Henotheism & Monolatry

 

Henotheism (Greek for "one god") is a term coined by Max Müller, to mean devotion to a single primary god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities. Müller stated that henotheism means "monotheism in principle and polytheism in fact".

 

Monolatry (Ancient Greek: μόνος, romanized: monos, lit. 'single', and λατρεία, latreia, 'worship') is the belief in the existence of many gods, but with the consistent worship of only one deity. The term monolatry was perhaps first used by Julius Wellhausen.

 

Monolatry is distinguished from monotheism, which asserts the existence of only one god, and henotheism, a religious system in which the believer worships one god without denying that others may worship different gods with equal validity.

 

Both Matt Dillahunty and Dr. Richard Carrier contend that the Jews of Abraham’s time were Henotheistic; they considered the other gods (Baal, ISIS, Ra, etc.) as real but worshipped their local tribal god, YHWH. 

 

Abraham’s father, Terah or Terach (Hebrew: תֶּרַח Teraḥ), worshipped many gods; he was polytheistic So, it must be assumed were other Hebrews.. Terah made graven images of them - again, an assumedly an ordinary practice. 

While he was away, his son, Abraham, burnt them all. Abraham claimed that the other gods had had an argument and did the burning themselves. Evidently, Terah bought or accepted this nonsense as possible. (gods being what they are, I suppose) Thus, was the henotheist worship of YHWH initiated. The YHWH sect was established with a single worshipper, Abraham. 

 

Henotheists – that’s what the Israelites were at the time of Abraham and afterwards. 

 

This would explain why the first 4 commandments out of 10 are regarding the worship of ‘the One, True god’.

 

1.   You shall have no other God's before me.

2.   Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images. 

3.   Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. 

4.   Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy. 

 

What a lot of narcissistic rot.  If the desert war deity, Yahweh, were the only ‘god’ around, why impose such commandments that sanctified and demanded worship of it/himself before all other gods?

 

This idea in essence has broached before this and it makes good sense as it provides a link between polytheism (pantheons of gods, each with individual traits, associations, abilities, domains, predilections and provenance) and monotheism. 

 

‘Our god is the best god of them all. Defy it/him and die!’

 

That the Hebrews were henotheistic would also explain why YHWH is so jealous. He was vying for a position amongst other gods. Maybe like Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’, if YHWH lost the Hebrews, he’d have faded away without worshippers and bloody sacrifice.

 

That the Jews were henotheistic would also explain why the Israelites made a Golden Calf after Moses disappeared for too long in the Sinai collecting god’s commandments on the stone tablets; they'd lost faith and looked to another god - one’s whose image they molded from their own gold. 

 

(…er…WTF? Gold? They had gold? They were slaves on the run from Pharoah, yet they had gold enough to make a statue? Where’d they get all the fucking gold? Let alone enough to shape into a god they’d hoped to worship and get them out of the fucking desert at last.)

 

Note that the first four commandments were to protect YHWH from competition; YHWH stakes a claim and assures his franchise by commanding ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me.’ (Hebrew: לא יהיה־לך אלהים אחרים על־פני)

 

That’s an interesting injunction if there were no other verifiable gods around to worship; no graven images, no taking the name in vain, keeping the Sabbath holy, and so on. Only then does the god get to the part on how these pathetic desert wanderers were meant to treat each other. 

 

Thou shalt not steal… No shit, Sherlock. 

Hammurabi already chiseled that in stone. 

Or tell a lie? Were the Israelites a pack of uncivilized hooligans before this? They learned no manners in Egypt-land? How did they keep from killing each other before this?

(See Morality)

 

Odd that thought crimes and sex crimes seem to stand out amongst the vague though mundane injunctions against killing, theft, lying and dishonoring your parents.

Thou shalt not covet. (Isn’t that the basis for capitalistic trade?) 

 

Thou shalt not kill? Could you be less specific, god?

Kill what? Goats? Wheat? Grub worms? 

Sometimes translated as ‘Thou shalt not murder.’

Unless commanded by god to commit genocide, perhaps is the addendum to that commandment. Ask the Canaanites or the Amorites.

