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Monotheism in
the Hebrew Bible
by Benjamin Sommer
It will surprise some
readers to learn that biblical scholars debate whether the ancient Israelites
and the Hebrew Bible they
produced were monotheistic.
After all, isn’t one of
the great contributions of biblical Israel to civilization the concept of
monotheism?
Aren’t the Israelites
famous for believing in only one God?
The Hebrew Bible
provides ample evidence that many Israelites believed in the existence of
multiple deities.
This is the case for
polytheistic Israelites whom biblical prophets criticize for worshipping other
gods; but even some authors of the biblical texts seem polytheistic.
The Hebrew Bible refers
to many heavenly creatures, calling them
“angels” (Num 20:16; 2Sam 24:16; 1Kgs 13:18; Zech 1:11-12; Ps 78:49; Job 33:23), and
“the assembly of holy ones” (Ps 89:5).
If we adopt the common
definition of monotheism as the belief that no deities exist other than the one
God, then the Hebrew Bible is not a monotheistic work.
We may ask, however,
how useful this definition is. After all, the so-called monotheistic religions
of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam exhibit belief in angels — beings who reside in heaven
and who do not normally die.
Catholic and Orthodox Christians
believe in and pray to saints residing in heaven — humans who died without any
long-term effect on their continued existence.
In short, the common
definition of monotheism is not terribly useful: it fails to capture something
essential that distinguishes the religion of the Hebrew Bible from ancient
Mesopotamian, Canaanite, and Egyptian religions, as well as Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam from Hinduism and Shintoism.
A category of polytheism including
Hinduism and Judaism, the worship of the Greek pantheon and the worship of the
biblical God, is so large as to be meaningless.
The philosopher Hermann Cohen (1842-1918) and the biblical scholar Yehezkel
Kaufmann (1889-1963) proposed a different and more useful definition.
For Cohen, it is God’s
uniqueness rather than God’s oneness that is the essence of monotheism.
What distinguishes the
Hebrew Bible from other ancient Near Eastern texts is not that it denies
that Marduk and Baal exist
— it doesn’t — but that it insists that Yhwh, the God
of Israel, is qualitatively different from all other deities: Yhwh is
infinitely more powerful.
Monotheism, then, is
the belief that one supreme being exists whose will is sovereign over all other
beings.
These other beings may
include some who live in heaven and who are, in the normal course of events,
immortal; but they are subservient to the unique supreme being, unless that
being voluntarily relinquishes a measure of control.
It is not the number
of divine beings
that matters to monotheism but the relationships between them.
A theology in
which no one deity has ultimate power over all aspects of the universe is
polytheistic (even if that theology knows only one deity); a theology in which
one deity has supreme power is monotheistic (even if it knows other heavenly
beings).
Kaufmann and others
showed that biblical texts are monotheistic by this definition.
The lower gods or
angels of the Hebrew Bible differ from those of Canaanite, Mesopotamian, and
Greek literature because they never successfully challenge Yhwh.
Many Canaanite,
Mesopotamian, and Greek texts narrate conflicts in which a high god is
seriously threatened or overthrown.
To be sure, biblical
texts describe a conflict between Yhwh and the Sea (Isa 27:1, Isa 51:9-11; Hab 3:8; Ps 74:13-15, Ps 89:6-14;
and Job 26:5-13).
Unlike other texts
about fights among gods, though, these passages lack real drama.
They convey no sense
that Yhwh had to engage in real exertion to suppress the insurrection.
Baal and Marduk, Zeus
and Kronos toil in order to attain an exalted status; Yhwh had that status to
begin with and retains it with ease.
I stress this point,
since without it one could formulate a facile argument that Yhwh is merely
another high god like Marduk, Baal, or Zeus.
In polytheistic
theologies, the gods’ power is great, but they are subject to matter or to
forces stronger than themselves.
In the Hebrew Bible,
Yhwh’s will is never frustrated by forces of nature, matter, or other gods.
Only in one area can
Yhwh be thwarted: by human free will.
This exception results from Yhwh’s own decision to create beings with the
ability to choose for good and for ill.
This single limitation
is self-imposed, whereas the limitations on gods in polytheistic texts often
result from forces beyond themselves.
There may be some
exceptions to these generalizations.
Some interpreters understand Ps 82 to
suggest that Yhwh became king of the universe at a particular moment, and Gen 6:1-4 could
imply that Yhwh was genuinely worried by potential adversaries.
In Gen 3:22, Yhwh
seems anxious that humans might claim divine power for
themselves, which differs, however, from the power Yhwh voluntarily cedes to
humans.
But there are no
unambiguously polytheistic texts anywhere in Hebrew Scripture, whereas
polytheistic elements are ever-present in ancient Near Eastern and Greek
literature.
What modern scholarship
shows most of all, however, is that the question of monotheism is much more
complex, and much more interesting, than most people suppose.
Benjamin Sommer,
"Monotheism in the Hebrew Bible", n.p. [cited 8 Aug 2019].
Online: https://www.bibleodyssey.org:443/en/people/related-articles/monotheism-in-the-hebrew-bible
Benjamin
Sommer
Professor, Jewish Theological Seminary - New York
Professor, Jewish Theological Seminary - New York
Benjamin Sommer is professor of Bible at the Jewish
Theological Seminary in New York. Prior to teaching at the Jewish Theological
Seminary, he served as Director of the Crown Family Center for Jewish Studies
at Northwestern University. His book The Bodies of God and the World of
Ancient Israel (Cambridge University Press, 2009) won several
awards. His most recent book is Revelation and Authority: Sinai in
Jewish Scripture and Tradition (Yale University Press, 2015).
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