Loading...Monotheists. The first thing to stress in considering the Christian doctrine of the Trinity is that even though the orthodox view (that is, the one that got declared “right”; “Orthodoxy” literally means “right opinion”) claimed there were three persons in the godhead, there was only one God. That is, Christians insisted they were monotheists. No doubt they did so because they quite consciously came out of the Jewish tradition and wanted to retain its monotheistic emphasis. But that in itself needs to be thought about for a minute.
Were Ancient Israelites Actually Monotheists? This is Debatable
Just about everyone thinks that Jews are and always have been strictly monotheistic. As it turns out, the matter is hotly debated and not all that simple. There are indeed passages in the Hebrew Bible that stress there is only one God. Most importantly in some parts of Isaiah, especially the parts called “Second Isaiah” (chapters 40-55) they are called this because this part of the book was not written by “Isaiah of Jerusalem” the prophet of the 8th c. BCE, but by a later author with many of the same concerns and interests but living later, in the 6th c. BCE, (after the Babylonians had wiped out Judea and taken its leaders and many of its people into exile). Read ch. 40, and you’ll see that the author is addressing a group of Judeans who are desperate to return to their homeland.
One of the emphases of 2 Isaiah is that the God of Israel is in fact the only God. And so God declares through the prophet: “I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me, there is no god” (Isa 45:5). In this verse, the term LORD (all caps) is how English translators render the personal name of the God of Israel, Yahweh (represented in Hebrew by the “four letters,” i.e., the tetragrammaton: YHWH). He is the only God there is. Monotheism. Or as he says a few verses later, “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God and there is no other” (45:22).
For later Christians, this becomes an important passage, because …
It’s the thing that comes next that’s a bit odd, possibly unexpected, and certainly hard to explain. Wanna see what it is? If you’re a blog member, you can. If you’re not a blog member, why not join?
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…the next thing he says is that “To me” (that is, to YHWH, the only God), “To me, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” (Isa 45:23). Why does that matter for early Christians? Because in the New Testament the apostle Paul says that because of Christ’s resurrection and exaltation to heaven, in the end, it is at “the name of Jesus” that “every knee shall bow” and “every tongue confess” (Phil. 2:6-11). Whoa. If it is only to Yahweh this will happen, the God of Israel, but Paul says it will happen to Jesus, uh, what does that mean? Welcome to Christology! We’ll get to that later.
Most of the Hebrew Bible isn’t Written from a Monotheistic View
But here’s another thing. Even though 2 Isaiah affirms the monotheists view, MOST of the Hebrew Bible does not. In fact, most of the Bible assumes there are indeed other gods in the world. According to various authors of the Bible, the big problem the people of Israel have, over and over again, is that they sometimes worship these *other* gods instead of or alongside Yahweh.
He doesn’t like that. So he punishes them. Most (in)famously Israelites are constantly tempted to worship the god Baal – a Canaanite deity; but there are others, including “Molech” (see 2 Kings 23:10) who apparently (or allegedly) was worshiped by child sacrifice in the “valley of the Son of Hinnom,” that is, “Gehenna.” Yikes. God especially didn’t like that one….
Now you might be tempted to think that just because Israelites would worship other gods, it doesn’t mean these gods really existed. Well, right. I myself do not think Molech or Baal exists or ever did exist. But my point is that many Israelites thought so. So they weren’t monotheists.
Were Hebrews Monotheistic? There’s Evidence They Weren’t
There’s very solid evidence, in fact, that ancient Israel for many centuries did not even claim to be a monotheist. Israelites regularly acknowledged there were indeed other gods in the world. Their religion did not deny the existence of these other superhuman beings. It claimed Israelites were not supposed to worship them. Yahweh was the ONLY God to be worshiped. But that didn’t mean he was the only God. He was the only God FOR THE ISRAELITES.
There’s lots of evidence for that, but probably the favorite passage for most people wanting to argue the point is a rather important one for other reasons as well, the Ten Commandments (Exod. 20:2-17). Different religious bodies/denominations today enumerate the Ten Commandments differently: Jews, Catholics, and Protestants all have ten of them, but they are numbered differently.
