14 Jun '05 08:11>1 edit
Originally posted by frogstompThe transition from polytheism to monotheism is a fascinating subject
Moses and Abram were not contemporaneous and neither were modern Jews.
There were cuneiform tablets at Ebla and Ugarit written in hebrew prior to Moses that refer to EL. The Jewish Religion doesn't seem to have begun.
...[text shortened]... sition from polytheism to monotheism is a fascinating subject
How religious faiths develop and emerge is indeed fascinating. There is no question, I think, that the Hebrew Scriptures contain different strands and borrowings from other, older cultures—especially linguistic ones. There are also the J, E, P and D strands. (I read that the OT has a few Sanskrit-derived words—I forget which ones, but I believe they referred to such things as trade goods that might have been imported by caravan from India.)
I suppose that Judaism as a religion begins with the Avram/Avraham story. But the “religion of the Old Testament” is not Judaism either. Judaism is the religion of the “dual Torah” (i.e., written and oral: the Talmud). Orthodox tradition traces the Oral Torah back to Sinai; it probably goes back to the fourth century BCE anyhow, although the Talmuds were not written down 380 CE (the Jerusalem Talmud) and 500 CE (the Babylonian Talmud). They record discussions and arguments and interpretations by sages going much further back (Hillel and Shammai for example). Modern Rabbinical Judaism dates from the fall of the second Temple in 70 CE. One cannot understand the Judaism of the time of Jesus (or earlier), for example, without having some understanding of Talmud and Midrash.
My comments on YHVH were from a rabbinical Jewish perspective. Jews do get to say what their religion is, and they get to “read” their tradition through that lens (a strictly “historical” reading of any of the OT seems of little interest from that rabbinical viewpoint). Since I am currently more interested in understanding Rabbinical Judaism, I file away your historical findings as interesting information—but I do not dismiss it! I value it, and am appreciative of your comments (and the fact that you respond to my posts).
With all that said, when do you think El quit being the bull-god for the Jews, and devolved into something else? There still were obviously vestiges left at the time of Moses and Sinai. And then there were the “household gods” that Rachel stole from her father. So I think that the Torah does show a slow movement toward monotheism…