gets crazier because let's talk about Pharaoh's magicians. Moses throws down his staff and boom, it becomes a snake. Cool, right? But guess what? 
(0:17:27)  The Pharaoh's sorcerers did the same thing with their magic. The Bible says Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers. And the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts. Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. Okay, now to be fair, Moses' snake ate the other ones. But do you see how this is showing the superiority of Yahweh? Not that he's the only God. And guess what? Pharaoh's magicians, they turned water to blood too and summoned frogs as well. But think about it. The Bible doesn't say it was something. 
(0:17:56)  kind of trick or illusion. If Egypt's gods and magic was supposed to be total bunk, how were these priests pulling off real paranormal stunts? The Bible is telling us Egyptian deities had some power, but not as much as Yahweh. Mainstream scholars confirm that early Israel was not strictly monotheistic. They just monopolized Yahweh. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says, while the existence of other gods was not denied, Israel was to worship no god. 
(0:18:25)  but Yahweh. The early Israelites didn't deny the gods existed. They just picked a side. Yahweh was the god of Israel. Other nations had their own gods. It was like ancient divine Pokemon. Gotta choose your god and battle the rest. But don't get too comfortable here because the next god on Yahweh's hit list is Moloch. And this one eats children. And what Yahweh does next might make you question everything. Okay, Moloch is arguably the most demonized deity in the Bible. Moloch is associated with the Ammonites and is 
(0:18:54)  infamous as the God who supposedly demanded child sacrifices. The Bible repeatedly thunders against Molech. Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech. Whoever gives any of his offspring to Molech shall be put to death. Okay, now some scholars have raised the question, did this really happen or was it... 
(0:19:14)  Propaganda. Think of the satanic panic when the church said, your kids are going to start worshipping Satan if they play Dungeons and Dragons. See, accusing your enemies of baby killing is a time-honored propaganda move. Even today, conspiracy theorists accuse opponents of sacrificing children to Moloch. 
(0:19:32)  Did that actually happen? Some researchers in the last decades argued that biblical writers exaggerated or fabricated the sacrifice claims to make the Ammonites look extra evil, thereby justifying Israel wiping them out. But the truth is, you know, we don't really know. But whether it's propaganda or not, Moloch was acknowledged as a real deity of the Ammonites. King Solomon, Mr. Wisdom himself, went off the rails in his later years and actually... 
(0:20:00)  worshipped Moloch. 
(0:20:01)  1 Kings 11.7 says, Then Solomon built a high place for Chemash, the god of Moab, and for Molech, the god of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. So think about that. That's the king of Israel building a shrine to Molech in the site of the temple. Talk about sacrilege. The text treats Molech as a foreign god that seduced even Solomon, the king of Israel, Yahweh's golden boy. And the prophets, they lost it. Jeremiah, Zepaniah, the whole angry prophet crew is... 
(0:20:30)  screaming about Moloch like it's the divine apocalypse. So Yahweh basically says, child sacrifice? Hell no, that's barbaric. That's how those other gods roll, not me. And that would be great if it were true. 
(0:20:43)  Because the irony here is that while Yahweh condemns Malach for demanding child sacrifice, Yahweh does almost the exact same thing. Let's talk about Abraham. Yahweh literally tells Abraham to take his son and sacrifice him. Now, people point out that God stopped him at the last minute, as if that makes everything okay, which it absolutely does not. But he tested Abraham's loyalty with the same brutal logic. Prove your devotion. Give me your child. Praise to yourself, lad. No, wait. Wait. Yes, Lord. 
(0:21:11)  It was a test! But it gets way worse. Let me explain. The Bible describes how Jephthah, Israel's judge, Yahweh's champion, was fighting the Ammonites, the very people associated with Moloch, the child-eating god of fire. And Jephthah makes a deal with Yahweh in Judges 11. 
(0:21:29)  He says, if you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord's and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering. All right, well then who walks out? His daughter. And what does Yahweh do? Nothing. So Jephthah kills her. A literal burnt virgin sacrifice to Yahweh. How sick is that? When Moloch does it, it's evil. When Yahweh does it, it's a test of faith or some shit. Same fire, different branding. All right. 