 

In fact, YHWH commanded the Israelites to kill everything in the ‘Promised Land’; men, women, children, livestock, etc. 

 

WTF is with the ‘Thou shalt not kill’ injunction then?

 

Question: why a golden calf? 

Glad you asked.

It must be noted that one form that the gods of the Bronze Age took was a bovine one; cows, bulls, oxen, calves. The prize of the tribe or the nation was cattle. 

 

Gavaevodata is the primordial bovine of Zoroastrian cosmogony and cosmology, one of Ahura Mazda's six primordial material creations and the mythological progenitor of all beneficent animal life.

Another Zoroastrian mythological bovine is Hadhayans, a gigantic bull so large that it could straddle the mountains and seas that divide the seven regions of the earth, and on whose back men could travel from one region to another.

 

The Iranian language texts and traditions of Zoroastrianism have several different mythological bovine creatures. The bull was also associated with the storm and rain god Adad, Hadad or Iškur. The bull was his symbolic animal. The Sumerian guardian deity, lamassu, was depicted as hybrids with bodies of either winged bulls or lions and heads of human males. The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh depicts the killing of the Bull of Heaven as an act of defiance to the gods by Gilgamesh and Enkidu.

 

(Fuck with the god’s bull and you get the celestial horn.)

 

Also in the Sumerian religion, the chief god, Marduk is the "bull of Utu" and Babylon used huge sculptures of bulls as emblems of their King. The Minoan god of the Labyrinth, the Minotaur, was a bullish creature. ‘Apis’ was the bovine god of ancient Greece. 

 

(Incidentally ‘apistavist’ is the term that means one does not Believe in any religious notion.)

 

The Olympian chief of gods, Zeus, took the form of a bull to rape Europa. A very virile form. In Hinduism, Shiva's steed was Nandi, the Bull. Aurochs (the precursors to modern cattle) are depicted in many Paleolithic European cave paintings as mighty beasts. Indeed, though not manifestations of gods, amongst several African tribes (the Maasai, the Mundari, the Dinka) cattle are still highly valued, esteemed and are taken as signs of wealth and ‘heavenly blessing’. 

 

In summation, cattle – specifically bullocks – were manifested in many godly panoplies throughout history, hence, when the Israelites grew weary of waiting on YHWH to deliver, they turned to a tried and true representation of a generic Bronze Age god; a golden calf.

 

Much later, in Abrahamic religions, the bull motif became a bull demon or the "horned devil" in contrast and conflict to earlier traditions. So, the devil got horns – to denigrate Ba’al and disassociate YHWH from the old symbology, perhaps?

 

Where were we before we dove down the rabbit hole of the Bulls and the Golden Calf? Ah, yes, ‘the Hebrews as henotheists’.

 

To give this henotheism idea longer legs, YHWH, when dealing with the shenanigans around the Tower of Babel, says, “Man has become like us.'

YHWH says this to himself, by the way; or was it to his lieutenant Satan?

(see below)

 

A quick side note: Trinitarians, (Catholics) will claim that the other two ‘gods in one person’ are/is to whom the ‘father’ is speaking. Trinitarianism, it would seem, is a kind of rump version of polytheism and henotheism combined. A missing link! 

The Catholic/Christian ‘3-in-1’ god is a kind of half-step from polytheism to monotheism with its ‘Holy Trinity’ conundrum. Three-in-one or One-in-three. Sounds like a bit of confused sophistry but there you are. 

(Anyone care to re-read Alexandre Dumas?)

It’s a massive head-ache to reconcile the issue; one which the Church managed to side-step by murdering all those who would openly question such immense piffle. 

 

(Nota bene: Such speculation and ironic jocularity would have meant a one-way trip to the stake in earlier times.)

 

 

Ba’al and Yahweh

 

In non-Biblical sources, “the ba’al” refers to the Phoenician storm deity, likely understood to be a form of Yahweh. The related term, “the ba’als”, is used separately as a collective for gods.

 

The myth of Ba’al was also a way of explaining seasonal cycles. In the myth, Ba’al is slain by Mot and is considered to be dead until he miraculously comes back to life through the aid of Anat; so, Ba’al is a dying a rising god just as Jesus would be centuries later.

