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On the Term: HENOTHEISM
Posted by Yaacov on March 26, 2009 at 8:31pm in Theology
In Patriarchinity chapter 11: Verifying Witnesses, I put forth that the original Nazarene sect was henotheistic in their view of Elohim, rather than being monotheistic.
Lev/Christopher brought up the following:
I wonder if using the designation "henotheism" is the wisest choice of words given the many different usages of the term. See, for example the Wiki article on the same. What bothers me is we might possibly be accused of being "serial monotheists" given that καθ' ἕνα θεόν (kath' hena theon) means "one god (power) at a time" which sounds a bit like the monarchical modalism of oneness Pentecostals. So I have to admit I do balk somewhat at the term. As the Wiki article observes:
"Henotheism is similar but less exclusive than monolatry because a monolator worships only one god, while the henotheist may worship any within the pantheon, depending on circumstances."
That to me sounds like a variation of polytheism.
We always worship only YHWH the Father through Yah'shua the Son in the sevenfold Ruach haQodesh and do not rotate between different members of the Elohimhead/Godhead at whim.
I think, quite honestly, in the absence of any term to describe the first century belief in the Elohim-head, we are forced to invent our own in order to avoid misunderstanding. Using "henotheist" is going to open us up to all all sorts of easily avoidable false accusations. Why can't we just invent our own, like Echadtheist (admittedly an odd mix of Hebrew and Greek) and then explain what we mean by the term? Or maybe we can find an all-Greek term like Prototheist, indicating that we only worship the first member of the Elohim-head? At any rate, I think we should avoid Greek terms that have multiple implications not in harmony with our actual belief structure.
What do you think?
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Reply by Yaacov on March 26, 2009 at 8:48pm
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Reply by Lev/Christopher on March 27, 2009 at 2:06am
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Reply by Yaacov on March 27, 2009 at 5:27am
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Reply by Lev/Christopher on March 27, 2009 at 8:04am
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