The Germanic Sky Father / Supreme God.
The following is a bit of a personal rant with a mixture of academic study on Odinic understanding of God versus Yahweh.
The Germanic (Norse, Saxon, Frankish, Proto-Germanic, etc) King of Gods and supreme deity is Odin.
Be this as Wotan, Woden, Wōdanaz, Gaut (God / Gott), or the many different names that are found within the Scandinavian epithets.
While the representation of Odin has been influenced by other Indo-European and even Christian motifs of the Sky father. The God of the Germanic peoples isn’t and will never be “Yahweh / Jehovah”.
Yahweh (and even Allah) worship was absorbed into Indo-European faiths such as Greco-Roman concepts and Dacian / Thracian ones. He was given the veneer of Ahura Mazda from Persian interactions and that of Zeus from Greek ones. Rome absorbed his worship via the emerging Christian faith into Deus (the Sky father). But this does not mean the King sitting upon the throne in the heavens governing lesser deities and watching over mankind as well as the balance of Order and Chaos is Christian. In fact, the more I have gone to Temples, and Churches, and studied archeology, religious history, and the like throughout the world but particularly here in Europe, the more I see the depiction of Zeus / Jupiter within the Christian depiction of “God” and the more I understand the Germanic conversion to be more than accepting of a “warrior” style white Christ and his Father but an amalgamation of Baldr or Thor and the Father Odin.
Many Europeans throughout history spout “God sayeth this” or “God wills that” or have standards of understanding of morality, heroic deeds, honor, life, sacrifice, and warfare that don’t reflect the Abrahamic teachings at all. Most of their understanding of “God” is from that of Germanic melding the Zeus like Christian God with their own Gaut / Wotan.
People in comparative religious studies may make educated statements about Tyr being the true name of the Sky father or just another title of God. Or Odin being some King from Asia / Turkland making him just a “man” (both due to influences from Scythian faith and Tengriism and genetically / migration wise are accurate but not metaphysically / spiritually so). Or those of the Indo-European studies insisting that he is, in fact, Indra and therefore beneath the Godhead or Narayana / Krishna. All of these are either euhemerism, confusion from Hard Polytheists, or possibly agenda-driven conversion tactics.
In the end, the Germanic word for the Sky father is *ǥuđán / ǥuđánaz God / guð / Gott / Gaut and Wōdanaz. When Christians say “God”, they aren’t uttering the name, Yahweh. Regardless of accepting Christianity or continuing Paganism, the Germanic understanding of the Sky Father is God no the Henotheistic Yahweh. Just like the Greco-Roman understanding is that of Zeus / Dyḗus. Both are grounded in Indo-European understandings.
Comparative points in regards to Yahweh.
1. Yahweh is Henotheistic and was possibly the son of El (Canaanite / Phoenician region Sky father) who was comparative to Anu or Enki in the Sumerian context. His worship was only by a small tribe originally and never denied the existence of other gods. Had a rival relationship with the worship of Ba’al who was the “Lord” and main son of El. The Hebrews worshipped Yahweh but often borrowed a lot of concepts from that of their rival. Ba’al had a Bull / Ram as his symbol.
“At first the name Baal was used by the Jews for their God without discrimination, but as the struggle between the two religions developed, the name Baal was given up by the Israelites as a thing of shame, and even names like Jerubbaal were changed to Jerubbosheth: Hebrew bosheth means "shame" “ (1).
Yahweh had very little “imagery” about him. It seems he was given form after Persia freed the Hebrew people from the Babylonian rule and allowed coins to be minted depicting Yahweh on a wing wheeled sun-throne to which bird imagery was applied (2). Very similar to Ahura Mazda and other Supreme Gods of the time in Eurasia.
The following is a bit of a personal rant with a mixture of academic study on Odinic understanding of God versus Yahweh.
The Germanic (Norse, Saxon, Frankish, Proto-Germanic, etc) King of Gods and supreme deity is Odin.
Be this as Wotan, Woden, Wōdanaz, Gaut (God / Gott), or the many different names that are found within the Scandinavian epithets.
While the representation of Odin has been influenced by other Indo-European and even Christian motifs of the Sky father. The God of the Germanic peoples isn’t and will never be “Yahweh / Jehovah”.
Yahweh (and even Allah) worship was absorbed into Indo-European faiths such as Greco-Roman concepts and Dacian / Thracian ones. He was given the veneer of Ahura Mazda from Persian interactions and that of Zeus from Greek ones. Rome absorbed his worship via the emerging Christian faith into Deus (the Sky father). But this does not mean the King sitting upon the throne in the heavens governing lesser deities and watching over mankind as well as the balance of Order and Chaos is Christian. In fact, the more I have gone to Temples, and Churches, and studied archeology, religious history, and the like throughout the world but particularly here in Europe, the more I see the depiction of Zeus / Jupiter within the Christian depiction of “God” and the more I understand the Germanic conversion to be more than accepting of a “warrior” style white Christ and his Father but an amalgamation of Baldr or Thor and the Father Odin.
Many Europeans throughout history spout “God sayeth this” or “God wills that” or have standards of understanding of morality, heroic deeds, honor, life, sacrifice, and warfare that don’t reflect the Abrahamic teachings at all. Most of their understanding of “God” is from that of Germanic melding the Zeus like Christian God with their own Gaut / Wotan.
People in comparative religious studies may make educated statements about Tyr being the true name of the Sky father or just another title of God. Or Odin being some King from Asia / Turkland making him just a “man” (both due to influences from Scythian faith and Tengriism and genetically / migration wise are accurate but not metaphysically / spiritually so). Or those of the Indo-European studies insisting that he is, in fact, Indra and therefore beneath the Godhead or Narayana / Krishna. All of these are either euhemerism, confusion from Hard Polytheists, or possibly agenda-driven conversion tactics.
In the end, the Germanic word for the Sky father is *ǥuđán / ǥuđánaz God / guð / Gott / Gaut and Wōdanaz. When Christians say “God”, they aren’t uttering the name, Yahweh. Regardless of accepting Christianity or continuing Paganism, the Germanic understanding of the Sky Father is God no the Henotheistic Yahweh. Just like the Greco-Roman understanding is that of Zeus / Dyḗus. Both are grounded in Indo-European understandings.
Comparative points in regards to Yahweh.
1. Yahweh is Henotheistic and was possibly the son of El (Canaanite / Phoenician region Sky father) who was comparative to Anu or Enki in the Sumerian context. His worship was only by a small tribe originally and never denied the existence of other gods. Had a rival relationship with the worship of Ba’al who was the “Lord” and main son of El. The Hebrews worshipped Yahweh but often borrowed a lot of concepts from that of their rival. Ba’al had a Bull / Ram as his symbol.
“At first the name Baal was used by the Jews for their God without discrimination, but as the struggle between the two religions developed, the name Baal was given up by the Israelites as a thing of shame, and even names like Jerubbaal were changed to Jerubbosheth: Hebrew bosheth means "shame" “ (1).
Yahweh had very little “imagery” about him. It seems he was given form after Persia freed the Hebrew people from the Babylonian rule and allowed coins to be minted depicting Yahweh on a wing wheeled sun-throne to which bird imagery was applied (2). Very similar to Ahura Mazda and other Supreme Gods of the time in Eurasia.