Monotheistic Revolution I

Lecture Notes

Now on to the lecture proper. Let me here start by defining the term monotheism. The best way to understand this term is to divide it in half: "mono" and "theism". The first root word, "mono", literally means "one". The second root term, "theism", means "belief in god". Thus, when you put the two together, of course, you get "the belief in one god". This is in contrast to "polytheism", or the belief in many gods (from "poly", which means "many", and "theism", "the belief in god"). The Hebrew innovation, then, was the development of the belief in a single god. This one god had a particular name; his name was Yahweh. In fact, his name still is Yahweh, since Jewish monotheism is still alive and "kicking" today. In order to really understand monotheism as it developed in antiquity, we need to understand the way in which the Hebrews envisioned this single god. There are three words that describe the god of the Hebrews: he is believed to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Omnipotent means "all powerful; omniscient means "all knowing"; and omnipresent means both "always present" and "in everything". Now, think about this, we are talking here about a single god, not many gods each in charge of a particular part of nature, like the god of thunder, or the god of rain, or the god of the rivers, each in charge of a particular natural phenomenon. Instead, the Hebrews envisioned a single god so powerful that he controls and is in charge of everything. He is all powerful, in control of everything, but also with the power to create and destroy. He is also omniscient because he knows everything, since everything comes from him. Interestingly, His omniscience includes also knowledge of your being. He knows you; he knows what you think. Finally, he is everywhere throughout time. This one god is not really controlled by our sense of temporal development. Instead, he has always existed and will always exist. He is the only thing that is truly universal and "all over". This god, this Yahweh, is not only the creator and destructor, but also the judge of mankind. In fact, according to the Jews, this god is a particularly harsh judge. The implication of that is two-fold: first, Jewish monotheistic believers think that Yahweh has made us in order to test us. This is the only reason we're on earth. In order to test us, Yahweh created a particularly harsh set of rules we must follow. If we fail to follow these rules, we are denied the ultimate greatness, which is to know god intimately, in a way we cannot know him now. However, this harsh god is also believed to be a loving and forgiving god. If you fail his expectations, yet turn to him in your failure and seek his forgiveness, He will grant it. Based on this double understanding of god, the greatest implication of monotheism, generally speaking, is that it changed the way in which people interact with their god. If you think of the Mesopotamian gods, for example, about whom you'll read tomorrow, you might remember that they interact physically with humans. Or, if you think of the Greek gods instead, gods who might be more familiar to you, you might remember that they were believed to "hang out" with people. You will see this clearly when you read The Odyssey for this class. This sort of physical, close interaction is no longer possible with a god who is so powerful and so busy. This is a god who will not appear to you and spend time with you in your home, as other gods were believed to do. Yet, because he knows you intimately, Yahweh is at the same time as close to you as is possible to be. Interestingly, you can speak to this god, and he will hear you, even if you can never really be sure that he has listened. One last thing to remember about this god is that you are suppoed to "fear" him. This is not to say that you should literally be afraid of him as you would of something scary; rather, you are supposed to respect Yahweh in a way gods in polytheistic religions were not respected. As you will see, gods in polytheism are as weak and have as many failings as humans do. The single god of the Hebrews, in contrast, is perfect; he has no failings and is greater than anything else you could imagine. For this reason, if no other, he deserves our fearful respect.