Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MONOTHEISM

The conviction that there exists only one god, and no others (Gk. mónos, “alone, only, single” and theós, “god”). This is in contrast to polytheism, the belief in several deities, and henotheism or monolatry, the conviction that there exists one supreme god among lesser divinities. The principle of monotheism has become the backbone of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Classical inquiry into the origins of monotheism has, for the most part, followed two different trajectories. While some have advocated the notion of a primordial monotheism from which polytheistic beliefs later arose, others have seen monotheism as evolving, often in clearly defined stages, from a polytheistic climate. Most scholars today tend to follow the latter path.

Ancient Near East

Any documentation of religion in the ancient Near East presents a number of difficulties. The literary remains upon which scholarly research is based tend to favor the “official” religion of the state over the beliefs and practices of the common people.

In ancient Egypt there was a continual tension between the traditional polytheistic conception of the divine world and the tendency toward the unification of the deities and their attributes. This often led to the formation of syncretistic compounds or composite gods. The ongoing tension between local autonomy and centralized rule in Egypt may well be a counterpart to this. Most often associated with early monotheism is Pharaoh Akhenaten (ca. 1350-1334 b.c.e.). Having come to the throne as Amenophis IV, Akhenaten changed his name to reflect his strict devotion to one aspect of the sun-god (Re), the Aten, i.e., the “disk of the sun.” He also began building a new capital in Middle Egypt at what is now el-Amarna. All other priesthoods and localized religious practice were condemned; even the names of the traditional gods were removed from the monuments in order to blot them out of memory. The common people could not worship the Aten itself but only the royal couple as part of the divine triad. The Hymn to the Aten (ANET, 369-71), often compared to Ps. 104, , is the best-known literary expression of Akhenaten’s monotheistic belief. After Akhenaten’s death, however, there was a rapid return to traditional polytheism.

With the inception of urbanization (ca. 5th millennium), Mesopotamian religion began to exhibit a tendency toward the unification of the divine. Before the Akkadian empires Mesopotamia was comprised of a series of independent city-states, each centered around a temple complex with at least one patron god or goddess. These deities were organized in families along kinship lines. The glory of each divinity was manifest in the glory of the city and its temple; as one city gained political power and extended its sphere of influence, its patron deity was elevated to a position of prominence over deities of the subject cities and towns. The higher deity tended to take on the attributes of the lesser subject deities.

A prime example of this move toward monotheism or monolatry is the elevation of the Babylonian god Marduk. The creation epic Enuma Elish (ANET, 60-72), often compared with Gen. 1:1–2:4a, is an example of myth-making with the purpose of elevating Marduk to the rank of “king of the gods” by means of divine conflict. This myth, in which Marduk becomes the creator and organizer of the cosmos, was later copied by the Assyrians who substituted the name of their god Assur for the Babylonian Marduk. Tablets discovered on the Syrian coast at Ras-Shamra (Ugarit) contain a variety of myths and legends including the Baal Cycle (ANET, 129-42) in which the Canaanite storm-god Baal is also elevated as supreme god and ruler of the cosmos.

Ancient Israel

The text of the OT is the product of a long and complex process of literary growth, and presents an idealized portrait of Israelite religious belief and practice. Any reconstruction of Israelite religion must, therefore, draw on the material remains of ancient Palestine as a balance to the biblical account. Inscriptions discovered at Kuntillet ʿAjrud/µorvat Teman and Khirbet el-Qôm permit an association between Yahweh and the goddess Asherah, suggesting that Yahweh may have at one time been worshipped along with a female consort. Monotheism in Israel, at any rate, appears to have developed over a long period of time, beginning about the 10th century up until the end of the Babylonian Exile.

Early Israelite monotheism most likely began in the highlands as localized tribal religion in which each tribe worshipped its own patron deity. The ancestral narratives in Genesis presuppose this sort of tribal religion (e.g., Gen. 24:27; 31:5, 53). With the centralization of the state under David and Solomon, there emerged certain advocates who elevated Yahweh as supreme God over all other divinities (including El, Asherah, and Baal), thus making Yahweh the “God of Israel.” The combination of national religion with political might provided the monarchic state the means to exert further authority over the people, while continuing to tolerate the worship of other gods. Gradually the concept of covenant became an expression for the mutual relationship of blessedness between Yahweh and the monarchic state (1 Kgs. 8; 2 Kgs. 12 [cf. 11:17]; Pss. 2, 72, 89, 110). The continual fostering of literary activity in the royal court and temple was instrumental in promoting Yahweh as the God of the entire cosmos who possesses all the positive attributes previously associated with the traditional gods and goddesses. With the work of Second Isaiah toward the end of the Babylonian Exile, Israelite monotheism took on a more forceful form of expression. Yahweh is proclaimed as the creator of the cosmos (Isa. 40:21-23, 28). Foreign deities do not exist; there is only one true God, Yahweh (40:12-31; 43:8-13; 46:5-13). Idols are nothing more than useless objects (40:18-20; 41:21-24; 44:9-20; 46:5-7).

New Testament

The NT presupposes the monotheistic convictions expressed in the OT and early Judaism. When one of the scribes asks Jesus which is the “first of all commandments,” Jesus responds by quoting the Shema (Deut. 6:4-5), the central confession of the oneness of God (cf. Matt. 22-34-40; Luke 10:25-28). Though the NT epistles do not deny the existence of other divinities, for early Christians there is one God and one Lord, Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 8:4-6). Monotheism became instrumental for early Christian mission. Since God is one, there must be only one God of both Jews and Gentiles (Rom. 3:29-30). As the early Church was faced with threats of heresy and division, the confession of one God and one Church, the body of Christ, was decisive for preserving a sense of unity (Rom. 12:3-8; 1 Cor. 12:12-31; Eph. 4:14-16; Col. 1:18, 2:19).

Bibliography. D. V. Edelman, ed., The Triumph of Elohim: From Yahwisms to Judaisms (Grand Rapids, 1996); T. Frymer-Kensky, In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture, and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth (New York, 1992); E. Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt (Ithaca, 1982); P. D. Miller, Jr., P. D. Hanson, and S. D. McBride, eds., Ancient Israelite Religion (Philadelphia, 1987); J. C. de Moor, The Rise of Yahwism: The Roots of Israelite Monotheism. BETL 91 (Leuven, 1990); M. S. Smith, The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel (San Francisco, 1990).

Arnold Gottfried Betz

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

MONOTHEISM

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)