Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Andrew C Smith <a.c.smith AT juno.com>]

On Wed, 17 Feb 1999 09:34:24 +0200 "Jonathan D. Safren" writes: 

>I don't side with Ian (or the Copenhagen School) in the late dating of
>the Tanakh, but I do hold a somewhat similar opinion as to the
>relatively late origin - or at least flowetring - of monotheism. 
> there is plenty of evidence from other books of the
>Bible to demonstrate that monotheism was not the normative belief of 
>the majority of Israelites until at least the Deuteronomistic Reform,
when
>it began to catch on.

When we talk about this topic, I think that it's important we distinguish
between two different questions:

[a] when (if ever) did monotheism become the majority or mainstream view
among Israelites?

[b] was monotheism the view of the authors of the Tanakh and a tiny,
embattled minority group within Israel which had remained loyal to YHVH
even when the mainstream culture continued to be poly-, heno-, or
otherwise non-mono-theistic?

These two questions are quite independent, and need to be separated from
each other.

A.C. Smith





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