Si tratta della favolosa introduzione di Mark Smith al libro God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World (Forschungen zum Alten Testament series I, volume 57; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008). Avevo accennato al suo libro sull’invenzione del monoteismo biblico, dopo aver fatto un excursus sulle divinità ispiratrici per gli israeliti. Cosa è Dio? Scrive Smith:

1. Before explaining the plan of this book, it is important to be clear about divinity in our ancient texts. To help clarify what was meant by “god” or “goddess,” we should explore the terms that the ancient writers themselves used for deities. The main rubric is the Hebrew word, ’el, and its two plural forms, ’elim and ’elohim (as well as the singular, ’eloah, which was secondarily formed from the plural, ’elohim). Cognate literatures show comparable forms, such as Ugaritic ’il (plural ’ilm), and Akkadian ilu (plural ilu, ilanu).33  Hebrew and other ancient languages do not have lower and upper case letters. The singular form of these words in Hebrew can be translated as “god” and sometimes “God” as a name. The plural form can be “gods,” yet the Hebrew plural form is also used for “God.”
   

Ancora:

1. Let me explain in a bit more detail. These words all derive from the base ’l, and they cover a multitude of “divinities” in addition to “Yahweh, your god” (e. g., Exodus 20:2 = Deuteronomy 5:7) or “God,” i.e., Yahweh (Exodus 19:3). The plural form is also used regularly as a word or title for Yahweh, namely “God.” In the thinking of many Bible readers, the only “gods” besides the true god, the Lord, are false gods. Such false gods are called “other gods” (Exodus 20:3 = Deuteronomy 5:7, Judges 2:11, etc).; “other god” (singular) in Exodus 34:14), or “new gods” (Deuteronomy 32:17), or “their gods,” i.e., of other people (Exodus 34:15); gods of the heaven/heavenly court who mated with human women (Genesis 6:1-2), regarded in later literature as sinning angels (e. g., in 2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6); and the sedim <shin> translated as “demons” by the NJPS and denigrated as “not-gods” in Deuteronomy 32:17 (cf. verse 21). These putatively false gods in some biblical contexts clearly include gods and goddesses (Judges 2:12-13, 3:6-7).34  As can be seen from these cases, the translations of these passages raise the problem of understanding the various terms for deity, god and goddess.
   

Una questione anche di traduzione di concetti e termini utilizzati dalle popolazioni levantine oltre tremila anni fa:

1. To extrapolate from these usages of the words for “god,” one might suggest that divinity in biblical and ancient Near Eastern terms was thought, metaphysically speaking, to be constituted by power: humans and other non-deities characterized as ’elohim in some respects participate in the power of, or associated with, the divine power recognized as a god. Christian metaphysics in the Middle Ages understood reality in terms of Being and beings. In this worldview, all creatures derive their existence or being from (or, “participate in”) Being itself, namely God. In comparison, ancient Levantine cultures largely viewed the use of ’elohim (and its terms) as a matter of Power and powers.42  As some uses of ’elohim indicate, the category of power is a major constituent of this word, and it is for this reason that a number of scholars have traced the etymology of the words for god, gods and God to the Semitic root, *’yl, “to be first, be powerful,” despite some difficulties with this view.
   

Affascinante. Grazie a Jim, che ha scovato questo saggio introduttivo di Mark Smith per primo.