The 10 Commandments
They are technically called “the Decalogue,” which means “the Ten Words” (rather than the Ten Commandments); in Jewish reckoning, the first of those words is not a commandment but a statement of fact meant to ground and justify the commands that follow: “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”
The second commandment in Jewish reckoning is the first in most of the Protestant churches and in the Orthodox tradition (the two are put together with the Protestant second commandment in the Catholic and Lutheran traditions) (just to keep all of us confused): “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20:3).
Notice how it is worded. The commandment is NOT “You shall not believe or even think for a second that there is another god besides me.” It is that YHWH, the God who saved his people from their slavery in Egypt (a few chapters earlier), under Moses, at the parting of the sea, is the TOP god in the pantheon. No other should have any precedent. That later came to be interpreted as meaning that no other god was to be worshiped *at all*, besides YAHWEH. Later, then, it became that there *is* no other God but Yahweh. But you don’t get much of that kind of strict monotheism until late in the biblical tradition, as in Second Isaiah.
Thus the view found most widely throughout the OT tradition is that there are other gods, but they are not to be worshiped, either instead of or even alongside Yahweh. That is not monotheism. It is known as henotheism. It is not polytheism because it does not worship other gods or even value them; it just acknowledges that other people have, value, and worship them.
Were Hebrews Monotheistic?
BUT. Here’s a big but. Even Jews who later became monotheists recognized other divine beings. Sometimes they called them gods. Sometimes they were good beings. Sometimes they were worshiped. And sometimes good divine beings were humans who had become divine. Even in Judaism. This is weird and unexpected, but I’ll show how it works in posts to come.
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Thank you. I’m sure you know Robert Wright’s book, The Evolution of God. Was a game-changer for me.
Second word of the Torah “Let us…” Plural.
Monotheism isn’t a word you will find in the bible.
God, The Son of God, devils, angels… seems there’s quite a panoply of
spiritual beings.
National gods, or gods of a “people” seem to have been common in ancient days, even gods of cities. So, if you thought that, as a people or tribe, you had a special destiny through the agency of one’s tribal god, then exalting that god above all others would seem to make sense. But even Christians today recognize a divine menagerie, of good and bad angelic beings of varying power. And satan vs god smacks of Zoroastrian influence. So, do you think Jews and later Christians incorporated elements of Zoroastrianism? It just looks like there’s a lot of continuity in the cultural history of deities– no really clean break between Judaism and what might have come earlier, and the same true of Christianity.
Isn’t there a lot of evidence that the histories and the prophets were written by henotheists, but most of the population were actually polytheists? They complain a lot about Israel worshipping other gods.
It’s almost impossible to know what the majority view was; the *authors* at least are strongly henotheist. Whether oi polloi were is anyone’s guess.
“Thus the view found most widely throughout the OT tradition is that there are other gods, but they are not to be worshiped, either instead of or even alongside Yahweh. That is not monotheism. It is known as henotheism.”
Since I hadn’t previously come across the term henotheism, I wondered how it might differ from monolatry. Here’s one explanation I found (in the New World Encyclopedia):
“Monolatrism or monolatry (Greek: μόνος (monos), single, and λατρεία (latreia), worship) is defined as “the recognition of the existence of many gods, but with the consistent worship of only one deity.”[1] In contrast to monotheism, monolatry accepts the existence of other gods; in contrast to henotheism, it regards only one god as worthy of worship.”
Given that ancient Judaism, while acknowledging the existence of other gods, strictly forbade their worship, wouldn’t it be better described as a monolatry rather than henotheism?
My understanding is that monolatry involves worship practices and henotheism involves beliefs. But they come to the same thing, and I guess are two sides of the same coin.
Interesting, thanks. Either way, I learnt a new word 🙂
Given that Israelite religion and its Judaism successor placed more emphasis on practice than belief, I suggest that “monolatry” is the better choice.
Also, the passage in Ex. 20:3 is not so easily translated. “Lfanai” can mean “before Me”, meaning that I am the highest god (as in the council of the gods), so whatever you do or say about other gods, you must put Me first. Or it can mean “besides Me” (Alter’s translation), meaning that, yes, there are other gods, but you must have nothing to do with them.
In any case, I think that the archeological record, and the Biblical prophetic diatribes, show that the early Israelites weren’t even monolatrists but out-and-out polytheists like their neighbors. My theory is that the Yahweh cult centered in Jerusalem waged a centuries-long struggle for supremacy and to get the kings to back them on it.
Hi Bart, do you think their are any contextual differences between “YHWH” and “Elohim” that can lead us to believe that those terms are referring to different entities? Also, I read that there has never been any archeological evidence found in early Israelite settlements that prove any form of monotheism was practiced. How much do you think Jewish monotheism was influenced by Zoroastrianism?
Yes, scholars have long thought that there are contextual differences (e.g., between Genesis 1 and 2) to suggest that originally they were distinct divinities. My view is that monotheism was not affected by Zoroastiranism, which was strongly dualist.
Perhaps that is why Jesus the son of Mary, the Messiah, was sent to preach and revive the laws of Moses. After all he did say that he came to fulfill the Law. ( the law of Monotheism ) the same Law Moses preached and the prophets before him ( Jacob, David, Abraham, Noah ….)
The Quran does reference, that the Jews did attribute and believed that Uzair ( Ezra ) was the son of God. It also references where they actually deified him.
The Jews say, “Ezra is the son of Allah “; and the Christians say, “The Messiah is the son of Allah.” That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved [before them].
Also, there are references in History books… on the topic of Uzair, the angel Metatron and the Bene Elohim ( sons of God ).
It almost wants to point to or give hints/clues to how/who changed/corrupted the NT ( my opinion )… What do you think?
I”m not sure exactly what you’re asking!
Its hard to explain.
I believe you when you say lots of mistakes in the Bible are insignificant. But also believe you when you say that some mistakes were deliberate. The OT is not any different. Who ever was responsible for deliberately changing old texts in the OT are the same as the ones who deliberately changed the NT ( meaning the same group with ulterior motives – border line evil if not evil )
I understand you lean more toward deliberate changes with good intentions, but we have to consider bad intentions and deliberately changing them with Political / economical / religious theological aspirations. Usually powerful people / groups or powerful institutions ( authorities ) can and have done that.
As I mentioned .. its hard to explain.
YEs, I’m sure there were some bad intentions out there. We’re talking about humans here! But I don’t see any evidence of it in these texts. What I see is a bunch of unrelated scribes trying to make the text say what they thought it really meant, so that future readers would not be led astray. We don’t have any evidence of malicious alteration. But I”m sure it must have happened!
I think you should plug your excellent talk for St Luke’s Episcopal Church that just got uploaded on youtube. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYl24xibc2I
Thanks! I will be. It’s in queue for a blog post in a couple of weeks.
Are there archeological evidence of ancient sraelites worshiping not-YAHWEH? Seems like that could be a fruitful vector of investigation. The era is richly studied archeologically, right? But I guess it can be hard to know e.g. if a temple was dedicated to YAHWEH or not-YAHWEH, or if a family altar with non-YAHWEH icons was in the home of YAHWEH-worshiping israelites or in the home of gentiles who happened to live in an israelite city for whatever reason. And I also guess that the questions is sensitive politically and ideologically.
That’s a great question, and I’m not afraid I know. In fact, I don’t know what kind of material evidence would be compelling. IF there was an altar to a different God in Israel, e.g., someone could claim that it was not put there by an Israelite. Still, an interesting question. Maybe someone else on the blog knows.
Would king Jeroboam’s shrines at Bethel and Dan as described in 1-2 Kings count? The authors of those books certainly thought he was worshiping non-Yaweh dieties, but I’m not sure what the scholarly consensus is on that. Or if there is any archaeological evidence for those sites.
I don’t know! But I think the question was indeed about archaeological evidence.
‘The Bible Unearthed’ by Finkelstein and Silberman covers the archaeological evidence for worship of other gods.
As far as I recall, there is an inscription of “Yahweh and his Asherah” with a crude drawing of the two.
Yes, that’s true. Good point. and yup, it’s a great book.
Hello, Dr. Ehrman. Dr. Michael Heiser is making a big splash among Christians in my neighborhood where he was on staff for a while at LOGOS Bible Software/FaithLife. His claim in The Unseen Realm is that the “divine council” gave YHWH advice when he asked for it. Heiser populates eternity past (and present) with a gigantic cast of invisible characters. He refuses to use the word “polytheism” but I can’t see why not. Thanks for a very interesting and timely post.
Yes, that’s a common interpretation of the divine council, for example in the book of Job.
Dr. Ehrman,
I’m not familiar with scholarship studying this particular issue but I have heard Dr. Michael Heiser point out that there is a reason not to think the author of Isaiah 40-55 is presenting Yahweh as claiming that he is the only god which exists (that is to say, strict monotheism): the author elsewhere has Babylon using similar verbiage (“I am, and there is no one beside me” – Isaiah 47:8). His point is that this language is idiomatic for claiming to be unique and unmatched.
Also, thank you for responding to my Facebook Messenger text today. I am a platinum member. What is the best way for me to discuss that with you? Here in the chats on any random blog or somewhere else?
Thank you,
Tre Brickley
Interesting point. Yes, simply a query added to a comment is the best way to get a response; this is really the only format I have to deal with questions. I wish there were more, but then there’d need to be more of me!
Your exposition of the Decalogue is interesting, though I wonder if you might be overinterpreting the commandment as the Pentateuch authors’ acknowledgement that other gods exist. The verse would not strike contemporary readers of the Hebrew Bible as implying polytheism or henotheism, unless there is some subtleties in the Hebrew language lost in the English translation.
The distinction between henotheism and monotheism is quite subtle. After all, Christians throughout centuries of Christendom viewed themselves as Trinitarian monotheists who believed in existence of multitude of powerful supernatural beings – angels and demons including Satan who is lord of this world, able to exert considerable power on the world (famine, disease, demonic possessions, corrupt world leaders). Today many Muslims, who are all strict unitarians, recognise existence of powerful spirits – “jinns” (akin to “genies” in Islamic folklore) – some morally neutral, more benevolent, others malevolent.
I think the most hard-hitting passage in Hebrew Bible showing outright polytheism endorsed by authors of the source materials is Deuteronomy 32 (“Song of Moses”). The major textual variants between the Masoretic Text, Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls show later scribes struggled with the passage. Perhaps you would like to post on this passage.
Interesting idea. THanks,
Thanks, Bart, this is fascinating.
While you’re on these related themes, I wish you’d say more about the Holy Spirit. Why even include this as an element of the godhead? In the past I have wondered if it got conflated with Sophia and was a female element, but I guess pneuma is neuter in gender, so that may be a non-starter. So: where did this notion even come from? Was there any early Christian discussion of this part of the triune God? Why include it and create the notion of Trinity?
Thekla
I’ll be getting to that eventually in teh course of this thread!
Yes! Zaphon, Bel, Merodoch, Asherah, Leviathan, Rahab, Yam is the Hebrew word for “sea”, Tannin/Tiamat etc there’s a common thread of near eastern mythology that runs though the early OT. and the ancient Israelites knew all about it as archaeology is confirming.
Ps. 82, Deuteronomy 32, council of gods, yes yes yes! Ok here’s my question: Ba’al, or Ba’al-zebub, Ba’al-zebul actually, is Jesus equating Beelzebul to Satan?
“And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?”
Mark 3:22-23 NRSV
Do the Synoptics present Beelzebul and Satan as being one in the same, and therefore Ba’al is Satan? Have you ever thought of it?
Of course, Ba’al is a title meaning “lord” and so is “Bel” right? Maybe Hadad is the one referred to as Ba’al and Bel is Marduk/Merodoch. Is Ba’al… Satan? At least in the mind of the Synoptics?
Does this include Ba’al in the divine council? Job 1&2. ALSO… does this give evidence for a relatively early date to Job? At least before deutero-Isaiah?
Yes, for the Synoptics Beelzebub is Satan. But that does not mean authors of the HB thoguht of Ba’al as Satan. They were different authors living in different times with different ideas. And no, nothing puts Ba’al in the divine council in Job 1 and 2. Dating Job is inordinately complicated.
Is Ba’al Beelzebul? Is either one of those things a proper name or are they titles ?
