Poor Evidence for
Biblical Monotheism
The most
familiar texts that emphasize that Israelites must worship only one God provide
no data regarding this question. “You shall have no other gods besides Me,”
Yhwh tells the Israelites as the opening of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20.3).
Is this because the other gods have no power, or is it simply because Yhwh,
having liberated the Israelites from Egypt, has first claim on the Israelites’
religious affections? The text gives absolutely no information that would allow
us to answer this question one way of the other. Other texts seem at first
place to support the idea that the Israelites were monotheistic, but they
provide no real support when viewed in their own cultural context. “Who is like
you among the gods, Yhwh? How is like you, exalted in holiness, acknowledged as
awesome, performing wonders?” Moses and the Israelites sing at the shore of the
Reed Sea (Exodus 15.11; cf. 1 Kings 8.23; Isaiah 40.18; Jeremiah 10.6-7; Psalms
35.10, 71.19, 89.9). Such a verse sounds tailor made to answer our question,
because it insists on an essential distinction between Yhwh and all other
heavenly beings. Indeed, this line appears in various forms of Jewish liturgy
(e.g., in the blessing after the Shema in the morning and evening
services in rabbinic liturgy; in the Songs of Praise [Hoyadot] from
Qumran 1 QH 7:28), where it can be said to function in a genuinely monotheistic
manner. But a line like this does not always function that way. Other ancient peoples
called a variety of gods incomparable. Language of this sort appears with great
frequency throughout Sumerian and Akkadian liturgical texts. This is the case
not only in prayers to the heads of pantheons such as Ashur in Assyria and
Marduk in Babylon but to other deities as well:
[O lord,
ra]diance of the great gods, light of the earth, illuminator of the
world regions,
[O Shamash], lofty judge, creator of the above and below,
. . .
You alone are [mani]fest, no one among the gods can rival you.
(An Assyrian hymn to Shamash)
I implore
you, lady of ladies, goddess of goddesses,
Ishtar, queen of all the inhabited world . . .
Irnini [=Inanna], you are noble, the greatest of the Igigi-gods, . . .
O Mistress, splendid is your greatness, exalted over all the gods.
(A neo-Babylonian prayer to Ishtar)
Warrior
among his brothers, princely god,
Lord surpassing all the Igigi-gods,
Nergal, princely god.
Lord surpassing all the Igigi-gods!
(An Akkadian prayer to Nergal)
My lady,
your divine powers are great divine powers, surpassing [(other) divine powers],
Nanshe, your divine powers are not matched by any other divine powers.
King An looks on with joy.
He who sits with Enlil on the dais of destiny determination,
Father Enlil, has determined your destiny.
(An early second-millennium Sumerian hymn)
A god might
have been called the greatest or the only god because at a particular moment
that god was of paramount importance to the worshipper. Alternatively, prayers
might indulge in exaggeration and flattery. The Mesopotamian scribes who composed
these verses and the worshippers who recited them were perfectly ready to say
the same thing about another god the next day. Indeed, the hymn to Shamash was
composed for the eighth-century king of Assyria, Assurbanipal, but that king
did not hesitate also to call Nabu unparalleled among the gods:
[I sin]g
your praise, O Nabu, among the great gods. . . . I keep turning to you, O most
valorous of the gods his brethren.
It goes without
saying, of course, that Assurbanipal’s primary loyalty was directed to neither
of these two gods but to Assyria’s own deity, Ashur. (Benjamin D. Sommer, The
Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel [Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2009], 160-61)
Further Reading:
