Seth-Yahweh
Our focus, however, is on the Egyptian depiction of the
Jewish deity. From the Greco- Egyptian perspective, Yahweh and Seth shared
several traits: they were both gods of foreigners, of the desert, and of
frightening storms. They both sent calamities. Indeed, Egyptians could not help
but notice that some of the plagues unleashed by Yahweh resembled disasters
customarily inflicted by Seth: darkness, eclipse, and pestilence. Red was the
distinctive hue of Seth, and Yahweh turned the Nile crimson before ordering the
Hebrews to paint their lintels with blood. Mount Sinai, the desert crag from
which Yahweh revealed his Law, quaked as it was enveloped in thunder,
lightning, and fire— all phenomena associated with Seth. Finally, the Greek
word for Yahweh (Iaō)— with a perverse twist of the tongue— sounded like
the native Egyptian word for donkey (eiō or simply iō). These
factors, even if judged artificial today, were more than enough for Hellenized
Egyptians to portray Yahweh as a form of Seth.
There was an additional motivation. For centuries, Jews
had scorned the religion of Egypt as the worship of dumb beasts. One way for
learned Egyptians to fight back was to depict the Jewish deity as himself the
most vile and ridiculous beast. If Yahweh was a form of Seth, then he could be
portrayed in Seth’s ass- like shape. Thus there arose the tradition that the
Jews (secretly) worshiped Yahweh as a donkey or as a man standing upright with
an ass’s head. (M. David Litwa, The Evil Creator: Origins of an Early
Christian Idea [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021], 23-24)
Excurses:
Seth-Yahweh in Spells and Gems
as to suggest their close association and perhaps
identity. The spells come from papyrus books discovered in Egypt and now held
in Paris. The books are dated to the fourth century CE, but many of their
spells are thought to come from second- or third- century prototypes.
In a multipurpose spell for restraining charioteers,
sending dreams, and inspiring love, a cat- headed sun god is invoked under
various names. One of the names inscribed on a metal leaf and inserted into the
earholes of a drowned cat is “IŌ SETH.” The spell is relevant only if IŌ is a
form of IAŌ (the Greek form of Yahweh). Even if IŌ represents the Egyptian word
for donkey (EIŌ) or the donkey’s bray, however, a double meaning (IŌ = IAŌ) could
be in play.
A second spell, written in the form of a letter from
Nephotes (an Egyptian sage) to a Pharaoh of the seventh or sixth century BCE,
promises Pharaoh the power to get special information from a deity revealed
through bowl divination. The deity is a sun god identified with “mighty Typhon,
ruler of the realm above and master, god of gods.” A long list of names for the
god follows. Among the names can thrice be distinguished IAŌ. In this spell, Birger
Pearson considered it “clear” that “Seth- Typhon is identified with the god of
the Jews.” Pearson upheld a similar identification in the following two spells.
The first is an incantation of Typhon’s soul represented
by the Great Bear constellation. The practitioner anoints his or her lips with
the fat of a black donkey and uses hairs from the same donkey to make a plaited
cord wrapped as a crown.70 The practitioner then kneels and prays to daemonic
rulers, among them being SABAŌTH IAŌ. He or she then writes the hundredlettered
name of Typhon on papyrus and ties it to the cord used as a crown. Another
spell was designed to afflict a woman with terrible pains. The practitioner is
bid to draw on an unbaked brick the picture of a running donkey with the title
IAŌ IŌ on its face. The spell inscribed on the brick begins with the names of
the deity addressed. The key deity invoked is “the great, great Typhon!”
Despite Pearson’s judgment, in none of these spells is it
actually “clear” that Typhon is a form of Yahweh. The name of Yahweh may be
invoked in its Greek form (Iao), but is it really the god of Jewish scripture? Granted,
at least some magical practitioners knew that Iao was the god of the Exodus. Celsus
(about 178 CE) observed that “the god of the Hebrews” and “the god who drowned
the king of Egypt and the Egyptians in the Red Sea” was a common formula used
by exorcists. In a curse tablet buried in a grave near Carthage (first to third
century CE), we find reference to Iao who “split the sea,” who is also called
“Adonai Sabao” (names for Yahweh in biblical Hebrew). Another spell refers to
the one who appeared to Israel in a bright pillar (Exod 13:21– 22), “who
delivered his people from Pharaoh and who inflicted the ten plagues.” This
“mighty god Sabaoth,” made the “Red Sea uncrossable” after “Israel went
through” (cf. Exod 14:27).
We should also take into consideration certain engraved
gems that depict a donkey- headed deity with snake legs and a shield bearing
the name IAŌ. The donkey head indicates Seth, the snake legs indicate Typhon, and
the name “IAŌ” indicates that Seth- Typhon is also Seth- Yahweh. The carvers of
these gems are unknown. In the early twentieth century, Adrien Blanchet traced
them back to the “Ophites.” But if the donkey image of Seth- Yahweh was widely
recognized, a wide variety of persons could be responsible for them.
Other artifacts deserve brief mention. The first is an
oval- shaped lead tablet featuring a snake- footed figure with the head of a
donkey inscribed with the name IAŌ. The second is an amulet featuring on its
obverse a large- headed snake with seven rays on its head. Above it are six
stars with the name “IAŌ” inscribed on the left. On the reverse stands a
donkey- headed god in a kilt
with a short staff and carrying an ankh (Egyptian symbol
of life). A third item, a gem from the British Museum, shows the same donkey-
headed figure in a kilt carrying an ankh and a scepter (see Figure 1.2). He is
labeled “IAŌ” and is surrounded by the names of the four archangels (Uriel,
Suriel, Gabriel, and Michael). It seems hard to deny that these donkey- headed
figures are images of Seth- Yahweh.
Although we do not know who made them, who used them, and
for what purpose they were made, they testify to the recognizability of Seth-
Yahweh as a cultural symbol or “meme” recognizable in antiquity. (M. David
Litwa, The Evil Creator: Origins of an Early Christian Idea [Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2021], 29-31)
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