(0:21:59)  Now, if you thought Moloch was bad, buckle up, because next on Yahweh's hit list is Chemash, the god of the Moabites. And if you thought we were done with sacrifice, no, not even close. So Chemash is the god of the Moabites. Remember I just mentioned Solomon building an altar? Well, he built one for Chemash too, right alongside Molech's. The Bible calls Chemash the abomination of Moab, and it only gets worse. Okay, let's talk about King Meshah of Moab. Israel is fighting him. It's not going well for Meshah. He's cornered and desperate, and he's losing. 
(0:22:28)  What does he do? He climbs the city wall, grabs his firstborn son, the heir to the throne, and burns him alive as a sacrifice to Chemosh. Yeah, that happened. The Bible says this. Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great wrath against Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their own land. Okay, wait. 
(0:22:52)  Did you catch that? Whose wrath exactly? Many interpreters think it implies that Chemosh answered with wrath and Israel had to retreat. It doesn't explicitly say Chemosh's wrath, but something made Israel back off once that sacrifice happened. The Moabite king essentially performed a Molech-style offering to Chemosh, and the Bible implies... 
(0:23:12)  that it worked in the sense that Moab avoided total defeat. If that's the case, well then holy shit, the Bible just may have quietly indicated a foreign god's power turned the tide of battle. Yeah, it's a bit ambiguous, but either way, it shows the Moabites truly believed in Hamash's power and the Israelites were spooked by it. Okay, I want a good clean fight, guys. No punches below the belt, holding, or miracles. 
(0:23:37)  But hold on, because it gets even worse. Think about how similar this is to the story of Jephthah for a minute. You know, the guy who sacrificed his virgin daughter to Yahweh. Meshach sacrifices his firstborn son to Chemosh to turn the tide against Israel. And Jephthah sacrifices his only daughter to Yahweh, not before the battle, but after as a thank you gift for victory. Now, to be clear, these are different battles, but the hypocrisy is unreal here. And here's the wildest part. Jephthah literally references... 
(0:24:07)  Chemosh earlier in the same chapter. Will you not take what Chemosh your god gives you? So we will take what Yahweh our god has given us. So Jephthah's worldview is that gods are territorial. Chemosh has his people, Yahweh has his, and humans should respect that. Now the irony is that the Ammonite king doesn't go for the deal. War breaks out. Jephthah wins and murders his daughter for Yahweh. So let's make this crystal clear. Jephthah condemns Chemosh's people, then does the exact same thing. Chemosh and 
(0:24:36)  Molech are known for. I mean, what the fuck? Okay, all right. I think we need some comic relief here because that shit's crazy. It's time to talk about... 
(0:24:44)  Dagon, and this one's honestly pretty hilarious. Alright, so let's set the scene here. The Philistines are Israel's enemy. Remember Goliath? He rolls with the Philistines. Anyway, they finally land a win, and the Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant in battle, which is a really big deal. They take this Ark because this is essentially a portable throne for Yahweh, a point of his... 
(0:25:08)  presence on earth, and they place it in Dagon's temple as a trophy. Essentially, our god Dagon beat Yahweh. Here's Yahweh's box at Dagon's feet. Well, Yahweh wasn't having any of that. Next morning, the Philistines entered the temple, and Dagon's statue had fallen flat on its face like it's bowing to the ark. Huh, that's weird, they think, and so they prop Dagon back up. Next morning, boom, Dagon's statue falls again. This time, though, his head and hands are snapped off, leaving just the stump of his 
(0:25:37)  body so the philistines freak out then god afflicts the philistines with tumors so after some painful months the philistines basically go yeah can you guys come get your magic murder box back please we're good now thanks so the philistines send the ark back to israel with offerings and what did they 
(0:25:56)  Send it back with exactly five golden tumors and five golden rats. I don't know. The Bible's weird, man. Okay, but we're not done. Because next, we're bringing in a divine goddess. And not just any goddess. I'm talking full-blown sex and war, kick your teeth in badass. You've probably heard of her, but I bet you didn't know she's in the Bible. We're talking about Ashtoreth, also known as Astarte, also known as Ishtar, a goddess of... 
