During my freshman year in college, around 2005, I was a bit interested in cultural anthropology and archaeology. I still have a copy of The Baal Epic that I found online. A fragmented translation from the Ras Shamra tablets.
A few years ago I came across an episode of Nova on PBS called The Bible's Buried Secrets. I was immediately intrigued by the objective viewpoint it presented of ancient Israelite history.
Here I will attempt to give my own assessment of the evidence uncovered by archaeologists, anthropologists, and scholars on the subject of how monotheism developed among the Jews. How comparative religion and various cultural memes show the Canaanite origins of many ideas expressed in the Hebrew Bible.
In order to understand ancient Israel one must understand Canaanite religion and culture. After all, the Hebrews were in fact a Canaanite people and Hebrew is the only surviving Canaanite language in the world today.
What exactly do we know about the Canaanites?
We know from the Bible and from archaeological evidence that they were polytheists who worshiped many gods and goddesses.
How this may have eventually developed into monotheism is discussed in Nova's: The Bible's Buried Secrets and by well-known Yale University professor, Christine Hayes, whose videos and lectures on the subject can be seen on YouTube and various other social media sites.
An interesting fact to note is that the Canaanites worshiped an Almighty god at the head of the pantheon of gods. His name was El or Bull El. Also known as El Shaddai or El Elyon--the same names used for God in the Old Testament. He was the father of the gods. The other gods--in sources such as the Baal Epic--often seek council from father El. So it seems El was the head of the heavenly council and the other gods adhered to his wisdom. El also means might or strength according to the Bible dictionary.
Was this god the same God found in the Bible? It would seem so. The evidence surely appears to point in this direction. The Bible often refers to God as head of a heavenly council.
In the first part of the Old Testament or Torah we can see that El Shaddai or God Almighty was worshiped by the Hebrew patriarch Abraham. It is interesting to note that God or El was a god of the patriarchs. Archaeological evidence shows that the goddess Asherah was also widely worshiped in ancient Israel and Judah before the Babylonian exile of the Jews. Asherah was El's wife in Canaanite myth. The Hebrews eventually came to identify El with Yahweh and (as shown in The Bible's Buried Secrets) inscriptions have been uncovered by archaeologists that read: ...Yahweh and His Asherah.
The word Elohim is plural--as is any Hebrew word ending in 'im' if you know even a lick of Hebrew. The Canaanites used the word Elohim for their gods. It later came to be used by many Christians and Jews as merely a plural name signifying the Almighty.
From the evidence we can therefore conclude that the Israelites worshiped many of the same gods worshiped by the Canaanite/Phoenician people to the north (primarily El, Baal, and Asherah) and that they went from being polytheistic to being henotheistic or monolatristic (whichever term you believe is more accurate) to being monotheists.
The idea that Israel was henotheistic can be seen in verses from the Bible itself:
Exodus 15:11- Who is like unto thee, Yahweh, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Exodus 22:28 reads: Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of your people.
Even more compelling. Genesis 1:26- Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness...
In Exodus Chapter 20 he commands: 'Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me' and 'I, the Lord your God, am a Jealous God...'
Jealous of what? Jealous of other gods? If other gods don't exist in your world then why be jealous? Makes little sense.
If you actually take time to read the Bible with an open mind you'll quickly find out that it's very henotheistic in much of its wording. Aside from a select verse of scripture here and there that appears to insist that God is the only god, it's a henotheistic book.
It now becomes clear that some concepts in the Old Testament weren't merely memes borrowed from surrounding cultures but that monotheism evolved from an older Canaanite religion that existed in Israel before the Bible was written down.
One interesting Biblical figure is Shamgar, son of Anath, who was a judge in Israel. Son of Anath may have been a royal title since Anath is a deity.
The Canaanite god of death and sterility was referred to as Mot and as Maveth in Hebrew. His name means Death. It is curious that the word Death is sometimes capitalized in the Bible.
One can also conclude from the names of cities in Israel (aside from Bethel meaning house of God) such as Bethshemesh (meaning House of Shemesh, who was the sun deity) that city states in early Israel or Canaan had a primary deity. A few other prominent cities mentioned in the Bible that bear the names of other deities are Beth-horon (house of the underworld war god Horon) and Bethanath (named for the fertility goddess of war and the hunt, Anath.) One can conclude from the names of these cities and from the Biblical text that certain cities had primary deities that they worshiped much like in ancient Greece and Phoenicia. For example, in 2 Kings 1:2-16 we learn about how Baal-zebub, often called Beelzebub or Lord of the Flies, was chief god of Ekron. Ahaziah, in desperation, turns to him as a god of healing after falling ill.
Another interesting thing to note is that Yahweh (Jehovah) was a Hebrew war god. He was sometimes called Yahweh Sabaoth, god of the armies. No wonder Yahweh is so warlike in many parts of the Old Testament.
It is believed now by some archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians that monotheism never completely took hold until the Babylonian Exile when a new religion, Judaism, was developed in order to preserve the religious and cultural identity of the Hebrews in exile. Based on the evidence we have this appears to be the most pragmatic theory to date.
On a side note Yahweh was also the national god of the Hebrews much like Chemosh was the nation god of Moab and Molech was the national god of Ammon.
So the Judeo-Christian monotheism we have today may well have evolved from monolatrist polytheism. It's an interesting theory. One shared by many prominent archaeologists, anthropologists, professors and scholars today. The worship of Yahweh above other gods was an act of a culture trying desperately to survive in the midst of foreign rule and captivity.
Perhaps Jews have been hated throughout history because of this resilient fervor to preserve their identity and avoid assimilation by foreign tyrants. Fascists tend to be intolerant of other cultures.
This is what archaeology has uncovered about ancient Israel. Please keep an open mind and glean from it what you will.
To learn more please watch Nova's: The Bible's Buried Secrets or listen to a lecture from any revered or well read professor, anthropologist, or archaeologist on the subject. Also, feel free to examine the evidence for yourself and draw your own conclusions about the development of modern monotheism in Judaism and Christianity.
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