Judaism
In Of God and Gods, Assmann writes, “monotheism is a Jewish achievement.”1 This concise statement appears to summarize the place of Judaism in discourses on “monotheism.” The case is so particularly closed that it is worth remarking on the seemingly inviolability of Jewish “monotheism” in the history of literature on the subject. Scholars like Mark S. Smith have sought to highlight the incongruous history of “polytheism” that underlies the eventual “monotheism” so closely associated with Judaism.2 The major issues identified by Smith (and others) concern the presence of deities other than YHWH in the Hebrew Bible and as a (non-YHWH) “theophoric” element in the name “Israel.” These are reasonable points in a fairly compelling series of arguments that might validate the confusion a reader, new to the Hebrew Bible, may feel at seeing the variety of deities present throughout the biblical texts. The different of terms developed (some mentioned at the beginning of this chapter) in response to issues like these shows a great deal of ingenuity and frustration on the part of theologians and scholars. Considering adaptations of the Hebrew texts and Jewish history into Christianity and Islam, the stakes for deeming Judaism monotheistic seem particularly high. The case of Judaism’s undisputed status as the benchmark for religions deemed monotheistic exemplifies the issues of association (with other religions) in the process of deeming. No religion is deemed monotheistic or polytheistic in a vacuum.
1 Assmann, Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism, 7.
2 Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001); Mark S. Smith, The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel, 1st ed. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990).