The emergence of monoteism in ancient Israel: a survey of recent sholarchip

Robert Gnuse

ABSTRACT

Contemporary biblical scholars envision the emergence of monotheism in ancient Israel to be a later more gradual phenomenon than heretofore has been assumed in scholarly writings and textbooks. This new critical view has emerged as a result of recent archaeological discoveries and a reassessment of the testimony of the biblical text. In essence, only a small minority of pre-exilic Israelites were developing monotheistic ideas, and they probably went through several stages of evolution until they became consistent monotheists in the Babylonian exile. Some critical scholars suspect that this evolution may have been totally a post-exilic phenomenon. The author attempts to review the positions of various scholars in this debate.

Intellectual historians, theologians, and biblical scholars often focus upon the affirmation of monotheism as the apex of thecontribution of the Hebrew Bible to Western civilization. In the past generation new scholarship has challenged the old paradigms which were assumed by critical scholars and used in college and seminary textbooks. The newer models describe Israelite religious development as a slower movement toward the distinctive monotheistic ideas found in the Hebrew Bible, and their final formation in the literary texts occurred much later than heretofore we had assumed. Likewise, Israel's intellectual continuity with the ancient world now is stressed rather than an older contrast of the Israelite ethos to Canaanite and ancient Near Eastern thought.

Throughout the discussion over the past century scholars have used terms such as henotheism and monolatry to describe the intellectual stages prior to the emergence of pure monotheism. Generally, polytheism refers to the worship of many gods, whereas both henotheism (elevation of one deity radically over the other gods) and monolatry (worship of one god which ignores other deities) loosely imply that one deity has emerged supreme over the other gods and has usurped their roles. When one additionally uses the term 'practical monotheism' with henotheism or monolatry, it implies that only one deity is worshipped and all others are ignored. The difference between practical monotheism and pure monotheism is the degree of tolerance shown to the other deities. If other gods are explicitly denied any existence in the universe, then practical monotheism has become pure monotheism. Most critical scholars agree that this is a major psychological leap for people, usually requiring some social and religious crisis to encourage the complete surrender of all gods save one. When authors speak of 'ethical monotheism', they imply that concomitant with the belief in one universal deity is a stress on human rights and dignity in some egalitarian world view. Historians and theologians have observed that social reform, either in ideal expression or in actual practice, often comes with the initial appearance of monotheistic faith (Gnuse 1997).

The romantic idea of yore, that monotheism was connected to the uniformity of the desert, such as the wastelands of the Arabian desert or the semi-arid steepe lands of Sinai and the Transjordan, especially in the case of Islam, has been discredited thoroughly (Baly, pp. 254-6; Halpern 1983b, p. 249; Albrentz 1994, p. 86). Monotheism is recognized now as much more of an urban phenomenon in the ancient world. Even when it is connected to pastoral regions, they are usually in close proximity to urban areas with which they interact extensively. For it takes the concentration of intelligentsia in an urban center to generate, sustain, and communicate the new ideas of a monotheistic faith. It takes organized and concentrated worshipping communities in such centers to accept the beliefs and then to propagate them along the networks of trade and communication which link cities. Monotheism develops most fully in the context of serious intellectual struggles, such as the question of theodicy and the presence of evil in the world. Or it may represent a response to the need to keep the high god from becoming too distant: the high god can be both transcendent and immanent when he or she is the only deity in the heavens. This is facilitated further by a setting in which intelligentsia discuss these issues with fellow believers and religionists of other faiths. Jews would have experienced this process in the Babylonian Exile (586-539 B.C.E) and in the years thereafter.

DEMISE OF THE OLD PARADIGMS

Late nineteenth-century scholars, influenced by notions of Darwinian scientific evolution, described the Israelite religious development as a passage through several stages of evolution toward increased intellectual sophistication until ethical monotheism was attained. Julius Wellhausen (1878) and William Robertson Smith (1889) epitomized this view. Their works marked the beginning of modern critical biblical scholarship, and their evolutionary assumptions prevailed among biblical scholars for sixty years.

Eventually, however, biblical scholars questioned whether Israel's religious development occurred as neatly as the evolutionary paradigms suggested. Some authors proposed instead the idea of a Mosaic revolution which abruptly rather than gradually introduced an early developed form of monotheism. The best-known defender of this viewpoint was William Foxwell Albright (1940, 1941, 1964), who believed Moses was a monotheist in the same sense that Hillel was in 30 B.C.E. For Albright Israelites were monotheistic except for simple superstitious folk, and except for those times when the populace slipped back into a syncretism which combined worship of Yahweh with the polytheism of the Canaanites. Albright's views influenced many other scholars, most significantly George Ernest Wright (1950, 1952, 1957) and John Bright (1953). Yehezkel Kaufmann (1972) went still further when he denied polytheism to even the masses in Israel. For him, the Israelites were so far removed from polytheism that the prophets and biblical authors misunderstood it in their very critiques of it. Polytheism existed only in the imported cults of the royal courts, and the abuses practiced by Israelites themselves merely were practices connected to fetishism or crass superstitions.

In general, from 1940 to 1970 significant scholars endorsed the idea of a Mosaic monotheistic 'revolution' rather than the old idea of 'evolution'. Scholars and textbooks alike spoke of subsequent, degenerate syncretism, or the mixing of polytheistic beliefs with pure monotheism, and this portrayal dovetailed with the rhetoric of the Deuteronomistic History and classical prophets, who called upon the people to return to the monotheistic faith of the past and to create a just society. These biblical images were used by Christian theologians from 1945 to 1970 in the 'Biblical Theology Movement', a movement influenced greatly by continental Neo-Orthodoxy, which also reacted negatively to nineteenth-century idealistic liberal theology and simple evolutionary paradigms (Reventlow, pp. 199-200; Hossfeld, p. 57). The emphasis upon a God who acted in the events of human history, such as the Exodus, Sinai, conquest, and the ministry of Jesus, was central to biblical theologians who spoke of the bible as a history of salvation or Heilsgeschichte. Authors relished the rhetoric contrast of monotheistic and ethical Israelite religion to the fertility religions of Canaan and the rest of the ancient Near East. In the 1960's and 1970's the writings of George Mendenhall (1973) and Norman Gottwald (1979) with their paradigm of an internal revolution reinforced that notion of Heilsgeschichte, perhaps even more dramatically. Gottwald's discussion of mono-Yahwism and the corresponding exclusive social and religious commitment to the Yahweh movement emphasized the great contrast between the beliefs of Canaan and the revolutionary new thought of Israel in social-political and economic categories. In the last generation, however, the Heilsgeschichte model has undergone a significant demise and with it the 'Biblical Theology Movement' (Albrektson; Childs; Saggs 1978, pp. 64-92; Gnuse 1989).

