Introduction
To most readers, it might not seem at first glance that the Bible exhibits polytheism. It says numerous times that ‘God is one’, and forbids worshiping the false gods of other religions. However, the issue is not merely what the Bible says on the surface, but what it shows in the finer details. Israel was thoroughly polytheistic, though a Yhwh-centric group in Jerusalem pushed for monolatry in the decades preceding the Babylonian exile (587 BCE). This does not require far-fetched speculation, but a careful look at the more obscure parts of the Hebrew Bible.
Yhwh the Southern God
The Torah’s narrative identifies Israel’s god ‘Yhwh’ as the supreme, capital-G creator, God. Yet the Torah contains several anachronisms showing it was written during or after the late First Temple period (650–587 BCE), and there are numerous internal consistencies with the Torah’s narrative. Poetic texts in the Torah and the Prophets are generally recognized as quite old, predating the Torah itself, and it is in these poetic texts that we find hints about Yhwh’s origins, historically speaking.
Deut 33.2 says Yhwh came ‘from Seir’ and ‘from Mount Paran’. Judges 5.4 says Yhwh ‘went out from Seir’ and ‘marched from the region of Edom’. Hab 3.2–3 likewise says he ‘came from Teman’ and ‘from Mount Paran’. The most ancient texts within the Hebrew Bible associate Yhwh with Edom.
Egyptian texts from the 15th century BCE mention a people-group called the ‘Shasu’, which the texts locate in the southern Transjordan region. One text lists their various locations, including ‘the land of the Shasu Yahu’. (‘Yahu’ is a shortened form of Yhwh found both in the Bible and in other ancient texts.) The overall grouping of the Shasu settlements places them in ‘the area of Edom, Seir, and the Transjordan east of the Arabah’.
This evidence, though small, when taken in conjunction with the oldest poetic parts of the Bible, would suggest Yhwh started off as a local deity in Edom.
Yhwh Battles Other Gods
The intention of the biblical editors was to show the total supremacy of Yhwh, and the overall thrust of Judaism was that he is the only true God. It is surprising, then, that not only are there stories acknowledging the existence of other deities, but stories where Yhwh fights them, and is outwitted or overpowered in his mission to elevate Israel’s status in the world.
A long-running suggestion is the plagues in Exodus are meant to show Yhwh demonstrating his power over aspects of the world that the Egyptians associated with their own gods. In this view, turning water into blood is meant to show Israel’s god Yhwh, not Egypt’s god Hapi, has power over the Nile. The plague of frogs is an ironic subversion of Egypt’s goddess Heket, who was depicted with a frog’s head.
It’s difficult to verify if the individual plagues are meant to be so specifically subversive, but in fact Exodus openly says God was waging war against Egypt’s gods.
Exodus 12.12
‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am Yhwh.’
This does not deny the existence of Egypt’s gods, nor does it relegate their existence to merely being ‘demons’ (i.e. angels created by God that ‘fell’ into sin). Instead, Egypt’s gods are real, they are a threat to Israel, and Yhwh is removing that threat.
Yhwh is victorious in Exodus, but he suffers two major defeats later on in the biblical narrative. In Judges 1.1–2, Yhwh promises to the tribe of Judah that he would fight alongside them against the Canaanites and ‘give the land’ into the tribe’s hand. The following passage, 1.3–18, shows Judah successfully invading the Canaanite’s land. Their fortune fails in the next verse:
Judges 1.3–18
Yhwh was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had chariots of iron.
Yhwh is unable to help Judah conquer the Canaanites in the plain because of their chariots. Israel’s god is thwarted by the superior technology of Israel’s enemy.
