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Who was first called " GOD": on tge etymology of GOD

Dan Hopkins

New Member
Reverend Henry Scadding:
“The same writer [Max Muller] says, ‘God was most likely an old heathen name of the Deity.’ Now we are acquainted with the old heathen names of the Deity among the northern peoples who make use of this word; and the nearest to it of these names is that of the Lombard and Westphalia Guodan. In the Germanic languages, the name appears in such forms as to show either that the initial g is not an essential part of the root, or that it marks the original presence of a letter similar to the Hebrew letter which might be retained as a broad vowel, a simple breathing, or a guttural. I hold to the latter opinion, and find the rendering by the broad vowel in Odin, Oden of the Scandinavian
connects Gwydion, son of Don, of the Welsh mythology, with Odin, making them the same person. It is hard to distinguish this personage from Aeddon, who is Buddwas, and who came from the region of Gwydion. Aeddon presents us with the same form of the root as Odin, while Gwydion is guttural, like Guodan. The prefix of the Coptic article to the vowel form would give some such word as Bodan or Boudan; but, with the aspirate, it would make the Maesogothic Vodans and the old Saxon Wuodan or Wodan, which the old High German, strictly in accordance with Grimm’s law, changes to Woutan. Then the final n, which so far has appeared in every form of our word, is an essential part of it. The Frisian Weda drops it, and it is wanting in the Welsh Aedd, in which we see the Danish Gud and the German Gott. Now this is the same as the Choda of the Persian, a language that has many remarkable points of resemblance to the Germanic tongues. The same word is found in the Sanskrit, and survives in the Hindustani Khuda. But the names of Buddha, which are by no means well understood, are simply names for God with the termination restored, not as n, but as m. These are Codam, Godama, or Gautama; and give us back again the Gotan and Goutan of the Teutonic dialects. A link of great importance is furnished by a name of Woden, Wegtam, the Wanderer, which preserves the initial g along with the softened form of the Coptic article, and gives the termination of Gautama. Buddha, different as it appears in every respect from the word with which it is often ignorantly joined, is in reality the same, having doubtless come into the Sanskrit through some other channel then that by which Gautama entered. In it, we find the final liquid wanting, the German w, in plain disregard for Grimm’s law, changed to b, and the Frisian Weda reproduced. In confirmation of this I may refer to the case of identity already established between the Germanic wot or wout and the Sanskrit budh, to perceive or know, of which the Welsh form is by no accidental coincidence gwyddoni. Thus in Buddha, Wotan and Gwydion we find not only the supreme god of the northern families of the Aryan stock, but also the symbol of knowledge among those different peoples.”
Others, such as Professor George Faber, suggested even a broader spread of the Buddha’s name and suggests that the Cuthites were Buddhists who returned home with the Jews after their
Babylonian exile;
“In short, Cadmus, [also known as Etam] or Buddha was venerated from the extremity of Siam to the remote western isle of Ireland; for the Codom of Pegu, the Gautam of Ceylon, the Cadam of Phoenicia and Egypt, the Cadmus and Cadmilus of Boetia and Samothrace, and the Chadmel of the ancient Irish, were all one and the same character. I might mention various other places, where Cadmus was thought to have come in the course of his wanderings, such as Rhodes, Thera, Thasus, Eubea, Sparta, Attica, Lesbos, and Ionia: but I must not neglect to observe, that, while some bring him from Egypt or Phoenicia; others, preserving genuine tradition with greater accuracy, represent him as coming from Babylonia, the region whence also in their progress westward, the Phoenicians or Pali migrated into Palestine. This was the seat of the first empire of the Chasas or Cuthites under Nimrod, the centre whence the two primeval superstitions branched off in every direction. Here the worship of Cadam or Buddha commenced: and, in each country where they afterwards settled, the enterprising Shepherds of the Scuthic stock were always peculiarly devoted to it.”
The Historian Godfrey Higgins agreed with the previous, and added;