More recently biblical scholars have affirmed that Israelite or Jewish religious development evolved in progressive stages or 'leaps' in the pre-exilic period until its culmination in the absolute monotheism of the Babylonian Exile (586-539 B.C.E.). Significant stages that scholars now focus upon include the activity of Elijah and Elisha, the message of the classical prophets, the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah, Deuteronomic Reform, and the oracles of Second Isaiah. This position seems to mediate between Albright's idea of revolutionary monotheism and Wellhausen's gradual evolutionary model by suggesting a series of intellectual revolutions over a period of years which culminated in the exile. Many biblical scholars even use the words 'evolution' and 'revolution' together in their discussions. Othmar Keel (1980, p. 21) and Bernhard Lang (1983, p. 56) speak of 'a chain of revolutions which follow one another in rapid succession'. For them, monotheism evolves, but it is neither gradual nor inevitable. Rather, it comes in spurts as great religious spokespersons speak to a crisis. The greatest crisis was the exile, and it understandably caused the greatest quantum leap: radical monotheism, which categorically denied the existence of other gods.

These new theories concerning Israel's religious development have been augmented by recent archaeological discoveries which attest to the diversity and complexity of Israelite cultic practice, including extensive Israelite devotion to Asherah, the goddess of fertility, and other gods of Canaan, as well as to so-called pagan activities like sun veneration, human sacrifice, and cultic prostitution. The most significant text comes from Kuntillet 'Ajrûd, a ninth- or eighth-century shrine located on a trade route in the Sinai wilderness. Two of the inscriptions, discovered in 1975, read as follows, 'I bless you by Yahweh of Samaria, and by his Asherah', and 'Yahweh of Teman and his Asherah'. Many scholars believe this inscription indicates that Asherah was revered as a goddess consort of Yahweh by many Israelites as part of their normal piety (Meshel 1979, 1992, 1994; Dever 1982, 1984, 1994; Emerton; North; Margalit 1990, pp. 274-85). 'Teman' may be a reference to an older wilderness shrine where Yahweh was worshipped, or perhaps the archaic cult of Yahweh originated there, and the reference to Samaria may suggest that many Yahwists believed in regional manifestations of Yahweh, as Canaanites also envisioned El (Höffken; Ahlström 1986, p. 58, 1991, pp. 128-9; Albrentz 1994, 1:83). Another significant inscription comes from Khirbet el-Qôm, an eighth century site near Hebron in Judah, where a text reads, 'Blessed be Uriah by Yahweh and his Asherah'. It, too, implies that Asherah is a deity, a consort of Yahweh, capable of imparting blessing (Dever 1969-70, pp. 165-7, 1994, pp. 112-13; Lemaire 1977; Jaros; Zevit; Hadley 1987; Shea). These two inscriptions have been the critical pieces of information to make scholars suspect that polytheistic Yahwism may have been the normative pre-exilic religion of Israel and Judah rather than some syncretistic aberration (Angerstorfer; Jaros; Jeppesen; Miller, pp. 206, 217; Hestrin; Olyan, pp. 23-37; Dever 1990, pp. 121-66, 1994, pp. 112-22). Some older archaeological finds which lack literary inscriptions are now being interpreted in retrospect as evidence of a deeply ingrained polytheism among the Israelites. One is the bull shrine in the highlands of Samaria from the early settlement period (Wenning and Zenger), and another is the tenth century cult stand unearthed at Ta'anach in 1968. It indicates that Yahweh was worshipped through the image of the sun and that Asherah was venerated earnestly in Israel (Taylor 1988; 1993, pp. 24-37; 1994; Dever 1991, p. 111; Toews, pp. 50-1; Hadley 1994).

In the past such, archaeological data was considered testimony for syncretism between Israelite and Canaanite religions, but now scholars suspect that an early pure Yahwism may never have existed until the writings of the Deuteronomistic Historians or only among a very small minority of Yahweh devotees. We now think that the biblical authors condemned actual practices--but not Canaanite intrusions into Yahwism, rather they really condemned early polytheistic Yahwism. Deuteronomistic Historians projected the values of the reformed Yahwism of their own age into the past as a touchstone for critique. Though this is the emerging scholarly consensus, different scholars propose a multitude of scenarios for the actual process of development. It would be helpful, therefore, to review some at the contemporary scholarly theories.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF CONTEMPORARY SCHOLARS

Denis Baly (1970) points out how monotheism emerges not in the desert, but in urban settings in the midst of great intellectual struggles such as Jewish exile in Babylon. Baly offers a typology of monotheistic religious phenomena: 1) 'Primitive Monotheism' occurs among primitive agrarian societies when one deity is elevated well above the hierarchy of close, personal numina. 2) 'Proto-Monotheism' is found when political or cultural expansion has brought the intelligentsia of a dominant culture into contact with foreigners, and the intelligentsia synthesize regional deities under the aegis of their own national god. Examples would be the worship of Amun in the New Kingdom period of Egypt, Baal-Shamen of Canaan, Vedantic and Upanishadic thought in India, Persia before Zoroaster, Hellenistic monism, and Arabia before Muhammed. 3) 'Pseudo-Monotheism' occurs when a strong ruler tries to impose a form of proto-monotheism upon all his subjects for cultural solidarity. Examples would be Akhenaton's cult of Aton in fourteenth century Egypt, the cult of Ashur in imperialistic Assyria, Roman emperor worship, and Sassanian Persian Zoroastrianism. All three types reflect monotheistic tendencies, but an intellectual breakthrough is necessary to attain the pure monotheism which Jews secured in the Babylonian Exile.

Morton Smith (1952; 1958; 1963; 1968; 1971, pp. 15-56; 1975) stresses that the 'Yahweh alone' party was a minority religious and political movement in the pre-exilic period standing in opposition to the royal cult and to all popular or familial forms of religion, which he calls the 'common religion'. Most Israelites worshipped Yahweh as their high god but were still polytheists. The Yahwistic minority wrote the biblical texts and projected their beliefs into the distant past. Smith hypothetically traces the development of the movement: 1) In the early years the cult of Yahweh was not distinguishable from typical West-Semitic religions. Each region had a national deity, and Yahweh was the national god of Israel. 2) The court of Judah from the time of David (1000 B.C.E.) was responsible for popularizing the worship of Yahweh among the masses. Prior to this time, the deities worshipped included El, Baal, Gad, Anath, Am Yam, Zedek, Shalem, Asher, and Tsur. 3) During Omride conflict in Israel (850-840 B.C.E.) Jezebel killed Yahwistic prophets, who must have been 'Yahweh aloneists', since her own sons bore Yahweh names. The overthrow of the Omrides resulted from their foreign connections rather than from a desire to elevate Yahweh monotheistically. 4) Classical prophets and Deuteronomic Reform brought practical monotheism to the masses. Hosea appears to be the first 'Yahweh aloneist' (750 B.C.E.). Even by Jeremiah's age (580 B.C.E.), however, monotheism still appears to be a minority view, despite the earlier attempts at reform by Josiah (620 B.C.E.), whose actions may have been more political than religious. 5) Finally, in the exile and the post-exilic era the people became monotheists, for then people surrounded by foreign religions had to make a clear decision not to participate in those foreign cults. In the post-exilic era priestly laws separated the Jews from others and encouraged pure monotheism.

Gösta Ahlström (1963; 1970-71; 1975; 1977; 1982; 1986) observes that the biblical text does not testify to a 'fallen' version of an early pure Yahwism but instead reflects a natural state of religious activity. Asherah worship, the use of idols for other gods, and even the iconographic portrayal of Yahweh were normal religious expressions for polytheistic Israelites. Israelite religion was one of a national cult with a high god, Yahweh, served by attendant deities, including Asherah, Baal, Shamash (sun), and Yerach (moon). The religion was a state cult under the royal direction, so that the emphasis upon the national deity was determined by each king. Hezekiah and Josiah simply elevated the national deity, Yahweh, for political reasons in Judah. Each shrine had a different regional interpretation of the Yahweh religion (Gibeon, Shiloh, Bethel, Dan, etc.), and Kuntillet 'Ajrûd simply reflects another one of those interpretations. Yahweh worship came into Palestine with a group from Edom, and the reference to 'Yahweh of Teman' at Kuntillet 'Ajrûd implies an Edomite origin as well as biblical references to Yahweh's coming from Seir (Deuteronomy 33:2, Judges 5:4). Perhaps Yahweh was revered first at Gibeon; then rose to prominence with Saul; and then was elevated significantly by David, who brought Yahweh to Jerusalem and merged him with El Elyon, a local deity. At Bethel, Yahweh merged with Baal, and elsewhere other deities were absorbed ultimately with Yahweh. Ahlström's critical portrayal of Israelite religion reflects the general approach of many Scandanavian scholars.

V. Nikiprowetsky (1975) sees no evidence of monotheism in the ancient Near East or in Israel itself until the Jews in Babylonian Exile. Even then, many post-exilic Jews, such as those at Elephantine in Egypt, were still polytheists. There were, however, preliminary stages which prepared for the emergence of monotheism: 1) Jeroboam's division of the nation in 930 B.C.E. indicated that Yahweh could be a national deity of the two nations, Judah and Israel, and this 'internationalism' planted the idea of universalism. 2) Though Elijah did not deny the existence of Tyrian Baal or condemn other gods, he declared Baal's impotence before Yahweh (850 B.C.E.). 3) The universalism of Amos and Isaiah (750-700 B.C.E.) further developed ideas which culminated in Jeremiah's implied message that Yahweh is the only deity (600 B.C.E.). 4) Second Isaiah declared most clearly that there is no other god than Yahweh. The development of monotheism in Israel was inseparable from the vicissitudes of political experience. The crisis created by contact with the empires of Assyria and Chaldean Babylon, who succeeded in their political aims while the chosen people suffered, led to a monotheistic faith. Hence, monotheism did not evolve naturally and inevitably. On the contrary, it was an exception in human intellectual history.

H. W. F. Saggs (1978), an Assyriologist, stresses the continuities between Israelite and ancient Near Eastern understandings of God and of divine actions in human affairs. He observes that pre-exilic Israelites were clearly polytheistic and that later biblical traditions were 'prescriptive', not 'descriptive', in regard to earlier beliefs: that is, they criticized as abuses those practices considered acceptable by the earlier Israelites. Early Yahwists accepted Yahweh prostitutes until Josiah's time, the golden calves and asherah were not removed by Jehu after Elijah's revolution, and an asherah and a bronze snake existed in Judah's cult until Hezekiah removed them. Significantly, the booty taken from Samaria in 721 B.C.E. by the Assyrian king Sargon II included 'the gods in whom they trusted', and the Assyrians knew the difference between gods and secondary beings such as cherubim. Many objects criticized and destroyed by Hezekiah and Josiah were traditional Yahwistic cult objects, and this sometimes alienated the populace, as indicated by the speech of Rabshakeh in II Kings 18:22. Monotheism emerged with the oracles of Jeremiah and Second Isaiah, where the image of Yahweh as cosmic creator with a salvific plan for the entire world reflects a response to the Babylonian image of Marduk as world creator. Israel articulated nothing radically different from other ancient Near Eastern religions about Yahweh. Israelite religion came to be unique only in terms of 'recognition of what God was not'. God was not to be found in the forces of nature, not to be represented by human or animal form, and not to be conceived in a multiplicity of forms. The emergence of monotheism entailed the final reduction of conflicting wills in the cosmos to one divine will with universalistic perspective. Jews made this leap of thought because their cultural experiences made them less respectful of the traditions of the ancient world and so more ready to generate a new intellectual synthesis.

Fritz Stolz (1970, 1980, 1994) believes that true monotheism is a total religious and cultural system and that for Israel it emerged only in the exile with Second Isaiah, although preparatory stages may be observed. Early pastoral Israel was not monotheistic and could not inspire later monotheism, since personal devotion by a family or clan to a single deity is really an attempt to use that deity as a mediator to a higher god. In a more advanced society a deity may represent the fullness of the pantheon, as with El at Ugarit or Anu and Enlil in Mesopotamia. Early Israel was polytheistic with Yahweh as one deity among others. Stolz sees several stages of evolution: 1) Elijah engaged in cultural conflict, not a battle for monotheism, for it was a struggle between rival deities, which really assumes polytheism. 2) A true anti-polytheistic reaction may be seen in the oracles of Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah, who attacked polytheistic elements in the cult. 3) Second Isaiah was the author of true monotheism, for with him the 'moment of exclusion' occurred when the existence of other deities was denied. 4) The Deuteronomistic History, which is post-exilic in Stolz's opinion, stressed the exclusive worship of Yahweh and a new social world view. In effect, only post-exilic Jews were true monotheists, portraying God as both a distant creator and an active personal deity, whereas polytheists would have pushed the older deity into the background as a deus otiosus. As true monotheists, they also sought to control the state in order to carry out the social implications of their ideology.

