Henotheism in the Hebrew Bible—One God or many?

Most people assume that the question of monotheism versus polytheism in the Bible was never open for debate—that the Bible consistently always taught that there is only one god, period. And certainly that is what we find in the New Testament, along with much of the Old Testament. However, upon closer inspection we discover that such was not always the case in the Old Testament. Here we see that a belief called henotheism was once in place, which was later replaced by strict monotheism. Henotheism is the idea that there is a plurality of gods, with one reigning supreme above all the rest. As will now be demonstrated, this concept was indeed embraced early on by the Hebrews. In Exodus 20:3 we encounter Yahweh commanding: “Thou shalt not have any gods before me.” Here the great Yahweh is himself acknowledging the existence of other gods. He did not say, “Don’t worship any of those other fake gods, because I am the only real one.” He simply said to only worship himself, and not the others. And then, two verses later, Yahweh said: “You shall not bow down to them [idols of other gods] or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” Jealous of what? The other gods, of course. If there were no other gods, then there would be nothing to be jealous of, correct? Was Yahweh not admitting that there were indeed other gods to be jealous of? Deuteronomy 6:14 finds Yahweh further declaring: “Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.” This passage likewise assumes the existence of other deities—it is a given that they are real, except that they are not to be worshipped. The Old Testament is actually loaded with passages like this. Here are some other examples:

• “Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” - Exodus 15:11. Here we can see that the existence of other gods was taken for granted, but that Yahweh was claimed to be the best of them all. A very similar verse to this one is Psalm 86:8: “Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours.” 
• “Give thanks to the God of gods…” - Psalm 136:2.
• “But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship them.” - Deuteronomy 28:14.
• “Sovereign Lord, you have begun to show to your servant your greatness and your strong hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do the deeds and mighty works you do?” - Deuteronomy 3:24. 
• “Lord, the God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below—you who keep your covenant of love with your servants who continue wholeheartedly in your way.” - 1 Kings 8:23.
• “For [Yahweh] is the great God, and the great King above all gods.” - Psalm 95:3.
• “For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.” - Psalm 96:4. 
• “All the gods bow down before [Yahweh]….For you, Lord, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.” - Psalm 97:7, 9.
• “I know [Yahweh] is great, and our Lord is superior to all gods.” - Psalm 135:5. 
• “They went off and worshipped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.” - Deuteronomy 29:26, 27.
• “Because that they have forsaken me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, and to keep my statutes and my judgments, as did David his father.” - 1 Kings 11:33. We see in this instance several other gods mentioned by name, with the assumption that they were real.

The terms “Most High,” “Most High God,” or “God Most High” are very telling. For they imply that Yahweh has the highest authority of all the other gods. Here are some texts where these labels are applied to him: 

• “And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand…” - Genesis 14:20.
• “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.” - Psalm 91:1.
• “I will cry to God Most High, To God who accomplishes all things for me.” - Psalm 57:2.
• “…And the Most High uttered His voice.” - 2 Samuel 22:14.
• “I…will sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High.” - Psalm 7:17.

Not only does the Bible talk as though other gods existed besides Yahweh, but it actually makes reference to him having communed with these other deities—as though they were all part of his “divine council” (a term the Bible itself uses). In Psalm 82:1, for example, we read: “God [elohim] has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods [again, elohim] he holds judgment.” This passage means exactly what it says—that Yahweh was sitting in his heavenly court with a “divine council” of other gods. Bible believers come up with all sorts of unacceptable ways of trying to explain away this passage (and others like it), but there simply is no explaining it away: it says what it says, and that is it. And do not forget, as we saw earlier, that this concept was borrowed right from a Babylonian hymn to Marduk, which proclaims: “O mighty god to whom there is no rival in the assembly of the great gods….Then come the great gods for trial before thee.” Biblical references to this “divine council,” or heavenly assembly, are actually found quite frequently throughout the Old Testament. More simply put, the divine council is the heavenly royal court over which Yahweh is said to have presided as heavenly king, or “chief deity.” The members of this heavenly court, or assembly, were referred to by a plethora of different terms: ¨

“Sons of God”

Amongst Yahweh’s “divine council” were his angels, which themselves were considered “gods,” or “sons of God,” as we see in the proceeding texts: 

• “…the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose....The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.” - Genesis 6:2, 4. This passage is saying that members of Yahweh’s “divine council” were having sexual intercourse with human women and producing offspring. It is because of this very reference that we find things like this in the apocryphal book of Enoch: “They [the angels] transgressed the word of the Lord, the law of heaven. And behold, they commit sin and transgress the commandment; they have united themselves with women and commit sin together with them; and they have married from among them, and begotten children by them….And upon the earth they shall give birth to giants, not of the spirit but of the flesh.” Totally asinine, correct? Yet the concept comes right from “holy writ.”
• “One day the angels [“sons of God”] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them.” - Job 1:6. This passage stirs up another major crisis for Bible believers, as it not-so-subtly implies that Satan was / is a member, or associate, of Yahweh’s divine council, albeit a naughty one. For take note of what we read in Job 2:1: “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.” Here Satan is found “among them”—the divine council, or the “sons of god.” Understand that this event presumably took place in Job’s day, and not before Satan’s alleged rebellion in heaven, at which time he was cast out from thence. So what was this “fallen angel” still doing up in heaven, in the presence of Yahweh and his council, striking up a bet with Yahweh about whether or not Job could be afflicted enough to lose his faith? Apparently “the devil,” though seemingly part of the divine council up in heaven, had the ability to travel about the earth at will. We see this from Job 2:2: “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the Lord, ‘From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.’” Does this not sound like something out of a badly-written fantasy novel? Why would Yahweh have even needed to ask this question? Would he not have already known the answer ahead of time?

