Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ken Litwak <kdlitwak AT concentric.net>]

I simply want to say a hearty thaks to Andrew for posting this.  His
point is very important IMO.  Before someone denies monotheism in any
period, they ought to define what they mean by that. 

Ken Litwak

Andrew C Smith wrote:
> 
> 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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