YHVH/God in the Hebrew Bible From Paganism to Monotheism ‘The development of
YHVH/God in the Hebrew Bible
From Paganism to Monotheism
‘The development of monotheism is not simply a form of subtraction. Eliminating other gods and jettisoning old religious practices changes fundamental ideas about the working of the cosmos. The image of God must be expanded to include all the functions previously encompassed by an entire pantheon. The religious and philosophical systems must adapt to form a coherent picture of the universe that no longer includes multiple powers. The biblical system had to replace both goddesses and gods, and as it did so, it transformed its thinking about nature, culture, gender and humanity.’ (Frymer-Kensky 85)
Exodus 20
The Ten Commandments
Then God spoke all these words:
2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3you shall have no other gods before me.
4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God,
Deuteronomy 4
35To you it was shown so that you would acknowledge that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. 36From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, while you heard his words coming out of the fire. 37And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them. He brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, 38driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today. 39So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
Exodus 15:11
Who is like You, O YHVH, among the gods?
Deut 32:8-9
When the Most High gave nations their homes, and set the divisions of man,
He fixed the boundaries of peoples in relation to Israel’s numbers.
For the YHWH’s portion is His people, Jacob His own allotment.
8When the Most High* apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind,
he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods;*
9the Lord’s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.
Isaiah 44
6Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel
and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:
I am the first and I am the last;
besides me there is no god.
7Who is like me? Let them proclaim it,
let them declare and set it forth before me.
Who has announced from of old the things to come?*
Let them tell us* what is yet to be.
8Do not fear, or be afraid;
have I not told you from of old and declared it?
You are my witnesses!
Is there any god besides me?
There is no other rock; I know not one.
Psalm 82
A Plea for Justice
A Psalm of Asaph.
1God has taken his place in the divine council [council of El];
in the midst of the gods he holds judgement:
2‘How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked?
Selah
3Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
4Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’
5They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk around in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6I say, ‘You are gods,
children of the Most High, all of you;
7nevertheless, you shall die like mortals,
and fall like any prince.’*
8Rise up, O God, judge the earth;
for all the nations belong to you!
Deut 6:4
Hear O Israel, YHWH is our God, YHWH alone!
‘In ancient religion, ‘nature’ reflects an interplay of divine forces and personages…Throughout the history of polytheism, the universe was always understood as a balance of interactive forces. Nature is an arena of powers and forces in interaction, and the drama ‘out there’ among those various forces determines the condition of the world…
…the core idea of ancient Israel is the exclusive worship of one God. According to the Bible’s understanding, Israel owes all its loyalty and worship to the god who brought the people out of Egypt. Until the 8th or 7th century BCE, biblical writers did not categorically deny the existence of other gods. But these deities belonged to other nations: for Israel there is only YHWH.’ (Frymer Kensky 86)
‘The biblical covenant of loyalty assumes the sufficiency of the one God. To us, who have been taught monotheism for thousands of years, this statement may seem self-evident, and may therefore pass unnoticed. But in ancient Israel – in the context of the ancient world – it is a radical, even revolutionary concept. Gone is the chorus of cosmic powers: all the forces essential to human survival are brought under one umbrella, placed under the control of one will. God is master of nature: all of Israel’s wellbeing depends on one God, and this one God has the power to fulfil all hopes and expectations. When the Bible understands YHWH as mastering not only most but all of the powers of the universe, the picture of the universe changes dramatically. There is a quantum leap, a fundamental change in paradigm. Interaction among the gods is replaced by solo mastery, and humanity, divinity and cosmos have to be realigned.’ (Frymer Kensky 88-9)
The God of Creation
Genesis 1
Genesis
Six Days of Creation and the Sabbath
1In the beginning when God created* the heavens and the earth, 2the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God* swept over the face of the waters. 3Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. 4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
6 And God said, ‘Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ 7So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
9 And God said, ‘Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. 10God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11Then God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.’ And it was so. 12The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
14 And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so. 16God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 17God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
20 And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.’ 21So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ 23And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
24 And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ And it was so. 25God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind* in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth,* and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’
27So God created humankind* in his image,
in the image of God he created them;*
male and female he created them.
28God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ 29God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. 31God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 2
2Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. 2And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
Yehezkel Kaufman on ‘the basic idea of Israelite religion’:
– the pagan believes that there exists a realm of being prior to the gods and above them, upon which the gods depend, and whose decrees they must obey.
– for Israel, there is no realm above or beside YHWH to limit his absolute sovereignty.
NB – No theogeny, no nativity, no death, no partner, no children, no theomachy,
The God of History – Covenant, Commandment and Chosenness
‘Biblical religion revolves around two themes, Creation and the Exodus. The former asserts God’s undivided sovereignty over nature, the latter His absolute hegemony over history….A creator-god who withdraws from his creation and leaves his creatures entirely to their own devices is a functionless deity, an inactive being, remote and aloof from the world of men and women…Not so the Creator-God of the Bible. He is vitally concerned with the welfare of His creatures, intensely involved in their fate and fortune…History, therefore, is the arena of divine activity, and the weal and woe of the individual and of the nation is the product of God’s providence, conditioned by human responses to His demands.’ (Sarna 1)
Genesis 12
Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’*
Genesis 17
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty;* walk before me, and be blameless. 2And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.’ 3Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 5No longer shall your name be Abram,* but your name shall be Abraham;* for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 6I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring* after you. 8And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.’
Exodus 19
At the third new moon after the Israelites had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day, they came into the wilderness of Sinai. 2They had journeyed from Rephidim, entered the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; Israel camped there in front of the mountain. 3Then Moses went up to God; the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: 4You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, 6but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the Israelites.’ 7 So Moses came, summoned the elders of the people, and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8The people all answered as one: ‘Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord….
