How many gods?????

On a recent post on Higgaion (click here), Chris Heard related recent developments within the socio-religious evolution of Israel’s deity. The crux of this post was the interplay of two articles from October of this year (“Are Yahweh and El Distinct Deities in Deut. 32:8–9 and Psalm 82?” by Michael Heiser (Hiphil 3, 2006) and “Who Is the Real El? A Reconstruction of the Prophet’s Polemic in Hosea 12:5a” by R. Scott Chalmers (Catholic Biblical Quarterly 68, October 2006)) that challenge the late merger of the two gods, “El” and “YHWH,” into the one deity as an earlier process in the development of Israel’s religion.

Though I do hold to the belief that the early Israelites where “Philosophical Monotheist” (i.e. though they worshipped YHWH alone holding to His supreme deity, they did not reject the idea of the existence of other deities), I would infer from the text of the Old Testament that the religion of Israel did not develop along the same socio-religious lines as its contemporary neighbors. Ergo, this discussion is an engaging intellectual exercise but does seem to be lacking in foundational assumptions.

To be frank, I do not wish to turn this post into a drawn-out polemic (I feel far too amicable for that today). With that stated, let me make a brief point. This whole line of questioning and reasoning seems to have an a priori of classical source criticism and progressive socio-religious thought. I along with many moderate scholars have considered these suspect in their original presentation. So for me to engage in such dialogue as to the merger of two deities into a monotheistic form, I must first have some questions answered and concede some other lines. I do appreciate though this post as it directed my attention to another dimension of Old Testament studies.