The scholarship of Othmar Keel (1978; 1979; 1980; 1994) and his students (Keel and Uehlinger; Schroer 1987; 1994) on artwork and iconography in ancient Israel reveals the great continuity that Israelite religious art and symbolism had with those of neighboring cultures, particularly Egypt. The prohibition against images did not prevent the emergence of a generous artistic tradition, including indirect portrayals of Yahweh such as the solar disk. This continuity with pagan artistic conventions leads Keel to suspect a greater connection with Canaanite (Ugarit) and Egyptian beliefs than biblical scholars had recognized. Keel believes that monotheism arose rather late and that Second Isaiah is the first true monotheist. Early contributions to the eventual emergence of exilic monotheism were provided primarily by the activity of the royal courts in elevating Yahweh to the position of being a high god in the heavens. Notwithstanding those contributions, the ultimate exilic emergence of monotheism was a revolution, not the evolution or a gradual, inevitable growth of ideas.

Hermann Vorländer (1981, 1986) believes that true monotheism arose only in the exile; prior to that time there was no real distinction between Israelite and Canaanite religion. The emergence of Yahwism began with David's election of Yahweh as the deity of his dynasty, so that Yahweh became the favorite deity of the people during the age of the divided monarchies. At best, Israelites were henotheistic (which he defines as temporary devotion to one deity, usually during a crisis) or monolatrous (which he defines as continued worship of one deity); but since they never denied the existence of the other gods, they were generally polytheistic. Polytheism is indicated by the presence of so many deity figurines in Palestinian sites, the many references in the biblical text to other divine beings, and the post-exilic evidence at Elephantine in Egypt that diaspora Jews also worshipped goddesses like Anat-Bethel, Haram-Bethel, and Babylonian deities like Bel, Nabu, Shamash, and Nergal (all of which may reflect the deities worshipped in pre-exilic Judah). Israelites and Judahites perceived Yahweh as a national high god comparable to the language of the Mesha Stela (850 B.C.E.) wherein Mesha gave solitary devotion to Chemosh, national god of Moab. Vorländer thinks that true monotheism emerged only among the Jewish exiles in Babylon because they were an ethnic minority there, and so turned to religious self-definition to preserve their ethnic identity. Several factors assisted in this transformation: 1) The cult of Yahweh was imageless and so was easy to transplant it to a foreign land in rustic conditions of exile. 2) The upper classes of Judah primarily were deported to Babylon, and this group had a greater number of intelligentsia ready to make such a monotheistic transformation. 3) These people were receptive to ideas in the land of exile which helped further their own thoughts. Babylonians spoke of Marduk as a universal lord and creator, the Chaldean king Nabonidus elevated his personal deity (Sin) in monolatrous fashion, many Babylonians exhibited exclusive devotion to Nabu, and later in the exile the impact of Zoroastrianism made itself felt. Second Isaiah was the first proponent of true monotheism. Since Vorländer dates all Pentateuchal texts to the exile and even later, he sees post-exilic monotheism in Yahwist, Deuteronomistic, and Priestly texts, all of which were inspired by Babylonian historiography.

Bernhard Lang (1980; 1983a, pp. 13-59; 1983b; 1985a; 1985b; 1986; 1988; 1990; 1993; 1994) declares that Yahweh was merely a national high god, at times (usually in a crisis) elevated above the other deities. Originally, Israelite religion was a West-Semitic belief system whose clan deity, Yahweh, was raised to the status of a national god. 1) Monolatry of a limited form emerged when Elijah and Elisha sought the exclusive worship of Yahweh as the national deity over the imported Tyrian Baal of the Omrides. The battle was between two groups of polytheists. At stake was the primacy of rival priesthoods and the economic implications of foreign priests and merchants imported into Israel along with close political connections to Phoenicia. 2) Hosea may have been the first person (750 B.C.E.) to affirm 'temporary monolatry', or the total allegiance to the national deity in times of crisis. Ultimately, this monolatry would evolve into 'permanent monolatry', with the deity worshipped exclusively even after the crisis had passed. 3) Hezekiah's reign saw the Yahweh alone party arise to define Judah's religious identity, especially with the creation of the Covenant Code in Exodus 21-23. Hezekiah even separated Yahweh from old legitimate images associated with Yahweh, such as the bronze serpent and the golden calf. 4) Josiah's reform attempted to influence the masses, even to the point of using stern measures upon dissidents, and the agenda of this reform was promulgated in the book of Deuteronomy. Josiah attacked longstanding pious customs, including the cult of the dead and any teaching of the afterlife. He also attacked rival priesthoods at venerable shrines such as Bethel. 5) Finally, after 586 B.C.E. polytheism died, and out of its ashes arose a Judaism based on the beliefs of the Yahweh alone movement with new religious customs such as the Sabbath. Persian Zoroastrianism was a very significant catalyst for monotheism in Second Isaiah. Lang believes that the struggle for monotheism continued into the post-exilic period. In the book of Proverbs Dame Wisdom is an image used by post-exilic scribes to turn a 'school goddess', akin to the Sumerian Nisaba and the Egyptian Seshat, into a hypostatization of Yahweh to undercut further the cult of Asherah. Also, names of other deities, such as Shaddai, were absorbed into Yahweh, and the heavenly host became angels.

Norbert Lohfink (1969; 1983; 1985; 1987; 1994, pp. 35-95) believes there always was a latent monotheism or monolatry in the polytheisms of the ancient Near East but that full-blown monotheism did not emerge until the sixth century B.C.E.-- in Zoroastrianism, among the Greek pre-Socrates, and among the Jews in exile. Early Yahwism was primarily a popular familial religion, and El and Yahweh basically were merged in the minds of many Israelites from the settlement period onward. Yahweh merged with other deities because of his original lack of connection to other deities in the Canaanite pantheon. Josiah made Yahweh into the high national god of the state and replaced the earlier syncretism of many deities. By that time Yahweh had taken over the functions of most of the other deities. During the later Babylonian Exile old oral traditions were drawn together to create Deuteronomy and the historical narratives, and monotheistic assumptions then were projected back into Israel's history. Lohfink stresses that religious values arose in conjunction with social values so that Yahweh's exclusivity was connected to social egalitarianism and a struggle for justice, which culminated in the reforms of Josiah and the exilic literature.

