The Early History of God

by Smith, Mark S.

• ISBN13: 9780802839725
• ISBN10: 080283972X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-01
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co

Summary

In this remarkable history of the development of monotheism, Mark S. Smith explains for the first time how Israel's religion evolved from a cult of Yahweh as a primary deity among many to a fully defined religion with Yahweh as sole god.

Repudiating the traditional view that Israel was fundamentally different in culture and religion from its Canaanite neighbors, this provocative book argues that Israelite religion developed, at least in part, from the religion of Canaan. Looking at a wide range of sources, Smith cogently demonstrates that Israelite religion was not an outright rejection of foreign, pagan gods but, rather, was the result of the establishment of a distinctly separate Israelite identity that included the recognition of a singular, universal deity.

Author Biography

Mark S. Smith is the Skirball Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at New York University.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the Second Edition	p. x
Preface to the Second Edition	p. xii
Recent Research on Deities	p. xii
Important Trends since 1990	p. xvi
Theoretical Challenges	p. xxii
Asherah/asherah Revisited	p. xxx
In Retrospect	p. xxxvi
Acknowledgments (First Edition)	p. xxxix
Abbreviations and Sigla	p. xlii
Introduction	p. 1
The Question of Understanding Israelite Religion	p. 1
Presuppositions in This Study	p. 14
Deities in Israel in the Period of the Judges	p. 19
Israel's "Canaanite" Heritage	p. 19
Yahweh and El	p. 32
Yahweh and Baal	p. 43
Yahweh and Asherah	p. 47
Convergence of Divine Imagery	p. 54
Convergence in Israelite Religion	p. 57
Israel and Its Neighbors	p. 60
Yahweh and Baal	p. 65
Baal Worship in Israel	p. 65
Imagery of Baal and Yahweh	p. 80
The Role of the Monarchy	p. 91
Excursus: Yahweh and Anat	p. 101
Yahweh and Asherah	p. 108
Distribution in the Biblical Record	p. 108
The Symbol of the Asherah	p. 111
The Inscriptional Evidence	p. 118
Asherah--An Israelite Goddess?	p. 125
The Assimilation of the Imagery of Asherah	p. 133
Excursus: Gender Language for Yahweh	p. 137
Yahweh and the Sun	p. 148
The Biblical Record	p. 148
The Role of the Monarchy	p. 153
The Assimilation of Solar Imagery	p. 158
Yahwistic Cultic Practices	p. 160
Yahwistic Cultic Symbols and Sites	p. 160
Practices Associated with the Dead	p. 162
The mlk Sacrifice	p. 171
The Origins and Development of Israelite Monotheism	p. 182
The Period of the Judges	p. 184
The First Half of the Monarchy	p. 185
The Second Half of the Monarchy	p. 189
The Exile	p. 191
Israelite Monotheism in Historical Perspective	p. 195
Postscript: Portraits of Yahweh	p. 200
Processes Leading to Divine Portraiture in Israel	p. 200
The Absence of Some Canaanite Divine Roles in the Biblical Record	p. 202
Indexes of Texts	p. 208
Biblical Citations	p. 208
Intertestamental Texts	p. 219
Post-Biblical Jewish References	p. 219
Texts from Ugarit	p. 219
Other Near Eastern Inscriptions	p. 221
Classical	p. 223
Index of Authors	p. 225
General Index	p. 238
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