A Crisis of Exile: A Brief Survey of the Development of Monotheism in Ancient Israel

By Dr. Brian Schumann

The concept of one Godmonotheismis a basic, fundamental part of our culture and beliefs today. However, it hasnt always been that way. Even the early Israelite people went wayward and worshiped other gods. Yahweh was only a single God on the pantheon.

A Crisis of Exile delves into the biblical, archaeological, and historical records to uncover what the religion of Ancient Israel was really like. Moreover, it reveals how the Babylonian Exile became the catalyst for propelling the Israelites into monotheism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LifeRich Publishing
• Release date: Dec 15, 2015
• ISBN: 9781489706362

Dr. Brian Schumann

A recent graduate of seminary, Brian Schumann did his PhD work studying the archeology, history, and culture surrounding Ancient Israel. His specific focus was on the religions of Israel and the surrounding nations. An accomplished preacher, Brian is now embarking on a new journey of printed evangelism. Brian and his wife currently live in Virginia with three four-legged fur-children, Asha, Krachen, and Patches.

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Copyright © 2015 Dr. Brian Schumann.

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Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-4897-0635-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4897-0636-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015920643

LifeRich Publishing rev. date: 12/11/2015

For my beloved wife; for without her love, patience, and support, this would not have been possible.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. Deuteronomy 6:4 (NKJV)

Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1: Israel: An Examination of the Traditional Biblical Narrative

Chapter 2: Religion in Ancient Israel

Chapter 3: Other Gods Referenced in the Torah

Chapter 4: Yahweh

Chapter 5: Crisis of Exile

Chapter 6: Return to the Homeland and Monotheism at Last!

Chapter 7: Hebrew Bible

Conclusion

Bibliography

Endnotes

About the Author

Foreword

Religious author Karen Armstrong says it best when she states, Human beings are spiritual animals. Many started to worship a god as soon as they became recognizably human; starting religions at the same time as the creative works of art. Religion has been an attempt to find meaning and value in life, despite the suffering the flesh is heir to.¹ Religion is a human need that affects life at every level.² In good times as well as bad, religion is the medium by which mankind has been guided for millennia. We have channeled our deepest hopes and our darkest fears through the lens of religion since man first experienced self-awareness. The result of religion is seen in our art, literature, music and ethics.

Unfortunately, we have also experienced tragedy at the hands of religion. Wars have brought death and destruction across the globe while waiving a banner of the local deity. Lives have been turned upside down through violence done in the name of religion. While the Assyrian and Babylonian assaults on Ancient Israel were more about power than religion, we can still hear the desperate cry for meaning and value in the words of the Psalmist:

Weeping, we sat beside the rivers of Babylon thinking of Jerusalem. We have put away our lyres, hanging them upon the branches of the willow trees, for how can we sing? Yet our captors, our tormentors, demand that we sing for them the happy songs of Zion! If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill upon the harp. If I fail to love her more than my highest joy, let me never sing again. (Psalm 137:1-6, TLB)

The people of Judea had watched their northern kinsmen be dragged off to exile by the Assyrians in 721 BCE. Now in 586 BCE, they too have experienced the embarrassment of military defeat and the humiliation of exile. The Babylonians are taunting them, asking for songs of the Holy City. The Judeans must have asked themselves, How could this have happened? Why did this happen? and most importantly, What do we do now?

These questions are at the heart of the Thesis Statement: While a great tragedy, the Babylonian Exile was absolutely critical in the development of the present day Judeo-Christian religions due to its effect of true Monotheism, instead of the pre-exilic henotheism, taking hold among those exiled Israelites.

There are some quick housekeeping items which need to be addressed prior to moving forward. First, Jews do not appreciate the term Old Testament and consider it derogatory. They prefer the word Torah, from the Hebrew archery term meaning giving direction.³ Therefore, the terms Torah or Hebrew Bible will be utilized as synonyms for the Old Testament throughout this project.

