'By the 12th century B.C.E., the Hebrews assumed an identity
unique enough in the archaeological record to become discernible
for the first time. In the mountains and plateaus of the northern
highlands of Canaan, from Jerusalem north to the Jezreel Valley,
the highland settlements, poor for their day, begin to show a single
distinguishing feature from other, similar highland settlements in
regions around them. There is little to go on - pottery shows an
impoverished lifestyle, with little decoration and use other than as
storage and cooking vessels. Yet one thing is clear - the bones of
pigs become absent from the archaeological record. The prohibition
on eating pork is therefore the oldest archaeologically supported
feature of Jewish culture. It is representative of the beginnings of
the transformation of the god "El" into "El-ohim," the god of
gods, the god of Israel.

We now know this Mesopotamian god as "El-ohim," and our
author "E," one of the earliest scriptorialists writing about this time,
first has El introducing himself to Abraham as "El Shaddai"
(El of the Mountain). He also appears as El Elyon, or El of Bethel
in other, non-canonized scripture, and his name is also preserved
in such Hebrew names as Isra-El and Ishma-El. The word Elohim
was originally a plural of El.2

To the south, from Bethel to the Valley of Beersheba, a similar
transformation is taking place. In this climatically and geologically
harsher place, a place with a much smaller and less settled population
with greater geographical isolation, the Canaanite god Yahweh is
being transformed by a culturally similar people of the land of Judah.
The unknown author known to scholars simply as "J" has his god
being familiar with and comfortable with Abraham, and he casually
appears to Abraham in Genesis 18, introducing himself as Yahweh.
But "J's" contemporary, author "E" in the north can't have God
being so casual, and first appears as a voice, commanding
Abraham to leave his people in Mesopotamia and settle in Canaan.3

Yahweh, in his transformation from a pagan Canaanite god to the
god of the Jews, becomes a cruel and vindictive god in the hands
of author "J." He commands Abraham to sacrifice his first born
son, an act which is not at all surprising given the nature of the pagan
religions of the time. Many of these pagan religions (and remember
that Yahweh got his start as a Canannite pagan god) considered
the first-born to be the seed of a god. Because of this, they were
often sacrificed to the god who presumably sired them.

Yet Elohim in the north continues to be a much more subtle god,
who directs the affairs of men by revelation of the voice, hidden
from the view of mere mortals. There is a tension among these
peoples, both of whom identify themselves as culturally decendants
of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. One people, perhaps, but two gods.
.....'
http://www.bidstrup.com/bible.htm

'YHWH is not 'ELOHIM.
..
Let there be no mistake as to His true identity. There are over thirty
thousand counts of threatened life, terrorization, and outright destruction
that YHWH claims for Himself in Hebrew Scripture alone. The record
accrued and counted thereafter is even greater and more horrifying.
He deceives. He confuses. He pits one person or one nation against
another for His caprice and lust for power and recognition. He wants
and demands worship because He is not 'ELOHIM. He wants kingship
and enthronement because He is not 'ELOHIM. He accuses of sin, the
sins he invented. He lies. He deceives. He betrays. He kills.
..
YHWH is not the TRUE GOD of Yis_ra'EL. This is a fact of history,
of archaeology, and Scripture, fully proven by the data, and of all time.
Read the record. Open your mind. The truth is there for all to see.
The account speaks for itself.
..
'ELOHIM is PURE, UNDEFINED ENERGY, from WHOM all
energies flow, and take form and manifestation.

'ELOHIM is not a name. The attributive noun or word, 'ELOHIM , is
a plural unity in Hebrew / 'Ivriy, the language of Canaan / Kh_na'an,
and nothing more. 'ELOHIM has no name, and needs none. Perhaps
the only signifier that truly points to 'ELOHIM is 'AH_VAH , PURE
SPIRITUAL LOVE OF THE HIGHEST ORDER.

'ELOHIM is to be loved and respected, not worshipped, but
appreciated.

Therefore, all love and respect for 'ELOHIM is to be given in
quiet reflection of the inner and outer universes. 'Amen.
..'
http://web.archive.org/web/20050905122123/http://www.messiah.org/elohim.htm

Two deities, and two sets of doctrine.

'ELOHIM was, at one time, prior to the formation of Yis_ra'EL,
the MOST HIGH GOD of Canaan / Kh_na'an . The supremacy
of 'ELOHIM was cherished and maintained by the people of the
Levant and later with Abraham , the ancient "patriarch" of the
'Ivriy / Hebrews, cherished and maintained by the standard
employed within the term or embodiment surrounding the now
mythical Melchizedek , which, seemingly appearing to take on
a seperate life of its own ascending to these mythical purportions,
was even legendary in the time of Abraham.

