Against the thesis that there is a radical shift from a form of monolatry to strict monotheism in the Persian and Hellenistic periods:
If the development of monotheism is the axis of such an evolutionary
process, we may expect the last biblical writings to express a “mature” form of
this theology, in which the divine beings other than YHWH are entirely
excluded. This premise is unverified, however. In the Book of Zechariah, the
prophet explicitly refers not to YHWH, but to a divine emissary speaking
through him (hamalak̄ hadob̄ er̄ bî ). (Zech 1:9,
1:14, 1:19, 2:3, 4:1, 4:4–5, 5:5, 5:10, 6:4–5.) This involvement is accompanied
in Zechariah by details about the divine council surrounding YHWH. (Zech
1:11–13, 3:1.) Such a feature present in the earliest evolutionary stages (in
which monotheism was supposedly still not differentiated from polytheism) is
unexpected in a postexilic opus such as the Book of Zechariah. And this book is
not the only late composition displaying this anomaly. The divine council is
mentioned in the Book of Job (Job 1:6–12). Proverbs, another late opus,
includes explicit references to a female divine being, an Asherah-like goddess
personifying Wisdom and present beside YHWH at the early time of creation (Prov
8:22–31). Malachi, the last prophetic book, includes an oracle far from any
“mature” form of monotheism: “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will
prepare the way before me. And the lord (haʾ̄ ad̄ on̑ )
whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; And the messenger of the
covenant (ûmal ʾak̄ habe˘rît) in whom you
delight, behold, he is coming, says YHWH Sebaoth” (Mal 3:1). (The English
Standard Version of Bible translation is used in this study, with minor
modifications.) This verse does not only introduce the figure of the
divine emissary of YHWH, it even claims that this secondary divine being is
worshipped by the Israelites, and it even considers the Jerusalem temple as his
dominion. Finally, Daniel, one of the latest books, is also the source where divine
beings others than YHWH have the highest importance in the Bible.
The multiplicity of divine beings, a so-called primitive character,
extends to postbiblical compositions. An examination of literary sources from
the beginning of the first millennium AD reveals a plethora of divine beings, most
of them identified by a name (a condition for their worship), in the Hekhalot
literature, the Book of Enoch, and other apocalyptic writings. Peter Hayman
concludes that “monotheism” is a “misused word” in Jewish studies. (Hayman
1991: 15.) Nevertheless, this Jewish literature should not be interpreted as a “regression”
to a polytheistic faith. Rather, Larry Hurtado notices, in the early Jewish
literature, “a remarkable ability to combine a genuine concern for God’s uniqueness
together with an interest in other figures or transcendent attributes described
in the most exalted terms, ‘principal agent’ figures likened to God in some
cases.” (Hurtado 1998: 3) Consequently, no evolutionary trend toward
monotheism may be traced throughout a millennium of worship of YHWH by the
Israelites. (Nissim Amzallag, Yahweh and the Origins of Ancient Israel:
Insights from the Archaeological Record [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2023], 8-9, italics in original)