“But we must remember that the British Taranis, and the Gothic Woden, were both names of Buddha. In my Celtic Druids I have shown that the worship of Buddha is everywhere to be found— in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Hu, the great God of the Welsh, is called Buddwas; and they call their God Budd, the God of victory, the king who rises in light and ascends the sky.”—Before Jesus claimed to be “the light” and to return to the sky, the Buddhists record that the Buddha is a being of light that can fly through the air.
Others claim that the Buddha was a god to Greeks and Egyptians, among others:
“There was a Butus, or Buto of Egypt, a Battus of Cyrene, and a Boeotus of Greece”—James Mill, History of British India
Herodotus says that Battus received that name, or title, only after he became king of Cyrene. Cyrene is said to be the name of a mystical mountain consecrated by Apollo but appears to be a rendering of Cyrus-yan; the Greek form of the Sanskrit –yan is –ean.
In his book, The Origin of Pagan Idolatry Ascertained from Historical Testimony, the historian George Faber shows how the Goths came from a territory laced with Buddhism:
“Agreeably to the usual practice of calling the priests after names of their divinities, as the ministers of Saman or Maga were in Persia and Bactria generally denominated Samaeans or Magas; so the head of the hierarchy, as the immediate representative of the great father who was ever esteemed the immediate representative of the great father who was ever esteemed the primeval Maga or Druid, assumed the loftier title of Eas-Bad or Mu-Bad, which denotes the chief or the great Buddha. From the same elevated region of Cashgar and Bokhara [Bactria] and northern Persia, which coincides with the tract denominated by classical writers the Indian Caucasus, a large colony of those, whom the Hindus call Sacas or Sacasenas [Saxons] and Shusas or Cushas, gradually penetrated into Europe, where their descendants have been known in more modern times by the names of Saxons and Goths. These are the progeny of those warlike oriental tribes; which, in the course of their westward progress from upper India, the Greeks celebrated under the appellation of Saca and Scuths, and which in due time were destined to subvert the Roman empire and to found a republic of independent states upon its ruins. As the Goths and Saxons then emigrated from the Indian Caucasus, and as the Scaldic tradtions of their descendants positively declare the worship of their god Woden to have been brought into Europe by a colony of Asians, it seems impossible not to conclude, that Woden was the identical divinity, whom their ancestors had venerated while yet occupying their original settlements in the east. But that divinity was certainly Buddha: for Buddha has ever been the god of the Chusas of mount Meru.”

“Who would leave the softer abodes of Asia for Germany, where nature yields nothing but deformity?”—Tacitus of the Goths
 

OtherSheep

<--@ Titangel
[...]
In my Celtic Druids I have shown that the worship of Buddha is everywhere to be found

Your post never mentions the oak... which is Druid in Greek... odd, that.

Much that remains a mystery, regarding the history of the Celts--including that of Briton itself--can only be understood by the Greek language. It's not for nothing that Caesar noticed that the Druids used the Greek letters. And those Greek letters came from what Herodotus called Pelasgian letters... aka, the original Greek... and back in the day, Cretans and much of Asia Minor spoke the same language and worshipped the Oak-God Zeus.

Zeus, Jupiter and the Oak, by Arthur Bernard Cook
The Classical Review, volumes 17 & 18, in 6 parts
p.174-186, 268-278, 403-421
The Classical review : Classical Association (Great Britain) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
(Continued) p.75-89, 325-328, 360-375
The Classical review : Classical Association (Great Britain) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

The European Sky-God, by Arthur Bernard Cook
Folklore: volumes 15, 16, 17, 18, in 8 parts
The Greeks, Italians, and Celts
Folklore : Folklore Society (Great Britain) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Folklore : Folklore Society (Great Britain) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Folklore : Folklore Society (Great Britain) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Folklore : Folklore Society (Great Britain) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Zeus, God of the Bright Sky, by Arthur Bernard Cook
Zeus : a study in ancient religion : Cook, Arthur Bernard, 1868-1952 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Arthur Bernard Cook does a good job of proving his point....
You cannot strip the Druids and Celts away from their oak, or understand the Greeks and Romans or Celts and Druids apart from the Oak-God Zeus.
And it is very possible that the Pelasgians of Crete, Troy, Delphi, Dodona, Thessaly, Phrygia, and Thrace became the Pelasgians of Italy and... were the tall dark-haired and dark-eyed Britons in Wales and Cornwall. The same thick metal ring was worn around the waist of the priest-king of Crete as was worn around the waist of the Celts, according to Whitaker (of Manchester's History). Such an odity has seemingly gone unnoticed by the "scholars". Not to mention the tattooing of the Pelasgian Thracians... and the supposed blue-dye of the Celts.