“Sons of Gods,” or “Sons of the Gods”

• “When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he established the borders of the nations according to the number of the sons of the gods. Yahweh’s portion was his people [Israel], his allotted inheritance.” - Deuteronomy 32:8, 9. In this passage we see “the Most High” listed as the head of the divine council—the chief deity—dividing up humankind among his divine council members, giving each his inheritance, with he himself getting “the prize”—Israel. We learn more about terms like “sons of the gods” by examining Ugaritic (Canaanite) texts. These texts state that the chief god El, along with his companion Asherah, had 70 sons. (Asherah, as you may recall, was also the female companion of Yahweh, as first worshipped by the Shasu tribe.)
• “Ascribe to Yahweh, O sons of gods, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength.” - Psalm 29:1. These “sons of gods,” or “gods,” were apparently the ones Yahweh was talking to when he said, in Genesis 1:26, at the supposed time of “creation”: “Let us make man in our image.” Likewise, Yahweh said in Genesis 3:22: “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” Finally, compare these last two texts with what we read in Genesis 11:7, where Yahweh said, in the context of the Tower of Babel story: “Come, let us go down and confuse their [mankind’s] language so they will not understand each other.” Who is this “us” but the “divine council” of gods that Yahweh was, at this early stage, considered the head of? Christians will insist that this “us” refers to Yahweh and Yahweh Jr. (Christ). But sorry, when the book of Genesis was written, the idea of Jesus sitting “at the right hand of God” was unknown. What was known at the time was the concept of the “divine council,” and that is precisely what the “us” meant in verses such as these. Early Old Testament writers wrote from a henotheistic standpoint, period. 

“Heavenly Host,” or “Host of Heaven”

This term is found frequently throughout the Old Testament. Sometimes it was simply referring to the collective body of angels, but other times, depending on the context, it referred to the broader divine council of gods (which included the angels). The passage that follows could be interpreted as simply referring to the angelic host: “Micaiah said, ‘Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right and on his left.’” - 2 Chronicles 18:18. But this next passage is obviously to be understood as a reference to the henotheistic council, since it mentions other deities: “Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of heaven.” - 2 Kings 23:4, 5. Naturally, Yahweh is called the “Lord of hosts,” meaning the hosts of heavenly beings (his divine council): 

• “Who is this King of Glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of Glory!” - Psalm 24:10.
• “Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts…’” - 1 Samuel 17:45. 
• “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.” - Isaiah 37:16.

“Council of the Lord”

• “But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?” - Jeremiah 23:18. 

“God’s Council”

• “Do you listen in on God’s council? Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?” - Job 15:8. 

“Assembly of the Holy Ones” and “Council of the Holy Ones”

• “The heavens praise your wonders, Lord, your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones. For who in the skies above can compare with the Lord? Who is like the Lord among the heavenly beings? In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared; he is more awesome than all who surround him. Who is like you, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.” - Psalm 89:5-8.

“Holy Ones” and “Messengers”

• “The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of people.’” - Daniel 4:17.

“Multitudes of Heaven”

• “...I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the multitudes of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left.” - 1 Kings 22:19. The context of this verse is the story, which we discussed earlier, where one among the “multitudes of heaven” stepped forward and said (in verse 22): “I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouths of all his prophets.” So here we see, again, that some among Yahweh’s divine council, dwelling up in heaven by his side, were quite nasty individuals. 

It will serve us well to come back to Psalm 82:1, this time quoting it in its entire context, which makes it even more troubling for Bible believers to confront: “God [elohim] has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods [again, elohim] he holds judgment. ‘How long [says Yahweh to his divine council] will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. The gods know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.’ I said [to the divine council], ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.’ But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.” - Psalm 82:1-7. Yahweh was here scolding the members of his divine council for their evil ways. This really should not shock us when we consider, as seen before, that Satan himself was / is a part of this divine council. But is it not convenient how Bible believers ignore passages like this? Or how, if confronted with them, they simply sweep them under the rug? But they cannot be swept under the rug. They bellow loudly for our attention. 

“Chosen People & God”: Henotheism

Consider how the biblical expression “chosen people“ comes from henotheism and not monotheism. There is one people among many other peoples chosen to be preeminent, and so too their God has preeminence over all other gods. Conveniently OUR GOD is supreme!—Yahweh or Elohim or Adonai (Lord) or Yahweh-Elohim depending on what stage we are in the evolution of naming.

Decalogue & Henotheistic God

“But the Ten Commandments demand monotheism!” Not really. To command “You shall have no other gods before me” - Exodus 20:3, Deuteronomy 5:7) presents henotheism, not monotheism. The first commandment does not insist on the uniqueness of the God of Israel. Rather, it insists on the God of Israel’s precedence and preeminence. There can be no other gods before (or after) this God, but there are other gods! The commandment implies that. This cannot be monotheism, folks.

The Shema is Monotheistic, Right??

Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord - Deuteronomy 6:4-5. Like with all language, the meaning of the creed of ancient Israel changed when the times and places in which it was recited, shifted. Language only means what it means where and when you use it. Many Jewish brothers and sisters praying the Shema today do so as severe monotheists, and “Israel” means something related to, yet different from, ancient biblical Israel. But when first century Israelites prayed the Shema, “Israel” meant a political religious reality, and it underscored henotheism in the polytheistic Mediterranean.

Paul, the henotheist, agrees in 1 Corinthians 8:5-6. “Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in sky vault or on earth—as in fact there are many ‘gods’ and many ‘lords’—but for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.“