Monday, June 17, 2024

Juha Pakkala on the Theology of the Earliest Strata of Deuteronomy Affirming the Ontological Existence of Other Gods

  

The classical criticism of the other gods implies that the other gods are real. There is no indication that their existence or power was challenged or questioned in this phase, and instead, other reasons are given why the other gods should not be worshipped by the Israelites. Not only would the other gods be a challenge to YHWH (Deut 5:7, 9), but they were also assumed to be gods of other nations (Deut 7:1–6; 12:1–7, 28–32). Israel had its gods, while the other nations had theirs (Deut 4:19; 29:25). Cults that were rejected were portrayed as foreign and therefore illegitimate. For example, the worship of Asherah, Baal, holy trees, astral bodies and the massebot, belonged to this category (Deut 4:3; 7:4–5; 12:2–7, 28–32; 17:3, etc.).20 Behind the prohibition of worshipping other gods is a motif to separate Israel from the other nations. Accordingly, the editors wanted to make a connection between the assimilation of Israel with other nations and the worship of their gods. (Juha Pakkala, “Deuteronomy and 1-2 Kings in the Redaction of the Pentateuch and Former Prophets,” in Deuteronomy in the Pentateuch, Hexateuch, and the Deuteronomistic History, ed. Konrad Schmid and Raymond F. Person, Jr. [Forschungen zum alten testament 2. Reihe 56; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012], 138)