 

(Ooh-boy, more gods than you can shake a stick at, right?)

 

In the Gnostic texts, Yahweh is the demiurge; that is not a supreme god but a demi-god that was created by the aeon (or minor goddess) of wisdom, Sophia. Yahweh, then created a celestial world (not this one) and is a malevolent sub-god who does not deserve worship. This brain-twisting story can be read in the ‘Wisdom of Solomon’ in the Bible canon of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in the Gnostic gospels. 

 

It may be noted that the gods have been spoken of here as if they were real entities. This is done to provide the basis of an understanding of the minds of the people of the era. Of course, none of these gods existed but in the minds of these people. The Biblical Abraham and his father, regarded their own gods, polytheistic and then henotheistic before winnowing out the weaklings and declaring one god, YHWH, the winner.

 

Ba’al (also given as Baal) was a Canaanite-Phoenician god of fertility and weather, specifically rainstorms. The name was also used as a title, however, meaning “Lord” and was applied to a number of different deities throughout the ancient Near East. Ba’al is best known from the Bible as the antagonist of the Israelite cult of YHWH.

 

Ba’al and YHWH were each a god in a panoply of gods. The word ‘ba’al’ also means ‘Lord’, ‘god or deity. As silly as this sounds – as neither were more than mental constructs – Ba’al and YHWH were in competition. Ba’al had the Canaanites; Yahweh had the Israelites.

The two tribes were at war. Baal was the god of harvest, rain, dew and fertility; YHWH was the god of war. 

 

As a reminder to further confound you ‘dear reader’, YHWH and his/its rival, Baʿal were both associated with the bull as it symbolized both strength and fertility. (The link to the Golden Calf, again) 

 

(Oi, my aching head.)

 

Again, it must be stressed that none of these gods are or were real. 

It must be noted that Ba’al is cited as one of the Dying and Rising gods (i.e. resurrected gods ) by Dr Richard Carrier on findings by Tryggve N. D. Mettinger  documented in his book ‘The Riddle of Resurrection: "Dying and Rising Gods" 

 

But we press on…

 

Satan, Ba’al and that stuff

 

When YHWH tested Abraham by telling him to kill his son Isaac – telegraphing the whole ‘only begotten Son’ episode played out in the New Testament -, YHWH’s motivation was to see if Abe would either be a loyal servant or ‘fall away’ and worship some other desert deity. 

 

Interestingly, prior to the Persian conquest of Judea, the Hebrews had a different role for Satan (Lucifer the Light Bringer) Once conquered, the Hebrews were influenced by the dualistic Persian religion; Zoroastrianism. 

 

Zoroastrianism, the religion of Persia depicted an eternal, cosmic battle between Light and Truth (led by Ahura-Mazda) and Darkness and Deceit (led by Angra Mainyu). 

 

Satan might well have been originally the right-hand man (angel) of YHWH. Then, after the Hebrews were conquered by the Persian Empire, Satan became the ‘adversary of god’. This would more or less reflect the dualistic nature of Zoroastrianism with the supreme Ahura-Mazda in the position of YHWH and Satan in the position of Angra Mainyu.

 

Satan’s role in the temptation (torture) of Abraham might well be seen in light of the notion that Satan, prior to the Zoroastrianism influence was YHWH’s lieutenant (and perhaps advisor) in this and all affairs. 

 

Enter the story of Job: WTF is with that? Pick the best guy, happy, content, big family, prosperous, healthy and a devote worshipper of the big kahuna ‘YHWH’. 

 

Satan challenges ‘god’ (huh?) to bring death, disease and ruination upon Job as a ‘test’? The all-knowing part gets glossed over again. And so, the story goes with Job’s family murdered, Job covered in boils, his life in ruins, all to ‘prove’ that Job is devout and committed to the jealous, petty god of ‘creation’ with the able assistance of Satan as adversary or as lieutenant.

 

Once again – WTF?  

 

If this same, sad, silly story had been written by J.K. Rowlings, publishers would chucked her out of the office. 