A similar problem occurs in 2 Kings 3. In this chapter, the kingdom of Israel is at war with the kingdom of Moab. The king of Israel enlists the help of the kings of Judah and Edom. Judah wants to be sure they are doing the right thing, and insists they seek instruction from Yhwh. They find none other than Elisha, the successor of Elijah, to inquire of Yhwh what they must do to win their battle with Moab. Elisha listens to a musician play, waiting for Yhwh to speak. And he does:
2 Kings 3.16–19
And he said ‘Thus says Yhwh, “I will make this wadi full of pools.” For thus says Yhwh, “You shall see neither wind nor rain, but the wadi shall be filled with water, so that you shall drink, you, your cattle, and your animals.” This is only a trifle in the sight of Yhwh, for he will also hand Moab over to you. You shall conquer every fortified city and every choice city; every good tree you shall fell, all springs of water you shall stop up, and every good piece of land you shall ruin with stones.’
Yhwh will make water appear from nothing, an event which will signal Yhwh will fulfill his promise that Moab will be utterly conquered by Israel, Judah, and Edom. The next day the water appears (3.20). The Moabites attack, but are repelled (3.21–26). And just as Yhwh’s guarantee is nearly fulfilled:
2 Kings 3.27
Then [the king of Moab] took his firstborn son who was to succeed him, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And great wrath came upon Israel, so they withdrew from him and returned to their own land.
Yhwh’s promise fails because of Moab’s pagan sacrifice. This is not because, as some readers claim, Israel’s side did something wrong. We are not told, for example, that Israel stopped fighting because they were ‘moved to pity’ when seeing Moab’s king sacrifice his own son.
Yhwh in the Pantheon
The Canaanite god El and his consort Athirat/Asherah had seventy sons, called the ‘family of the sons of El’ and the ‘seventy sons of Asherah’. The entire pantheon consisted of El, Asherah, and their seventy sons (except for possibly Baʿal), so the pantheon is referred to as ‘the totality of the sons of El’.
These ‘sons of El’ appear in the Hebrew Bible in the form of the ‘sons of God’, where the word ‘God’ is Elohim, the plural of ‘El’. These ‘sons of God’ are typically interpreted as angels created ex nihilo by Yhwh, but clues to their earlier identity as deities can still be found.
In Job 38.7 the ‘sons of God’ are equated with the ‘morning stars’. Many ancient cultures believed the sun, moon, and stars were deities, and this is reflected in Gen 1.14–19, where they are called just ‘lights’. Worship of stars is acknowledged in Deut 4.19–20, but the way this is phrased is important to follow:
Deuteronomy 4.19–20
And 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 Yhwh your God has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven. But Yhwh has taken you and brought you out of the iron-smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of his very own possession, as you are now.
Here Yhwh is the supreme creator and Israel must worship only him, but he is not the only divinity. Israel’s national god is Yhwh, distinct from the national gods he assigned to other nations. This brings us to Deut 32.8. There are two points in this text that need ironing out. First, ‘Most High’ in this verse is a translation of Elyon, one of the many epithets given to El in ancient literature, along with the epithet Shaddai.
Deuteronomy 32.8
When Elyon apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind, he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of El. Yhwh’s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.
In Ugaritic tradition, there were seventy sons of El. In Israelite tradition, there were seventy nations.
One of the most obvious remnants of polytheism still in the Hebrew Bible is in Psalms.
Psalm 82
God [Elohim] has taken his place in the assembly of El;
in the midst of the gods [elohim] he holds judgment:
‘How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? (Selah)
Give justice to the weak and the orphan;
maintain the right of the lowly and the destitute.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.’
They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk around in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
I say, ‘You are gods [elohim],
sons of Elyon, all of you;
nevertheless, you shall die like man,
and fall like any prince.’
Rise up, O God [Elohim], judge the earth;
for all the nations belong to you!
The ‘assembly of El’ (ʿadat ʾel) comes from the Ugaritic ‘assembly of gods’ (ʿadat ʾilm), a council of deities that El rules over. The psalm displays scorn for the many sons of El Elyon, but it does not deny their existence, nor does it minimize them as ‘demons’ or mere ‘idols’. Instead, the gods exist but are sentenced to die because of their failure to maintain justice.
