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

If you're looking for a "History Channel" presentation for the general public, this isn't your book. But, if you're in need of a readable but stil extremely well-sourced, densely footnoted, and comprehensive history of the archaeology and textual evidence on the subject of the "Yahwist Cult" and its interaction with other Canaanite religious cults, this is just what you need. It is most effective in showing how "Yahweh" engulfed and devoured his competition, one by one, similar to the way in which the texts have him "eating Death." First he absorbed the cult of "El," the creator-sky god who was original "King of the Elohim" or gods; and as we know, in the early books of the Old Testament God is as often called "Elohim" (plural) as he is "Yahweh." Then "Yahweh" absorbed elements of "Baal" (the storm god and new King of the gods in Canaan), Baal's wife "Anat," El's wife "Asherah," and others. The point is that rather than "God" being the death of evolution, it's clear from this book that "Yahweh" is the product of centuries of conflict, accomodation, borrowing, and above all evolution. A triumph of evidence and reason! Review by W. Ron Hess ([email protected])

This is a fantastic synthesis of 20th Century scholarship on the religion of Israel in the period of the Judges and early monarchy. The Smith surveys the literature and provides his own theory of the the relationship between Israelite religion and that of other Canaanites. (One thing you will learn is that contrary to the way the situation is portrayed in the Bible, there is little to distinguish between the Israelites and Canaanites.) It deals with the issue of monolatry versus monotheism, did God have a wife?, are there various names of God in the Bible because originally they stories were about different gods?, and what of the ritual and cult in early Israelite religion. Smith definitely draws heavily on the scholarship of Frank Moore Cross, Jr. and Marvin H. Pope, and their students, such as John Day (e.g., Molech: a god of human sacrifice in the Old Testament) and W.R. Garr (e.g., Dialect Geography of Syria-Palestine: 1100-586BC). The book is extremely well footnoted, making it valuable even if you don't buy all his arguments.

This book is not an introduction to ancient Israel's religion or history, or to the Hebrew Bible. It shouldn't be your first book on the topic. (For your first book, try something by Friedman. In this book Smith will not review or attempt to prove source theory, Israel's Canaanite origins, and so on.) But it is about the evolution of Yahweh through his encounters with Canaanite deities on his way to becoming the "One God" of post-exhilic Judaism. Smith's thesis is that the development of monolatry (which preceeded monotheism) in Israel began with a process of convergence and differentiation. "Covergence," he writes, "involved the coalescence of various deities and/or some of their features into the figure of Yahweh" (7). And differentiation was the process of Israel rejecting its Caananite heritage, creating a separate identity (8). So, he writes, "The issue is not one of identifying the earliest instances of monolatry; rather, the old question of explaining monotheism becomes a new issue of accounting for the phenomenon of convergence, a stage in Israelite religion older than the appearance of monolatry" (197). The deity Yahweh apparently came to Israel from Edom or another southern location (Smith discusses this in another book, "The Origins of Biblical Monotheism"). He was incorporated into Israel's pantheon, which was Canaanite: it featured the deities El, Baal, Anat and Asherah prominently. Smith has a lot of experience with the Ugaritic texts, which record Canaanite religion similar to what Israel must have inherited, so he has the ability to find ways that Yahweh has taken over the features of Canaanite gods. (Unfortunately, no one knows what Yahweh was like before he came to Israel.) Smith naturally begins with Yahweh's convergence with El, which must have been complete by the time of the earliest texts: "there is no distinct cult attested for El except in his identity as Yahweh (35)." Then Smith examines the similarites between Ugaritic El and Biblical Yahweh, such as descriptions (aged patriarchal god with a heavenly court and a kindly disposition to humanity, and so on), epithets (Berit, Shaddai, Elyon), and iconography (bearded, enthroned). Next Smith turns to Baal. There was a transition at some point from Baal being worshipped alongside Yahweh without controversy, to a struggle between their cults, to the final emergence of Yahweh's cult alone. This transition included Yahweh's taking over Baal's imagery as storm god (which may not have been part of his Edomite character), bull, warrior and fertilizing deity. Smith analyzes material in Judges and the historical texts, concluding that the conflict must have arisen (or at least intensified) because of Ahab's and Jezebel's attempt to elevate a foreign god, Baal Shamem of the Phoenicians (distinct from Baal of Canaanite/Israelite heritage). Smith covers the ways that Yahweh's cult adopted Baal's epithets, iconography, descriptions and mythology in the process of replacing him. Howe

_The Early History of God_ by Mark S. Smith traces the origins of the cult of Yahweh (YHWH) in ancient Israel based on archeological and textual material. Mark S. Smith focuses upon the rise of Yahweh and Israelite monotheism (monolatry) in ancient Israel. The cult of Yahweh is opposed to that of the cults of other Canaanite and Mesopotamian deities including El, Baal, and Asherah. Separate chapters are devoted to Yahweh and Baal and Yahweh and Asherah (an early Canaanite goddess, contrasted with YHWH). The origins of Yahweh are revealed in cultic practices as related to solar worship, family worship and cultic veneration of the dead ("feeding the dead" and "communing with the dead"), as well as with the asherah (symbolized by the sacred tree) and the moloch (MLK) sacrifice (a sacrifice of the children to appease the deity). The development of the Yahweh cult through the monarchic period and as mentioned in the prophets and exilic period is fully worked out. The book comes to reveal how Yahweh gained supremacy so as to be before all other deities (indeed, supreme deity and One as the Godhead of the entire universe). Whether the conclusions that are reached in this book can be trusted in the light of Holy Tradition is of course a different matter entirely. Nevertheless, the book is a useful look at the origins of Yahweh-supremacy within the religious millieu of ancient Israel (the ancient Near East) based on evidence from Stone Age and Iron Age material as well as from early textual (biblical) sources.

This is one book on ancient Israel that actually delivers what its title promises. In "The Early History of God" Mark Smith systematically sifts through archaelogical and literary data from Bronze and Iron Age Palestine, the Mediterranean, and Mesopotamia to find the earliest evidence for YHWH, his cult, and his context. Chapters include discussions of YHWH and El, YHWH and Baal, Asherah and asherahs, cultic practices, such as communication with the dead and child sacrifice, at the sites where YHWH was worshiped, as well as a brief discussion of the beginnings of monotheism during the late monarchy. Refreshingly for me, Smith frames his argument on available evidence, not on wishful thinking, and the result is provocative and stimulating. The long introduction to this new edition covers the debate that has gone on since the book was originally published over ten years ago, and the extensive footnotes are a wealth of information on every side of the discussion. This is the kind of book that helps keep scholarship in good repute. Don't wait to read it!