Yes, these are both valid points, until you notice earlier written traditions have the same characters (usually with very different names, due to being in a different language) playing out essentially the same stories during the same time periods, except they render the story with multiple characters.
The earliest known writing is from the Sumerians, and their creation "myth" is virtually the same as Genesis (eden/adam/eve/serpent/god) except it's not a serpent but another "god" and there are many other gods too. The plural carried over into the bible. Then traditions that followed (Babylonian/Egyptian/Hittite/Medes - even Mayan) all used the very same multiple characters.
At the time of the ancient Greeks - still multiple gods. Then the bible is compiled and it still contains the plural. 4000 years later people are certain it refers to a single entity.
Now, take all the traditions from the first to the last and they all have multiple gods, the bible even uses the plural and talks openly of "We will make man in our image" which is word-for-word almost perfect translation of the earliest writing in existence, from Sumerians (pre flood and after). You have to wonder, you really really have to wonder.
The Sumerians even have stories that match Noah and the ark, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah - in writing - the oldest existing writing. Their cosmology is even now in accordance with modern science. For a long time modern science had not discovered the chain of events they wrote about before 4000bc - like the origin of Earth being due to a celestial battle (collision)
No need to panic about the loss of the simple "one supreme" god scheme though - the gods of the old testament bible are basically not gods or God, just extremely advanced humanlike entities. God, the ultimate singular, must have created them, ultimately. I still see Jesus as the messenger of that God above all others, and not much changes because it is still a new arrangement that supersedes all the others, as it should.
Yes, these are both valid points, until you notice earlier written traditions have the same characters (usually with very different names, due to being in a different language) playing out essentially the same stories during the same time periods, except they render the story with multiple characters. The earliest known writing is from the Sumerians, and their creation "myth" is virtually the same as Genesis (eden/adam/eve/serpent/god) except it's not a serpent but another "god" and there are many other gods too. The plural carried over into the bible. Then traditions that followed (Babylonian/Egyptian/Hittite/Medes - even Mayan) all used the very same multiple characters.
At the time of the ancient Greeks - still multiple gods. Then the bible is compiled and it still contains the plural. 4000 years later people are certain it refers to a single entity.
Now, take all the traditions from the first to the last and they all have multiple gods, the bible even uses the plural and talks openly of "We will make man in our image" which is word-for-word almost perfect translation of the earliest writing in existence, from Sumerians (pre flood and after). You have to wonder, you really really have to wonder.
The Sumerians even have stories that match Noah and the ark, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah - in writing - the oldest existing writing. Their cosmology is even now in accordance with modern science. For a long time modern science had not discovered the chain of events they wrote about before 4000bc - like the origin of Earth being due to a celestial battle (collision)
No need to panic about the loss of the simple "one supreme" god scheme though - the gods of the old testament bible are basically not gods or God, just extremely advanced humanlike entities. God, the ultimate singular, must have created them, ultimately. I still see Jesus as the messenger of that God above all others, and not much changes because it is still a new arrangement that supersedes all the others, as it should.
The truth would put 99% in the hospital...