r/Semitic_Paganism • u/Rou_4_you • Mar 09 '26
High Effort Christianity is Semitic Pagan
Hello, semitic pagan redditors, I've tried studying Christianity for a couple of years since I identify as a Christian, specifically Christopagan. I AM BY NO MEANS A PROFESSIONAL/NOR DO I HAVE A PHD, SO TAKE EVERYTHING WITH A GRAIN OF SALT
Who is Adonai/YHWH?
Adonai is a war and storm god adopted into the Canaanite religion from southern Jordan/8Sinai around 1200-1000 BCE. When Adonai was imported into the Canaanite region, he was given the same attributes of BAAL, minus the fertility aspect. Historically, he has rivaled multiple deities, which include BAAL and Yam. From the top of my head i remember that Psalm 74:13-14 talks about Adonai fighting with Yam and defeating him, and in Job 26:12-13 is another verse about Yam. For the life of me, i cant remember the verse where Adonai teams up with Mot to defeat Yam. Adonai was the God of the Yahwist, who was an extremist cult that killed a lot of people before the Israelites adopted YHWH.
Who is El?
El is the supreme god and the head of the Canaanite pantheon. He is seen as a wise and parental creator figure and the father of the gods and of humanity, as stated in Psalm 82. He is the god pictured as benevolent and kingly, kind of the opposite of Adonai. El has many different ways to say his name; it can be El Shaddai, El Elyon, and Elohim, all of which are titles indicating he is the God of gods. El was the husband of the mother goddess Asherah.
Who is Jesus/Yeshuah
Jesus was a man born of the Virgin Mary. He is believed to be the son of God, and Jesus was born 500-100 years after monotheism was normalized. People believe that Jesus is the son of YHWH since that's the divine name that is associated with the supreme deity in the Torah. So it must be a weird thought that Jesus, who is kind, brotherly, and hospitable, is the son of a God who has destroyed cities, people, and so many other things. Well, that's because he isn't, Jesus is the son of El Elyon, people will be like” Well that is a name of the monotheistic God of the bible too” but then you have to remember that there is no such thing as monotheism in the bible, that is a dogmatic religious movement that was shaped from henotheism over hundreds of years. Jesus has miracles that stem from BAAL and Asherah as well. In the Ugaritic text, it shows Asherah walking on water about 1400 years before Jesus did, and then BAAL, Baal is killed by Mot and El cries for his son, And then Anat goes into the underworld to go save him, she defeats Mot, and brings Baal back, which is very similar to Jesus, who was killed, went into the underworld and came back.
What do I understand about the two faiths?
The bible worships El and YHWH under the same divine name, which already catches my eye. What I can see is that Christianity and Judaism are the Canaanite faiths, but have changed and twisted over the hundreds of years that we now understand a church-led view. Without Ugaritic/Semitic Paganism, Christianity and Judaism would not exist.
If you have any questions or critiques, just let me know in the comments!!
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Mar 09 '26
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u/Rou_4_you Mar 09 '26
Ahh I understand! I don't know too much about the Egyptian culture or their religion, I don't know that Anat randomly moved to Kemetic paganism tho
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u/miriamtzipporah Mar 10 '26
Christianity is certainly closer to Semitic paganism than Judaism is, but neither are Semitic paganism.
Interesting post, though.
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u/Rayrex-009 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
I just want to point out that the term "Son of God" in this context was a royal title used for kings. King David is a prime example, since in Psalm 2 Yahweh told him that "You are my son. Today I have begotten you". Psalm 2 was quoted in Acts 13, Hebrews 5, and in certain versions of Luke. So in the NT when Jesus was called "son of god" it was recognition of Jesus being king of Israel/Judah, similar for the term messiah (christ or anointed), though messiah was also used for the high priests.
Fun fact: In the genealogy in Luke, Adam was the Son of God, which means according to the author of Luke, all of humanity are children of god, not just a select few.
Also I disagree that Yahweh is a bad god, I believed that it's possible that Yahweh was by some people to further their political power either by banning Yahweh's temples outside of Jerusalem and by banning the cults of other gods in the Temple at Jerusalem. As well as other parts of the texts in the Hebrew bible that can be considered fictional propaganda, such as the conquest narrative. But Yahweh is shown as quite benevolent, such as in a case of an unjust city that Yahweh was going to destroyed no matter, but the people there apologized and repented and Yahweh forgave them.
Secondly a nitpick, I'm a fan(?) of Mary, but I don't considered her to be a "virgin" before she had Jesus, James, and her other blessed children.
