outhouse

What ive learned and believe based on evidence, is that early Israelites from 1200 BC to 622 BC were strickly polytheistic and NOT henotheistic or monolotry.

before jumping on the polytheistic bandwagon, I do understand these people were multi cultural and deity belief was in a constant state of evolution.

many groups were honotheistic and monolotry, but not as a whole culture.


Worshipping a family of deities on a short list from the Canaanite pantheon, worship between El and Yahweh and Baal and Asherah changed with changing times.

While Karen Armstrong is not a scholar, her work on this evolution has been pretty decent in my book. [history of god]


I understand this is a vague view, but if someone would like to add to when they think the culture was henotheistic as a whole to yahweh, well i'm all ears

outhouse

Ive also found Thom Stark on board with this same view


yeesh you cant all agree with me LOL

Asherah wife to both El and Yahweh, Asherah queen of heaven!


come on put em up

Toto

Israelite polytheism is not all that controversial. You can find it in the Bible.

outhouse

understood

some people still want to claim henotheism with yaweh at the helm, early on.

I personaly dont see this evolution until after 622 BC

El was merged with Yahweh but you still had Asherah and Baal in the picture.

and im not sure when exactly when or what time period El was merged culturally with yahweh

Tenorikuma

The merger in normative Judaism (not that such a thing ever really existed) occurred around the time Genesis 14 — one of the latest passages in the Pentateuch and not found among the Dead Sea Scrolls — was interpolated to have Abraham explicitly equate El Elyon with Yahweh during his meeting with Melchisedec. But if Margaret Barker and other scholars of binitarianism are correct, many Jews never did conflate the two. Instead, there was a smooth transition into Christianity with its father and son deities.

outhouse

well that not how history shows us anything.

its a fact israelites worshipped El and Yahweh and Baal and Asherah

and later merged El into Yahweh and then redacted all the collections to ressemble a monotheistic belief due to Josiah being a strict Yahwist.


do you even klnow any of the early history at all?

John Kesler

outhouse, here is an old post that you may find of interest.

Tenorikuma

What evidence do we have that Josiah was a monotheist, which is not the same thing as a Yahwist?

There's no real monotheism in the Bible until second Isaiah.

outhouse

read and learn


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Isaiah

Two crises occurred between Proto-Isaiah and Deutero-Isaiah. The first was the late 7th century Deuteronomistic reform of official Judean religion under king Josiah, who banned many elements of the old polytheistic cult from the Temple

outhouse

thanks john

I already have a grasp that information, but theres always other details that neeed to be reread to sink in