(0:26:25)  sex in war. And yeah, she's right there in the Bible. And the Bible hates her, which to be fair is a pretty good sign that she was powerful as hell. It says the Israelites served Baal and the Ashtaroth. That's right. They weren't just messing around with Baal. They were full on worshiping a goddess and they pluralized her as Ashtaroth because apparently there were so many idols they had to pluralize her name. She was the goddess of the Sidonians. And do you remember King Solomon? He went after her too. 
(0:26:52)  The Bible says he followed Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites. It's not a phase, God. I love Ashtoreth. 
(0:27:05)  So again, Solomon, Mr. Wisdom, not only built shrines for Chemosh and Molech, he personally participated in the worship of Ashtoreth, the sex war goddess. And many modern Bibles don't even try to sugarcoat it. They just straight up say Solomon worshipped Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians. So yeah, Ashtoreth is Astarte, the same being as Ishtar. And Solomon built shrines to her until generations later, King Josiah came around to burn them down. Remember him? He's the same guy who ground Asherah's 
(0:27:34)  pulled a powder and nuked the temple of all divine rivals, Josiah desecrated the altars that King Solomon had built for the worship of disgusting idols, Astarte, the goddess of Sidon, Chemash, the god of Moab, and Molech, the god of Ammon. Alright, think about that. Those pagan altars stood for years until Josiah. That means generations of Israelites quietly revealed Astarte in the background. Okay, but here's the huge plot twist here, because not all divine goddesses in the Bible came with altars, poles, 
(0:28:03)  and sacred sex rituals, some were hidden in plain sight. I am no man. Let me introduce you to Chokhmah, or as the Gnostics would later call her, Sophia. Chokhmah is the Hebrew word for wisdom. Now, before you roll your eyes and say wisdom isn't a goddess, let me stop you right there, because in the book of Proverbs, Chokhmah, wisdom, is a being. 
(0:28:28)  not just any being, a she. And she speaks. The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works. I was formed long ages ago. I was given birth before he made the world. I was beside him as a master craftsman. I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always. Let that sink in. There was a feminine being who was with God at 
(0:28:53)  creation, it says she was beside him, co-creating with him. Some try to just play it off like, oh, well, that's just poetic language. Don't worry about it. But many early Christians would say otherwise. The Gnostic Christians called her Sophia, which is the Greek word for wisdom. And according to their secret text, Sophia was an emanation from the realm of light, a divine being who was ultimately responsible for the creation of the world. Okay, so let's tally this up here. We've got Asherah, literally the wife of God. We've got Astarte. 
(0:29:23)  for centuries. And now we've got Sophia co-creating reality like it's her day job. And yet we're still calling this book monotheistic? Really? Well, what else are they hiding? All right, now look, if we gave every god mentioned in the Bible their own segment, this video would be longer than the Lord of the Rings extended edition. So. 
(0:29:40)  Let's go into a rapid fire round. Ready? We have Marduk, the chief god of Babylon. This was kind of like the Jeff Bezos of Mesopotamia. We had Nergal, god of the underworld, and plague, worshipped by the Babylonians again. Then there's Nisroch, and this one's wild. In 2 Kings, the Assyrian king goes to worship in Nisroch's temple. 
(0:30:00)  Yahweh's angel of death had just totally wrecked his army, so the king goes home to pray. And then when he does, his own sons assassinate him right there while he's praying. Then there's Tamutz, the fertility god of seasonal death and rebirth. Sakut and Kaiwan, and these are star gods, planetary deities. The Book of Amos says, you carried Sikut your king and Kaiwan your star god. Then there's Baal Tsevuv, the basically like spin-off villain version of Baal. Remember that 
(0:30:29)  Baal means Lord. Well, Tsevuv means flies. So the name Baal Tsevuv literally means Lord of Flies. In 2 Kings, King Ahaziah of Israel has an 
(0:30:39)  accident and he's injured. He wants to know if he's going to recover. So what does he do? He sends messengers to inquire of Baal Zavuv, the god of Ekran, to see whether he'll get better. So can you imagine that? This is the king of Israel. Instead of asking Yahweh's prophet, decides to ask Baal Zavuv. This would be like the Pope secretly getting his horoscope. Anyway, Yahweh didn't like that. So he... 
