{"id":630,"date":"2019-02-28T02:45:35","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T08:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/?p=630"},"modified":"2019-02-28T02:46:47","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T08:46:47","slug":"biblical-monotheism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2019\/02\/28\/biblical-monotheism\/","title":{"rendered":"Biblical Monotheism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It is common in the contemporary world to speak of Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism, and Islam as ‘monotheistic faiths.’\u00a0 This categorization is intended to imply that, over against polytheistic religions, these three religious traditions have a similar view of God.\u00a0 Sometimes, this perceived similarity is taken so far as to argue that these three religious traditions worship the same God.\u00a0 Monotheism, as a term, refers of course to the belief that there is only one God.\u00a0 Polytheism, on the other hand, describes any religious tradition in which there are many gods and goddesses who are the object of worship and devotion.\u00a0 Less commonly discussed, and occupying a middle position between these two categories, is Henotheism, which is the view that there are many gods and goddesses, but one god in particular reigns supreme over all of them, with the others as his assistants or subjects.\u00a0 Another important term for this discussion is monolatry.\u00a0 A monolatrous religious tradition believes that many gods and goddesses may exist, but those of this particular religious tradition worship and serve only one.<\/p>\n

While later Rabbinic Judaism, especially in the modern era, and Islam in general very neatly fit the definition of monotheism, Christianity has always been a bit of an outlier.\u00a0 Rabbinic Judaism and Islam teach that all other gods are false gods and that in truth only one exists and that one god which exists is a single personal being.\u00a0 Over against Christianity, the views of these two religious traditions are described as ‘unitarian monotheism.’\u00a0 Christianity, of course, from the very beginning, as well as the diverse forms of Judaism in the ancient world, do not fit this definition so neatly.\u00a0 In the case of Christianity, this is first and foremost because of the worship of the Holy Trinity.\u00a0 While the term ‘Trinitarian monotheism’ has been coined to keep Christianity within the same category as these other two religious traditions, it is a category with only one member.\u00a0 Representatives of Islam and Rabbinic Judaism are quick to argue that Christianity is therefore not ‘really’ monotheistic.\u00a0 In their apologetics, they will often accuse Trinitarian belief of being some sort of compromise between monotheism and polytheism.<\/p>\n

Likewise, many Protestant believers who do not accept traditional teaching regarding the saints<\/a> and their intercessions will argue that this teaching is an accommodation of an otherwise monotheistic Christianity to polytheistic paganism.\u00a0 This is especially true regarding the hypothesized origin of the veneration of the Theotokos<\/a> by those who have traditionally rejected it.\u00a0 This same instinct, that Christianity has been classified as ‘monotheism’ and therefore anything that conflicts with a certain understanding of monotheism must be rejected as a distortion of Christianity, gives pause to many of these same believers regarding the entirety of the doctrine and concept of theosis or deification.\u00a0 St. Athanasius’ statement that “the Son of God became man so that man might become God” becomes disturbing and must be explained away to make it comport with a pre-existing understanding of monotheistic Christianity.<\/p>\n

This same discomfort has led to most English translation of the scriptures at best ‘clarifying’ and at worst concealing the way in which the term ‘god’ or ‘gods’ is actually used in both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.\u00a0 Because this usage has been submerged in English translation, when it has been recovered by contemporary scholarship working in the original languages, it has become the grist for new theories regarding ancient Israelite religion.\u00a0 These retranslations are interpreted as some sort of deliberate attempt to conceal a non-monotheistic Israelite past.\u00a0 As these same scholars accept the characterization of early Judaism as monotheistic in the mode of modern Rabinnic Judaism, they posit evolutionary theories of ancient Israelite religion which begins with a polytheistic past and then, generally sometime in the Persian period, Judaism emerges as a form of unitarian monotheism.\u00a0 This characterization collapses at two points.\u00a0 First, it is not true that the many forms of Judaism of the Second Temple period believed and practiced unitarian monotheism<\/a>.\u00a0 Second, it is an obvious point that for most of the history of Judaism and Christianity the text of the scriptures have been interacted with in their original and other very early translation languages which do not conceal the original usage and understanding of these terms.\u00a0 These scholars, then, are removing a coverup which never occurred and basic a hypothetical historical reconstruction on an imaginary change of belief.<\/p>\n

The actual testimony of the scriptures does not neatly fit the categories of monotheism, polytheism, or henotheism.\u00a0 When their testimony is accurately described, however, they give a picture of the belief and practice of the communities from which they emerged which is coherent, and which is consistent with the teachings of Christianity regarding the Holy Trinity and the saints and their intercessions.\u00a0 There are two key elements required to understand the testimony of the scriptures regarding God and the gods.\u00a0 The first is the way in which various terms for ‘god’ or ‘gods’ are used in the text of scripture.\u00a0 The second is to understand the relationship between Yahweh the God of Israel and the other beings to which those terms are applied.\u00a0 The picture which emerges from the Hebrew Bible as understood within Second Temple Judaism is completely commensurate with that of the New Testament.\u00a0 This picture became the normative view of ancient Christianity while Rabbinic Judaism evolved in a unitarian direction largely in response.<\/p>\n

