Monolatry

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Under monolatry (from Greek. Μόνος Mónos "unique" and λατρεία latreía "worship") is the worship of a single deity as a tribal, folk, national or state God beside other gods an ethnic pantheon stands. A similar term is henotheism , but it contains a time limit on worship.

In the Old Testament

Development from polytheism to monolatry

In the Old Testament there are numerous indications that there was no monolatry in pre-exilic Israel (before 597 BC ). In addition to YHWH , other female and male gods, who are also known from the environment of Israel ( polytheism ), were worshiped . Places of worship were usually cult heights that were dedicated to these gods. Other heights were dedicated to female deities, e.g. B. the Asherah , the wife of the Ugaritic god El , and the Astarte , the Assyrian-Babylonian fertility goddess Ishtar , ( 2 Kings 23 : 13.15  EU ).

Numerous traces of the worship of other gods have been preserved in the psalms . So Ps 77,17-20  EU describes YHWH with images that are otherwise assigned to the Canaanite weather god Baal . Ps 82  EU describes YHWH analogously to the Ugaritic supreme god El, the chairman of the assembly of gods:

"God stands in the church of God and is the judge of the gods."

Archaeological finds confirm the worship of other gods in pre-exilic times: inscriptions and artifacts were found in Israel that indicate the worship of other gods. For example, in 1975 in Kuntilet Ajrud in Judah, inscriptions from the 8th/7. Century BC Discovered, which presumably contain blessings from "YHWH and his wife Asherah".

The fact that the texts of the Bible reveal polytheism but condemn it sharply goes back to a later development of the Jewish religion. The reason for turning away from polytheism and turning to monolatry was the fall of the State of Judah . It was interpreted as a punishment for the worship of other gods ( Dtn 28  EU ).

This new interpretation of one's own history led to the biblical books being (re) designed in such a way that the worship of other gods is sharply condemned in them. In particular, the Deuteronomistic History and the Pentateuch , which ended with Deuteronomy , are the results of this religious reorientation. In order to underline YHWH's claim to sole veneration, Deuteronomy relocates the commandment of monolatry to the legendary early days and links it to the authority of Moses :

"Hear, Israel, YHWH is our God, YHWH alone."

Texts like the quoted Psalm 82 are supplemented in such a way that the other gods are degraded:

“ 6 I have said: 'You are gods and especially sons of the Most High'; 7 but you will die like men and perish like a tyrant. "

These verses already indicate the turnaround from monolatry to monotheism . If, according to Deuteronomy 6.4, it was only important that Israel did not worship any other gods - regardless of whether other peoples have other gods - the further development of monolatry to monotheism means the categorical denial of the existence of other gods. Only a few late texts in the Hebrew Bible are monotheistic in this sense; B. Isa 45.4-7  EU .

criticism

This religious-historical interpretation of the development from an original polytheism to a monolatry of YHWH and finally to monotheism is shared by the majority of researchers. But there are also critical voices among Jewish and Christian theologians . These admit that other deities were worshiped in Israel, as the texts show, but do not start the transition from polytheism to monolatry in the post-exilic period, but assume a phase of monolatry as early as the time of Moses. Instead of a critically reconstructed picture of history, they follow the view that the biblical texts seek to convey. They see the commandment to worship only one God as a revelation from God to Moses, who is regarded as a historical person. The veneration of several gods in the royal time is then to be assessed with the Deuteronomistic work of history as an apostasy from this Mosaic (divine) commandment, for which the leading class from the southern kingdom of Judah was punished with the Babylonian exile. A similar fate had befallen the northern kingdom of Israel decades earlier, whose religious traditions were carried on by the Samaritans in that area.

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Monolatry  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Waldenfels: Contextual Fundamental Theology. Schöningh, Paderborn 1985, p. 113
  2. ↑ Michael Bauks: Keyword: Monotheism (AT) , WiBiLex (Scientific Biblical Dictionary on the Internet), May 2007, accessed on July 27, 2020.
  3. ^ Israel Finkelstein, Neil A. Silberman: No Trumpets Before Jericho. The historical truth about the Bible. 5th edition. CH Beck, Munich 2003, pp. 260 ff.
  4. ↑ Psalm 82.1  EU
  5. ^ Israel Finkelstein, Neil A. Silberman: No Trumpets Before Jericho. The historical truth about the Bible. 5th edition. CH Beck, Munich 2003, p. 322 ff.
  6. ↑ Dtn 6.4  EU
  7. ↑ Ps 82 : 6f. EU
  8. ^ WH Schmidt: Art. Monolatry. In: TRE Vol. 23 1994, pp. 237-248
  9. ^ R. Albertz: The riddle of the Israelite monotheism. In: World and Environment of the Bible I 1 (1999) 3–5
  10. ↑ Marie-Theres Wacker : Of goddesses, gods and the only god. Studies on biblical monotheism from a feminist-theological point of view. LIT Verlag Münster, 2004, ISBN 978-3-82586829-1 , p. 112