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The Early History of God

Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel

• •

second edition

MARK S. SMITH

With a foreword by

Patrick D. Miller

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

Dove Booksellers

Dearborn, Michigan

© 1990, 2002 Mark S. Smith

All rights reserved

First published 1990 by HarperSanFrancisco, a division of HarperCollins Publishers

Second edition published 2002

by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

255 Jefferson Ave. S.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

www.eerdmans.com

and by

Dove Booksellers

13904 Michigan Avenue, Dearborn, Michigan 48126

www.dovebook.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The early history of God: Yahweh and the other deities in ancient Israel /

Mark S. Smith; with a foreword by Patrick D. Miller.—2nd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-10 0-8028-3972-X / ISBN-13 978-0-8028-3972-5 (paper: alk. paper)

1. God—Biblical teaching. 2. Bible. O.T.—Criticism, interpretation, etc.

3. Gods, Semitic. 4. Israel—Religion. I. Title.

BS1192.6.S55 2002

291.2′11′0933—dc21

2002024467

For my father,

Donald Eugene Smith,

with love

Everything God has made beautiful in its own time; also eternity God has given into their heart.

(cf. Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Contents

Foreword to the Second Edition, by Patrick Miller

Preface to the Second Edition

1. Recent Research on Deities

2. Important Trends since 1990

3. Theoretical Challenges

4. Asherah/asherah Revisited

5. In Retrospect

Acknowledgments (First Edition)

Abbreviations and Sigla

1. The Question of Understanding Israelite Religion

2. Presuppositions in This Study

Deities in Israel in the Period of the Judges

1. Israel’s “Canaanite” Heritage

2. Yahweh and El

3. Yahweh and Baal

4. Yahweh and Asherah

5. Convergence of Divine Imagery

6. Convergence in Israelite Religion

7. Israel and Its Neighbors

Yahweh and Baal

1. Baal Worship in Israel

2. Imagery of Baal and Yahweh

3. The Role of the Monarchy

4. Excursus: Yahweh and Anat

Yahweh and Asherah

1. Distribution in the Biblical Record

2. The Symbol of the Asherah

3. The Inscriptional Evidence

4. Asherah—An Israelite Goddess?

5. The Assimilation of the Imagery of Asherah

6. Excursus: Gender Language for Yahweh

Yahweh and the Sun

1. The Biblical Record

2. The Role of the Monarchy

3. The Assimilation of Solar Imagery

Yahwistic Cultic Practices

1. Yahwistic Cultic Symbols and Sites

2. Practices Associated with the Dead

3. The mlk Sacrifice

The Origins and Development of Israelite Monotheism

1. The Period of the Judges

2. The First Half of the Monarchy

3. The Second Half of the Monarchy

5. Israelite Monotheism in Historical Perspective

Postscript: Portraits of Yahweh

1. Processes Leading to Divine Portraiture in Israel

2. The Absence of Some Canaanite Divine Roles in the Biblical Record

Indexes of Texts

Biblical Citations

Intertestamental ...

Content not shown in limited preview…

About The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel

In this remarkable, acclaimed history of the development of monotheism, Mark S. Smith explains how Israel's religion evolved from a cult of Yahweh as a primary deity among many to a fully defined monotheistic faith with Yahweh as sole god. Repudiating the traditional view that Israel was fundamentally different in culture and religion from its Canaanite neighbors, this provocative book argues that Israelite religion developed, at least in part, from the religion of Canaan. Drawing on epigraphic and archaeological sources, Smith cogently demonstrates that Israelite religion was not an outright rejection of foreign, pagan gods but, rather, was the result of the progressive establishment of a distinctly separate Israelite identity. This thoroughly revised second edition of The Early History of God includes a substantial new preface by the author and a foreword by Patrick D. Miller.

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