The primary word group in Hebrew that is used for the term ‘god’ is el, eloah, and the plural elohim.\u00a0 This word group is related to ‘allah’ in the cognate language Arabic.\u00a0 The plural ‘elohim’ is used both to refer to Yahweh as a singular being and to refer to ‘gods’ plural.\u00a0 Which is the correct translation is determined primarily from context.\u00a0 There are clear places where it is a singular reference to the God of Israel, in particular when it is used in conjunction with the name Yahweh (eg. Gen 2:4-5. 7-9, 15-16, 18-19, 21-22).\u00a0 Elohim also frequently occurs as the subject of singular verbs, as in Genesis 1:1.\u00a0 In other cases, it is clearly plural either by context (as in Deuteronomy 5:7) or by being used with plural verbs.\u00a0 It must be noted that attempts to see within the plural of elohim an embedded reference to the Holy Trinity is misguided.\u00a0 There are instances in which pagan gods are referred to with the plural elohim (as in Judges 11:24; 16:23-24; 1 Samuel\/1 Kingdoms 5:7; 1 Kings\/3 Kingdoms 18:24).\u00a0 Likewise there are a number of passages in which elohim is used in the plural to refer to Yahweh the God of Israel, but the verb is plural (as Genesis 20:13; 35:7; 2 Samuel\/2 Kingdoms 7:23; Psalm 58:12).\u00a0 Within the Hebrew scriptures, the grammatically plural elohim is simply more common than the singular eloah and is used both as a singular and a plural noun.<\/p>\n

In addition to its use to refer to Yahweh the God of Israel, elohim is used to refer to other spiritual powers which were worshipped as gods.\u00a0 This is true in a negative sense, in commandments for Israel to worship no other gods besides Yahweh (as in Deut 5:7).\u00a0 Such statements are neutral as to the actual existence of these other deities and could therefore be interpreted along the lines of unitarian monotheism.\u00a0 Other statements, however, make it clear that the gods worshipped by the other nations do, indeed, exist.\u00a0 The most prominent instance of this is likely the repeated reference to Yahweh’s victory over the gods of Egypt (cf. Ex 12:12; 2 Sam\/2 Kgdms 7:23).\u00a0 This is not a glorification of Yahweh for overcoming imaginary beings.\u00a0 One of these gods was Pharaoh himself, who obviously existed.\u00a0 The scriptures do not dispute the existence of these beings.\u00a0 Nor do the scriptures deny that the majority of the Israelites and later the Judahites fell to worshipping these beings.\u00a0 Throughout Israel’s history there are repeated commands to destroy shrines and images of other gods.\u00a0 These commands would not be issued if these shrines and images did not exist.<\/p>\n

The initial locus of this characterization of Israel occurs in Deuteronomy 32:17.\u00a0 Deuteronomy 32 is written in a form of Hebrew far older than most of the Hebrew scriptures and therefore contains many words not used in the remainder of those scriptures.\u00a0 Verse 17 refers to the Israelites sacrificing to ‘shedim who are not God, to gods whom they had not known.’\u00a0 The term ‘shedim’ is used in only one other place in the Hebrew scriptures, in Psalm 106:37 which speaks of the Israelites sacrificing their children to ‘shedim.’\u00a0 The word appears to be an Akkadian word, ‘shedu,’ which refers to a spirit or god which protects a territory.\u00a0 They were typically represented by the Assyrians as bulls or calves.\u00a0 These territorial spirits are to be identified with the sons of God in 32:8 to whom God assigned the peoples of the world.\u00a0 Israel, however, belonged to Yahweh (32:9).\u00a0 In translating this text into Greek, the Seventy understood the sons of God in 32:8 to be angelic beings who later fell.\u00a0 They therefore translated the ‘shedim’ of 32:17 as ‘demons.’\u00a0 The translation ‘demon’ is in keeping with the general Greek understanding at the time of the translation of the Septuagint, that the gods of the nations had been assigned to their territories in an ancient time by a most high god (as outlined, for example, in Plato’s Critias<\/em> 109b-d and Laws<\/em> 713c-e).\u00a0 The gods are here referred to with the term ‘demon.’\u00a0 St. Paul shares this viewpoint, leading him to say that “what the pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God” mimicking the language of Deuteronomy 32:17 (1 Cor 10:20; see also Psalm 96:5).<\/p>\n

