Lecture Notes
According to the Old Testament, the Hebrews came to their conception of their one god through revelation. This means that they were given by God himself a complete knowledge of his nature. This revelation was given onto man by Yahweh both in tangible and extra sensory ways. That is, in some cases Yahweh spoke to specific men, like Noah or Moses for example, to whom he spoke in dreams. In other cases, Yahweh gave this knowledge directly onto men's minds, without visual or auditory contact. However, it is important to understand that Judaism developed over time; it did not "appear" in the ancient world suddenly and fully formed as a religious tradition or faith. Rather, the religion of the Hebrews went through a series of stages of evolution. This means is that Judaism is not monolithic; it did not remain the same throughout all of antiquity. There were in fact five distinct, major phases in the development of ancient Hebrew monotheism. The first of these stages is known as the Pre-Mosaic period, which lasted from roughly 2000 to 1250 B.C.E. The name itself should give you a sense of this period's temporal limits, since the word literally means "of the time before Moses," that is, prior to the time when the Hebrews were liberated by Moses from their captivity in Egypt. According to scholars, during this period the Hebrew tribes were still semi-nomadic and closely dependent on hunting and gathering. In this earliest stage of their religious development, the Hebrews were not yet monotheistic. Rather, they practiced animism, which is the revering of spirits that dwell in nature, in trees, rocks, sacred places, etc. As the period progressed, however, the Hebrews slowly moved away from this animism, developing instead an anthropomorphic understanding of the divine. That is, gods began to be understood as having human shape, and as looking and sounding - and even behaving - in the ways humans do. This highlights how the Hebrews attempted to better understand the gods in terms that made sense to them. Even if they couldn't see the gods, Hebrews envisioned them in human form. Note here that we are still talking about multiple gods; in this pre-Mosaic period, strict monotheism had not yet developed. However, towards the end of this pre-Mosaic period the Hebrews developed the belief in a main god among the many others in nature, a principal god whose name was El. It was from this god that the figure of Yahweh later developed. As an aside, I want to make sure that you have all read your textbook, in which the political history of the Hebrews is told. The concept and history of twelve Hebrew tribes should sound familiar to you, especially because they are mentioned in the book. As a recap, remember that, after Abraham moved to Palestine from Ur, and after the Hebrew population grew in numbers, they organized themselves into twelve tribes that later become the kingdoms of Judah (made up by ten of the tribes) and Israel (made up of the remaining two tribes). The second stage in the development of ancient Judaism is known as the period of Henotheism, and is dated from roughly 1250 to roughly 800 B.C.E. This third stage was characterized by a deep transformation of the religion under the leadership of Moses and his successors. At the core of this change was the worshipping of a single god exclusively, although still acknowledging that other gods existed. Although this means that the Hebrews were in this stage not yet fully monotheistic, nevertheless this was an important development towards the brand of monotheism that deeply influenced world historical developments to follow. In effect, as this period progressed, the concept of Yahweh as the only god started to take place, as can be noted in the fact that the Hebrews started to think of him as the most important god and as not anthropomorphic. During this period, that is, Yahweh was not only given that name, which literally means "I am what I am", but also came to be conceived as outside and above nature; not part of it but its creator. The third phase in the development of ancient Judaism is known as the Prophetic Stage, and is dated between roughly 800 and 600 B.C.E. During this time, the tribes' political disunity and the conquest of Israel, about which you may learn more from your textbook, led to an outpouring of religious reform. In effect, the setbacks and misfortunes that the Hebrews faced, particularly their conquest and exile by powerful outsiders, made Hebrew leaders very concerned by what seemed at the time the likely destruction of their religion. Most importantly, during this period you have the rise of the Prophets, teachers like Jeremiah, Hosea, and Isaiah who were thought to have received divine revelation. It was the prophets who first introduced the concept of strict monotheism and explained how and why misfortune had stricken the Hebrews. At the core of their explanation was the belief that the Hebrews needed to be better peoples of Yahweh, following his laws and cleaving onto him. If that were the case, Yahweh would save the Hebrews as his chosen people.