Yhwh Supplants Baʿal Hadad
Baʿal Hadad was a storm god in Canaan, nicknamed the Cloud-rider. While El was the head of the pantheon, Baʿal sought to rule by overpowering El’s appointed authority, an ocean god called Yamm and Nahar.
Now your enemy, O Baʿal, now you will smite your enemy, now you will cut off your adversary. You shall take your eternal kingdom, your everlasting dominion. […] Strike the pate of Prince Yamm, between the eyes of Judge Nahar.11
Yamm’s name is the Semitic word meaning ‘sea’, and his other name Nahar is the word ‘river’. Yhwh is occasionally shown asserting his authority over the ‘seas’ and ‘rivers’ (e.g. Psa 24.2; Isa 11.15; Nah 1.4), but Habakkuk in particular has a text important for us. With only slight emendation, turning the plurals ‘rivers’ and ‘seas’ to their singular forms, we have a text which reads:
Habakkuk 3.8
Was your wrath against Nahar, O Yhwh? Or your anger against Nahar, or your rage against Yam, when you drove your horses, your chariots to victory?
Psa 104.3 identifies Yhwh’s chariots as ‘the clouds’. When paired with Hab 3.8, we have Yhwh riding the clouds and striking down Yam/Nahar, identical to the Cloud-rider.
In the Baʿal Cycle, the titular god is (temporarily) killed by Mot, a death god.
One lip [of Mot’s mouth] to earth and one to heaven, he stretches his tongue to the stars. Baʿal enters his mouth, descends into him like an olive-cake, like the yield of the earth and trees’ fruit.12
This depiction of Baʿal as being swallowed by Mot is not just metaphor. Mot’s appetite is literally universal, and he actually does eat Baʿal.
‘I did masticate powerful Baʿal. I made him like a lamb in my mouth; like a kid in my gullet he’s crushed.’13
The idea that death ‘eats’ the living is also found in the Hebrew Bible (e.g. Num 16.30; Pro 1.12; Hab 2.5). Mot feasts upon Baʿal, but Isa 25.6–8 shows Yhwh gathering all people for ‘a feast of rich food’, and it is here Yhwh ‘will swallow up death forever’ (where ‘death’ is the Hebrew maveth, cognate of Mot).
In the Feast of the Goodly Gods, the destruction of Mot is narrated within a feasting context. These analogies, the traditio-historical connection between death and the verbבלע , and the thematic connection between death and feasting make it likely that the death that appears in Isa 25:8aα evokes the god of death.14
The same Baʿal Cycle comes up again just chapters later, in Isa 27. In the Baʿal Cycle, Baʿal slays the seven-headed dragon named Shalyat and Lotan.
When you [Baʿal] killed Lotan, the fleeing serpent, destroyed the twisting serpent, Shalyat the seven-headed
The Hebrew cognate of Lotan is liwyatan, ‘Leviathan’, a chaos monster that shows up on occasion in the Hebrew Bible. Like Lotan, Leviathan has many heads (Psa 74.13–14). Isaiah closely follows the above text, simply replacing Baʿal with Yhwh, and Lotan with Leviathan.
Isaiah 27.1
On that day Yhwh […] will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.
The author of Isaiah 27.1 may not have had a copy of the older Ugaritic text about Baʿal on hand, but the nearly identical phrasing necessarily means that Baʿal’s achievement had been consciously attributed to Yhwh at some point, and the particular wording had become almost creed-like in its usage.
Baʿal, as a storm god, was also said to wield ‘seven lightnings’ or ‘thunders’. In Psa 18.13–14, Yhwh ‘thundered in the heavens’, and as he rode the clouds he ‘sent out his arrows’, which are equated with ‘lightning’. Back in Hab 3.9,11, Yhwh fires ‘arrows’ from his chariot. Psa 29 also describes Yhwh’s ‘voice’ seven times, which is so powerful it shatters trees, terrifies animals, sparks fires, and shakes the wilderness. In these poems, Yhwh is a storm god wielding seven lightnings/thunders, just as Baʿal does.
