Ancient Israelite Religion Lecture Sept. 27 – Outline
Judaism Today
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How would you characterize it? What words come to mind?
Some Important Terms
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Polytheism:
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Monotheism:
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Monolatry (also henotheism):
Ancient Israelite Religion (two slides)
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Earliest religions all polytheistic
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Israelite religion developed from Canaanite religion
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Who/what is YHWH?
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Difficult to reconstruct
Polytheism in the Bible (two slides)
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Comparison of Deuteronomy 32:8-9 in different manuscripts: “sons of God” versus “sons
of Israel”
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Psalm 89:6: “Who among the sons of the gods is like YHWH?”
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Divine council
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Examples:
o Genesis 1:26: “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness”
o Genesis 3:22: “Then YHWH God said, “See, the man has become like one of us,
knowing good and evil”
Polytheism in Israelite Practice
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What does the Bible criticize people for doing?
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Worship of Baal and Asherah
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Jeremiah 7:18: “The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead
dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other
gods”
Did YHWH have a wife?
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Asherah as wife of El and later Baal—also YHWH?
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Inscriptions from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud and Khirbet el-Qom, 800-750 BCE: “I bless you by
YHWH and by his Asherah”
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Altar to Asherah in the Temple
Centralization vs. Local Religion
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Centralized: (who can perform cultic activities, where, with what?)
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Local: (who can perform cultic activities, where, with what?)
Monolatry in the Bible
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YHWH is Israel’s god, other nations have other gods
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“You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3)
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Covenant