EoG: Chapter 5- Polytheism, the Religion of Ancient Israel

This chapter is set up as Ba'al versus Yahweh; the ancient king god of the primitive Pagans versus the new, more powerful monotheistic god of the Israelites. It helps that the Bible includes many stories about the battles between Ba'al and Yahweh, which can be taken metaphorically for larger cultural issues. But this era of Western human history has more to do with the evolution than modern monotheism emerging fully-fledged from the minds of the Israelites.

Robert Wright claims that rather than God emerging fully fleshed, announcing himself to the Israelites as their lord and savior, it is far more complicated than that, just like the culture of the time. As implied by modern interpretation of the Bible, the Israelites destroyed and overtook the disgusting pagan Canaanites and replaced themselves and their religion as the dominating force of the land. However, it is more likely that the Israelites and Canaanites peacefully coexisted, trading culture and goods, until the gradual peaceful takeover of the Canaanites.

Wright's reasonings for this:

• There is no archaeological evidence for a war between the Israelites and the Canaanites. As evidenced here and also in Wright's book, most of the digs revealed cities without walls or weapons. Walls and weapons are indicators of cities at war; without those, it is far more likely that the two cultures coexisted peacefully, and considering the Israelites used to be a nomadic tribe, they more than likely traded.
• There is evidence in the Bible that the omnipotent God we know today wasn't always that way. Many passages of the Bible allude to a pantheon of gods of which God was only a minor member; Psalm 82:1 says "God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgement." Most, if not all of the original wording, was probably edited out by the original authors, intent on maintaining Yahweh's divinity in a changing world.
• Many of the mythical narratives proclaiming Yahweh's divinity bear a striking resemblance to the tales of Ba'al and El.
  
  • El is the god of the Canaanites, the original king of the Canaanite gods. The name "Israel" is likely derived from this name; ancient cultures had a habit of naming important things like cities after their gods, and Israel ends in El. The Hebrew word for God is "El," possibly derived from Canaan tradition. There is a school of thought that the El worshippers lived to the north of Judah, and the Yahweh worshippers, to the south, and both are mentioned interchangeably in the Bible, almost seamlessly. In fact, there is one passage, Exodus 6:2-3, that specifically says "I am Yahweh. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but by my name Yahweh I did not make myself known to them." God himself explains that he started out with a different name. Should the Canaanites and Israelites trade culture and goods (such as explained in the text above) then, like previous Pagan cultures, it would make sense to merge pantheons to create a peaceful cultural connection. The question is how a minor god such as Yahweh ended up absorbing the more powerful god El.
  • Ba'al is the enemy of Yahweh. Ultimately, Ba'al came to embody the evil pagan religions and everything that was wrong with them; Yahweh stood for the morally upright monotheistic religion. This epic battle culminated in 1 Kings 18:16-46, in which God burns a sacrificial bull and Ba'al does not. Elijah seizes the followers of Ba'al and slaughters them all. Considering how much Ba'al and Yahweh did not get along, it is a surprise that many stories about Yahweh seem to be rewritten Ba'al stories. This isn't so surprising when you realize that competitors often steal each other's ideas in order to outdo each other; Apple products are getting copied left and right, to get a piece of the action. Ba'al was a storm god, worshipped as a bringer of rain, very important and popular for agricultural communities. It is no wonder that Yahweh, to compete, began developing aspects of a rain god: his voice as thunder, his spear as lightning, a rider of the clouds.

Ultimately we can see where the origins of Yahweh, of the Judeo-Christian God, the original monotheistic god, lie in polytheism. What effect does this have on our interpretation of religion?

I can see that by recognizing the changes of the origin of God, a lot of the mystery and myth is taken away, and with it, a lot of mysticism. God is no longer infallible. He is susceptible to time and the philosophy of the times, just like the rest of us. Personally this appeals to me, a god that I can relate to, but the power of a Christian god lies in his beauty and omnipotence. We (his worshippers) are not worthy to worship him, but with this knowledge, he might not be worthy of us.