Before Abraham's time, it was impressed upon the young from
this voice of Mal_khiy-tzehthehq , whose fleeting importance is
apparent in Genesis, in the ancient account of Torah [The account
is actually a last minute insertion into the Torah by a small but
persistent survivorship of later northern tradition 'Eloists who
survived the Assyrian crushing of the Northern Kingdom in 722
BCE], that 'ELOHIM was the GOD of blessing, and the earth a
blessing of 'ELOHIM , the TRUE GOD of all. The tithes and
offerings brought to 'EL were nothing more than thanksgiving
offerings given out of gratitude.

Still, these accounts from Torah are only faded remnants attempting
to capture the relational values established between the peoples of
Kh_na'an and 'ELOHIM . Most accounts concerning 'ELOHIM,
accounts compiled 1,000 years after, are badly distorted by
Yahwistic redaction, notably the Abraham / Isaac account of
blood sacrifice wrongly attributed to as if directed by 'ELOHIM.

'ELOHIM does not and will not accept blood sacrifice. Such
appeasement, petition, and sacrifice is blasphemy.

Far into the past, deep into antiquity, all that was ever brought
before this ancient GOD of Kh_na'an / Canaan, when agriculture
was still young, and a miracle before the people, long before blood
sacrifice began, long before the pain of seasons set in, grain and fruit
offerings were brought to this GREAT ONE in gratitude for the fruits
of the harvest and the earth, never in blood, never in the shedding
of blood to appease imagined "sins" or wrongs. That was a desert
fear, easily overcome by the truth.

'ELOHIM , in the beginning, was, to the most ancient of Canaanites,
a GOD of Thanksgiving, a GOD to WHOM gratitude was given in
celebration of LIFE as a sacred and wonderful gift. Pesach, the
original spring festival was given in honor of the fruitfulness and
rebirth of the earth, its fertility and promise. ..

Only later did that change when a fusion with his "sons" or
"children" began.

Despite the tendency of three thousand years to believe otherwise,
YHWH and 'ELOHIM are not and were not the same.

'ELOHIM was and continues to be the supreme MOST HIGH
GOD of Yis_ra'EL and Canaan / Kh_na'an , and of humankind.

YHWH is nothing more than an inferior or lesser ba'al of the southern
Kenite-Midianite Shahssu_YHWH bedhouins of the 'Ariv / Arabia:
YHW , 'ahiyi_hwah, very distinct from the region and thinking of the
people residing in Kh_na'an / Canaan.

Here, too, know the distinction between Kenite / Cain and
Kh_na'an / Canaan. Cain, not the agriculturalist the Genesis account
depicts him as, carries the blood mark of YHWH , and is of the tribal
alignment and grouping of the bedhouins of southern Arabia and
Moab. Canaan is the guardian of integrity, and the keeper of the gate
of 'ELOHIM, 'AHLEHP , the archetypal civilized, living in cities.

Biblical redaction and tampering have twisted, mixed up, and
confused the actual representations in the early accounts of Genesis.
..'
http://web.archive.org/web/20050905122123/http://www.messiah.org/elohim.htm

'Philo -
'[Essenes: the name]

(11.1) But our lawgiver [Moses] trained an innumerable body
of his pupils to partake in those things, who are called Essenes,
being, as I imagine, honoured with this appellation because of
their exceeding holiness [Greek hosioteta = osiothta].

(EGM 75) There is a portion of those people called Essenes,
in number something more than four thousand in my opinion,
who derive their name from their piety [Greek hosiotetos =
osiothtoV], though not according to any accurate form of the
Grecian dialect, because they are above all men devoted to the
service [therapeutai] of God, not sacrificing living animals,
but studying rather to preserve their own minds in a state of
holiness and purity.
..
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/courses/999/hypothet.htm

The northern branch of Essenes were called "Nazarenes".

"The Nasaraeans - they were jews by nationality - originally from
Gileaditis (where the early followers of Yeshu-Maria fled after
the martyrdom of James the Lord's brother), Bashanitis and the
Transjordon . . . They acknowledged Moses and believed that
he had received laws - not this law, however, but some other.
And so, they were jews who kept all the Jewish observances,
but they would not offer sacrifice or eat meat. They considered
it unlawful to eat meat or make sacrifices with it. They claim that
these Books are fictions, and that none of these customs were
instituted by the fathers. This was the difference between the
Nasaraeans and the others. . . (Epiphanius, Panarion 1:18)
..
Nasaraeans, meaning, "rebels," who forbid all flesh-eating,
and do not eat living things at all. They have the holy names
of patriarchs which are in the Pentateuch, up through Moses
and Joshua the son of Nun, and they believe in them-(2) I
mean Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the earliest ones, and
Moses himself, and Aaron, and Joshua. But they hold that the
scriptures of the Pentateuch were not written by Moses, and
maintain that they have others. (Epiphanius, Panarion 1:19)
..
http://essenes.net/sz17.htm