What the Bible Talks About When It Talks About God (part 7)

Note: This post is meant to be read after reading part 1 of this series, where I lay some groundwork and introduce some important concepts. I would also advise reading the other preceding parts, but this is not completely necessary.

Over the last few posts I have attempted to show how the history of the Hebrew people - shown both through the Biblical writings and in archaeology - demonstrate polytheism. Now I would like to examine the development from this into monolatrism and henotheism.

Monolatrism and Henotheism 

Christians reading this are no doubt familiar with "the 10 commandments". They may not have ever examined the question of "which version?" (This is a good video discussing that question.) And if you've grown up in certain cultures, you've probably been taught to ignore the language within the 10 commandments that contradict monotheism (the belief that there is only one god). Because we see in Exodus 20:3 that YHWH commands: "you shall have no other gods before me." But the phrasing of this does not deny the existence of other gods - it exhorts the Israelites to show devotion to only one god. It's "no other gods before me", not "no other gods exist, therefore worship only me."

And when giving the commandment against idols, YHWH says in verse 5 that this is because he is a jealous god. And how can one be jealous of something that does not exist?

A depiction of Moses with the 10 commandments

In the song of Moses, we find this statement (Exodus 15:11):

Who is like you, O [YHWH], among the gods?

Again, this does not deny the existence of other gods - in fact, it affirms their existence. It simply states that the singer believes his or her god to be superior to the other gods.

Turn to Psalm 95:3 and you find a similar statement:

For YHWH is a great God [el] and a great King above all gods [elohim].  

Again, this does not deny the existence of other gods, but in fact affirms them, while claiming YHWH's superiority over them. 

Some scholars have pointed out that the plagues in Exodus are a way for YHWH to prove his superiority to the gods of Egypt. Turning the Nile to blood would be an attack on Hapi, the god of the Nile, or possibly Isis. The plague of frogs would be YHWH's way of showing superiority to the frog-headed Heqet. The plague of gnats would prove YHWH's superiority to the Egyptian god of chaos, Set. The plague of flies would possibly be an attack on Khepri, the scarab-faced god.  The death of the livestock would be an attack on Apis (depicted as a bull) and Hathor (who was often depicted as a cow). Boils would be a way of showing power over Sekhmet (goddess with the power to ward off disease and sickness). Hail would likely be an attack on both the god of agriculture, Osiris, and the goddess of the sky, Nut (locusts may also be an attack on both of these deities). The plague of darkness would likely defy Ra and possibly Horus as well. 

And before the final plague, YHWH says in Exodus 12:12: "on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am YHWH." And how can one execute judgements on something that does not exist? This is not a god proving that they are the only god in existence - it is a god seeking to prove their superiority to the other gods.

Idols

As mentioned earlier, the commandments in Exodus 20 contain a commandment against making and bowing down to idols (see verses 4 and 5). But what if idol-worship could be shown to have been a part of the Hebrew culture before it became outlawed?

Starting in Genesis, we have a story in Genesis 31 where Jacob is fleeing from Laban's property, and it says in verse 19 that Rachel had stolen "her father’s household gods" - the word used here that is translated "gods" is "teraphim", and it describes a type of idol. The passage contains no condemnation of this act, and if you follow the story, it seems that even though Laban pursues them to get his teraphim back, he doesn't find them, and it seems that Rachel gets to keep them. One interesting thing about this story is that when Laban tells Jacob about this theft, it seems that he considers it so egregious that he promises to kill anyone who is found to have these teraphim in their possession. One might think that if Jacob shares this condemnation of all idolatry, he would perhaps promise to also destroy them if they were found?

Why would she steal these teraphim? This is a mystery that has plagued interpreters for centuries. Some argue it is merely a transfer of wealth. Others, including Rabbi Rashbam and Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, have argued that the teraphim - which were often used for divination - could have been used by Laban to discover her family's location. Still others think it's the other way - Rachel wants to use them for divination herself.

Another story with teraphim that, strangely, contains no condemnation is the story of an Ephraimite named Micah, found in Judges 17 and Judges 18. It speaks of silver that was taken from Micah's mother, which he was able to take back, and it says in Judges 17:3 that she consecrates or dedicates this silver to YHWH to make an idol out of. So she gets the idol made, Micah makes a shrine to put it in, and then it says that he makes an ephod and a teraphim to put in the shrine in verse 5. And it is interesting to note that the same connection between ephod and teraphim are found in Hosea 3:4, where it is prophesied that "the Israelites shall remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim." And this verse seems to offer no condemnation of the practice of owning teraphim. 

Furthermore, in the story of Micah, it goes on to say that he finds a Levite to serve as a priest for his shrine with the teraphim. And the idea that teraphim are connected with divination has been connected to Judges 18:5-6, where some Danites ask the Levite priest to use divination to determine whether their mission will succeed. We see further references to teraphim being used for divination in Ezekiel 21:21 and Zechariah 10:2, though these references condemn those using them.

Finally, there is an story in 1 Samuel 19:11-16, where it says that David's wife Michal helps him to escape from Saul and his guards by putting a teraphim in his bed, dressing it up to look like him, and telling Saul's guards that David is sick. This seems to indicate that teraphim were life-sized, and that they were not unusual to have around one's household. 

In part 3 of this series, I argued that the Canaanite deity El was the main deity for Israel before YHWH (even the name Israel evokes this name, and means "strives with El" or "El strives" or even "El rules"). And this is interesting to consider in the context of the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32 for two reasons. First, a common symbol for El was a bull, and he is repeatedly referred to as Bull El. And secondly, the earliest known place of worship for Israel was the 12th-century BCE "Bull Site" in Samaria, found in 1977. The discovery of this site included a bronze calf statuette.

The bronze calf discovered at the "Bull Site" in Samaria

When I was growing up, I was taught that not only did Moses write the first 5 books of the Bible, but that the Bible was basically lined up the way the timeline worked: books of the Bible were not only in the order in which the events occurred, but were also written in that order. My hope is that as you see how this is all jumbled up - we have polytheism occurring both before and after the events of Exodus in which this is condemned, as well as idolatry being normalized after it is supposedly condemned by God - you start to understand why it is that Biblical scholars largely accept the source critical theories I mentioned in part 1 of this series.

We're going to stop here, and in the next part of the series I will discuss the development of more abstract ways of conceptualizing God in Hebrew literature.