"El Shaddai" does not mean Heavenly Mother

[@noahriding5780]

I have run into the idea that in the Old Testament one of the reasons why they did not emphasize heavenly mother was that it led too easily into Baal worship. I don't mean that women are bad. But that women needed to be protected and kept from being used as images and from people admiring them too much. And that the first tactic of the adversary to create immorality was to use and promote the image of women to do so. And that worked very well in getting people snared into Baal worship. Baal worship used corrupting women's influence... but didn't end there and ended up using other things also that got mixed in not only women. But it started with corruption of women. This is part of why many idols in that whole area anciently will have breasts on them. Not necessarily because the idol is only a woman but for immorality promotion, etc. El was known as a name of God in ancient mesopotamia. But it was corrupted early. You also see El mixed with other terms. And this has to do with how Chaldean language used to be very similar to hebrew (though not now). This is part of why we don't emphasize heavenly mother now. Also our current society has too much emphasis on feminism and having feminists lead things. You also see modern socialism, tyrantisms think the men are expendable and throwaways and that they only need women and children. There's people In Europe recently that have taught that you don't need all those men and could have a society with only women. And they are also promoting a lot of transhumanism stuff also. It ultimately ends up going back to Baal worship. All of this links with what you said and agrees with it. A good form of worship drastically differs from evil worship, where they had groves and baal worship. It seems that the chaldeans were corrupted by this much earlier than hebrews. I agree with what you said. El can also mean 'Lord'. We differ only from that in we think that men can be lords. but old covenant Israel would only think God as the Lord. (Thus similar, same meaning). I hope this supports what you said. I agree and support your information.

[@Lamanitehistory]

@@noahriding5780 Thanks for your thoughts!

[@noahriding5780]

@@Lamanitehistory Thank you also. I hope you'll keep doing videos and sharing things that help good people w heritage of Lehi. I hope to ask things to you in the future on these kinds of topics.

[@StarKiller1423]

Genesis 49:25 Shows who Shaddai is Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty(Shaddai), who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb: First Joseph is blessed by the God of his father who shall bless him, and then by Shaddai who shall bless him with blessings of the breast and womb. This is not the only passage where Shaddai who’s name is literally a pun on breasts give fertility blessings nor is it the only time Shaddai is distinct from the God of Israel. The Exodus account saying Jehovah appeared as El Shaddai is anachronism because A Jehovah appears under his own name multiple times in Genesis and in the Book of Abraham and is a case of Deuteronomist revisions. And B at that time period El and Jehovah were not the same deity yet. The burning bush was likely an appearance of the Mother and the Son since the Catholics to this day swear Moses was shown a vision of the Lord with his mother. Just like how the Catholics say Moses was translated which lines up with the Book of Mormon but goes against Deuteronomy.

[@Thehaystack7999]

You are exactly right! El Shaddai may be how Abraham knew God, likely near Urkesh, the Olishem being Ulashim possibly.

[@ElizabethRussell144]

Interestingly, Jehovah means YHWH and in some schools of Jewish thought, YHWH means father, mother, son, daughter. In western esotericism it is similarly said to represent, King, Queen, Prince, Princess; so to me it represents the Divine Council, also known as the Council in Heaven.

[@anelderinisrael]

This is new to me, YHWH has always meant "I am who I am". I've never seen an expert in Hebrew use it the way you claim. Can you please provide sources for this?

[@ElizabethRussell144]

​@@anelderinisrael Hi, it is something I have come across a number of times studying Jewish mysticism, kabbalah, and the western esoteric traditions. The Center for Online Judaic Studies writes, "For the kabbalists, therefore, the use of human terms to speak about matters divine is not simply understood in the philosophical manner as an approximate way to speak of God figuratively, a concession to the inevitable limitations of embodied human beings who desire to speak of that which is disembodied. On the contrary, from the kabbalistic standpoint, the examples of anthropomorphism in the canonical texts of Scripture indicate that the nature of human corporeality can only be understood in light of divine corporeality...The textual evidence from the kabbalists indicates that the object of contemplation is the name configured anthropomorphically in the mind of the mystic. To cite a passage from the anonymous author of the fourteenth-century treatise Ma‘arekhet ha-Elohut, “It says in Sefer Yeṣirah that there are twenty-two objects in one body, and the body refers to the ten sefirot, for they one totality, and objects are the twenty-two letters … and they are all in one body, which is the ten sefirot contained in the one name, which is the Tetragrammaton” (196b-197a)...one brief passage from the zoharic text Idra Zuṭa, the “Small Gathering,” which appears in the culmination of the text as the final meeting of Simeon ben Yoḥai and the surviving members of the fraternity. The relevant passage, which is cited as a quotation from the aggadah of R. Yeiva Sabba, is a mystical reflection on the name of the third emanation, Binah, the mother that comes forth from and is united with the second emanation, Ḥokhmah, the father. From the union of these two emanations comes forth Tif’eret, the son, who contains within himself Malkhut, the daughter. In the name Binah is a reference to the quaternity of the Godhead, which is depicted more specifically as the four members of the divine family, an aspect of the kabbalistic doctrine that I mentioned previously. Yod and he refer respectively to Ḥokhmah and Binah; the remaining consonants, bet and nun, spell ben, which is the son, but the son is androgynous (after the pattern of the earthly Adam) and thus contains bat, the daughter, within himself. The son and daughter refer, moreover, to the last two letters of the Tetragrammaton, the waw and he. The four letters of the name, therefore, correspond respectively to the father, mother, son, and daughter.

