Monotheism

Review of the previous post

The previous post, discussed some other influences on the concept of monotheism.

Preview of this post

This post, post number 16 of 22, briefly discusses the concept of monotheism for the nation of Jews.

A Monotheistic Nation

Reviewing the Bible itself, it appears that monotheism became the dominant feature of Judaism for the Jewish Nation in the book of Exodus when Judaism changed from clans and families to a nation. The patriarchs seemed to be monolatrists in the Book of Genesis^[1], but monotheism clearly reigned for the nation in the Book of Exodus. Therefore, this essay will use the Exodus from Egypt as the take-off point for a further discussion of monotheism as practiced by the Jewish religion.

It is also for this reason that the protagonists of the Bible stories will be referred to as Israelites or simply Israel prior to their adoption of Yahweh as their only god, but will be referred to as Jews (Judaism) after their adoption of Yahweh as their only god.

Preview of the next post

The next post, post number 17 of 22, is post number 1 of 3 posts discussing the shift to Monotheism in the Book of Exodus.

^[1] Being monolaters, the Patriarchs could easily accommodate and be comfortable with other god-like entities, such as angels and the like. Thus, Jacob could view angels moving down and up a ladder to heaven and be comfortable with angels, and Abraham could be comfortable taking a ram from an angel at Mt. Moriah and the like.