It would be a great honour to have you in my class as it would be to one day meet you in person and cherish your company. You are a man of serious science and integrity but also very kind.

The people of Ugarit believed El (their name - and the same as in the Hebrew Bible) was the sovereign of the pantheon. However, it is Baal who, as El’s co-regent, was called “most high” and “king of the gods” - and yet Baal has lesser authority. Essentially, Baal was El’s vizier. I don’t want to get ahead of myself by putting my material into comments, but I’m going to argue (this was part of my dissertation) that Israel had its own co-regent council structure where Yahweh was the sovereign (and both El and Baal imagery and titles were applied to him, as noted above). BUT (and here’s the cool part), there is a SECOND Yahweh figure in the Hebrew Scriptures — what I call the “visible Yahweh” — who was at times present with Yahweh — the invisible Yahweh (the “Father”). Israel’s version of a co-regent council was to have Yahweh in BOTH slots — the El slot and the Baal slot. The El slot = the invisible Yahweh; the Baal slot = the visible Yahweh. Thus there was a binitarian godhead. The second Yahweh “was but wasn’t” Yahweh — he at times appears alone, and at times with the invisible Yahweh. They are the same, yet distinct. Sound familiar?

Second question: The visible Yahweh figure I talked about above can be linked (rather easily) to the figure of the Messiah. You’ll have to wait for more on that.

Two questions: I thought the Jews always regarded Baal as a pagan deity, are you saying they incorporated him into their own theology or are you saying the Ugarites (?) had a belief in an “El” and an appointed god “Baal”?

Who did the rabbis think the coming Messiah was, if he wasn’t a ruling power in heaven? More plainly stated, who or what was the Messiah supposed to be if not a heavenly being?