[@cdmbcgm]

The modern Hebrew of Shaddai means Breast. However, EL Shaddai is a very ancient form of God. What was the occupation of the early patriarchs? With that in mind, look at Jeff A Benner thoughts: "The parent root for this word is שד (shad). The original pictograph for this word is shad. The (sh) is a picture of the two front teeth and has the meaning of 'sharp,' 'press' (as from chewing) as well as 'two.' The (d) is a picture of a tent door with a meaning of 'hang' or 'dangle' as the door is hung or dangles down from the top of the tent. The combined meanings of the sh and d would be 'two danglers.' The goat was a very common animal within the herds of the Hebrews. It produces milk within the udder and is extracted by the goat kid by squeezing and sucking on the two teats dangling below the udder. The function of these teats is to provide all the necessary nourishment for the kids, as they would die without it. The Hebrew word שדי (shaddai) also has the meaning of a 'teat.' Just as the goat provides nourishment to its kids through the milk, God nourishes his children through his milk and provides all the necessities of life. This imagery can be seen in the following passage: 'And I will come down to snatch them [Israel] from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and wide land to a land flowing with milk and honey.' Exodus 3:8 The word שדי (teat) is often coupled with the word אל (mighty, strong) creating the phrase אל שדי (el shaddai) literally meaning the 'mighty teat,' hence we can see the translator's reluctance to literally translate this phrase in this manner and instead using the more sanitized 'God Almighty.'" Therefore, the Savior can be liken as a mother Goat that gives us nourishment or suck. The only scripture that may point to the Devine Feminine is with Genesis 49:25 but notice they only use Shaddai ( Almighty) not El shaddai. Therefore, it is clear El shaddai mean Jehovah (Genesis 17:1 and John 8) and just shaddai maybe relate to the divine feminine but I am not certain.

[@confusedwhynot]

Honestly there are verying opinions on this topic. I think it is okay to share your point of view. That being said it is important to put our focus on Christ, covenants, and the doctrine. Study but be centered on Christ.

[@Pay-It_Forward]

LOL. Mormons are so humorous. Asherah is one of like 5 wives of (El'Elyon or El'Shaddai or "EL") who Mormons call Elohim or El'Ohim. Asherah is mother of Yahweh. Lucifer is half brother of Yahweh by a different wife. This is all pre-Jewish mythology of the Levant before a group of Canaanites called themselves Jews.

[@IntoAllTruth.]

1Nephi 8:33 And great was the multitude that did enter into that strange building. And after they did enter into that building they did point the finger of scorn at me and those that were partaking of the fruit also; but we heeded them not. The usage by members of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ derive our names for the Father and the Son through modern revelation. Your claims, or the information on which you base your claims, are incorrect and your mocking attitude reflects that of the Accuser and Adversary and only fulfills scripture.

[@PatSmart-uk4vz]

How deeply ironic to choose a user name derived from a film/story with such positive values, and then go about mocking and insulting others from it. "By their fruits ye shall know them..."

[@Pay-It_Forward]

@@IntoAllTruth. *Truth is: radiometric dating & DNA prove humans interbreed with neanderthal many times between (50K & 200K) years ago. Truth is: Joseph Smith claimed Young Earth creation in Jackson County 6K years ago. Truth is: BofM mentions (Adam & Eve) 26 times. Truth is: Hyrum was taking Dartmouth College religion & mythology classes for several years at the time Joe got Salmonella Typhoid osteomyelitis. Hyrum was allowed to check out books from the Library & bring them home to Joseph to read during the time of his surgery & recovery period, at the time Dr. Nathan Smith was performing the surgeries. I speak truth. You speak dogma from a source that claims Lamanites are cursed with dark skin from Hebrew DNA they no longer have!*

[@Pay-It_Forward]

@@PatSmart-uk4vz I mentor people out of their thought cave cages without compensation, even though they ridicule me for the assistance. Satire regarding the humorous nature of that enigmatic irony isn't ridicule, it's joviality a claimed sin which profit Joe claimed was his greatest fault. Mocking & insulting others was Joe's primary teaching style, was it not? Seems to me that the New Testament full of Jesus doing it too! So is it sin? Did Jesus sin?