Monotheism
Review of the previous post
The previous post, post number 5 of 22, was post number 3 of 7 posts discussing Yahwism, and discussed the origins of Yahwism in the people who were living in Canaan when the Jewish Nation immigrated into that region.
Preview of this post
This, post number 6 of 22, is post number 4 of 7 posts discussing Yahwism, and continues the discussion of the origins of Yahwism in the people who were living in Canaan when the Jewish Nation immigrated into that region.
These people transformed food production from food gathering to food producing by means of agricultural discoveries (either by accidental genetic mutation or by experiment) such as the discovery of a unique strand of wheat which is high yield, and the domestication of wild animals whereby a farmer could produce more than his family consumed thereby permitting some to consume more than they produce and contribute to society in other ways. This situation could also lead to village life where people lived in a “city” because they did not have to produce their own food. Such urban life can lead to development of other skills.
This explanation fits nicely with the stories in the Book of Judges which appears to concern people spread out among different villages and subject to various rulers.
It may be that the Moses-led Israelites were small in number, or the Hebrew slaves arrived in small numbers over a long period of time. This long period of time may explain why Moses chose the escape route he did: others who had preceded him out of Egypt (in such small numbers that the powers in Egypt took no notice of them) got word back to Moses of the land and its availability for his group. It does not seem likely or possible for such a small number of people as was in the Moses group to conquer an entire land as large as Canaan (discounting the Biblical explanation of God’s help). Therefore, it seems more likely that the Moses group of people simply assimilated into the indigenous population.
Such a situation implies that the immigrants would adopt the religion of the indigenous people. This religion was most likely the Yahweh-only religion.
On the other hand, if there was no Exodus as described in the Bible (remember, there is no record in Egypt of a mass exodus), and the story of the Exodus was manufactured out of whole cloth to connect the Yahweh-only people of the time of the authorship of the Bible to a beginning, then the Yahweh-only religion began with the indigenous people of Canaan. It is then, these people who were the prototypes used by the authors of the Bible may, and probably were, not an invading force as described in Joshua and Judges.
To reiterate this important point: modern Israel may have been born from the indigenous Canaanite population. The concept of Yahweh-only may have been birthed by these Canaanites and grew with the civilization they had begun. By the time the Bible was written, some six hundred years later, Yahweh-only was the religion of the Hebrew/Israelites. The authors thus viewed events in a hindsight manner and reconstructed history and stories to show that the Moses group had the Yahweh-only religion because their god set them free from Egypt and demonstrated his superiority over all other gods and they brought that religion with them to Canaan, rather than the other way around. The “conquest” of Cannaan was not a “conquest,” but was an in-migration of people seeking a new way of life. This new way of life required living in villages and protecting themselves from outsiders. The records of the time, such as the Amarna correspondence) uses the term “Habriu” to identify outlaws or an opponent or a mercenary. Thus, the concept of Hebrews invading villages could be used by the authors for their purposes.
Preview of the next post
The next post, post number 7 of 22, is post number 5 of 7 posts discussing Yahwism and discusses the connection between the proto-Jews in the villages of Canaan and the practice of Yahweh-only religion.