The Origins of Biblical Monotheism Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts

by Smith, Mark S.

• ISBN13: 9780195134803
• ISBN10: 019513480X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-08-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

According to the Bible, ancient Israel's neighbors worshipped a wide variety of gods. In recent years, scholars have sought a better understanding of this early polytheistic milieu and its relation to Yahweh, the God of Israel. Drawing on ancient Ugaritic texts and looking closely at Ugariticdeities, Mark Smith examines the meaning of "divinity" in the ancient near East and considers how this concept applies to Yahweh.

Author Biography

Mark S. Smith is Skirball Professor of Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at New York University. His publications include The Pilgrimage Pattern in Exodus (1997), The Ugaritic Baal Cycle (1994), The Early History of God (1990), as well as several other books on the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and West Semitic mythology and literature.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations, Terms, and Sigla	xv
Introduction	3	(3)
The Scope of This Study	6	(4)
Issues in Discussing Monotheism and Polytheism	10	(4)
Problems with the Term ``Canaanite''	14	(4)
More Cautionary Notes: Literature, History, Theology, Myth	18	(9)
PART I THE STRUCTURES OF DIVINITY
Anthropomorphic Deities and Divine Monsters	27	(14)
Place: Near, Foreign, and Far	28	(2)
Blessing at Home and Abroad versus Destruction	30	(2)
Animals: Domesticated versus Monsters	32	(1)
The Head God and His Beloved Monsters	33	(3)
Israelite Cosmic Enemies Tamed and Denied	36	(5)
The Divine Council	41	(13)
The Language of Council	41	(2)
The Assemblies of El and Baal	43	(2)
The Divine Council and Its Four Tiers	45	(2)
Israel and the Tiers of the Pantheon	47	(7)
The Divine Family	54	(13)
The Four Tiers of the Divine Household	54	(4)
The Royal Patriarchal Household as Model for the Pantheon	58	(3)
The Astral Background of El's Family in Ugaritic and Israelite Literatures and Baal's Outsider Status	61	(6)
Pluralities, Pairings, and Other Divine Relations	67	(16)
Baal, Resheph, Yahweh, and Their Retinues	67	(1)
Dead Rephaim and Kings, and the Power of Death in Life	68	(2)
Pairings: Making Associations	70	(2)
Divine Possession and the Problem of Yahweh and His Consort	72	(2)
Re-presentation of Divinity: Athtart as the ``Name of Baal''	74	(2)
Divinized Qualities of Deities	76	(1)
Extension of Divinity: Cultic Places and Things	77	(1)
Afterword: The Conceptual Unity of Ugaritic Polytheism	77	(6)
PART II CHARACTERISTICS OF DIVINITY
The Traits of Deities	83	(21)
Strength and Size	83	(3)
Body and Gender	86	(7)
Holiness	93	(4)
Immortality	97	(5)
Postscript: Divine and Human Life (Or, My Breakfast with Shulamit)	102	(2)
The Life and Death of Baal	104	(31)
Frazer's Hypothesis about ``Dying and Rising Gods''	105	(3)
Problems with the Category	108	(2)
The So-Called Dying and Rising Gods	110	(10)
Foundations for a Theory of Baal's Death and Return to Life	120	(8)
The Conceptual Ideology in Baal's Life and Death	128	(2)
The Mythology of Death and the God of Israel	130	(5)
PART III THE ORIGINS OF MONOTHEISM IN THE BIBLE
El, Yahweh, and the Original God of IsraEL and the Exodus	135	(14)
El in the Bronze Age	135	(2)
El in Iron Age Phoenicia	137	(2)
El in Iron Age Aram and Transjordan	139	(1)
El in Iron Age Israel	139	(3)
Was El Israel's Original God?	142	(3)
The Question of Yahweh's Original Character	145	(1)
Was El the Original God of the Exodus?	146	(3)
The Emergence of Monotheistic Rhetoric in Ancient Judah	149	(18)
Defining Monotheism	151	(3)
The Relative Infrequency and Rhetorical Purpose of Monotheistic Statements	154	(1)
The Prior Context of Judean Discourse about Divinity	155	(2)
The National God and Royal Ideology	157	(6)
The Social and Historical Context of Monotheism	163	(4)
The Formation of Monotheistic Theologies in Biblical Literature	167	(12)
Creation, Paradise, and the Priesthood	167	(5)
Wisdom and the Levites	172	(1)
Apocalyptic Literature: The Case of Daniel 7	173	(1)
From ``Canaanite Myth'' to Biblical Monotheism?	173	(6)
Monotheism in Isaiah 40--55	179	(16)
The Polemical Context of Isaiah 40--55	180	(2)
The Outsider Context (Polemic)	182	(6)
Insider Referentiality and Isaiah 44	188	(5)
Reading for Monotheism	193	(2)
Notes	195	(108)
Indexes of Texts	303	(8)
Texts from Ugarit	303	(3)
Biblical Citations	306	(3)
Other Texts	309	(2)
Index of Subjects	311