(0:31:01)  made sure the king died. Now, if his name sounds familiar, that's because most people today call him Beelzebub and associate him with the devil. But he was originally a god, a spinoff of Baal. Okay, so we have thoroughly established the Bible's world is crawling with gods. It's right there in the damn text. Gods, gods, gods, and more gods. So what the heaven is going on here? How do we reconcile this with the idea that Judaism and Christianity are monotheistic? You know, there is no other god, et cetera, et cetera. Well, to answer that, we got to talk about how Israel's 
(0:31:31)  See, over time, the Israelites shifted from Yahweh is one of many gods, to Yahweh is the best god, to ultimately, Yahweh is the only god. 
(0:31:44)  Period. And this did not happen overnight. It was a slow, messy, centuries-long rebrand. And guess what? The Bible documents this evolution. You can literally see the fossil record in the text. That's why we see so many gods mentioned, but then see increasing rhetoric that Yahweh alone is God. 
(0:32:01)  and there is no other by the time of isaiah you get verses like i am the lord and there is no other besides me there is no god there can be only one okay so now that's full-blown monotheism but it's a late game update dlc content before that the divine council was packed and we've seen traces of the earlier mindset in the text itself especially with verses like let us make man in our image again who is us later theologians say oh it's the trinity or the royal we 
(0:32:30)  or God and the angels. But the simplest context is that God was speaking to his council of divine beings. It's the same plural language found in other ancient creation stories where gods consult each other. Now look, I'm not telling you to go out and light candles to Asherah or start praying to Nurgle under a blood moon, okay? I'm not recruiting you to team Baal. What I am doing is reading the damn text. This is scripture. They're in black and white. If anything, 
(0:32:57)  It should make you feel freer because here's the truth. The people who wrote the Bible, they were human just like you. They lived in a world full of gods. They were surrounded by polytheistic cultures and they were trying to make sense of their own God in a crowded divine marketplace. That's where the whole jealous thing comes in. God repeatedly calls himself jealous. Do not worship any other God for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God. Hold on. His name is jealous? Bro, therapy, please. 
(0:33:27)  I just don't want them to worship anyone else. Why do you feel like you're not enough? They burned incense to Baal. And he says it again. Do not make for yourselves an idol, for the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. 
(0:33:42)  But here's a question. If there are no other gods, who is he jealous of? Growing up, I remember reading verses about God being jealous and thinking, wait, hold on. An all-powerful being is jealous? That was just one of the first cracks in the wall. And I wasn't alone. In fact, early Christians, the Gnostics again, believed that Yahweh calling himself jealous all the time indicated he was a liar. They were like, hold on a minute. What if this jealous God is actually not the highest God at all? What if he's a fraud? In fact, they believe that Yahweh was secretly a demon. 
(0:34:12)  Yeah, the Gnostics believed that Yahweh was a pretender, that the true God was above him, a being of pure light. And Yahweh was just one of the lower powers who thought he ran the 
(0:34:41)  show. I did a whole video on the Secret Book of John. You should definitely watch it. But for our purposes here, I won't go down the Gnostic rabbit hole that far. But the point is, even early Christians knew they had a problem here. So what did the proto-Orthodox church do? They picked the lane. They said Yahweh is the one and only. All the other gods? Well, they're demons, delusions, metaphors. Boom, problem solved. Wrap it all up in dogma and call it a day. But the truth is, they retconned their own religion. They edited the story and they hope 
(0:35:10)  that you would never notice. Well, now you've noticed. So what do we do with all this? We get honest. It shows that religious ideas, guess what? Evolve. Beliefs shift. This isn't some static stone tablet. It's a living process of trying to understand the divine. So if ancient Israel could move from polytheism all the way to monotheism, maybe it's time we evolve too. Don't accept beliefs just because they were handed to you in some book or a sermon. Dig. Question. Read. 
(0:35:40)  think. Because that's how we grow. That's how we find the truth. Because the divine is not some old man on a throne with anger management issues yelling about idols. It's bigger, stranger, deeper, and ultimately, it's about you, me, 
(0:35:53)  and all of us. But there's so much more to this. Wait until you see what the Gnostics had to say. In one of their banned books, The Secret Book of John, they claim that Yahweh was never the true God at all, but a blind, arrogant imposter who trapped us in the material world. And remember Sophia? Well, she actually created Yahweh. Yeah, I did a whole deep dive on this and you need to go watch it now. It'll change the way you see everything.