Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Robert Goldenberg on the Incomparability of Yahweh to Other gods

 

 

Confidence in YHWH’s superior power is also reflected in the many biblical narratives built around the theme of competition between YHWH and his competitors [55]. This rivalry is in particular the central motif of the story of the Exodus from Egypt, perhaps the most important biblical narrative of all. The story begins with Pharaoh’s contemptuous remark that he does not even know who YHWH is (Exod 5:2) and the repeatedly stated purpose of the plagues that follow is that the Egyptians should learn from them “that I am the LORD” (Exod 7:5; 8:18; 14:18) or that “there is none like the LORD our god” (Exod 8:6). The Egyptian magicians, surrogates for YHWH’s Egyptian rivals, eventually absorb this painful lesson; at first (7:10-12) they can match without difficulty the tricks that Moses and Aaron perform, but finally, with the plague of lice (8:14), they can no longer keep up with the growing challenge. The theme is ceaselessly reiterated. The triumphal song of Moses explicitly denies (15:11) that there is any like YHWH “among the gods” [56], YHWH’s actions in Egypt are twice (Exod 12:12; Num 33:4) described as his execution of judgment against the gods of Egypt [57], and Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, reacts to Moses’ recounting of his adventures by saying that “now” he knows that YHWH is greater than all the gods (Exod 18:11). This last instance, with its acknowledgement by a non-Israelite listener of YHWH’s invincible power, serves to confirm that the Exodus established the superiority of Israel’s god from its very emergence as a nation [58].

 

Such constant denigration of other gods’ potency eventually comes to sound like a refusal to consider them gods at all; deeply inferior to YHWH, they are unworthy of being placed with him in the same category at all [59]. Several texts skirt the line between belittling the gods of the nations and rejecting their divinity altogether. A key phrase in the Exodus story (Exod 9:14, 16) can be understood to claim that there is none like YHWH either “in the land” (that is , the land of Egypt) or “in the earth” (that is, the whole world). A similar ambiguity attends to the Chronicler’s report that a prophet in the days of King Asa (early ninth century BCE) rebuked Israel for going too long without “the [or a] true god” (‘elohei ‘emet; 2 Chr 15:3). At the time of the Chronicler this charge would presumably have reflected the belief that all gods other than YHWH is “true” to his followers in a way that other gods cannot be trusted to duplicate [60]. Also to be noted in this connection is the claim that “the gods of the nations are idols but the LORD made the heavens” (Ps 96:4-5 = 1 Chr 16:25-26; Ps 97:7) and Jeremiah’s frequent designation of YHWH’s rivals as “no-gods” (Jer 2:11; 5:7; 16:20) [61]. (Robert Goldenberg, The Nations that Knew Thee Not: Ancient Jewish Attitudes Towards Other Religions [Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997], 20-21 [notes found on pp. 117-19])

 

Notes for the Above

 

[55] McKenzie (1968), lxiv-lxv denies the reality of such competition. Writing of Israel prior to the time of Second Isaiah, he claims that during this earlier period

 

Israel was monotheistic in the sense not only that it worshiped no god but Yahweh, but that it took no account of any other god. Earlier books of the Old Testament do not reflect an idea of Yahweh as a god who is stronger than his competitors; Yahweh has no competitors. The absence of any explicit denials of the reality of other gods implies that their reality was not accepted even as working hypothesis. The cult of other gods is rejected in the Old Testament not only as an offense to Yahweh, but as an irrational action.

 

The present chapter, however, is full of evidence refuting this position. McKenzie’s final assertion is correct, but for reasons precisely opposite the ones he proposes. This competition between YHWH and his rivals was often indistinguishable from that of the Israelites themselves with their neighbors.

