No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel.

• Author: CORNELIUS, IZAK
• Position: Review

No Other Gods: Emergent Monotheism in Israel. By ROBERT KARL GNUSE. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series, vo. 241. Sheffield: SHEFFIELD ACADEMIC PRESS, 1997. Pp. [pounds sterling]47.50, $78.

There has been an explosion of books on ancient Palestinian/ "Israelite" religion in recent years. Publications dealing with aspects such as the relationship between YHWH and the other deities, the role of popular religion and "women's religion," aniconism (T. N. D. Mettinger, No Graven Image? [Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1995]); family religion (K. van der Toorn, Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel [Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996]), as well as important collections (D. V. Edelman, ed., The Triumph of Elohim [Kampen: Kok Pharos, 1995]). Rainer Albertz wrote the first newly restudied history of Israelite religion (A History of lsraelite Religion in the Old Testament Period, 2 vols. [Louisville: Westminster, 1994]). There seems to be a new consensus that ancient "Israelite" religion developed out of the ancient Near East and that its culture and religion cannot be separated from those of its neighbors, as was the case in the old paradigm. In this regard the present study is another important building block in this new construction of the religion of the southern Levant. Gnuse presents an assessment of the implications of the "new paradigm" with regard to Israelite monotheism. Gnuse works with two central concepts: "evolution" and "revolution," but follows a "middle road" between these two poles to promote the notion that the history of emergent Israelite monotheism was a process, constantly in the making.

The introduction sets out the goals of the study as well as the central concepts and problems to be discussed. Chapter one presents recent views on the settlement of Israel and concludes that what we call "Israel" grew out of the so-called "Canaanite" world and did not stand in opposition to it. The old contrast "Israel versus Canaan" has to be rejected--there was great continuity between "Israelite" and "Canaanite" religion; in fact, pre-exilic Israelite religion seems but a manifestation of Canaanite religion. This is a basic assumption which functions throughout the study. "Israelite" (first millennium) religion, he suggests, evolved from "Canaanite" (second millennium) religion. This chapter includes a very useful summary on the settlement of Israel in...