The word elohim is also used for other spiritual beings.\u00a0 One clear example is the medium at Endor referring to the spirit of Samuel as an ‘elohim’ (1 Sam\/1 Kgdms 28:13).\u00a0 In the pagan religious traditions of Israel’s Canaanite neighbors, it should be remembered, the spirits of dead ancestors, particularly dead king, were the objects of ritual worship.\u00a0 This, then, is the Biblical understanding of what a ‘god’ is.\u00a0 A ‘god’ is simply a spiritual being.\u00a0 The understanding of the scriptures is therefore not monotheistic, at least according to the modern definition in that it does not deny that any gods other than the one Holy Trinity exist.\u00a0 At the same time, it is not properly henotheistic or polytheistic as it is monolatrous.\u00a0 These spiritual beings exist, but the people of God are not to worship or serve them.\u00a0 The spiritual powers who are loyal to Yahweh the God of Israel refuse the worship of human beings (eg. Rev 19:10; 22:8-9).\u00a0 The wicked spiritual powers seek to be worshipped instead of god (eg. Matt 4:9-10; Luke 4:7-8; Acts 7:42).\u00a0 God’s people are always commanded to, but are not always faithful in, worshipping and serving only Yahweh, the God of Israel, who exists eternally in three divine persons.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, these other spiritual beings, both angelic and departed humans who are righteous and faithful to Yahweh are called holy ones, sons of God, and gods by scripture.\u00a0 These are all beings who are members of Yahweh’s divine council<\/a>, with whom he shares his rule over creation.\u00a0 While it is correct to say that Yahweh is ‘a god’, he is nonetheless fundamentally different than any other being in that category.\u00a0 He is eternal, other spiritual beings are not, and have their origin in his creative activity.\u00a0 He shares his dominion with them as they worship and serve him.\u00a0 They are capable of falling into sin and wickedness (Job 4:18; 15:15), he is utterly without sin.\u00a0 “Rejoice with him, O heavens.\u00a0 Bow down to him all the gods for he avenges the blood of his sons and takes vengeance on his enemies.\u00a0 He repays those who hate him and cleanses the land of his people” (Deut 32:43).\u00a0 “O God, your way is holy.\u00a0 <\/span>Who is so great a god as our God?\u00a0 <\/span><\/span>You are the God who works wonders.\u00a0 Y<\/span>ou have made your might known among the nations” (Ps 77:13-14).\u00a0 “For though there might be things called gods in heaven or on earth, just as there are many gods and many lords, but for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we are, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things through whom we are” (1 Cor 8:5-6).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is common in the contemporary world to speak of Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism, and Islam as ‘monotheistic faiths.’\u00a0 This categorization is intended to imply that, over against polytheistic religions, these three religious traditions have a similar view of God.\u00a0 Sometimes, this perceived similarity is taken so far as to argue that these three religious traditions worship the same God.\u00a0 Monotheism, as a term, refers of course to the belief that there is only one God.\u00a0 Polytheism, on the other hand, describes any religious tradition in which there are many gods and goddesses who are the object of worship and devotion.\u00a0 Less commonly discussed, and occupying a middle position between these two categories, is Henotheism, which is the view that there\u2026 <\/i> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"Biblical Monotheism - The Whole Counsel Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2019\/02\/28\/biblical-monotheism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biblical Monotheism - The Whole Counsel Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is common in the contemporary world to speak of Christianity, Rabbinic Judaism, and Islam as ‘monotheistic faiths.’\u00a0 This categorization is intended to imply that, over against polytheistic religions, these three religious traditions have a similar view of God.\u00a0 Sometimes, this perceived similarity is taken so far as to argue that these three religious traditions worship the same God.\u00a0 Monotheism, as a term, refers of course to the belief that there is only one God.\u00a0 Polytheism, on the other hand, describes any religious tradition in which there are many gods and goddesses who are the object of worship and devotion.\u00a0 Less commonly discussed, and occupying a middle position between these two categories, is Henotheism, which is the view that there\u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2019\/02\/28\/biblical-monotheism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Whole Counsel Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-28T08:45:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-28T08:46:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/02\/All_the_Saints_A__45377.1373749348.1000.1200_grande.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. Stephen De Young\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fr. Stephen De Young\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2019\/02\/28\/biblical-monotheism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2019\/02\/28\/biblical-monotheism\/\",\"name\":\"Biblical Monotheism - The Whole Counsel Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2019\/02\/28\/biblical-monotheism\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2019\/02\/28\/biblical-monotheism\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/02\/All_the_Saints_A__45377.1373749348.1000.1200_grande.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-28T08:45:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-28T08:46:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/247da0ea47cc50719afc0ec2a8ee5e90\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2019\/02\/28\/biblical-monotheism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2019\/02\/28\/biblical-monotheism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2019\/02\/28\/biblical-monotheism\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/02\/All_the_Saints_A__45377.1373749348.1000.1200_grande.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2019\/02\/All_the_Saints_A__45377.1373749348.1000.1200_grande.jpg\",\"width\":350,\"height\":451},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/2019\/02\/28\/biblical-monotheism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Biblical Monotheism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/\",\"name\":\"The Whole Counsel Blog\",\"description\":\"The Scriptures in the Orthodox Church\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.ancientfaith.com\/wholecounsel\/#\/schema\/person\/247da0ea47cc50719afc0ec2a8ee5e90\",\"name\":\"Fr. 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