On
rare occasions, a so-called intolerant henotheism was imposed. In this case,
worship of lesser gods was prohibited, and the patron god alone received
worship. Some researchers call this intolerant henotheism a monolatry, which
means ‘worship of only one’. Many portions of the Bible express monolatry.
For example, when Yahweh declares that he is a jealous god who banishes all
other gods from his presence, the author of this commandment does not deny that
other gods exist but prohibits worship of them (Deut. 5.7-10). Likewise, when
Micah announces that other kingdoms will walk ‘each in the name of its god’,
but Israel will walk in the name of Yahweh, Micha does not deny other gods
might be real (Mic. 4.5). In the New Testament, John of Patmos believes in the
existence of an angel and desires to worship this messenger god, but the angel
insists on monolatry (Rev. 19.9-10; 22.8-9). The apostle Paul presumes that the
gods of the Roman people exist, but he judges them to be evil gods rather than
good gods (1 Cor. 10.20-21) and insists that Christians should affirm monolatry
(1 Cor. 8.5-6).
Many
Jews and Christians today believe that the Bible expresses monotheism, but this
is not correct unless one defines monotheism to include any number of minor
supernatural agents. Angels, demons and minor supernatural beings are abundant in
the Bible (Gen. 3.24; Lev. 16.6-10; Judg. 13.3; Isa. 6.2-3; 27.1; Zech. 3.1-5,
to name a few). Genuine monotheism, defined as denial of all supernatural
agents but one, occurs only here and there in a handful of biblical verses (e.g.
Deut. 4.35; Isa. 45.5). More commonly, the Bible assumes that its god is a
patron who rules over a pantheon of lesser supernatural agents (e.g. Deut.
10.17; Ps. 29.1). Biblical storytellers who had no interest in (or perhaps no
knowledge of) a monotheistic doctrine wrote about other gods without embarrassment
(e.g. Judg. 11.24). The Jewish Bible offers a representative example of a conventional
ancient Near Eastern patron-god henotheism. (K. L. Noll, “The Patron God in the
Ancient Near East,” in Patronage in Ancient Palestine and in the Hebrew
Bible: A Reader, ed. Emanuel Pfoh [The Social World of Biblical Antiquity—Second
Series 12; Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2022], 45-46)