Gerd Theissen (1985) suggests that monotheism emerges not as a simple uniform evolutionary experience. Rather, it was a revolution, or in scientific terms it was an evolutionary mutation. Theissen's understanding of mutation is rooted in contemporary theories of evolution, and he no longer uses the simplistic categories of biological evolution as a slow, gradual process. For Theissen, monotheism is an evolutionary mutation which 'protests' the principles of natural selection, or the brutal competition between peoples, and it calls people to a universalism with a humanitarian ethos. Whereas biological evolution proceeds with the selection of species driven by blind instinctive drives in a survival of the fittest, cultural evolution, which includes religion, relies upon human consciousness for cooperation, social interaction, and the exchange of ideas. Theissen believes that monotheism emerged contemporaneously with the teachings of Xenophon in Greece, Zoroaster in Persia, and Second Isaiah. Before the Babylonian Exile polytheistic Jews worshipped El Elyon, El Shaddai, Beth-El, Baal, Asherah, and the Queen of Heaven. From 1200 to 586 B.C.E. the exclusiveness of Yahweh was established, from 586 to 332 B.C.E. monotheism truly emerged among the Jews, and from 332 B.C.E. onward a reaction against the philosophical monotheism of the Greeks led later Jews and Christians to declare their monotheistic revelations the unique manifestation of God. Signicant pre-exilic contributions to the emergence of monotheism may be attributed to David, who made Yahweh a national deity; to Elijah, Elisha, and the classical prophets, who made Yahwism into an opposition movement to the state; and to Hezekiah and Josiah, who used exclusivistic Yahwism for political reform. Throughout the pre-exilic era Yahwism was a minority monolatrous movement which became a 'temporary henotheism' during periods of political crisis. Continual crises led to 'chronic monolatry', which in turn gave rise to the 'consistent monotheism' of the exile. At this point, the exiles, who were upper class Jews, began to view Yahweh as the creator of the world and as the director of human history. Hence, in exile the old national deity of Judah became a personal deity for many individual Jews. In the later Hellenistic era the battle was over whether monotheism required conversion to a particular deity. Those who ultimately became monotheists realized that they had undergone a radical conversion (or 'mutation') to a new world view.

William Dever's (1982; 1983; 1984; 1987; 1990, pp. 121-66; 1991; 1993; 1994) impression from his discipline of archaeology is that early Israelite religion evolved slowly out of the earlier religious beliefs and that regional cult sites flourished at places such as Dan, Megiddo, Ta'anach, Tell el-Far'ah, Lachish, Arad, and Beersheba, each with its own mixture of Yahwistic and old Canaanite practice, until the end of the monarchy (586 B.C.E.). These sites provide us with hundreds of Asherah figures as well as with molds for producing the figures, offering stands for Asherah, and astragali for divination. There were many different religious parties, including the official cult, familial popular religion, the beliefs of the prophets, and the beliefs of the Yahwistic priests. Dever stresses the need to write a history of Israelite religion which combines archaeological discoveries with a critical analysis of the biblical text. Essentially, the Deuteronomistic History and the Priestly Editors in the exile constructed monotheism and projected it upon earlier religion.

In his earlier writings Baruch Halpern (1983a; 1983b, pp. 246-9) suggests that 'intolerant monotheism' may have arisen late in the pre-monarchic period, but in later writings (1987) he observes that fully developed monotheism arose only in the exile with Second Isaiah. Inscriptions from Kuntillet 'Ajrûd and other sites tell us that Asherah and other 'subsidiary members of Yahweh's assembly' were worshipped, except under Hezekiah and Josiah, as a normal part of Yahweh worship. Also accepted as a natural part of the Yahweh cult was human sacrifice. Halpern introduces some interesting categories into the discussion. Early Israelites had deep loyalty to Yahweh, but they were 'not self-consciously monotheistic'; that is, they lacked philosophical monotheism or perhaps were 'monolatrous henotheists'. This 'unself-conscious monotheism' contrasts with the 'self-conscious monotheism' or philosophical monotheism of the exile. Stages of development include: 1) the xenophobia of Elijah and Elisha against the imported Tyrian Baal, 2) the critique of 'inner-Israelite customs' by the classical prophets, 3) the self-conscious monotheistic reform of Josiah, and 4) Second Isaiah's separation of Yahweh from the world and any possible symbolic portrayal. There is an evolution from an early monotheistic set of assumptions, which were inconsistent and had occasional 'susceptibility to fits of intolerance' to a later more self-conscious radical monotheism.

Mark Smith (1987; 1990; 1994) perceives that Israel's religious emergence is really a breaking with its own Canaanite past and not merely the avoidance of alien Canaanite beliefs. Yahweh emerged as the sole deity in a process of 'convergence' and 'differentiation'. Yahweh converged with El, absorbed the features of Asherah and Baal, and at the same time eliminated certain practices in a process of differentiation, including the cult of the dead, child sacrifice, and worship at high places. Differentiation began in the ninth century B.C.E. in the conflict with Baal. The later classical prophets continued this process by attacking Asherah, sun worship, and other objectionable practices. Much of this process was part of the natural elevation of a state deity, which may be found in other cultures. Since the elevation of Yahweh as the national high deity was undertaken by kings, especially Hezekiah and Josiah, the state primarily was responsible for emergent monotheism rather than the villain that sponsored state syncretism. Because Canaanites evolved into Israelites, Asherah, Baal, El, and Yahweh were related integrally. Early onward El and Yahweh were equated, and Yahweh began to usurp Baal's role as the warrior when he became the national high god under David. The Yahweh alone party which first appeared in the ninth century B.C.E. supported the state elevation of Yahweh. International political conflict created the image of Yahweh's power over other peoples, and this power reinforced the idea of universal rule. Adding to this trend was the tendency of prophets to attack customs which had been acceptable in earlier years, and the late entrance of religious influence from other countries made the prophets even more critical of old, indigenous cultic activity such as Baal worship. All these forces together created a monolatrous trajectory which came to fruition in the exile in the oracles of Ezekiel and Second Isaiah. Ultimately, monotheism arose as both an 'evolution' and a 'revolution'. It arose slowly out of polytheism (evolution) as Yahweh emerged from Canaanite roots and absorbed El and Baal, but it also differentiated itself radically from certain aspects (revolution).

