Commenting
on Exodus 20:3, J.R. Dummelow, himself a Trinitarian and advocate of strict
ontological monotheism wrote:
Before me] RM ‘beside me.’ Monotheism is
implied rather than expressly enunciated here. It was only gradually that
Israel rose to the truth that there is but one God. Israel was led to this
truth along the way of practice. (J.R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible [London: Macmillan and Co., 1909], 67)
In other
words, according to Dummelow, strict ontological monotheism, which is an
essential doctrine (and an essential “building block” of Trinitarian dogma) was
a slow, gradual development in Old Testament times(!)
In reality,
however, the text assumes the ontological existence of other deities. For more,
see, for e.g.: