Very Early Hebrew Monotheism

Judaism has come down to us today as a exclusively monotheistic religion. But there are some indications that it was not always that way.

--The Ten Commandments begins, not with, for example, something like Islam's affirmative statement that "There is no God but Allah," but with the much less definitive, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; you shall have no other gods before me."

--There have been archaelogical finds in which the Hebrew God, YHWH, is associated with a goddess, Asherah.

--There are, in the Bible, many allusions to and direct condemnations of the fact that other gods were being worshipped by the Hebrews along with YHWH.

The picture that emerges, when one really looks at the evidence for early Judaism, is that it was, in fact, henotheistic (i.e. one in which the Hebrews recognized the supremacy of one God, but did not deny the existence of others) rather than monotheistic. This seems to have changed sometime after the Babylonian Captivity, likely because of the experiences of the Captives while in exile.

But what if early Judaism (for lack of a better term for the religion of the early Hebrews) had been, from a very early date, strictly monotheistic. Say, instead of the version of the Ten Commandments which were passed down in OTL, Moses receives a version, the first verses of which are a much more clearcut pronouciation of God's uniqueness...

"I am the Lord thy God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. I am the One God, the Creator of the Universe and all who dwell therein, and there are no other gods except me. Thou shalt not worship other gods, as they are a deception, and to worship them is an insult unto your one true God."

As a result, Hebrew religion is exclusively monotheistic from that time forward. What might the impacts of this be on history?
 
Better yet, how about a world without the concepts of monotheism and universalism? These ideas, in my opinion, have caused mankind no end of grief, from religious intolerance and forced conversion to holy wars and mass extermination.
 
Better yet, how about a world without the concepts of monotheism and universalism? These ideas, in my opinion, have caused mankind no end of grief, from religious intolerance and forced conversion to holy wars and mass extermination.

You can start your own thread if you want, jacobus.

As for the POD, the very early monothiestic culture could still be swamped by polythiestic influences. This may even, given the butterfly effect, get rid of later Jewish monethiesm alltogether.
 
Probably the extinction of the Hebrews. The weren't alone in their world, but were competing with a number of other tribes in the region, as well as genuinely powerful city states and Empires. The Hebrews at their best were never more than a squabbling regional Kingdom of minimal significance.

Telling your neighbors you give prime allegiance to your own local God is one thing. Telling your neighbors that your God is the only true God, and their faiths are just crocks of demonic crap... well, that wins no friends or allies, doesn't open the door for much in the way of trade.
 
You can start your own thread if you want, jacobus.

Sorry! Didn't mean to be a hijacker. I'll do that.
 
Telling your neighbors you give prime allegiance to your own local God is one thing. Telling your neighbors that your God is the only true God, and their faiths are just crocks of demonic crap... well, that wins no friends or allies, doesn't open the door for much in the way of trade.
Although in OTL did the Hebrews have any friends or allies? :confused:
 

Hendryk

Banned
Although in OTL did the Hebrews have any friends or allies? :confused:
Cyrus did allow them to go home and practice their religion in peace. He might not have been so generous if he'd known that a central tenet of their religion, was that his is a demonic deception.
 
The usual theory is that despite bickering (nations have interests) with her neighbours, Israel (I'm willing to accept Solomon is historical) had friendly relations with Phoenicia, something reflected in Kings, and with Egypt and traded elsewhere. The destruction of Judah is often argued to be the result of Egyptian encouragement with the kings of Judah, given the traditional linkages with Egypt rather then Mesopotamian upstarts, betting on the wrong horse several times.

Jews (well proto-Jews) and foreign policy did not seem to get along in the ancient world; the Jewish successor states often create similar problems for themselves.
 
Although in OTL did the Hebrews have any friends or allies? :confused:

Plenty. Even if we discount the early accounts in Chronicles and Kings, they had the Egyptians and Tyre, Damascus, the Persians, the Romans and the Ptolemaians. Thing is, they didn't stay friends all the time. Especially the post-Maccabee Jewish state had a knack for getting into spats with allies.
 
Very intersting consideration, Robert!

First thing which comes to my mind:
What about the other points which had changed during the exylum:
The role of the temple? Is cult allowed on the "hills"?
What is the role of the Levites outside Jerusalem?
Possibly, but not necessarily, Judaism would have allowed for more
decentral cult - because there would be no need for suspicion of
worshipping other gods. This would , among many spiritual consequences,
relief the tension between the kingdoms Israel and Juda.
On the other hand, the exact opposite is also possible:
More unquestioned concentration on the temple.
Perhaps then Israel and Juda would never have split again after Solomon.
In particular, Babylonic Exylum would have started earlier ...


Probably the extinction of the Hebrews. [...]
Telling your neighbors you give prime allegiance to your own local God is one thing. Telling your neighbors that your God is the only true God, and their faiths are just crocks of demonic crap...

I don't agree.
First, I'd say preferring one god is one thing , and prohibiting the cult of the other is another; but the Jews already did the other thing.
Second, for many centuries later on, Jews would call other gods names, well,
semantically related to your suggestion.


As for the POD, the very early monothiestic culture could still be swamped by polythiestic influences. This may even, given the butterfly effect, get rid of later Jewish monethiesm alltogether.


???
 
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