[Hey guys! Perhaps someone here could recommend me to some very well researched, and even respectibly unbiased sources, whereas The Bible is concerned, as well as rational thinking. Because, as a follower of the Wiccan faith, I am researching for a book I'd like to write, for those who might be drawn to my faith, cioming from a Judaic/monotheistic path. However, I came run accross a variety of passages in some pagan books, as well as some on-line articles, and would like to validate them (rather than just the author's say-so*) with rell respected, even scholarly, or well researched sources!

* I'm the sort who's big on citing my sources, and saying to the reader, "Don't take my word for it, go out and research it for yourself."

Anyway, here are the passages I was referring to. However, any other books you can glowingly recommend (based on my personal considerations), I'd be happy to know what they are! Also, I'm also looking to research The evodence for The Goddess in the dead sea scrolls, as well as the several books which were omitted from the official cannon (of which I hear are well over 100). What also interests me is how the various pagan deities eventually became the one, "monotheistic" Chritian Father God]:

"In Hebrew legends the all-powerful Yahweh was origionally the Goddess Iahu-'Anat, a name that was 'stolen from that of the Summarian Goddss.' The name Yahweh has also ben related to the Cannaanite moon deity, Yareah, who was possibly androgynous or bisexual. Even in Genesis we find indications that mother deities were present in the creation. In one of the two creation accounts, Elohim, the word translated as a singular 'God,' is actually a plural noun, and according to some biblical scholars would be better translated as 'creative nature spirits.' That Elohim was plural and partially feminine is clear from the words of Genesis that say, 'Let us make man in our image and likeness. Male and female He [!] created them.' If the 'image and likeness' of the creator is both male and female, we can assume that at least some of these 'creative nature spirits' had feminine natures."
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[Another thought I'd like toi research occured to me. I'd like to research, being that I am not that well versed in The Bible, nor biblical scholars, in the misnomer of satan. In that I have heard the concept of satan only dates from the late middle ages. And, the very term from which satan derives, is "ha-satan", which is Hebrew for something like "adversary of...", as well as any other evidence for the non-existance of stan or the Christian concept of "hell". Both concepts which I do not believe in, thankfully. ;o)]
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"Does the Bible offer any support for a female counterpart to God? Yes indeed! In fact, a very interesting statement was left in the Bible (Genesis 1:26, The New Jerusalem Bible, 1985) which supports a dualistic nature for God, namely:

'Let us make man in our own image,
in the likeness of ourselves ....'

"Pay heed that the above quote uses a plural reference to God. Naturally one wants to know about these other gods. Could it have been a mistake in the Bible? (Even this has not been proposed by the established church.) Or is this a reference to the doctrine of a 'triune' God, i.e., the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? No, it cannot be the Trinity either, FOR THAT WAS DEVELOPED IN THE NEW TESTEMENT MANY THOUSANDS OF YEARS LATER!"
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"Among the many revisions was the old Assyrian story of Adam and Eve, rewritten so that Eve is borne of Adam's rib rather than the reverse, as it appeared in the older version. In an old Mesopotamian legend, Eve creates a male, Adam, and makes him her mate, following the usual Goddess/Son myth."
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"In some of the books of the Judeo-Christian scriptures that were arbitrarily rejected from the official cannon, Adam admits that Eve is his superior. 'She taught me the word of knowledge.' In a Gnostic text, Eve is the Mother of All the Living and actually creates Jehova. It reads, 'He was was even ignorant of His own Mother....It was because He was foolish and ignorant of His Mother that He said, "I am God; there is none beside Me."' In some versions Eve chastices and punishes God for His cruewl treatment of human beings. Witches find it interesting that the name Jehova is formed by the 4 Hebrew letters Yod-He-Vau-He. The first, 'Yod,' means 'I,' the next 3 'He-Vau-He,' mean both 'life' and 'woman'. The Latin versions of these 3 letters is E-V-E. In oher words, the name Jehova is feminine, and it means 'I am woman; I am life.'"
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"Dig far enough back into any mythology, however refashioned by patriarchy, and the Primordial Mother is there. In Assyria, Tiamat was the primeval ocean from whos fertile depth sprang every living thing. (Tohu, the 'waters' of Genesis 1:2, is the Hebrew form of Tiamat.)....In the Hebrew tradition the primordial Mother survived as Lilith, transformed by patriarchy into a demoness. To the Gnostics, Sophia gave birth to the cosmos by self-induced orgasm, desiring 'to generate out of Herself without spouce.'"
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"The Hebrew Jarah, after whom Jericho is named, was Goddess of the new Moon and Bride of the Sun; Levanah, the Moon of the Song of Solomon, was also Chaldaean; and another Chaldaean Moon Goddess, Sirdu, the wife of the Sun God Shamash-Bubbar, may also have been the bride of the Hebrew God Iao (Yahweh)."
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"(Mount Sinai was named after Sin- the Middle Eastern Moon God, and the Levites were origionally Moon Priests, wearing the lunar crescents as a headdress.)"
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"...Ashera was worshipped in the Temple in Jerusalem, alongside Jehova, as His wife and sister.... And, the Essences, strict followers of the Law whos teachings greatly influenced Jesus, worshipped the Earthy Mothers and Her angels in polarity with the Heavenly Father and His angels."
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"...the Biblical flood story is a revision of the Ishtar one. She [Ishtar] inherited it from an earlier Babylonian Moon Goddess, Nuah, whos name, masculinized, is the obvious root of Noah.... Utnapishtim, the equivalent of Noah, had ben advised by the god Ea to build an ark.... According to one version (and the Noah origional), it is the Goddess Herself whom makes and sails the ark, and after the Flood had subsided, 'Then at last Ishtar also came, She lifted Her necklace withthe jewels of Heaven that once Anu had made to please Her: "O ye gods here present, by the lapis lazuli round my neck I shall rmemeber these days as I remember the jewels of my throat; these last days I shall not forget."' - a detail echoed by the rainbow of Genesis ix."
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"In Genesis 1:2 in the beginning, 'The Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters.' The word for 'deep' here is 'tehom', and for 'waers' 'tohu', Hebrew forms of Tiamat, the Goddess who personified the primordial from which all things sprang. (The Hebrew word for 'Spirit', incidentally, is also feminine in gender..."
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And...many of the references listed thrught the articles on this site (as there is no propper bibliography for each). For research, and validation (naturally):

* www.christianwicca.com/goddess.html
* www.christianwicca.com/gnostic.html
* www.christianwicca.com/ladygod.html
* www.christianwicca.com/ambrose.html
* www.christianwicca.com/demiurge.html
* www.christianwicca.com/books_mia.html
* www.christianwicca.com/te...maton.html
* www.christianwicca.com/tr...marys.html
* www.christianwicca.com/shehkina.html
* www.greaterthings.com/MormonGoddess/