 

[56] Modern translations of this verse vary widely. Most recent Christian translations (RSV, NED, REB, etc.)  translate ‘elim literally, as in the text here. The new Jewish Publication Society translation, however, has “among the celestials,” with “the mighty” in a footnote as an alternate. According to Sarna )1989), 79, in the JPS commentary that now accompanies this translation, “it needs to be emphasized that [the term] cannot be interpreted literally to imply recognition of the existence of divinities other than the one God,” but the issue throughout the Exodus story is not the existence of other gods but their impotence, an issue that entirely loses its sing of the other gods are not even real. Speaking of this same passage, Levenson (1985), 59 correctly observes that “one can deny the reality of the other gods [in this context] only by depriving a moving hymn of its power”; only extrinsic theological considerations might justify such a move. See his further comments on 60. Without explaining the difference, in Ps 29:1; 89:7-9; 138:1; and Job 1:6 the new JPS translation more forthrightly renders similar phrases as “divine beings.”

 

[57] The prophet Ezekiel, using the same phrase, repeatedly speaks of YHWH’s executing judgment, but always against human evildoers, never against their gods. See Ezek 5:10, 15; 11:9; 16:41; 25:11; 28:22, 26; 30:14, 19. In the last-cited chapter, however, he does not include the destruction of the gods of Egypt as one of the features of a general devastation of Egypt that the Babylonians will shortly unleash.

 

[58] The picture of a foreigner learning and openly acknowledging the power of Israel’s god is central as well to some of the stories in Daniel, the latest book in the Hebrew caon; see in particularly the unfolding of the stories in Daniel 3 and 6, and note the probably contemporary story of Heliodorus in 2 Macc 3:35-36. This theme clearly reappears as well in Jeremiah’s taunting invitation to the worshipers of other gods to rely if they wish on their powers to save (Jer 2:27028; see also Isa 42:17), and see the previous discussion of the stories of Rahab and Naaman.

 

Two other texts, however, are less certain in their meaning. In YHWH’s confident assurance (Isa 42:8) that he will never “yield [his] glory to another,” the intention may be to reassure Israel that YHWH will never let the nation worshiping) another god overcome them, but one cannot be certain of this interpretation; Kaufmann and others going back as far as Kimhi have preferred to read the verse as expressing YHWH’s refusal to share the exalted title “god” with any other. Similarly, Mic 5:13[14] connects YHWH’s impending removal of Israel’s pagan shrines with the destruction of her cities, as though Israel’s reliance on other deities had caused the withdrawal of his protection, but there is widespread agreement (see the commentaries) that the text requires emendation in a manner that removes this link. . . .

 

Philo of Alexandria that the biblical passages comparing YHWH to the other gods by implication recognize those gods’ existence and legitimize their worship; for this reason he called Jethro a blasphemer for daring to compare the incomparable (Ebr. 43). This problem is not obviated by the mocking tone such passages normally adopt; they still call the idols “gods,” their clergy “priests,” and so on . . .

 

[59] On this link between the “need to discredit the gods” and the denial of their existence, see also Levenson (1985), 67.

 

[60] The latter meaning is almost certainly intended in Isa 65:16, which calls YHWH “true gods” (‘elohei amen), apparently in the sense that YHWH’s word can safely be affirmed. See also 1 kgs 8:23 = 2 Chr 6:14 (Solomon’s dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem), Amos 2:4 (the people of Judah are said to have despised the Instruction of YHWH and allowed themselves to be misled by their “delusions” or “deceptions” instead) . . .

 

[61] See also Jer 3:9; Hab 2:18-19; Ps 115:4-8; 135:1, 5-18. The latter texts connect the lifelessness of pagan cult objects to the futility of relying on pagan deities. Noting that Deut 32:21 calls YHWH’s rivals “no-gods” and Israel’s rivals “no-peoples,” Levenson (1975), 215n7 observes that neither designation denies the actual existence of the entity so described: “they are illegitimate, but still extant.” Levenson does acknowledge (ibid.) that passages elsewhere in Deuteronomy “deny . . . the reality of other divine personalities” altogether.