I’m not completely sure what you’re asking. Ba’al is a Canaanite deity (god of storms and fertility); centuries after he was talked about, we have Christian texts that have, instead of a pagan divinity, a power of evil they call Beelzebub. The name Ba-al means “Lord”; the etymology of Beelzebub is debated; for many years it was thought to mean “Lord of the Flies” but that is debated. Theyare related to each other obvioulsy. But when someone said Beelzebub they were thinking “Satan,” not “Canaanite storm god.”
Well… I THINK… BaalzebuL means “The Prince Lord” and BaalzebuB is a derogatory term used by ancient Israelites to call him “Lord of the Flies”, or a piece of dung, essentially. Yes the Canaanite storm god, but I was curious, if, since Jesus equates Beelzebul with Satan, where did the idea come from?
I don’t think we know.
in ancient times did people believe that removing demons was satans business?
quote:
But the Pharisees, when they heard it, said, “This man does not expel demons except by Beelzebul the ruler of demons!
looks like a tiered system where satan is the top dog and then lesser beings identified as demons.
what does it mean “ruler of demons” is satan like a mafia boss who removes demons who aren’t doing the tasks right? matthew seems to be saying that the pharisees believe that satan has the power to remove his minions.
is this a matthean invention or a pharisic belief about ha-satan? were there ancient practices where people used to call upon satan to cast out demons like some do today?
OUtside of the Matt passage, no. But I guess the idea is that the Devil is the one who gives commands to the demons, so if Jesus gives commands to the demons, he must side with the devil.
So how do Christians and Jews resolve this contradiction? Because it is a contradiction, isn’t it? Part of their holy text is monotheistic, other parts aren’t. You can’t just ignore the henotheistic part, can you?
If you work hard enough at it you can. 🙂 But my sense is that they would say that “Thou shall not worship ‘beings that *other* people are say are gods but are not *really* gods because they don’t actually exist’ ahead of me”
all very interesting (as usual); does the episode of the golden calf mentioned in Exodus somehow fit in this narrative?
It’s a clear indication that, at least in this tradition, Israelites worshiped YHWH using an image or that they worshiped other gods
I find the development of the Israeli view on this so fascinating. You used the word henotheism, which I’ve never heard before. I had always heard Monolatry for this phenomenon. Is there a difference?
Henotheism is usually used to refer to beliefs (do you think other gods exist apart from the one you worship?) and monolatry to practice (how many gods do you worship?)
Is the exile the earliest time there is evidence Jews began to believe in only one God? If so, it wouldn’t be surprising if it developed/solidified then. One of the factors might have been a desire to maintain their identity in light of their situation (assuming that the exile was historical).
Yes, I don’t think there’s anything definitive before 2 Isaiah, and some scholars question even that.
Is it at all likely that the historical Jesus was a henotheist in this sense?
“Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods” ’? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?”
John 10:34-36 NIV
Good question. My sense is that this verse in John doesn’t go back to the historical Jesus; he is quoting the passage to get off the hook for indicating he himself was God, and I don’t at all think that’s something Jesus himself would have said.
I think some scholars believe that the ancient Israelites worshipped Asherah as a female consort to Yahweh and that there is limited archaeological evidence of a cult at least in the early period of Israel’s existence. However, as Dr Ehrman says, one can always claim it relates to pre-existing Canaanite practices.
In the words of American Archeologist William Dever, “The real religion of ancient Israel is almost everything the biblical writers condemned. The whole theology of the Hebrew Bible would have been foreign to most people.”
Hi Bart,
From your understanding of the Hebrew word ELOHIM, would you agree with this:
The word is formed from the feminine singular base Elah/Eloah with the masculine plural ending “im”. The word, then, is plural in number as well as in gender (feminine masculine plural) and is indicative of multiple gods, male and female; that is, at least one male and one female.
Analiza
It is derived from El, the name of a (male) Canaanite divinity; and it is plural not dual, so it is a multiple of gods not two. But when referred to with a pronoun (“he”) it is a singular, not a plural. So the plural is being used to refer to a single divinity.
What did Jews at the time of Jesus call Yahweh? From what I understand saying Yahweh out loud was considered blasphemy.
I know they used terms like Lord and Father, was Elohim in common use?
In Hebrew they called him Adonai; in Greek Kurios. Both come into English as “Lord”
Would Pagans in the first century have referred to him as Yahweh? To clarify they were talking about the God of Israel.
So far as we can tell, no.