In his grand history of Israelite religion Ranier Albrentz (1994a, 1:1-94, 146-231, 2:399-426; 1994b) traces the development of 'familial religion', or 'popular religion', and its interaction with the official religion of Israel. He believes that the pre-exilic period had many different forms of Yahwism (state religion, local religion, and family religion) which subsequently were leveled out by the texts of the exile and post-exilic authors. The 'popular religion' of Israel may be exemplified best in the familial religion of the Patriarchal narratives of Genesis: devotion to one family deity; use of teraphim; no extensive shrine cultus; occasional sacrifice; dream incubation; and the concern with illness, fertility, and descendants. This religion was common to the entire ancient world and was basically polytheistic. Yahweh worship came into the land, and Yahweh displaced El and took over Asherah, El's consort. As reflected in the inscriptions at Kuntillet 'Ajrûd and elsewhere, Yahweh took on different forms in the various regions. Monotheism emerged slowly over a period of years, as a result of many social and religious conflicts. In the early monarchy Yahweh was elevated as the imperial head of the pantheon by the state religion. The earliest seeds of true monotheism were planted by Elijah and later by Hosea, who was the first to condemn activity within Yahwism such as the bull cult. Hezekiah went further in reforming Yahwistic practices, cultic activity in shrines, and familial piety with the aid of the newly created Book of the Covenant (Exodus 21-23). Josiah brought monotheistic ideas to bear upon society to the point of closing provincial shrines and seriously trying to control the familial piety. Deuteronomy reflects his theological agenda. Ultimately, monotheism prevailed during the exile when Yahwism was separated from state support and was permitted to emerge as a universalistic and monotheistic faith. Since the full development of monotheism also was connected to a fight against the emergence of social classes, true monotheism could arise only in the exile after the collapse of society with its attendant social structures and the political, national religion of Judah.

The authors thus far discussed constitute a consensus. They sense an evolutionary process which moves through various stages of monolatrous or henotheistic intensity in the pre-exilic era to a form of pure monotheism which arises in the exilic era. Though they describe the process in stages of development, they often stress the revolutionary nature of this trajectory. They see monotheism emerge in a series of conflicts or crises, when significant spokespersons articulate insights or undertake actions which advance the movement. These scholars also provide us with new concepts and terminology by which to describe this process. Their views surely will manifest themselves in scholarship and textbooks within the next generation.

The only serious challenge to this model has come from Jeffrey Tigay (1986, 1987) and Jeaneane Fowler (1988), both of whom evaluate Israelite names on inscriptions and in the biblical text which use a theophoric element such as Yahweh, El, and Baal. Their discoveries of the preponderance of the name of Yahweh in personal names has led them to conclude that Israelites for the most part worshipped Yahweh exclusively and were either very monolatrous or monotheistic. However, scholars critical of their work observe that their research indicates only that the popularity of Yahweh may have increased over the years, and this popularity reflects personal or familial piety rather than the religious activity of society as a whole. Yahwism may be evidence for the emerging monotheism hypothesized by other scholars, the devotion to the national high deity. In many cultures around Israel the names of popular deities do not occur frequently in personal names, so that in Israel the names of El, Baal, and Asherah likewise may be absent in common names. The presence of Asherah figurines, the presence of Baal names on the Samaria Ostraca from the eighth century B.C.E., and a host of images from recent archaeological sites make the argument of Tigay and Fowler most tenuous (Olyan, pp. 35-7; Dever 1994, pp. 111-12; Knauf, p. 61).

VIEWS OF MINIMALIST SCHOLARS

There is, however, a significant group of scholars who argue for yet another viewpoint. These scholars believe that monotheism emerged totally in the exilic and post-exilic eras and that there were no preliminary stages of development in the pre-exilic period. Obviously, these scholars minimize pre-exilic contributions to the emergence of monotheism and instead view literary expressions of pre-exilic monotheism as the later creation of the Jewish community in exile and beyond.

Niels Peter Lemche (1985, pp. 386-475; 1988, pp. 155-257; 1991a; 1991b; 1993; 1994a; 1994b) believes that the biblical text is a later post-exilic creation from the Hellenistic period after 300 B.C.E. and that the narratives are mostly fiction and reflect post-exilic politics and personages. The biblical narratives set up stereotypical images of polytheistic Canaanites and monotheistic Israelites. The real religion of pre-exilic peoples in Israel and Judah was a typical West-Semitic polytheism. Worship of the god Yahweh came into the land in the early Iron Age, but most Israelites were simply the indigenous people of the land, and so their religion was essentially the Canaanite religion of the Late Bronze Age. We may use the Psalms to envision pre-exilic Israelite religion, which differed from shrine to shrine in understanding the cult of Yahweh. Our present Psalms reflect the beliefs of Yahwists in Jerusalem, who standardized regional cults under the leadership of Hezekiah and Josiah. In their beliefs Yahweh was the divine king of the city state of Jerusalem, and the king was his adopted son. The covenant was merely between Yahweh and the king, and the land and people were blessed through the mediation of the king, as it was with the divine Pharaoh in Egypt. Yahweh was subordinate to El, was equal to Baal (or at times equated with him), and had a female consort deity. In this fertility religion Yahweh eventually emerged as creator, and the other gods became his servants, including Asherah, Shamash (sun), and Yerach (moon). The later prophets and Deuteronomic Reformers refined this religion to create an egalitarian covenant between Yahweh and the people, a new perception of Yahweh which stressed righteousness, and a fictional history of Exodus, Sinai, conquest, and even David. Their attempts created monotheism in the post-exilic era, and their written literature took shape only in that era.

Thomas Thompson (1987, pp. 37-9, 193-6; 1991; 1992, pp. 13-24, 415-23; 1995; 1996) believes that we cannot reconstruct a pre-exilic history or religious development of Israel. He maintains that the literature is a post-exilic fictional creation, although he concedes that some written traditions may come from the time of Josiah (620 B.C.E.). For him, early Israelite religion was polytheistic, at best occasionally henotheistic, and monotheism emerged only in the exile. The early roots of monotheism may lie with the classical prophets and Josianic reforms. Babylonians and Persians both created the post-exilic Judean state by placing in Judah people who assumed the identity of Jews, even though they were not descended from Israelites and Judahites. These new, imported people adopted the religious and literary traditions and then developed them even more. Their religious synthesis reflects great Persian Zoroastrian influence. The high god of Syria, Elohe Shamayim, was identified with Yahweh, who really came out of the Israelite cult in Samaria, and further imagery was provided from the Babylonian cult of Sin and Zoroastrian beliefs about Ahura Mazda. Essentially, Jewish monotheism developed in the post-exilic era and really had less continuity with the pre-exilic era than we have assumed. Inclusive or tolerant monotheism emerged in the Persian Period, but truly exclusive monotheism or intolerant monotheism did not emerge until the Hellenistic era, at the time that the literature took its final shape.

Giovanni Garbini (1988, pp. 52-132) suggests that pre-exilic Israelite religion was a typical agrarian religion: it was polytheistic with strong sexual orientations, and at best it was henotheistic, with Yahweh viewed as the national high deity elevated only slightly over the other gods. Yahwism simply grew out of Canaanite henotheism. Later Yahwism in the exile and post-exilic era radically criticized and reformed that earlier religion. It fictionalized a narrative history for the pre-exilic era so that even the post-exilic Ezra is a theological fiction. The oracles of the prophets were revised by exilic theologians to generate ethical monotheism and related notions. Stories of Exodus and conquest were invented completely. The first true theologian of the biblical tradition was Second Isaiah, whose monotheism was inspired by Zoroastrianism.

