[Deut]
5:7:
This first commandment takes for granted the existence of other gods; its
concern is only to ensure Israel’s exclusive loyalty to Yhvh. This perspective,
called “monolatry,” is found frequently within Deuteronomy (see 6:4; 32:8–9,
43; 33:2–3, 27). The idea of monolatry is often expressed by representing Yhvh
as the ruler of the divine council (see 32:8 n.; Pss. 82; 89:6–8; cf. Exod.
15:11). That perspective almost certainly represents an earlier form of
Israelite religion. Ancient Near Eastern sources similarly envision a chief god
ruling over a council of other gods. During the Babylonian exile, perhaps under
the influence of Second Isaiah, a very different understanding developed.
Radical “monotheism” affirms God’s greatness, not by portraying Him as more
powerful than other gods but, instead, by denying the existence of other
deities altogether (see 4:15–31 n; Isa. 43:10–12; 44:6–8; 45:5–6, 14, 18–19,
22). Once that perspective became normative in the period following the exile,
the earlier view was no longer intelligible. As a result, in the process of
reading, preaching, and translating the biblical text, Second Temple Jewish
communities sometimes read the later perspective of monotheism into texts that
actually had in mind the earlier idea of God as ruling a divine council (see v.
9 n.; 6:4 n.; 32:8 n.). That original theology has also become unavailable to
most contemporary readers, since many of the translations found in synagogue
prayer books employ euphemisms to “explain away” the biblical text’s clear
references to other gods. (The Jewish Study Bible, ed. Adele
Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler, and Michael Fishbane [New York: Oxford University
Press, 2004], 375-76)
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