Hello. I know r/AcademicBiblical may be more apt, however the sub is frequently quiet and I am hoping that experts from other fields, anthropologists and scholars of religion etc, may be able to help here.
I am interested in the origins of monotheism and specifically the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. I've read 'the basics' (Karen Armstrong's A History of God and Richard E. Friedman's Who Wrote the Bible?) and Friedman's The Bible with Sources Reveled is in the mail as I type. However, before it arrives, I would like to get a simple low-down on what the mainstream, respected scholarly consensus or position is on the origins of worship of what is now known as the Abrahamic God. I know there were controversies over the whole 'El' issue and its origins in the Canaanite pantheon and where the Names of God in Israelite religion actually originated.
I am aware of and have great respect for the Documentary Hypothesis and its modern developments but as a layperson I find a lot of it confusing at times. How much of the biblical narrative is the result of political disputes between the priesthoods? Were the attempts to explain the 'El' issue just post-hoc explanations or is there anything genuine in them?
Please don't hold back on this, you won't be undermining anyone's faith or risking any treasured positions. I am concerned with ascertaining the truth or the closest thing that we have to it; no crackpot "IT'S ALL LIEZ!" or "100% ALL TRUE!" positions appeal to me. If you have anything to contribute then I greatly appreciate it.
Thank you kindly
Well, I mean, Karen Armstrong isn't really the expert I'd turn to for an actual good history of Israelite religion. She failed her dissertation and doesn't actually have a degree in the field.
You'll really want to look at Mark S. Smith's The Early History of God, as that will give you a really good intro into Israelite Religion. I can lay out some basics here, however. Furthermore, Friedman's work is decent (The Bible with Sources Revealed is really only a copy of the Pentateuch with colored fonts telling you which sources he thinks wrote which selections of text), but there's been a lot done since Friedman published both works you mentioned in the field of Pentateuchal source criticism. (Although, I should say, that the Europeans tend to hold some pretty odd positions regarding source crit and the Pentateuch and Deuteronomistic History). Anyways...
Basically, your average, garden variety ancient Israelite was a polytheist. (Take a little jaunt through 2 Kings 3, where the Moabite king sacrifices his son on the wall of the city to Chemosh. There is a great anger that is roused against Israel because of this--presumably, they thought that Chemosh had been angered, they saw power in that, and they turned tail and fled.) Monotheism did not obtain for quite some time--and it really didn't flourish (textually) until the work of the Deuteronomistic Historians (various theories here--Dtn [Deuteronomy], Dtr1, Dtr2, DtrG/DtrH, DtrP, DtrN, Prophetic Record, History of David's Rise (1 and 2)...the list of various Deuteronomistic sources goes on and on and on). Deuteronomy really lays the groundwork for monotheism. But, if you look carefully throughout the biblical text you can track it. From my own notes:
• Origins of Monotheism:
o The biblical position does not support the idea that “good Israelites” were all monotheists
o Gen. 6:1-4
• Often not considered to be a part of J, E, D, or P
• The Nephilim
• Refers to the sons of God and the daughters of men having conjugal relationships
• “Sons of [the] God[s]”
• One of the primary facets of interpretation is discerning who these guys were
Sometimes called Sethites
Possibly ANE rulers/potentates
• Job 38:6-7--morning star and divine host
Part of the whirlwind speeches
o Were they angels?
• Fundamental problem with assumption that they were angels is that the word mala'k (מלאך) does not appear here
• Enoch understands them to be angels
• Other materials from Qumran consider them to be angels
• Some strains of the LXX have αγγελος
• NOT a convincing proposal
o Sethites?
• There is no reason to believe that they were Sethites – Seth doesn’t appear here and the Sethites (and ANE rulers) were not present before creation (like the bne ha-elohim were – see Job 38)
o These had to be the lesser gods
• Oftentimes, because this is the Bible, we assume that this can’t be the case because people are unwilling to believe that the ancient Israelites were polytheists
o In Akkadian “the sons of the gods” means “lesser gods” or “junior gods/goddesses”
• At Ugarit and Phoenician as well
• The sane conclusion is that it means the same thing that it means in ALL of the other Semitic literature
• All ancient Israelites were polytheists
o Ex 20:1-3
• “You shall have no other gods before me.”
• The text says, “I am YHWH your God.”
• This is blatantly polytheistic
• This phenomenon can be called Henotheism
“There are many deities in the world, but I am to worship just one of them.”
