You Shall Have No Other Gods: Israelite Religion in the Light of Hebrew Inscriptions

A paramount question in the history of Israelite religion has been the place of polytheism in that history.

Although monotheism is recognized as an innovation of the Israelites in the Biblical period, the dominant view among critical scholars has been that the Israelite populace as a whole was not monotheistic or even monolatrous in the time of the patriarchs or Moses, but only became monotheistic shortly before or even after the fall of Judah in 587 /6 B.C.E. From the Bible's own viewpoint the ancestors of the Israelites were polytheistic at least until the call of Abraham (Josh. 24:1; cf. Gen. 35:2); the worship of deities other than YHWH was outlawed, though not effectively eliminated, in the time of Moses (Exod. 20:3; 22:19; etc.).

Scores of Biblical passages state that the Israelites practiced polytheism at many stages throughout their history. The prophets warned that this apostasy would bring calamity, and when the Israelite kingdoms fell, historiographic literature cited polytheism as one of the main reasons.