Henotheism

I've been listening to a lecture series on ancient Near Eastern religions of late, and the lecturer has confirmed something I've suspected for some time: the ancient Israelites, at least up through the time of Moses, were not monotheists, but, rather, henotheists -- that is, they did not believe that there weren't many gods, but that they had formed a covenant with one of the many gods, and were obliged to worship only him:

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;

"Do not have any other gods before me...

"You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me..."

There are other gods, but the Lord is "a jealous God" -- not the only true god, mind you! -- and resents other gods being worshiped.

UPDATE: I reached the lecture today where the lecturer concludes that true monotheism developed in Israel around the time of the prophets.

Comments

  1. Yeah, I noticed that too. Did the lecturer rely solely on the Old Testament to make the case, or did he have some other direct evidence as to what the Israelites believed?

    Thanks for boosting my vocab.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous5:31 AM

    ...which is why, following Pascal's logic, I always slip in a little prayer to Great Cthulhu every night before bedtime.

    ReplyDelete
  3. One interesting bit of evidence is the names -- for instance, there was a local god named Salim worshipped by the tribe from which David came. His son Absalom's name means "Salim is my father." there are a few more names of various king's sons that show something similar -- gos other than Jehovah continuing to be acknowledged.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous1:55 PM

    Gene,

    In case you're interested, I thought I'd pass along an apposite quotation by the Anglo-Catholic theologian John Milbank on the subject of monotheism/henotheism:

    "[P]roperly understood, monotheism concerns an ultimate unified source beyond mere numerical unity and diversity – and it is a consequence of this very plenitude at the origin that there should be multiple and diverse spiritual mediators, some of whom can only be locally understood. It is the mark of true apophatic acknowledgment of the one God that one approaches him by multiple mediation of gods, angels, daemons, spirits and fairies: claims to direct access to a hypostasised subjective will are by contrast all too likely to issue in arrogant, terroristic interventions."

    - John Milbank, "Fictioning Things"

    Cheers,
    Araglin

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous1:57 PM

    Also worth reading on this topic is Milbank's essay entitled "The History of the One God," which may be available online.

    Araglin

    ReplyDelete
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