WI: Polytheistic Judaism survives?

So as I'm sure many of you know, it is theorized that at one point the Jews were polytheistic or at least henotheistic. The Hebrew Bible is apparently littered with references to "other gods":

http://jewishatheist.blogspot.ca/2008/05/repost-ancient-judaism-was-polytheistic.html?m=1

Now despite the dominance of Judaism, Christianity and Islam some ancient Middle Eastern religions managed to survive to present day (e.g.: Samaritanism, Yazidi, etc).

With that in mind, what would be the impact of a polytheistic form of Judaism surviving somewhere until the present day? And I don't mean just "we accept other gods might exist, but our G-d is best", I mean like worshiping the "Queen of Heaven" alongside YHWH as his consort type of thing.

P.S. some additional questions for fun:

A - where do you think this polytheistic Judaism is most likely to survive/least likely to get wiped out?
B - how do you envision the religion would look like? Just what gods in addition to YHWH and his consort are likely to be worshiped?
 
You probably need POD before Assyrian invasion to Israel. So things are very unrecognsible. Best change might be if some Jews move away from Israel before or during Assyrian invasion to Arabia or Egypt. But I am not sure that could they survive or merge they into local societies.
 
One PoD could be when they take the holy scriptures out of the temple and present them to the king, who the abolishes all the polytheistic practices that had been going on until then.

Say that we have another set of holy writ being presented, that endorses polytheism, and then Judaism today would be polytheistic. That does not necessarily change very much, apart from the identities in the pantheon, so we could still have messianic Christianity come about.

What would Islam look like then? "There are no gods and goddesses but the sacred Eight, and Mohammad is their Prophet."
 
Polytheistic Christianity sounds logical enough to solve the problem of Trinity, who in turn could make Christianity and Islam just get minor difference in a god...
 
It would have died out long ago. Polytheistic societies commonly saw conquest as a sign that the conquerors' tutelary deities were more powerful than the their enemies', or that the conquerors enjoyed the special favour of the gods. Judaism was really quite unique at the time in claiming that the conquering Assyrian and Babylonian armies were instruments of God's retribution for Israel's sins, a view which in turn arose from their monotheistic beliefs. Absent this, they'd probably have converted to Babylonian polytheism during the Captivity, and would now be remembered simply as one more minor nation that got swallowed up by its neighbours.
 
It would have died out long ago. Polytheistic societies commonly saw conquest as a sign that the conquerors' tutelary deities were more powerful than the their enemies', or that the conquerors enjoyed the special favour of the gods. Judaism was really quite unique at the time in claiming that the conquering Assyrian and Babylonian armies were instruments of God's retribution for Israel's sins, a view which in turn arose from their monotheistic beliefs. Absent this, they'd probably have converted to Babylonian polytheism during the Captivity, and would now be remembered simply as one more minor nation that got swallowed up by its neighbours.

Not entierly likely as we have such related cases as the Egyptians largely worshipping their own gods rather then the Assyrian, Iranian, Macedonian, and Roman gods when they were conquered. Infact one could say Isis conquered much of the Roman Empire from Alexandria to London considering the widespread nature of her blessed cult.
 
Not entierly likely as we have such related cases as the Egyptians largely worshipping their own gods rather then the Assyrian, Iranian, Macedonian, and Roman gods when they were conquered. Infact one could say Isis conquered much of the Roman Empire from Alexandria to London considering the widespread nature of her blessed cult.

True, but then again none of the conquests of Egypt were anything like as traumatic as the Babylonian Captivity was.
 
The best bet for this is the Jewish community that use the Temple of Yahweh on Elephantine Island somehow surviving as an intact cult perhaps moving south a bit.
 
Actually what might be interesting is if Polytheist Judaism and Monotheistic Judaism both survived.

How would this happen you ask? Well if during one of the invasions of Israel (most likely the Babylonian one) the Polytheist Jews left and established a new home for themselves on the African coast.

The so-called 'Lost Tribes of Israel' are considered lost by the Monotheists due to their pagan ways, but the polytheists retain their customs and more importantly their histories, a direct challenge to the Monotheists take on the Tanakh and Torah.

The Poly-jews (I can't think of a cool name for them right now) build their parallel civilization and when both sides fall under Alexander's and later Roman rule they are both forced to confront the past. Even as new Messianic movements emerge, and the Romans try to push the Mono-Jews into embracing the religion of their cousins.
 
You probably need POD before Assyrian invasion to Israel. So things are very unrecognsible. Best change might be if some Jews move away from Israel before or during Assyrian invasion to Arabia or Egypt. But I am not sure that could they survive or merge they into local societies.

Yeah. The theory I've heard is that the ancient Jews were polytheistic at the time, and turned to their storm god, Yahweh, for assistance, and he came to supplant all the other gods, including the "main" god, El.

It makes sense, the god of the Old Testament being the storm god, what with how pissed off he is all the time.
 
Actually what might be interesting is if Polytheist Judaism and Monotheistic Judaism both survived.

How would this happen you ask? Well if during one of the invasions of Israel (most likely the Babylonian one) the Polytheist Jews left and established a new home for themselves on the African coast.

Or in North America. ;)
 
Er, that's what I was going for in the OP. With monotheism dominating but the poly-jews surviving as minorities like Samaritanism & Yazidi did OTL.

I thought you just wanted Poly-Judaism to survive.

What I had in mind would put them on an equal footing (more or less). And serve as a reminder for the Mono-Jews (and possible Christian and Muslim off-shoots) that not everybody agrees with the official line.
 
I thought you just wanted Poly-Judaism to survive.
I did. Figured that having it survive as a minority religion would be easier.
What I had in mind would put them on an equal footing (more or less). And serve as a reminder for the Mono-Jews (and possible Christian and Muslim off-shoots) that not everybody agrees with the official line.
LOL. As if the Big Three weren't 'reminded' of the fact by all the heathens they converted by hook and by crook over the centuries.

They'd probably say poly-jews are just heretics and call it a day.
 
I did. Figured that having it survive as a minority religion would be easier.
LOL. As if the Big Three weren't 'reminded' of the fact by all the heathens they converted by hook and by crook over the centuries.

They'd probably say poly-jews are just heretics and call it a day.

Yes, but in more modern times the critics of the 'big three' would have a lot more ammo in their attacks on the foundations of their religions.

"One God? Ha! There are still people who worship Yahweh the same way the Greeks worshiped Zeus! And he's got a wife. Now what were you saying about the whole 'jealous god' bit again?"
 
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