o Deut. 32:8-9
• Starts out by saying Elyon divided the nations up according to the number of the sons of [Israel – MT] and Yahweh’s portion was Jacob/Israel
• DSS and vorlage (Hebrew text lying before the copyist) of LXX says “sons of gods” – 4QDeut^q
This DSS is more than 1,000 years older than the MT
• Basically this text is saying that Elyon, the head of the pantheon, divided up the world amongst the jr. gods and goddesses, and YHWH got a portion – namely, Israel/Jacob
• And this is what the ancient Israelites believed
o Yahweh got a promotion – Job 1-2
• The bne ha-elohim are there, but YHWH is at the head of the pantheon
BUT THERE IS STILL A PANTHEON
o Kuntillet ‘Ajrud (ca. 800 BCE, Albright dating) and Khirbet (Arabic for “ruins”) el-Qom (mid to late 8th Cent BCE)
• Yahweh and his Asherah
o Late 7th and early 6th century
• Jer 10
• Is 44
• Ezekiel
• Monotheism is now the norm
o Polytheism/Henotheism, YHWH is a jr. god (Gen 6:1-4 and Deut 32:8-9) → YHWH gets a promotion to the head of the pantheon (see Job 1-2) →Monotheism by late 7th/early 6th century
Summary:
o Stage 1
• Polytheism w/YHWH NOT as head of pantheon
• Gen 6:1-4; Deut. 32:8-9
• YHWH understood to be the patron deity of Israel
o Stage 2
• Polytheism w/YHWH as head of pantheon
• Job 1-2 (hassatan is there as well); Ps. 29, 89
• Kuntillet Ajrud and Khirbet el-Qom
YHWH and his Asherah
YHWH acquisition of an Asherah is possibly signifying his coming to the head of the pantheon
o Stage 3
• The move to monotheism
• Jer 10 (late 7th Cent, into the Exile), Isa 44 (Second Isaiah, exilic), Ezekiel (does not use the word elohim of any deity except YHWH, he uses gelulim)
o Syncretism
• Ezekiel – “weeping for Tamuz,” an element from Babylonian religion
• Because Asherah is attested for in the levant, Rollston suggests that she is not a syncretism
o Israelite religion
• It was not static, but dynamic
• This is the way religions always are
• Examples: Things that used to be ok that were later anathematized
Worship at high places and standing stones
Depiction of YHWH with bovine imagery
o World’s first monotheist
• Akenaten (ca. 1300 BCE), Late Bronze Age Egypt
• Very ephemeral
• Satan
o Appears in Job, Zechariah, and Chronicles (Chr does not have the article)
o When it appears with the article it is most likely NOT a name, you don’t append the article to a name.
• This is a title, “accuser/opponent”
o Job 1-2
• Satan is looking for someone to “accuse,” is Job REALLY righteous
• This is actually not that impugnable
• Exilic
o Zechariah 3
• Ca. 520-518 – encouraging people to rebuild the temple
• Hasatan’s major gripe in this context is that Joshua was not qualified/holy enough to be the high priest
• Post exilic
o His goal in both of these contexts is to make sure that both Job and Joshua are righteous/holy → QUALITY CONTROL
o 1 Chron 21 comp. with 2 Sam 24
• This Samuel text is pre-exilic
• Chronicles was late 4th, maybe early 3rd century BCE
• Lucifer
o Isa 14:12 – the day star, referring to the king of Babylon
o Says that the king of Babylon is going to fall
o This text has nothing to do with Satan
o The word used to translate “Son of Dawn/Day Star” is actually the Latin word(s)
• Lux feros
• Lucifer
• “Light bearer”
o Very similar terminology is used of Satan in Rev. 12-13 and this is why the jump was made to say that “Lucifer” is a personal name of Satan
• Angels
o From Greek
o “Messenger”
o The term is so laden with baggage that it is relatively difficult to use
o Often used of a celestial figure, having the appearance of a human being
o In the HB and in the Greek NT, an “angel” looks just like a person
o Normally understood to be men (Gabriel, Michael, Raphael)
o Stereotypes come from biblical descriptions of Cherubs and Seraphs
• 1 Kgs 6 – description of cherubs
• Isa 6 - seraphs
• Ezek 1 – cherubs
• People have conflated these descriptions onto other heavenly messengers → see Acts 7 – Jesus ascends w/out wings… boom pow surprise
o Cherubs – wings, body of a lion, feet of a horse
• Basically a composite animal
• Guardians of sacred places
• Human, bovine, fowl features
o Messengers (like Hermes) were essentially considered gods in the pantheon
o The rise of monotheism eradicates the messenger gods – demythologizes them
o People often respond to seeing the messenger of YHWH by saying that they were going to die (Judges 13 – Menoah)
• Interestingly, the woman (Menoah’s wife) is twice over the recipient of the message
• Menoah has to go out and find the messenger, the messenger does not come to him
• Menoah’s wife is the voice of wisdom and reason in this narrative
An area that I am interested in (as a hobbyist) is the origin story of Yahweh and Yahweh worship that precedes, and leads to, the Torah. If you are interested some references on the growth of monotheistic Yahwehism from a historical polytheistic foundation of holy scripture to the development of the henotheism and then monotheism of early Biblical Israelites:
[The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel](http://www.amazon.com/The-Early-History-God-Biblical/dp/080283972X) by Mark Smith
[The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts](http://www.amazon.com/The-Origins-Biblical-Monotheism-Polytheistic/dp/0195167686/ref=la_B001H6IMK6_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1339523114&sr=1-2) by Mark S. Smith
[A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam](http://www.amazon.com/History-God-000-Year-Judaism-Christianity/dp/0345384563/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339523372&sr=1-1) by Karen Armstrong
[The Religion of Ancient Israel](http://www.amazon.com/The-Religion-Ancient-Israel-Library/dp/066423237X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339523840&sr=1-1) (Library of Ancient Israel) by Patrick D. Miller
[Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches](http://www.amazon.com/Religions-Ancient-Israel-Parallactic-Approaches/dp/0826463398/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339523840&sr=1-2) by Ziony Zevit
While limited to starting with the Hebrew Bible as a basis, and not addressing much pre-Torah scripture related to Yahweh, the following takes a look at:
While a College Senior Thesis (and the perception therefore of a less credible scholarly/appeal to authority level), the following is a good source of other reference material:
Some of the on-line summaries/arguments which related to the above argument/position are: