Yahweh Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Worship== {{Main article|Yahwism}} ===Festivals and sacrifice=== {{also|Feast of Wine}} The centre of Yahweh's worship lay in three great annual festivals coinciding with major events in rural life: [[Passover]] with the birthing of [[Sheep|lambs]], [[Shavuot]] with the [[cereal]] [[harvest]], and [[Sukkot]] with the [[fruit]] harvest.{{sfn|Albertz|1994|p=89}} These probably pre-dated the arrival of the Yahweh religion,{{sfn|Albertz|1994|p=89}} but they became linked to events in the [[national myth]]os of Israel: Passover with [[the exodus]] from Egypt, Shavuot with the law-giving at [[Mount Sinai (Bible)|Mount Sinai]], and Sukkot with the [[wilderness]] wanderings.{{sfn|Davies|2010|p=112}} The festivals thus celebrated Yahweh's [[salvation]] of Israel and Israel's status as his holy people, although the earlier agricultural meaning was not entirely lost.{{sfn|Gorman|2000|p=458}} His worship presumably involved sacrifice, but many scholars have concluded that the rituals detailed in [[Leviticus]] 1β16, with their stress on purity and [[Atonement in Judaism|atonement]], were introduced only after the [[Babylonian exile]], and that in reality any head of a family was able to offer sacrifice as occasion demanded.{{sfn|Davies|Rogerson|2005|pp=151β152}} A number of scholars have also drawn the conclusion that [[infant sacrifice]], whether to the underworld deity [[Molech]] or to Yahweh himself, was a part of Israelite/Judahite religion until the reforms of [[King Josiah]] in the late 7th century BCE.{{sfn|Gnuse|1997|p=118}} Sacrifice was presumably complemented by the singing or recital of [[Book of Psalms|psalms]], but again the details are scant.{{sfn|Davies|Rogerson|2005|pp=158β165}} [[Jewish prayer|Prayer]] played little role in official worship.{{sfn|Cohen|1999|p=302}} ===Temples=== [[File:Tissot Solomon Dedicates the Temple at Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|alt=In the foreground, a bearded man dressed in an impressive white robe and head-dress raises his hand to heaven. Behind him, a large crowd bows in prayer.|[[Solomon]] dedicates the Temple at Jerusalem (painting by [[James Tissot]] or follower, c. 1896β1902).]] The Hebrew Bible gives the impression that the Jerusalem temple was always meant to be the central or even sole temple of Yahweh, but this was not the case.{{sfn|Davies|2010|p=112}} The earliest known Israelite place of worship is a 12th-century BCE open-air altar in the hills of [[Samaria]] featuring a bronze bull reminiscent of Canaanite [[El (deity)#Ugarit and the Levant|Bull-El]] (El in the form of a bull) and the archaeological remains of further temples have been found at [[Dan (ancient city)|Dan]] on Israel's northern border, at [[Tel Arad|Arad]] in the [[Negev]] and [[Tel Be'er Sheva|Beersheba]], both in the territory of Judah.{{sfn|Dever|2003a|p=388}} [[Shiloh (biblical city)|Shiloh]], [[Bethel]], [[Gilgal]], [[Mizpah in Benjamin|Mizpah]], [[Ramah in Benjamin|Ramah]] and Dan were also major sites for festivals, sacrifices, the making of [[Vow#Divine vows|vows]], private rituals, and the adjudication of legal disputes.{{sfn|Bennett|2002|p=83}} ===Portrayal=== Yahweh-worship was famously [[aniconic]], meaning that the god was not depicted by a statue or other image. This is not to say that he was not represented in some symbolic form, and early Israelite worship probably focused on [[baetylus|standing stones]], but according to the Biblical texts the temple in Jerusalem featured Yahweh's throne in the form of two [[cherub]]im, their inner wings forming the seat and a box (the [[Ark of the Covenant]]) as a footstool, while the throne itself was empty.{{sfn|Mettinger|2006|pp=288β290}} There is no universally accepted explanation for such [[aniconism]], and a number of recent scholars have argued that Yahweh was in fact represented prior to the reforms of [[Hezekiah]] and [[Josiah]] late in the monarchic period: to quote one study, "[a]n early aniconism, ''[[de facto]]'' or otherwise, is purely a projection of the [[Second Temple Judaism|post-exilic]] imagination".{{sfn|MacDonald|2007|pp=21, 26β27}} Other scholars argue that there is no certain evidence of any [[anthropomorphic]] representation of Yahweh during the pre-exilic period.{{sfn|Lewis|2020|pp=293β297}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page