Extract from The Gods, All of them (Religion)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Tuesday, December 07, 2010, 16:54 (5100 days ago) @ David Turell

That the Israelites emerged out of the Canaanite nations prior to the first book of the Torah being written, is not conjecture. All archaeological evidence supports that. You were quick enough to say that early Christians modified the Torah to their ends, yet you don't even admit the probability that the Torah came into existence in the same way? Lets look at the facts.-
2150-1950 BCE Abram Departed Mesopotamia. 
1800-1200 BCE (Date uncertain) The Israelites went into Egypt to escape a famine and were enslaved most likely in the 18th-14th century BC.
Around 1200 BCE Israelites left Egypt heading back to Canaan, after approx. 2-6 centuries there.
1200-1000 BCE Started settling into Canaan and fighting with the Canaanites.-
Now, after spending between 2-6 centuries with the Egyptians, you would claim that the use of the Staff and snake, the well documented symbol of hermetic lore in Egypt, was of pure Israelite construction? Or perhaps even the word for god, Elohim was orgininal? Sadly not.-Extract on Canaanite Mythology
>According to the pantheon, known in Ugarit as 'ilhm (=Elohim) or the children of El (cf. the Biblical "sons of God"), supposedly obtained by Philo of Byblos from Sanchuniathon of Berythus (Beirut) the creator was known as Elion (Biblical El Elyon = God most High), who was the father of the divinities, and in the Greek sources he was married to Beruth (Beirut = the city). This marriage of the divinity with the city would seem to have Biblical parallels too with the stories of the link between Melkart and Tyre; Yahweh and Jerusalem; Chemosh and Moab; Tanit and Baal Hammon in Carthage. El Elyon is mentioned as 'God Most High' occurs in Genesis 14.18...19 as the God whose priest was Melchizedek king of Salem.-So here, there is a direct usage of Canaanite mythology written into the Torah, in Gen 14:18-19. Bear in mind that all of this exposure to these other cultures happened PRIOR to the first word in the Torah ever being penned. Then we look at the OT and we see all these legacy images of esoteric and religious teachings from other cultures and you still think that the Torah is an original?