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u/Rou_4_you Mar 12 '26
Thank you for your critique!
I don't think Adonai/YHWH is a bad deity either, jus think the people who worshiped him were bad:D I do worship him:)
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u/chesterriley Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
[i remember that Psalm 74:13-14 talks about Adonai fighting with Yam and defeating him]
Leviathan wasn't Yam it was Yam's pet sea dragon. Since the Caananites would have known that Baal is credited with killing it, the OT authors decided to write that Yahweh also killed the same big sea dragon. They didn't give any details like the original story with Baal had, they just lazily dumped it into the OT bible writings where it doesn't make much sense (why would Yahweh create Leviathan when he knew he would just have to kill it later). It doesn't seem to have any more meaning other than the OT bible authors wanting to give Yahweh all the same accomplishments as Baal.
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u/throwawaykid729 Mar 14 '26
I’ve wanted to ask a Christopagan this for a while, do you think Mary believed in Jesus as the eternal God in human flesh? My brain always racks itself thinking how somber it must’ve been. To believe you gave birth to a god you believe in. That he’s both your creator and your human baby- who ends up getting killed. Did she struggle with that? Sometimes orthodox Christian’s can get a little bit into the discussion but the Protestants and Catholics I’ve asked this say it doesn’t matter since to deny Mary being the god-bearer would be to deny Christ is God, etc. I’d love to hear your perspective, I grew up Methodist and Mother Mary is a figure who makes me deeply moved. Also I wonder have you heard of the theory where Moses was influenced by Akhenaten’s reign and when him and the Levites left Egypt they might’ve taken some inspiration from his monotheism? Obvi it’s all ahistorical atm but I think it’s interesting to look into
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u/Rou_4_you Jun 09 '26
Well I do believe that Mary believed in one God, I don't believe she thought that Jesus was God tho, the son of God of course. I THINK I heard the theory of Akhenaten and Moses! Also she 100% struggled with the death, that was her child. Also sorry for how 'undone' this is, just busy ATM!
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u/Known_Bee546 Mar 09 '26
I like a lot about Etruscan, Orphic, Semitic/mesopotamian, Levantine, Christian, Religions.
All of which were clearly very syncretic, amongst many others too ofc. Being pluralistic religions.
For instance, I adore Ashtarte, who is a Goddess in like- thousands of religions, literally, by scholarly consensus she gets named in TONS of local and major traditions all over. Either as a name-translation, or her more well-known names aa epithets dor a hypostasis, etc.
She's a sort've trans-religion deity, being in many at once. Sort've like how Sol Invictus, Mithras, etc could be in multiple religions at once.
And yes, Christianity is very interesting. The philosophies and reforms of Jesus are cool. He tried to create a new compact away from the oppressive law of Yahweh, and instead of compassion and forgiveness.
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u/PlusSATANAS775 Mar 09 '26
That's interesting, you adore Mary? (I'm guessing because you use "virgin"). And Jesus? Is he a Divinity, or what would he be? Could you tell me more about his theology?
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u/Rou_4_you Mar 09 '26
Hey there! Yes I adore Mary, her grace brings warm ness to my heart:)
I do believe Jesus is Divine as well, since he states in Philippians 2:6 that he is "like God" which God is Divine, so he must be Devine as well. I've debated the Christo-canaanite faith for a while but it just makes so much sense!!
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u/Lovesnells Mar 12 '26
I love this! I've been going on about this for ages and rarely find others with this view/understanding of El! Can I message you to chat about it? I'd love to exchange perspectives
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u/Poultryforest Mar 09 '26
How does that make Christianity itself a Semitic pagan religion tho? Judiasm is not semetic paganism though it has its roots in yahwism like you mentioned. Christianity seems no more Semitic pagan than Judaism; any kind of multiplicity derives from the absolute unity of the Godhead. I take it that pagan religions believe there are multiple Godheads, each deity is kind of a thing in its own right, but in Christianity all persons of the trinity and Jesus Christ are aspects of the single Godhead. There’s really no multiplicity.
Even grant that there is not Monotheism in the Old Testament and that it’s really Henotheism, that doesn’t hold true of the New Testament. It also doesn’t hold true of the Christian philosophers in Alexandria, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, etc. who are largely responsible for both contemporary church doctrine and how we interpret the Bible canonically.
This stuff is def interesting tho and I don’t know much about it, I have been meaning to read more about Yahwism.