Exodus Question

[deaddude]

In the book of exodus (I think thats the book any way) there is a well known scene in which moses prays to God and turns his staff into a snake. The egyptian priest pray to their various gods and accomplish very similar miracles. Moses' staff/snake devours the Egyptian's snakes.

The passage does not deny the power/existance of the Egyptian gods. By their power are the preist's staves transformed. All that it states is that God is more powerfull, his miracles more potent then those of Osiris or Ra. Does this make Christianity a hennetheism rather than a monotheism?

 

[KarlMarx]

In the book of exodus (I think thats the book any way) there is a well known scene in which moses prays to God and turns his staff into a snake. The egyptian priest pray to their various gods and accomplish very similar miracles. Moses' staff/snake devours the Egyptian's snakes.

The passage does not deny the power/existance of the Egyptian gods. By their power are the preist's staves transformed. All that it states is that God is more powerfull, his miracles more potent then those of Osiris or Ra. Does this make Christianity a hennetheism rather than a monotheism?

The first commandment, which is in a later book attributed to Moses, tells the Israelites not to worship other gods. Some have hypothosized that the ancient gods do exist, but are actually fallen angels that allied themselves with Satan.

I believe there are other passages in the Bible that state that God created everything, including fallen angels, demons and so forth.

Actually, Ra and Osiris were not the all powerful gods in the Egyptian pantheon. They believed in a set of "creator gods" which created the other gods, I think "Atum" was the creator god. Osiris was the god of the dead, Ra was the god of the sun.

 

[deaddude]

The ban against worship is consistant with hennetheism. In fact the only criterion for hennetheism that I am aware of is that it does not overtly deny the existance of other gods, but simply holds its own god to be the most powerful.

PS Neat info about the Egyptian hierarchy of god.

 

[Hobbit]

The other main hypothesis concerning why other gods' 'miracles' seemed to work is that some people used slight of hand in order to pass themselves off as prophets.

 

[Nienna]

In the book of exodus (I think thats the book any way) there is a well known scene in which moses prays to God and turns his staff into a snake. The egyptian priest pray to their various gods and accomplish very similar miracles. Moses' staff/snake devours the Egyptian's snakes.

The passage does not deny the power/existance of the Egyptian gods. By their power are the preist's staves transformed. All that it states is that God is more powerfull, his miracles more potent then those of Osiris or Ra. Does this make Christianity a hennetheism rather than a monotheism?

Christianity is monotheistic. It is not henotheistic because it does not recognize all supernatural beings as God. There is only one (triune)God. There are other beings with supernatural power, but they are not recognized as God.

I guess it would depend on what one's definition of "god" is. If you mean "any supernatural being," then I can see where someone could consider Christianity to be henotheistic. But Christians consider themselves to be monotheistic.

 

[dmp]

The first commandment, which is in a later book attributed to Moses, tells the Israelites not to worship other gods. Some have hypothosized that the ancient gods do exist, but are actually fallen angels that allied themselves with Satan.

I believe there are other passages in the Bible that state that God created everything, including fallen angels, demons and so forth.

Actually, Ra and Osiris were not the all powerful gods in the Egyptian pantheon. They believed in a set of "creator gods" which created the other gods, I think "Atum" was the creator god. Osiris was the god of the dead, Ra was the god of the sun.

Dude? No, no, no...

Egyptian gods were actually Aliens. They are parasites which latch onto a 'Host' (Generally a humaniod). They flew in and used their technology to enslave the egyptians. Pyramids? Landing pads for their ships. It's true. I saw it on stargate sg1.

 

[KarlMarx]

Dude? No, no, no...

Egyptian gods were actually Aliens. They are parasites which latch onto a 'Host' (Generally a humaniod). They flew in and used their technology to enslave the egyptians. Pyramids? Landing pads for their ships. It's true. I saw it on stargate sg1.

Actually, all kidding aside, the ARE people who actually believe that stuff. They're called "pyramidiots" by the mainstream Egyptology people. One Yahoo Group I belong to that discusses things Ancient Egypt actually has a warning, that if you're one of the "aliens built the pyramids" bunch, don't bother applying for membership.

It's too bad that the new age weirdos get so much attention. Ancient Egypt is a fascinating subject without the new age nonsense. Ancient Egyptian philosophy and mysticism is also interesting. It doesn't need help from the "chariots of the gods" crowd! It's striking to me how many parallels there are between Judeo Christian theology and Ancient Egyptian theology.

 

[deaddude]

The other main hypothesis concerning why other gods' 'miracles' seemed to work is that some people used slight of hand in order to pass themselves off as prophets.

Surely God would see through such trickery (ya know being omniscient and all) and when He inspired moses to write the old testament it would have read somthing like "and the egyptians through trickery and deciet, did also turn their staves to serpents."