Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

Niels wrote:
>
> > I notice the phrase "As the god of Israel comes to be considered
> > the highest (or even only) god" and wonder if you see this as a
> > diachronic development as some do.  I confess I have problems
> > with the idea, because I don't see any necessity for it.  We have
> > the Ugarit materials that show us a pantheon headed by El, but
> > when we overlay this on the Hebrew biblical materials it seems to
> > me that we assume an evolution from this pantheon to the
> > monotheistic approach of the Israel of the monarchy (usually by
> > late-dating at least some texts).  Do you think it's possible that
> > Hebrew culture, however it may have developed, *began* as an
> > experiment in monotheism?  This would account for the repeated
> > slippage back into idolatry and polytheism that is denounced from
> > Joshua onwards (obviously I'm assuming a certain degree of
> > historicity for some of the accounts in this question, which I know
> > will raise some hackles).  I'd be interested to know your view on
> > this.

>       This will work if a person presents a synchronic reading of biblical
> literature as a historical reading. It also has to be based on biblical
> evidence only. The moment we move from the texts of the HB to its supposed
> historical referent, the world of historical Israel, it breaks down. Even a
> moderate conservative biblical archaeologist like Bill Dever will say that
> everything they--the archaeologists--find points at a society in Palestine
> in the Iron Age that was polytheistic, right down to at least the exile.
>
>       Again the main problem is that the biblicist approach does
> deliberately ignore the discussion in the scholarly world of the status of
> the biblical narrative vis à vis ancient history.

I believe I already set out my presuppositions above, and
mentioned that I knew it would raise some hackles.

[snip]
>       And finally, because a new flame can easily arise, how do we relate
> this discussion and this gap to the history of the Hebrew language? By
> ignoring the gap or by reckoning it to be there and worth a serious
> consideration? I will say that there are no easy solutions to any problem
> relating to the HB and it language, no way to get around the historical
> problems related to historical Israel or to the formation of the biblical
> literature.

Relating it to development of Hebrew is easy.  There have been
some suggestions recently that the language of the HB shows a
distinction between El and YHWH, or that the language of the HB
shows some kind of development from polytheism to monotheism.
I'm interested in Henry's take on this matter.


Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart that I may fear your name.
                                   Psalm 86:11