"Enuma Elish" - Marduk and Tiamet influences Canaan myth of Baal.Baal-Habad cannot be saved by father El disguised in sackcloth w cheeks gashed, from underworld of Mot (god of death and sterility) he must be saved by Anat (cf. Inana, Ishtar, Isis) his lover and sister. Death of a god, quest of the goddess, triumphant rturn to divine sphere.
Pindar describes olympians as aspiring to fulfill their partially divine nature.
2000BCE Abraham left Ur and event. Settled in Canaan (near mediterranean sea). Along with wandering chieftains like Abiru, Apiru and Habiru, Abraham (m. Sarah) at end of 3rd millenium BCE migrated from mesopotamia toward mediteranean and served as mercenary of king Sodom. His wife Sarah dies and he buys land in Hebron. His grandson Jacob bears sons who become the 12 tribes and flee to egypt during famine then forced their way back into Canaan allying themselves w the Hebrews there and became known as the people of Israel, a confederation of various ethnic groups loyal to the god of Moses, Yah-weh.
First written in the 800BCE, the five books known as the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) were collated in 500BCE. 19th c scholars devised a critical method for discerning 4 sources which explain duplicate and contradictory stories in the pentateuch. Source J refers to Yahweh, source E refers to Elohim, both prob wrote during 8thcBCE. but source D (Deuteronmy) and source P (Priestly accounts and Genesis) wrote in the 7th and 6th c BCE. The P texts were written after the exile of the jews, it interprets events in J and E and adds 2 books: Numbers and Leviticus and draws on Enuma Elish in his account of Genesis {P argues that humans can't perceive God, only the afterglow of divine glory. Moses hides himself in a crevice and glimpses yahweh only as he departs.}
It is difficult anywhere in the Pentateuch to find a single monotheistic statement, in fact it seems to take the existance of other gods for granted, but asks for sole importance of Yahweh above all others. The agreement to do so is called the "covenant" btw god and man. The Ark of the Covenant is the portable altar the Israelites had with them during years in wilderness.
Man= adam, dust= adamah
Almost certainly Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob believed in Marduk, Baal and Anat. Unlike these gods though (and instead like ancient greek dieties of the Iliad) the Canaanite high god El speaks to Abraham directly and personably introducing himself as 'El Shaddai' (el of the mtn), a trad. title of the canaan god El. Elsewhere called El Elyon (most high) and El Bethel and preserved in such Hebrew names as Isra-El or Ishma-El. The E source however describes god speaking to abraham through angels, not directly.
Dieties in pagan belief had regional bounds to their power, it was always wise to worship local dieties but when Jacob sleeps with a rock as his pillow and dreams of a ladder where El promises to be with him in a strange land it's clear that the idea of a universal diety has begun. Jacob upends his stone pillow and pours a libation of oil on it renaming the place Beth-El (House of El). Standing stones were common featues of Canaanite fertility cults. Jacob decides that El's far ranging protection will make him El-ohim or the only god who counted.
Years later jacob wrestles all night with an angel and at daybreak refuses to release him til he learns his name. The angel asks "Why do you ask my name?" and blesses him there. Jacob names the place Peni-El [El's Face] "Because I have seen El face to face and I have survived."
Abraham's faith in god is more like trust than belief or orthodoxy. The promises made by El are ridiculous like abraham being father to multitudes when Sarah is past menopause. In fact when their first born comes they name him "laughter" (Isaac) and Abraham must further show trust by being willing to sacrifice isaac back to god.
Yahweh Sabaoth (God of Armies) is partisan and bloodthirsty and pragmatic. When Moses is made his first prophet to speak to Pharoah and the children of Israel he protests that he isn't able to speak well, but Yahweh made allowances for this allowing Moses' brother Aaron to speak in his stead. Pharoah resists gods demand to release slaves til ten plagues are sent and angel death takes all firstborn sons of egyptians while sparing the sons of hebrew slaves. Pharoah relents then pursues the hebrew slaves and his army is drowned in parting of the Reed Sea. This mapping of divine deeds onto real geographic spaces some suggest corresponded to a contemporary peasants revolt and as such had great power as a myth and inspire more conceptions of vengeful theology.
Eli-jah (yahweh is my god) wandered kingdom of King Ahab (a yahwist married to jezebel, a pagan blvr in Baal and Asherah) wearing a hairy shirt and leather loincloth and challenged Ahab to a contest on Mt. Carmel btw Yahweh and Baal to be witnessed by 450 prophets of Baal. Two bulls were placed on altars and each god summoned to take it w fire. Fire fell on Elijah's bull and he ordered all 450 prophets to be slaughtered. A hard rain afterwards proved yahweh could also rule fertility, thought to be the domain of Baal.
Paganism had essentially been a tolerant faith, provided they weren't threatened there was always room for a new deity. Hinduism and Buddhism encouraged people to go beyond the gods yet the prophets of israel were unable to take this calmer view. In jewish scriptures "idolatry" became a sin and worship of "false" gods inspired nausea similar to the revulsion some would come to feel toward sexuality. Of course, most Israelites belived implicitly in pagan deities and at the same time must have been aware that their own conception of Yahweh was similar to pagan idolatry. Yahweh was gradually supplanting functions of fertility gods like Baal bul it was obviously difficult for the irredeemably masculine Yahweh to usurp the function of a goddess like Asherah, Ishtar, or Anat who still had a great following among Israelites. The "Axial Age" saw a decline in the status of women who were sometimes held in higher esteem than men. The rise of cities meant more masc qualities of martial, phys strength were exalted. The democratic ideal of Athens for example did not extend to women whereas women like Deborah had led armies into battle. Heroic women like Judith and Ester would continue to be celebrated by Israelites but the monotheism of yahweh would come to be managed almost entirely by men.
The ascendance of yahweh did not catch as easily to israelites as buddhism or hinduism to the people of the subcontinent. It involved strain and violent confrontation. God would bring his elect to prosperity but if they deserted him "you will be torn from the land...scattered from one end of the earth to another." The book of Joshua destroys the Canaanites, wiping out the Anakim from Hebron, Debir, and Anoth. No Anakim left except in Gaza, Gath and Ashod. The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings were revised acc to the new ideology. A god that justifies hatred and scapegoats outsiders is easier to swallow than the God of prophets Amos or Isiaih who demands ruthless self-criticism.
332BCE Alexander of Macedonia defeats DariusIII of Persia and Greek rationalism comes to middle east. Jews of Palestine and diaspora deeply influenced by greek culture and translate their own scriptures into Greek producing the version known as the Septuagint. Some Greeks came to worship Iao (Yahweh) alongside Zeus and Dionysus. But by 2nd c BCE the relat. Is char. by hostility.
Irreconcilable diff between Aristotelian God who is scarcely aware the workld exists and Biblical god who involves himself intimately in human affairs. Greeks think God is discovered by human reason whereas biblical God makes himself known by means of revelation.
Mitzvot= 613 commandments
Roman Empire establishes itself in middle east in 1st c BCE and allies more with Jews than Greeks.
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