Ancient Israelite Monotheism

Post date: 23-Mar-2011 01:16:56

Br Ali asked,

Salam

There are some strange controversial views of archaeological academics* from Exeter University.

One of their claims is that ancient Isralites were not monotheists and had a variation of types of "Gods" including male and female ones.

These are views I have never come across before. Nor has any Jew or Christian I have ever come across, has mentioned these ideas.

What is your view?

Salam,

Dr Salam,

Dr Stavrakopoulou, whom I believe you are speaking of, presents a large quantity of archaeological and textual evidence from many sources which she interprets for its affect upon the basis of belief in the religions known as Judaism and Christianity. However I suggest that what she has presented should not necessarilly have any great affect upon monotheistic faith. Put simply, does her evidence affect what we rationally and intuitively believe the nature of God to be?

Her evidence, which does not uses Qur'anic material, does not tell us who Abraham or Moses worshipped or what they believed they were worshipping but proves that many people after them, although not necessarilly all, held polytheistic and henotheistic religious beliefs. That people continued to believe such things while purporting to be montheists should not be a surprise to anyone familiar with the Qur'an which says,

2.135 They say: "Become Jews or Christians if ye would be guided (To salvation)." Say thou: "Nay! (I would rather) the Religion of Abraham the True, and he joined not gods with Allah."

and

009.030 The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth!

009.031 They take their priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah, and (they take as their Lord) Christ the son of Mary; yet they were commanded to worship but One Allah: there is no god but He. Praise and glory to Him: (Far is He) from having the partners they associate (with Him).

Just three verses from many which indicate, directly and implicitly, that polytheistic beliefs had been introduced into Judaism and Christianity at various times and ways that took them away from the faith of Abraham. Dr Stavrakopoulou as a learned scholar of Hebrew also demonstrated one of the incidences where words in the Biblical text may have been changed**, an accusation familiar to Qur'anic scholars,

5.041 O Messenger! let not those grieve thee, who race each other into unbelief: (whether it be) among those who say "We believe" with their lips but whose hearts have no faith; or it be among the Jews,- men who will listen to any lie,- will listen even to others who have never so much as come to thee. They change the words from their (right) times and places: they say, "If ye are given this, take it, but if not, beware!" If any one's trial is intended by Allah, thou hast no authority in the least for him against Allah. For such - it is not Allah's will to purify their hearts. For them there is disgrace in this world, and in the Hereafter a heavy punishment.

We see in Islam too, many who put the shell of religion and culture before the need and duty to submit to Allah (swt). To discover the the indications of the awesome reality of Allah's (swt) Unicity requires spiritual and intelectual fortitude because it is easy to rely upon superstition and received wisdoms and we should not be surprised that people lacking a protected text have gone astray. Rather we should be pleased that empirical research supports the text upon which we rely and that not everyone abandoned truth.

** Christian scholars have often poured scorn at the suggestion by some Muslim writers that the terms ‘father’ (ab) and ‘lord’ (rabb) were confused by scribes writing the earliest copies of the Hebrew Bible. The Muslim argument is that the phrase ‘God the Lord’ was wrongly transcribed as ‘God the Father’ which is an improbable occurrence in Square Hebrew (Late Aramaic), Greek or Latin but in the early Aramaic or Proto-Hebrew text reproduced on the http://www.omniglot.com/writing/aramaic.htm website there is a marked similarity in the forms of ‘alef and res. Thus, the potential for a change of word in the Biblical text caused by confusion in reading or writing ‘alef beyt (Ab or Abu)for res beyt (Rabb) does exist although I know of no extant physical proof that this did occur.

In use from the 10^th or 9^th C. BCE Early Aramaic replaced Assyrian cuneiform and was used as the abjad for written Hebrew or Aramaic until replaced by Square Hebrew around the time of the Babylonian Captivity towards the end of the 6^th C BCE.

(* Dr Stavrakopoulou is indeed an academic from Exeter who employs archaeology but it is an injustice to describe her as archaeological!)