Yahweh had a consort!

El and not Yahweh, was the original God of Israel who was the chief of the Canaanite gods, described as kind and compassionate and the creator of all creatures. He lived in a tent on a mountain from where all the fresh waters of the world came forth. EI presided over the Assembly of the Gods with the goddess Asherah as his consort.  The pair made up the top tier of the Canaanite pantheon of gods, the second tier was made up of their children, the seventy sons of Asherah.  Baal was prominent among them. His home was on Mount Zaphon and he gradually became the dominant deity. El had all the executive power and Baal was invested with the military power in the cosmos. Thunderstorm was his realm with its life-giving rains and naturally he was also a fertility god. The third tier was made up of craftsman and trader deities and the fourth tier consisted of divine messengers and the like.

Yahweh, a southern warrior and storm god, somehow  joined the pantheon headed by El who became a generic term for God. Each member of the divine council had a nation under his care. Chemosh was the god of the Moabites, Milcom the god of the Ammonites, Qaus the god of the Edomites, and Yahweh the God of Israel.   Israel's battles became Yahweh’s battles, Israel's victories his victories. He would procure his people a fertile resting-place.

 In each kingdom the king was also the head of the national religion and God's viceroy on Earth. Each year the king presided over a ceremony at which Yahweh was enthroned in the Temple of Jerusalem.  

In November of 1999  Prof. Ze’ev Herzog of Tel Aviv University announced:  the Jewish God Yahweh had a female consort - the goddess Asherah! The identification of the goddess Asherah (Asherat) (Eelath) as his consort leads to some explosive conclusions about the identity of the Jewish/Christian God. 

Curiously, Baal’s consort was also his mother, Asherah.

According to biblical scholars Yahweh as a name is first used with Moses in Exodus, and is indicative of monolatory (exclusive worship of one of many Gods) rather than monotheism. The name Yahweh can also be translated as "I am who I am", literally a way of disguising his true identity.

   

And El Shaddai is one of the versions of God described in Genesis. The obvious question is, why did Yahweh reveal himself to the patriarchs as El Shaddai? El Shaddai is still venerated in the Jewish faith in some form.

According to scholars Yahweh is prone to violence and seems to despise his chosen people. He is a perfect match for ISH.KUR (Hadad), whose land is occupied by the Amorites and Hittites, and is a known demonstrator of violence and contempt for his worshipers. ISH.KUR’s image, traits, and symbols match those of Baal. He is also anti-Babylon and anti-Egypt, as is Yahweh. And like Yahweh’s, the real name of the Canaanite Baal (Hadad) must not be spoken.

On the basis of Herzog’s discovery, the following is a logical conclusion and solution to the identity of the Jewish God of the Old Testament: ISH.KUR = Hadad = El Shaddai = Baal = Yahweh.  

This indicates, as does Herzog’s work, that the Jewish people evolved from polytheism to monotheism by promoting a god, who had been known by a variety of names, into the supreme God. For this purpose, they adopted not the supreme God of the Pantheons, El, but his son known under various names- ISH.KUR, Baal, Hadad, El-Shaddai-who was in an open revolt against his father El. His mother and consort,  Asherah, aided him in this revolt.