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.
"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.
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?
ReplyDeleteThanks for boosting my vocab.
...which is why, following Pascal's logic, I always slip in a little prayer to Great Cthulhu every night before bedtime.
ReplyDeleteOne 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.
ReplyDeleteGene,
ReplyDeleteIn 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
Also worth reading on this topic is Milbank's essay entitled "The History of the One God," which may be available online.
ReplyDeleteAraglin
We offer WoW power leveling,World of Warcraft power leveling,Warhammer Online Power
ReplyDeleteLeveling & Warhammer Power Leveling & Warhammer Online
Gold,if you want buy cheap wow power
leveling & honor power leveling,please
come here to choose. you could find any kinds of powerleveling you want. Please remember,we
are your online game helper. Please remember,we are your online game helper.please
come here to choose. you could find anything you want.wow power leveling,wow power leveling,wow power leveling,wow
power leveling,wow power
leveling,wow powerleveling,wow powerleveling,wow powerleveling,wow powerleveling,wow powerleveling,Warhammer Online Power Leveling,war leveling,Warhammer leveling,Warhammer Power Leveling,Warhammer Online Gold,Warhammer Gold,WAR Power leveling,WAR Gold,world of warcraft power leveling,world of warcraft power leveling,world of warcraft power leveling,world of warcraft power leveling,world of warcraft power leveling,world of warcraft powerleveling,world of warcraft powerleveling,world of warcraft powerleveling,world of warcraft powerleveling,world of warcraft powerleveling,wow gold,wow gold,wow gold,wow gold,wow gold,world of warcraft gold,world of warcraft
gold,world of
warcraft gold,world of
warcraft gold,world
of warcraft gold,AOC Power Leveling,AGE OF CONAN Power
Leveling,Warhammer
Online Power Leveling,Warhammer Power Leveling,Warhammer Online
Gold,Warhammer
Gold,2 Moons
Dil,MapleStory
Mesos,Maple Story
Mesos,MS
Mesos,WARHAMMER
ONLINE GOLD,Cheap
WARHAMMER ONLINE GOLD,RuneScape Gold,RS Gold,RuneScape Money,RS Money,SilkRoad Gold,SilkRoad Online Gold,SRO Gold,EVE ISK,EVE Online ISK,Gaia Gold,2 Moons Dil,WOTLK power leveling,AOC Gold,AGE OF CONAN Gold,LOTRO Gold,Lord of the Rings Online
Gold
I walked about the chamber most of the time. buy kamasacheter kamasdofus kamaskamas dofusacheter dofusdofus kamaskamas dofusachat kamasdofus kamasI imagined myself only to be regretting my loss, and thinking how to repair it; but when my reflections were concluded, and I looked up and found that the afternoon was gone, and evening far advanced, another discovery dawned on me, namely, that in the interval I had undergonekamas dofusacheter des kamasdofus kamaskamas dofusbuy kamas a transforming process; that my mind had put off all it had borrowed of Miss Temple--or rather thatwow pobuy wow goldachat gold wowwow levelingwow orwow gold cheapwow powerlevelingbuy wow gold she had taken with her the serene atmosphere I had been breathing in her vicinity--and that now I was left in my natural element, and beginning to feel the stirring of old emotions. It did not seem as if a prop were withdrawn, but rather as if a motive were gone: it was not the power to be tranquil which had failed me,world of warcraft goldcheap wow goldwow orwow power leveling but the reason for tranquillity was no more. My world had for some years been in Lowood: world of warcraft goldwow gold kaufenwow gold cheapwow levelwow geldwow gold kaufenwow gold cheapwow powerlevelingmy experience had been of its rules and systems; now I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, dofus kamaskamas dofusacheter kamasbuy kamasacheter dofusawaited those who had courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils.
ReplyDelete