Yhwh Rules the Pantheon
Different regions of the Levant favored El or Yhwh. This is reflected in theonyms like ‘Samuel’ (heard of El) and ‘Isaiah’ (Yah has saved). It is also seen in alternate versions of stories in Genesis. By the time the biblical narrative of the Hebrew Bible was compiled and these alternate versions were brought together, Yhwh and El were identified as one and the same, and a line in Exodus was written to make this identification unambiguous.
Exodus 6.3
God also spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am Yhwh. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but by my name “Yhwh” I did not make myself known to them.’
As mentioned above, Shaddai was one of the epithets for El
A story of this kind is common among religious groups that have combined two or more gods into a single entity: the names of each original god become the multiple names of the one god. In this case, Exod. 6.2–3 demonstrates that biblical writers were aware of a combination of gods in their community’s past, and that the Yhwh element in this deity was a latecomer to the Israelite religion.18
In the Babylonian creation myth Enûma Eliš, the first two things to exist are Apsu and Tiamat, a god and goddess personifying fresh water and salt water, respectively. When the two gods/waters mingle together, they create a new generation of gods, who in turn form other gods. After the gods slay Apsu, Tiamat seeks revenge. Eventually, the god Marduk rises to the challenge, demanding that if the gods install him as their king he will slay Tiamat. Marduk wields a bow with arrows, a mace, lightning, and the wind as his weapons. When he kills Tiamat, he crushes her head and splits her body in half, with one half used to make heaven.
The Hebrew cognate of Tiamat was tehôm, the ‘deep’, referring to the salty oceans and seas of the world. In the Israelite creation myth, Gen 1.1–2.4, the world begins with tehôm. God (here called Elohim, not Yhwh) splits tehôm in two, making the heavens above and the earth below. There is no conflict, no war of the gods in this creation story. But other parts of the Hebrew Bible allude to earlier traditions, where Israel’s god did battle a similar sea-monster, crushing its heads when he created the world (e.g. Psa 74.12–17).
In Hab 3, Yhwh emerges from Edom to terrify the earth with his power, to express his wrath against Nahar/Yamm. In many English versions, Habakkuk says Yhwh is accompanied by ‘pestilence’ and ‘plague’, or translations along those lines. These words in Hebrew are deber and resheph.
Habakkuk 3.5
His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. The brightness was like the sun; rays came forth from his hand, where his power lay hidden. Before him went Deber, and Resheph followed close behind. He stopped and shook the earth; he looked and made the nations tremble.
Deber and Resheph are the names of two Canaanite gods, and here they function as Yhwh’s ‘bodyguards’.
These two figures are known as gods in Ugaritic literature. In Habakkuk 3, which may be dated to the monarchy (see “your anointed” mentioned in v. 13), we see the two old gods as two members of the divine military troops accompanying God […] here in Habakkuk 3 they have been subordinated to the Israelite head god.20
Conclusion
Alternate forms of various myths and legends are found across ancient Southwest Asian cultures, and as these cultures met their different gods were sometimes identified with each other. In a late example, the Canaanite god Baʿal and the Greek god Zeus were identified with one another.
It would appear that something similar happened with Yhwh, for the available evidence suggests the following: Yhwh began as a localized god in Edom, and was known as one of the sons of El. By the middle of the first millennium BCE Yhwh had subsumed El almost entirely, he had taken credit for the achievements of Baʿal, he was identified as the world-creator like Marduk, and other gods were demoted beneath him. At the same time, the presence (and later the existence) of these other gods became increasingly suppressed.
There is more that could be covered. Ancient deities commonly had consorts, and Yhwh’s may have been Asherah.
Though there is not enough space to consider these and other points of evidence, what we have seen is abundant, and it all points to the same conclusion: Yhwh was once one of many gods in ancient Israelite culture, but through centuries of religious evolution he emerged as the one and only God who created all things.