And the Hurrians spoke a language akin to Ugarit and Urartu--the former of the two used to be called, straight up, a Greek language. Which makes sense, when we see the same Oak-God Zeus being worshipped by the Hittites and at Pontus, too.

And farther back, we see that the Greeks called Zeus-Belus what the Sumerians called Bel-Marduk. ... and the cuniform script spreads from Ur to Ugarit. Keep in mind that the Semetic Akkadians only borrowed the Sumerian script when they invaded Babylon from the south.
The creation-story of Genesis I. A Sumerian theogony and cosmogony, : Radau, Hugo, b. 1873 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

This unbroken line of connections seems to go on and on...
 
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OtherSheep

<--@ Titangel
Your post never mentions the oak... which is Druid in Greek... odd, that.

Much that remains a mystery, regarding the history of the Celts--including that of Briton itself--can only be understood by the Greek language. It's not for nothing that Caesar noticed that the Druids used the Greek letters. And those Greek letters came from what Herodotus called Pelasgian letters... aka, the original Greek... and back in the day, Cretans and much of Asia Minor spoke the same language and worshipped the Oak-God Zeus.

Zeus, Jupiter and the Oak, by Arthur Bernard Cook
The Classical Review, volumes 17 & 18, in 6 parts
p.174-186, 268-278, 403-421
The Classical review : Classical Association (Great Britain) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Arthur Bernard Cook does a good job of proving his point.... [up to a point]
You cannot strip the Druids and Celts away from their oak, or understand the Greeks or Celts and Druids apart from the Oak-God Zeus. In fact, "Britain" the name might be thereby explained.
And it is very possible that the Pelasgians of Crete, Troy, Delphi, Dodona, Thessaly, Phrygia, and Thrace became the Pelasgians of Italy and... were the tall dark-haired and dark-eyed Britons in Wales and Cornwall. The same thick metal ring was worn around the waist of the priest-king of Crete as was worn around the waist of the Celts, according to Whitaker (of Manchester's History). Such an odity has seemingly gone unnoticed by the "scholars". Not to mention the tattooing of the Pelasgian Thracians... and the supposed blue-dye of the Celts.

And the Hurrians spoke a language akin to Ugarit and Urartu--the former of the two used to be called, straight up, a Greek language. Which makes sense, when we see the same Oak-God Zeus being worshipped by the Hittites and at Pontus, too.

And farther back, we see that the Greeks called Zeus-Belus what the Sumerians called Bel-Marduk. ... and the cuniform script spreads from Ur to Ugarit. Keep in mind that the Semetic Akkadians only borrowed the Sumerian script when they invaded Babylon from the south.
The creation-story of Genesis I. A Sumerian theogony and cosmogony, : Radau, Hugo, b. 1873 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

This unbroken line of connections seems to go on and on...

What Cook did early on, was quote a bunch of people and bring these thoughts together. But he forgets that the Pelasgians were the only ones allowed to cut down the oak, and even forget that the oak was the mandated tree... sort of like the tree of life isn't like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So when he sees Apollo show up to replace Hades in the triune god, he thinks nothing of it. And when Rome dismisses both the sea god and earth god, but substitutes Jupiter and Lucifera... he never blinks an eye. So that when he finally gets to the place where he pretends to discuss the Celts... he begins by offering up the tired old rag of the cult of Dana as the Tuatha de Danaan... and misses entirely the blonde-blood of the Belgae flooding into Britain and Ireland. But the Belgae are said to speak the language of England: West Friesian.

