I'm battling Covid-19 at the moment. But what i basically understood from your post is;
1. The Bible is not the word of one God.
2. As priest of Melchizedek Jesus would have worshiped the God of Melchizedek.
3. I was not clear from your post but I got from googling;
'The god whom Melchizedek serves as priest is “El ʿElyon,” again a name of Canaanite origin, probably designating the high god of their pantheon.'
Source:
Melchizedek | Story, Meaning, Priesthood, & Bible Verse
It appears to me that your belief here is a mix of modern scholarship and Biblical teaching.
I guess that settles that the return of Jesus must also be a worshipper of El Elyon from your perspective, although I note that other Christians may not share your premises.
Thanks for sharing and apologies if I've misunderstood anything.
my condolences on the flu ... pretty good summary hiting many of the major points.. Correct that the vast majority of christians will not have the faintest idea what I am talking about
.. but it is not their perspective I am interested in .. What I want to understand is what the Cannanite citizen living in Jerusalem around the time of Abe ~1800 BC thinks .. what the Israelite in ~1000 BC round the time of David thinks .. and last what the early first century Christian thought.
Zedek is the Patron God of Jerusalem, a Canaanite city at the time of Abe -- a twin god of Justice and Righteousness.
"EL" .. is the Chief God of the Canaanites .. EL Elyon is an epithet for EL .. God Most High .. EL - Oliun God Supreme -- and there are many others for this God .. who is also chief God of the Babylonian Pantheon .. Enlil and in fact most every people at this time venerated this fellow as the Most High God .. .. head of a divine pantheon . .. called The Assembly of EL in Psalm 82 800 years later.
El is everyone's high God in 1800 BC .. not just the Canaanites ... not only Abraham .. who worships the most high -sharing bread and wine with the Canaanite Priest King of Jerusalem .. Melchi-Zedek. ..
"There are many Gods in the Bible" - and certainly not the word of one God as all the people in the story from Abe down to the end of the Israelites in 720 BC believe in many Gods .. to a person .. in cluding Abe and Moses who ask that only one of these Gods be worshiped .. an ask which fell on deaf ears .. all the people raging Polytheists from start to finish.. YHWH worshiped alongside consort Asherah the Queen of heaven and daughter Anat .. when you were finished with the male and/or female prostitues... In the Bible there are voices of many Gods and many people ... is a compilation of many different stories over thousands of years ... .. some of these stories now glommed together in a book we call the Bible ..such that our Job .. is to sort out one voice from another.. separate the voice of the God of Jesus .. from the other voices.
For example .. one voice says
"Kill the child for the sin of the Idolatrous parents down 3rd and 4th generation .. Let us call this one the
God of Collective Punishment .. a xehophobic Genocidal maniac with the most nasty and petty of human characteristics .. a flip flopper and trickster on top of this mess .. thename of this God of the Bible is
"Jealous" .. Exodus 34 .. and this God has a set of 10 commands completely different than the 10 commands most people associate with the 10 commands.
another Voice says -- "Do not kill the child for the sin of the parents .. each is to be punished according to their own sin .. this a different God that the two-face demiurge Jealous.
We have the voice of another God in the Garden of Eden -- and remember .. it is not what you or I think that matters .. but what the person reading the story in 900 BC thought .. who was the Snake to this person .. a character that "EVERYONE" reading or hearing the Story knew .. the same God of the Wisdom Literature of Solomon .. also represented in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes .. "Sophia" .. a Wise Dragon .. and one of the primordial ones .. later imitated by BAAL and YHWH.. .. YHWH tries to dress up as a Dragon at one point..
Then there is the voice of the creator God .. who regrets his mistake .. clearly not an all powerfull ... all knowing .. perfect entity .. and we have the other nasty God in the Garden .. again an anthropormorphic character who for sport ... puts two humans who are innocent like a baby .. knowing not good from Evil in the ring with a God .. then punishes them for losing this unwinnable battle ..
So yes .. there are all kinds of voices in the Bible .. one says kill the child .. the other says don't .. this one of countless examples where there are two or more contradictory or conflicting voices .. but voices the Israelites understood .. and knew.
The problem we have in front of us .. is that we don't know nearly as well as the 900 BC Israelite .. who the different voices are and how to separate one from the other from which God. Thus .. how are you going to know the voice of Jesus when he calls .. if you dont know that voice .. if you do not know which voice is saying what .. if you do not know the name of the God speaking .. Don't know whether this comes from the God of Jesus - as does every word from the Logos - or one of the numerous other voices .. both God and men.
and so .. what is the criteria ?? Obviously we need to know which voice in the Bible is that of the God of Jesus. Fortunately we are told he is a priest of the order Melchi-Zedek .. and we know who the "Most High" of that priesthood is.. thanks to modern scholarship.. biblical archaeology and history.. which is why the Encyclopedia Britannica .. under "Abraham" will tell you that his God was "EL"
EL being this Guy ..
Psalm 82 -- NET Bible Translation ..
82 YHWH stands in[
b] the assembly of
El;[
c] in the midst of the gods[
d] he renders judgment.[
e]
So you have a bunch of Gods assembled together in heaven ..... El is the head God of the Pantheon .. the Twin Gods Zedek at the right hand of "The Father" twin Gods of Righteous and Justice .. from Jerusalem the city of peace .. so "The princes of Peace". YHWH endes up denouncing and then defeating the other "Sons of God" .. YHWH being one of those sons .. winning the position of Chief God on Earth .. EL remaining Chief God in the heavens.
footnote c .. Explains who the people who sang this song in the temple of YHWH understood EL to be.
"The phrase עֲדַת אֵל (
ʿadat ʾel, “assembly of El”) appears only here in the OT. (1) Some understand “El” to refer to God himself. In this case he is pictured presiding over his own heavenly assembly. (2) Others take אֵל as a superlative here (“God stands in the
great assembly”), as in
Pss 36:6 and
80:10. (3)
The present translation assumes this is a reference to the Canaanite high god El, who presided over the Canaanite divine assembly. (See
Isa 14:13, where El’s assembly is called “the stars of El.”) In the Ugaritic myths the phrase
ʿdt ʾilm refers to the “assembly of the gods,” who congregate in King Kirtu’s house, where Baal asks El to bless Kirtu’s house (see G. R. Driver,
Canaanite Myths and Legends, 91). If the Canaanite divine assembly is referred to here in
Ps 82:1, then the psalm must be understood as a bold polemic against Canaanite religion. Israel’s God invades El’s assembly, denounces its gods as failing to uphold justice, and announces their coming demise. For an interpretation of the psalm along these lines, see W. VanGemeren, “Psalms,”
EBC 5:533-36."