Second, it is important to outline the appropriate archaeological chronology that is being used throughout this project. Below is a list of the timeframes and their associated definitions:

Iron IA – 1200-1150 BCE

Iron IB – 1150-1000 BCE

Iron IIA – 1000-925 BCE

Iron IIB – 925-720 BCE

Iron IIC – 720-586 BCE

Lastly, there are basically four camps for Biblical Interpretation: Maximalist, Minimalist, something in the middle (the center camp does not have a title that I have seen), and Fundamentalist. The Maximalists are researchers who argue that the Bible is an accurate and informative guide to the history and culture of ancient Israel. On the other side are the Minimalists; scholars who argue that the Bible is actually a record of what later generations mythologized about their history.⁴ Maximalists accept that as being an accurate assessment of quite a bit of the Bible, at least up until the United Monarchy at the time of David and Solomon or when Israel and Judah were still part of one kingdom.⁵

It must also be stressed that a Minimalist is not, as is often said, an atheist skeptic who denies the existence of a political organization led by David or Solomon. They are in fact scholars who think that the normal evidence for a central state is missing. Nor is the Maximalist someone who naively believes everything written in the Bible. He is not a literalist but a scholar who faced with the usual lack of information, decides to make the best from the written data he has; the Bible.⁶

Basically, the Maximalist believes what is written in the Bible is historically accurate until evidence is presented to the contrary. With said evidence, he will adjust his interpretation and worldview as necessary. The Minimalist has the opposite paradigm. What’s written in the Bible is not historically accurate until proven otherwise. They too will adjust their worldview with the proper evidence.

The middle or center camp adopted a late monarchic (or exilic) date for a large portion of the Torah and much of the Deuteronomistic history. Hence, they acknowledge the value of these texts and preserving reliable evidence on the history of Israel and the monarchic times. However, they see the stories - in the way that they are presented in the text - as highly ideological and adapted to the needs of the community during the time of the compilation. ⁷ This does not mean that the text have no historical value. It does imply however, that in many cases, mainly regarding the formative periods in the history of ancient Israel, they provide us with far more historical information about the society and politics of the writers than about the times described in them.⁸

Finally, the Fundamentalists are those who accept what the Bible says verbatim and without question. They unequivocally reject any historical, textual, or source criticism. The writings of the Bible are the infallible, inerrant Word of God and no volume of historical or scientific evidence will influence them to the contrary.

As a frame of reference, I find myself in the center camp and have approached this project from that position. Wyatt says it best, The maximalists expect too much and the minimalists too little.⁹ The safest position to adopt in a project of this sort is to attempt an interpretation of the literature (for it is at least that even if we have to stop short of calling it history) which is faithful to the evidence. It’s bearing on historical matters will then need to be assessed by those concerned with the reconstruction of historical events.¹⁰

I have been willing to go wherever the evidence has taken me throughout this investigation. To paraphrase Psalms 23, I fear nothing, for the Lord is with me.

Chapter 1

Israel: An Examination of the Traditional Biblical Narrative

Organized commerce was developed far earlier than we had imagined. The importance of trade and development of civilization can scarcely be exaggerated. Without extensive trade, no great expansion of material civilization or probably of higher culture is possible.¹¹ The land of Israel (also known as Syria-Palestine) is the natural passageway between Egypt to the south and Mesopotamia and Asia Minor to the North, three centers of ancient empires. As a result, most of the history of Syria-Palestine is a story of trade, migration, warfare and conquest.¹² Syria and Palestine form a land bridge which has been utilized from the very earliest times by people and armies moving between continents of Asia and Africa. Natural routes are relatively narrow and sharply defined by the sea, lakes and mountains in the West and desert in the East. It was possible for groups to maintain their identity without being seriously disturbed by the passing of traders, other migrants or by the march of hostile armies.¹³

The emergence of Israel as a nation seems to have occurred during the 10Th century BCE.¹⁴ In cultural and historical terms, the origin of tribal Israel was undoubtedly more complex than the depiction in the Hebrew Bible. However, it must be noted that the Hebrew Bible narratives themselves have significant symbolic value as a scriptural foundation of Israelite self-understanding regardless of the reconstructions of Israel’s origins by modern research.¹⁵ The history of ancient Israel is divided into several subdivisions: Patriarchal, Mosaic, Period of the Judges, the Monarchy or United Kingdom, the Divided Kingdom, the Captivity and Post Captivity. The following is a brief review of the Biblical traditional narrative concerning the history of ancient Israel.