 

The absurd notions of most Biblical tales (Adam & Eve, Noah’s flood, the Resurrection, the virgin birth, etc) told with the unspoken warning that questions were out of the question and are an affront –to ‘god’ and all righteous people. 

 

Question the sheer insanity of Noah living to the age of 900 years invokes curses of ‘Blasphemer!’ and accusations that the questioner was being prompted by Satan.

 

“How is Satan so powerful?” Lucifer was cast out (after exercising free will) and given Dominion over the under-world (where did that come from?)

 

‘God’ made the angels (at some point) and made Lucifer – the Light-bringer…

 

(a kind of Prometheus: (Who is Prometheus? In Greek mythology, Prometheus is one of the Titans, the supreme trickster, and a god of fire. In common belief, he developed into a master craftsman, and in this connection, he was associated with fire and the creation of mortals.)

 

To the point, though, Lucifer/Satan was made to be close to the power of ‘god’. Was Satan originally YHWH’s lieutenant before Zoroastrianism turned him into the lying adversary?

(Tolkien did a similar thing with Iluvatar and Melkor in the Silmarillion, a much better story than the Bible.) 

 

Then – the story goes – that Lucifer rebelled against ‘god’ (Tolkien’s Melkor does, too) waged war and was cast out of heaven. Was this the first exercise of ‘free will’? 

 

So, now Lucifer - renamed ‘Satan’ – goes on a tear of evil bad-doings out of spite or hate or something, First, in the Garden, tempting Eve as a talking snake (I love that) and then throughout the Bible as the baddie; Job, Jesus, etc. 

 

Again…

 

Satan was made in god’s image, so the story goes. He vied with god and was cast down, so the story goes. This raises loads of questions about god’s power and god’s knowledge; Why didn’t god simply ‘wish’ Satan out of existence? Why ‘create’ Hell for the devil (Satan) to rule in? 

 

Why didn’t god foresee that Satan would revolt and take a host of angels with him? 

Why does god allow Satan to continue to vie for the ‘souls’ of humanity? 

Why did god enter into a pissing contest with Satan about Job? 

Why did god follow Satan’s ideas to torture Job and test Job’s faith? First, didn’t god already know the future about Job? 

Second, why did god allow Satan to have influence over the torturing of Job; all of the torturing, the murder of Job’s children, etc were done by god, him/itself. 

Why?

Why did god allow Satan to tempt Jesus? 

Why didn’t Jesus understand that everything offered by Satan was already Jesus’s by dint of his being god?

‘Mysterious ways’ – amounts to bullshit responses to serious questions regarding god.

 

Is Satan eternal? According to the story, Lucifer (the light giver – smacks of Prometheus, does it not?) was there in ‘Heaven’ with god and predated the creation of the earth, etc (so the story goes…)

Why does Satan continue to exist? More ‘Mysterious ways’?

 

Who were these Canaanites whom God ordered to be annihilated? 

 

Snarky god!!

 

What was the source of the god that became YHWH? It had been known as El. Also Adonai, Elohim ("God," a plural noun), Shaddai ("Almighty"), and Tzevaot ("[of] Hosts"); some also include Ehyeh ("I Will Be").

 

names of God so holy that, once written, they should not be erased: YHWH, Adonai, El ("God"), Elohim ("God," a plural noun),^[a]Shaddai ("Almighty"), and Tzevaot ("[of] Hosts"); some also include Ehyeh ("I Will Be").^[1] 

 

YHWH-Niss"i (Yahweh-Nissi) — "The Lord our Banner" (Exodus 17:8-15). YHWH-Shalom — "The Lord our Peace" (Judges 6:24). YHWH-Ra-ah — "The Lord my Shepherd" (Psalms 23:1). YHWH-Tsidkenu — "The Lord our Righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6).

 

Sound familiar? This happens a lot – borrowings from other myth cycles and attributing them to some character in the Bible. Moses is a pastiche of borrows from other hero legends.

 

Another similarity: just as Zeus ousted Chronos as chief among the gods, the Baal cycle explains Baal’s rise to prominence and popularity among the Canaanites.