On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. 17Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God. They took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. 19As the blast of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses would speak and God would answer him in a voice… Then God spoke all these words: 2
I am YHWH your God who took you out of the land of Egypt……
‘One of the most significant, consequential and seminal terms to be found in the Hebrew Bible is brit, covenant. And no wonder, for the establishment of the most desirable behaviour of human beings toward one another and the ordering of the proper relationships between humankind and God are the dominant concern of the Scriptures. The Hebrew brit, usually translated ‘covenant’, embraces a treaty as an instrument of international diplomacy, a compact between a king and his subjects, a pact that defines mutual understanding and responsibilities between two individuals, and is even used of matrimony.
Without doubt the overwhelming usage of the covenant is to designate the function and effect of the great national experience at Sinai. By doing so, the Bible describes a living reality, an actual legal circumstance, nothing less that the assertion of the conclusion of an eternally binding pact between God and His people. Thereafter, the entire history of Israel, as portrayed in the Bible, is governed by this outstanding reality. Covenant consciousness suffuses all subsequent developments.
The Israelite covenant concept of the forging of a formal, legal, binding relationship with God and a people is so extraordinary that to have been intelligible, it would have to be expressed in terms of its contemporary, universally recognised, legal instruments. By the very nature of the situation, such a relationship between God and Israel would find its closest analogy in the suzerain-vassal treatises.’ (Sarna 134)
Premable
Historical Review
Stipulations
Deposition of treaty
Witnesses
Blessings and Curses
‘History is the arena in which Israel has met and come to know the deity who now becomes her suzerain…It is significant for our understanding of the nature of the religion of Israel among the religions of the world that meaning for her is derived not from introspection, but from a consideration of the public testimony of God’ (Levenson 38)
‘The revelation of God in history is not…a goal in and of itself, but rather the prologue to a new kind of relationship, one in which the vassal will show fidelity in the future by acknowledgement of the suzerain’s grace towards him in the past, in history. The historical prologue is only the prologue. It ceases to be at the point when the covenant takes effect. From that moment on, what is critical is not the past, but the observance of the stipulations in the present and the sort of life that such observance brings about…the affirmation of the suzerainty of YHWH was rendered in the form of observance of the commandments.’ (Levenson 43)
Deuteronomy 11
If you will only heed his every commandment* that I am commanding you today—loving the Lord your God, and serving him with all your heart and with all your soul— 14then he* will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, and you will gather in your grain, your wine, and your oil; 15and he* will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you will eat your fill. 16Take care, or you will be seduced into turning away, serving other gods and worshipping them, 17for then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain and the land will yield no fruit; then you will perish quickly from the good land that the Lord is giving you. 18 You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem* on your forehead. 19Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 20Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21so that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
‘In biblical monotheist thought, there are no conflicting powers in the divine world, no harmonizing forces in heaven, no divine-divine interaction. Nevertheless, there is a point-counterpoint interaction in the universe that determines the course of events. This cosmic interplay no longer takes place within the divine world. Instead, the counterbalancing of forces embraces the relationship of human and divine. Divine dominance means divine conditionality, as humankind becomes the reason for – and instigator of – divine action.’ (Frymer-Kensky 103)
Pagan thought:
Nature – Gods – humanity
Monotheistic thought:
Nature – humanity – God
‘The absorption by God of all the forces of nature leads humanity onto centre stage. Biblical monotheism is essentially anthropocentric, though not in the sense that the world exists to serve humanity. Rather, in the absence of other divine beings, God’s audience, partners, foils and competitors are all human beings, and it is on their interaction with God that the world depends.’ (Frymer Kensky 108)
Aniconism and the Mysterium Tremendum
Exodus 3
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3Then Moses said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.’ 4When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ 5Then he said, ‘Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ 6He said further, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’ 11But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’ 12He said, ‘I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.’
The Divine Name Revealed
13 But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?’ 14God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’* He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “I am has sent me to you.” ’ 15God also said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the Israelites, “The Lord,* the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you”:
This is my name for ever,
and this my title for all generations.
16Go and assemble the elders of Israel, and say to them, “The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying: I have given heed to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt. 17I declare that I will bring you up out of the misery of Egypt, to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Deuteronomy 4
9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children— 10how you once stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people for me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children to do so’; 11you approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds. 12Then the Lord spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice. 13He declared to you his covenant, which he charged you to observe, that is, the ten commandments;* and he wrote them on two stone tablets. 14And the Lord charged me at that time to teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy. 15 Since you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves closely, 16so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure—the likeness of male or female, 17the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, 18the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth. 19And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven.
Exodus 25:20-22
The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy-seat* with their wings. They shall face each other; the faces of the cherubim shall be turned towards the mercy-seat.* 21You shall put the mercy-seat* on the top of the ark; and in the ark you shall put the covenant* that I shall give you. 22There I will meet you, and from above the mercy-seat,* from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant,* I will deliver to you all my commands for the Israelites.
The Moral Dimension of Divinity
Isaiah 1
Isaiah
The Wickedness of Judah
10Hear the word of the Lord,
you rulers of Sodom!
Listen to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
11What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the Lord;
I have had enough of burnt-offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
12When you come to appear before me,*
who asked this from your hand?
Trample my courts no more;
13bringing offerings is futile;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation—
I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity.
14Your new moons and your appointed festivals
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me,
I am weary of bearing them.
15When you stretch out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
16Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your doings
from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
17 learn to do good;
seek justice,
rescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
plead for the widow.