Patriarchal Period

The history of ancient Israel from Adam and Eve to the Egyptian bondage. This section of the narrative covers the Patriarchs before and after the flood, the migration and population by the sons of Noah, the trip to Egypt and the following enslavement.¹⁶ Though ancient Israel would have much to do with many amazing and historical events since the creation of Adam and Eve, such as the flooding of the earth and the dispersion of races, it was not until a man named Abraham came along that the people would begin to truly form as a nation.¹⁷ From Abraham’s seed would come the most influential and controversial nation of all time:¹⁸

I will bless you with incredible blessings and multiply your descendants into countless thousands and millions, like the stars above you in the sky, and like the sands along the seashore. They will conquer their enemies, and your offspring will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth—all because you have obeyed me. (Genesis 22:17-18, TLB)

Mosaic Period

This section covers ancient Israel from Moses through Joshua, including the deliverance of the Israelites, their Exodus out of Egypt, and the subsequent conquest of Canaan.¹⁹ One could describe the story in the books of Exodus and Numbers as being about a God who is without either a home or people. He chose a people who similarly were without either home or God. The troubled interplay of this lonely God in this homeless people lies at the heart of the biblical stories plot.²⁰ It is a survival story.²¹

The Exodus tradition represents a distinctive contribution of Israel’s faith not found anywhere else in the ancient Near Eastern religious traditions. As early as the Exodus tradition and Yawheh’s association with it, Israel’s God became known by this historic act of redemption. In this manner, the miraculous association with the Exodus event and God’s defeat of the most powerful army known becomes the means by which Israel recognizes its identity and the basis for its own response of covenantal faithfulness to this deity.²²

The first time Israel is mentioned in extra-Biblical sources is in the Merneptah Stele. The well-known Victory Stela of the 19th Dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah, erected at Thebes about his third year (somewhere between 1210-1208 BCE), celebrates victories over a number of real or perceived enemies in Canaan. The text lists several defeated peoples and then mentions Israel, who is laid waste; its seed is not. All scholars would agree that the date is fixed within the margin of less than five years by astronomical reckoning. Moreover, the reading Israel is certain; the cartouche Israel is followed by the Egyptian plural gentilic or determinative sign for peoples, rather than a kingdom, city state, or the like, and must therefore designate some ethnic group. Lastly, this entity, whatever it is, was distinct in the minds of the Egyptians from the Canaanites, Hurrians, Shasu-bedouin or other groups in Canaan well-known to Egyptian intelligence and mentioned in this and other Egyptian texts.²³ In other words, the formal structure of this inscription suggests that Canaan and Israel are regarded as subdivisions of Palestine.²⁴ Israel, in some form, was distinguished from Canaan ca. 1200 BCE is clear from this inscribed monument.²⁵ Ironically, this is the first and only record in Egyptian sources where Israel is mentioned.²⁶

Period of the Judges

This narrative covers the history of Israel contained in the books of Judges and I Samuel. This period commences upon Joshua’s successful campaigns into Canaan. Famous Judges, such as Gideon, Samson and Jephthah fought off the Philistines and other enemies. The time span of this period depends on one’s view of when the Exodus occurred. This epoch likely covers around 300 years.²⁷ Early Israel must be designated a tribal league or Federation. The Federation of Israelite tribes was united by military, kinship and religious ties. The league was a military organization first of all, designed to marshal a militia for offense and defense. The league was also a kinship organization, a covenant of families and tribes organized by the creation where identification of a common ancestor and related by segmented genealogies. The Israelite league is also a religious organization or society. Priestly families, linked by genealogy to create a Priestly tribe, set aside to conduct rituals, sacrifices and to preserve religious lore. The league called the, ‘am Yahweh, which generally translates to people of Yahweh. Confederations of tribes blur in South Eastern Palestine and northern Arabia before the revolution into nation states by kings: Edom, Moab, Ammon, Midian, Ishmael and Qedar.²⁸

The Monarchy/United Kingdom

The period of the united monarchy begins when the judge Samuel reluctantly anoints Saul as the first king of Israel. Samuel thought kings in general were a bad plan. After Saul defeats the Ammonites, the twelve tribes acclaim him king with his ruling capital at Gibeah. During Saul’s kingship, the Philistines attack and a young shepherd named David volunteers for a one-on-one with the fiercest of the Philistines, a giant named Goliath. With a single stone from his slingshot, David fells the Philistine and wins a reputation that outshines Saul’s. Samuel the prophet anoints David to be king of Israel. When Saul dies, one of his sons is appointed king, but at Hebron the tribe of Judah declares David king. David replaces Saul’s son when the son is assassinated, becoming king of the re-united monarchy. David builds a fortified capital at Jerusalem. When David dies, his son by the famous Bathsheba becomes the wise King Solomon; who also expands Israel and starts the building of the First Temple.²⁹ Israelite culture flourished like never before as they dominated the Promise Land:³⁰

Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing. So Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of