Therefore, I've had to modify the above post, cutting out that which I cannot at all support.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"As to the attire &c. of the Britons, Whitaker says their hair, generally yellow, and always long and bushy, was turned back upon the crown of the head, and fell down in a long wreath behind. The beard [or rather moustache] was long, but entirely confined to the upper lip. They appeared naked in battle, painting their bodies for the fight, and wearing a ring round the middle."
--John Whitaker, British Manchester

Collectanea relating to Manchester and its neighbourhood, at various periods : Harland, John, 1806-1868 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

The following is an indication of their size: I myself, in Rome, saw mere lads towering as much as half a foot above the tallest people in the city, although they were bandy-legged and presented no fair lines anywhere else in their figure.”
--Strabo

“As is so often the case among barbarians, it is difficult to say whether the men who first dwelt in Britain are indigenous or whether they came thither. We may deduce arguments from the fact that their physical characteristics differ. For the reddish-yellow hair of the inhabitants of Caledonia [Northern Britain or Alba], as well as their sturdy limbs, point to a German origin; the swarthy complexion and curly hair of the Silures [from South West Britain], together with their position opposite Gaul, make us believe that the Iberians in ancient times crossed over and seized these territories. Those who are nearest to the Gauls resemble them, whether from the persistence of heredity, or whether, since the lands stretch out opposite each other, the climate has given the same character to the individuals.”
--Tacitus

"There is a land called Crete in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair land and a rich, begirt with water, and therein are many men innumerable, and ninety cities. And all have not the same speech, but there is confusion of tongues: there dwell Acheans and there too Cretans of Crete, high of heart, and Cydonians there and Dorians of waving plumes and goodly Pelasgians…"
--The Illiad, quoted by Ridgeway, The Early Age of Greece, vol. 1.
["Dorians of waving plumes" seem to be the Peleset, shown on the Phaestos Disk ;)]

The early age of Greece : Ridgeway, William, Sir, 1853-1926 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
 
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OtherSheep

<--@ Titangel

What Cook did early on
, was quote a bunch of people and bring these thoughts together. But he forgets that the Pelasgians were the only ones allowed to cut down the oak, and even forget that the oak was the mandated tree... sort of like the tree of life isn't like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So when he sees Apollo show up to replace Hades in the triune god, he thinks nothing of it. And when Rome dismisses both the sea god and earth god, but substitutes Jupiter and Lucifera... he never blinks an eye. So that when he finally gets to the place where he pretends to discuss the Celts... he begins by offering up the tired old rag of the cult of Danu as the Tuatha de Danaan.

However, Robert Graves makes the tired old rag, which nobody ever seems to define, become brand new [to me]. And then there's this:

"There are certain persons in Cambria, whom you will find nowhere else, called Awenyddion, … These prophets are found only among those Britons who are descended from the Trojans."
--Giraldus Cambrensis, Description of Wales

"But that the Awenyddion were descended from the Trojans is an important statement of Gerald's; he means that they inherited their traditions not from the Cymry but from the earlier inhabitants of Wales whom the Cymry dispossessed."
--Graves, White Goddess

IMHO, this means the point I've been following for a while now: that the Britons came from Troy and thereabouts, and that the Cymry are possibly the Belgae. Doing what many colonists have done, Britons carried their history with them from the old country... and the newcomers have appropriated that history along with the lands they conquested... in time, believing that history to be their own.
And Rome helped, by burning the history of the Britons, and murdering their priests. When the Cymry came, they became the new druids... with of course, a new religiosity, because, as Giraldus says, it wasn't given to them to be the Awenyddion, not having been Trojans by birth. In the same way that the Dorians [whom Graves says came from distant lands] were not given the artistic talents of the Pelasgians, and made crude pots and pictures in their place. Since these same Pelasgians came from Crete and Greece and Troy, they carried their history and gifts with them.

Each family of mankind have their own strengths and their own crosses to bear. Borrowing that of others won't fool anyone, forever. There is no truth that will not be revealed.
 
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