Lowell Handy (1988; 1990a; 1990b; 1993a; 1993b; 1996) brings comparative West-Semitic studies to the observation of Israelite religion and concludes that Israelites were polytheists who revered their deities in a four-tiered hierarchical structure, as in Ugarit. At Ugarit the structure was as follows: 1) El and Asherah; 2) Baal, Anat, Shapshu, and Mot; 3) craft deities, such as Kothar-wa-Hasis and Shatiqatu; and 4) nameless divine messengers, the ilm. The comparable hierarchy in Israel was: 1) Yahweh and Asherah; 2) Baal, Shemesh (sun), Yereah (moon), Mot, and Astarte--all of whom were the gods condemned in Psalm 82; 3) Baal-Zebub, Nehushtan, and others; and 4) the 'host of heaven'--also nameless messengers. Israelites were polytheists, as evidenced by Solomon's erection of shrines to other gods which endured for centuries (I Kings 11:5-8, II Kings 23:13). Even Hezekiah was a polytheist, who closed shrines outside of Jerusalem merely to protect statues of gods before the Assyrian advance.

Herbert Niehr (1990; 1991; 1994; 1996) maintains that we must turn to Phoenician and Aramaic epigraphic sources first millennium B.C.E. and to archaeological evidence from pre-exilic Palestine to describe the rise of Yahweh worship. Pre-exilic religion was simply another West-Semitic religion, and the ultimate movement toward monotheism was part of a great tendency in the ancient world. There were different manifestations of Yahweh in various cities, the most notable being Jerusalem and Samaria. In Samaria Yahweh was more comparable to Baalshamem (or Baal Shamayim) of Syria, rather than the Canaanite god El. Baalshamem was the 'God of the heavens', whose role diminished in first millennium in Palestine as Yahweh and other deities assumed his role. Yahweh assumed Baalshamem's functions as presider over the heavenly council, resident on the great holy mountain (Zion or Zaphon are synonymous names for it), creator of the world, victor over the forces of chaos, and source of justice (which is typically assigned to the sun god). Solar imagery was the truly significant contribution to Yahweh's persona. The equation of Yahweh with Baalshamem was supported by the royal courts in Israel and Judah because of their extensive contacts with Phoenicia. Though the royal courts supported the amalgamation of Yahweh's persona with that of Baalshamem, this equation was opposed by the popular Yahwistic minority. This tension between the tendency to absorb Baalshamem's characteristics and the popular opposition to such foreign influence helped to create the ultimate portrayal of Yahweh. This transformation of Yahwism by the Yahweh alone movement occurred in the post-exilic period, when Yahweh became supreme and the other gods became merely angelic messengers. This post-exilic metamorphosis and reinterpretation of religious imagery is called 'archaization', 'remythologization', and 'literary paganism'. It occurred in the Persian and Hellenistic eras, when comparable ideas were emerging among other peoples.

Philip Davies (1992, 1995, 1996) concludes that the biblical text provides us only with a fictional portrayal of Israel's origins, which scholars have turned into a 'literary-historical hybrid' by combining archaeological data with fictional narratives. Exiles who returned from Babylon were not Judean in origin but made theological claims in order to legitimate their rule and then generated the biblical literature. Old 'Israelian' or 'Samarian' religion and the old Israelite identity were redefined and appropriated by these people whom the Persians settled in Judea. Biblical literature is a post-exilic scribal creation, produced at the request of the state, using little or no oral tradition, and drawn from the perspective of several post-exilic groups. Even Ezra and Nehemiah may only symbolize theological parties of the post-exilic age. Yahweh was a synthesis of deities from the pre-exilic age: Elohim, Shaddai, Elyon, El, and an actual

deity named Yahweh worshipped by some people. The biblical portrayal of Yahweh was created in the Chaldean and Persian periods, when the idea of a single high god was emerging among other intellectuals in the ancient Near East. Yahweh was portrayed in the same manner as were Marduk and Sin among the Babylonians and Ahura Mazda among the Persians. The biblical canon was created in the second century B.C.E. in order to fight Hellenism in the time of the Maccabees. The Greek historian Hecateus of Abdera (300 B.C.E.) may preserve traditions older than our biblical text, for he says that Moses, not Joshua, conquered the land and founded the state.

These critical scholars have envisioned a scenario that moves radically beyond not only the Heilsgeschichte models of the 'Biblical Theology Movement', but even the emerging consensus of so many other scholars. These scholars appear to receive their best audience in European circles, especially among Scandanavian scholars, among whom there has been a tradition over the past two generations to date biblical texts to the exilic or post-exilic eras. However, it seems doubtful that their ideas will take root in American circles. This critical portrayal which displaces all religious development to the post-exilic era and rejects the realia of pre-exilic history will be received negatively by many scholars who have assumed that some historicity lies behind the texts, and a large number of American scholars have presupposed that over the past two generations. Furthermore, archaeologists will not be willing to admit that their field research investigates the life and history of a people who have little or no connection to the biblical text. Archaeologists and biblical historians still will seek to write histories of Israel which combine in some balanced, critical, and well-integrated fashion the narratives of the Hebrew Bible and the data unearthed from the ground.

SCHOLARLY CONTRIBUTIONS ON RELATED ISSUES

A great number of specialized studies which consider some aspect of Yahwistic religion increasingly assume that Israelite belief had a great deal of continuity with Canaanite belief. One particular topic of interest is the consideration of the identity and role of Asherah. Most scholars assume that the average Israelite considered Asherah an actual deity, a consort of Yahweh, and that veneration of her was acceptable throughout most of Israelite and Judahite history (Ahlström 1963, pp. 51-88; Morton Smith 1975; Lemaire 1977; Patai, pp. 16-58; Meshel 1979; Biale; Dever 1982; 1984; 1990; 1991; 1994; Garbini 1983; Höffken; Jeppesen; Zevit; Coogan; Lipinski; Freedman; Hestrin; Schoer 1987, pp. 21-45; Olyan; Taylor 1988; 1994; Margalit 1989; 1990; North; Ackerman 1989; 1992; 1993b; Toews, pp. 151-72; Day 1994). Scholars are also quick to point out that in the ninth century, when Elijah, Elisha, and Jehu opposed the cult of Tyrian Baal and his Omride supporters, the cult and devotees of Asherah were not suppressed (Patai, p. 29; Saggs, pp. 22-3; Biale; Ottosson; Freedman; Olyan, pp. 1-22; Toews, pp. 151-72; Hadley 1994, p. 242). Some scholars suggest that Asherah became Yahweh's consort when Yahweh absorbed the identity of El who was paired with Asherah previously. The cult of the deity Asherah remained a deity for Yahwistic Israelites until the efforts of Hezekiah, Josiah, and the Deuteronomic Reformers (Olyan, pp. 38-74; Ackermann 1993; Albrentz 1994, 1:194, 211; Day 1994, pp. 184-6). Then she was absorbed into Yahweh's persona and Israel as an abstraction, Wisdom, or Torah, took her place as a symbolic consort (Winter; Wacker).

Scholars who have researched other aspects of pre-exilic Israelite religion also stress the great continuity with Canaanite religion and culture. H. C. Brichto (1973), Alberto Green (pp. 156-87), George Heider (1985), John Day (1989, pp. 29-71), Susan Ackerman (1992, pp. 101-63; 1993), and Jon Levenson (pp. 3-52, 111-24) conclude that infant sacrifice was an integral part of the Israelite cult until Josiah's reform, and it may have involved the worship of an underworld chthonic deity of healing and fertility, Molek, in a cult of the dead (the Rephaim). Perhaps infants were sacrificed directly to Yahweh. Christoph Dohmen (1984, 1987) describes the rise of monotheism in conjunction with the evolution of the prohibition against images, an evolution furthered by the imageless cult of the early period, the intolerant monolatry of Elijah and Elisha, the internal religious reforms advocated by Hosea and Hezekiah, the systematic reform of Josiah and the Deuteronomists, and the final emergence of monotheism in the exile. Hans-Peter Stähli (1985) and Glen Taylor (1993, 1994) see the presence of a cult of the sun which was absorbed by Yahwism in Israel and Judah, but especially in Jerusalem, in order to describe Yahweh as judge and protector of world order and to lend legitimation to the status of the king. John Day (1985) and Carola Kloos (1986) both conclude that the imagery of Yahweh's conflict with the primordial sea was very significant in Israel's pre-exilic religion and that it reflects extensive Canaanite beliefs which became integral to Yahwism. Ernest Nicholson (pp. 191-217) perceives that Israelite religion grew out of the Canaanite religious milieu as a zealous monolatry arose which evolved into a strict monotheism, and this was spearheaded by eighth century prophets. Susan Ackerman (1989; 1992; 1993) concludes that Asherah worship, fertility rites, child sacrifice, the cult of the dead, and the worship of several deities were practiced commonly as a normal part of Yahweh religion and that necromancy, child sacrifice, and fertility rites endured into the post-exilic era. Axel Knauf (1991) believes El was superior to Yahweh until Hosea, Jeremiah was the first monotheist, and only in the post-exilic period did Jews become monotheistic. Frederick Cryer's (1994) study on ancient Near Eastern and Israelite divination concludes that magic and divination in Israel were indigenous and commonly practiced rather than foreign imports, as claimed by the Deuteronomistic Historians. Finally, there are many general studies and overviews of Israelite religion and history which increasingly assume that polytheism was the natural piety of Israel until the monolatry of the Deuteronomic Reformers and the monotheism of Second Isaiah. These works mention that Yahwism was really another form of West-Semitic religion (Angerstorfer; Jaros; Jeppesen; Hossfeld; Miller, pp. 207-12; Hutter; Weippert; Berlinerblau).

Critical scholars now stress that in the future we ought to stress the continuity that Israelite religion had with Canaanite culture (Reventlow; Rose; Dever 1983; 1987; 1990, pp. 119-66; Schmidt, pp. 1-4, 138-40, 171-84; Miller; Coogan; Holladay; Lohfink 1987; Peckham; Flanagan, pp. 251-57; Hendel; Berlinerblau). Some further maintain that we must assess critically our definitions of monotheism in Israel as well as our characterization of its emergence both in theory and in our pedagogical literature (Halpern 1987; Petersen; Fishbane, pp. 49-63; Dearman, pp. 35-50). Michael Coogan (pp. 115-16) proposes that we consider biblical religion as a subset of Israelite religion and Israelite religion as a subset of Canaanite religion', so that the biblical faith may be seen as a 'reconstruction' out of the matrix of Canaanite religion. In particular, some scholars have acknowledged significant connections between Yahwism and the religion of the Edomites, who may have worshipped the same god as the Israelites (Bartlett 1977; 1978; Rose; Ahlström, pp. 58-60). The Deir 'Alla inscription from an eighth century Transjordanian site may reflect a form of Yahwism on the periphery of Israelite settlement (Dijkstra). These suggestions reflect the paradox upon which biblical scholars should build in the future. The religion of the biblical text has far greater continuity with the ancient world than we have acknowledged in the past, yet at the same time it reflects a sophisticated evolutionary advance over the religion of pre-exilic Israel.

In conclusion, critical scholars observe the following: 1) Israelite religion was part of a family of national cults found in and around Palestine, in which Yahweh was merely the national high god. 2) Biblical religion is a subsequent interpretation of the broader polytheistic pre-exilic Yahwism, created by exilic and post-exilic priestly and prophetically inspired theologians. 3) Biblical religion demonstrates a significant evolutionary advance because of its conscious formulation by those theologians, even though it used the beliefs of the earlier religious phenomena.

Despite these newer models which locate emergence monotheism later in Jewish history, the clarity with which monotheism and its related values appear still impresses the students of intellectual and religious history. In the Bible monotheistic faith is a revolutionary breakthrough or culmination of the evolutionary intellectual and religious advance over the ages. The emergence of monotheism in the Jewish Babylonian Exile or post-exilic period reflects not only the final stage of six centuries of pre-exilic Israelite religious speculation but perhaps in some way the contributions of nameless thinkers from the ancient Near East for millennia.

*This essay is an abridged and revised version of chapter 2 of my No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 241, Sheffield, JSOT Press, 1997, pp. 62-128.

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Robert Gnuse is Full Professor of Old Testament at Loyola University in New Orleans, LA. He received degrees from Vanderbilt University (Ph.D. 1980, M.A. 1978) and Concordia Seminary in Exile (S.T.M. 1975, M.Div. 1974). He most recently has authored No Other Gods (Sheffield, JSOT 1997), Dreams and Dream Reports in the Writings of Josephus (Ledien, Brill, 1996), and The Jewish Roots of Christian Faith (New Orleans, Loyola University Press, 1994). He is married (Beth) and they have three children (Becky, Jake, and Adam).