One God? Many God's?

I am with Don. All is all. And all incudes all and all is all there IS. All takes up all space. There is nothing outside of all.

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May your awareness be perfection

It is also the conflated God that evolved from a henotheistic past.

Shalom.

Even though I may not use terms that imply as much certainty as you have, I tend to agree that this may be the most plausible explanation imo. But tell that to our orthodox friends.

Shalom,
Vern

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"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."-- Einstein

I'll gladly consider any other interpretation of the evidence (Deut. 32:8, etc.).

By the way, if you have not yet read Smith's The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel you might find it informative.

After reading it, I'm not really too sure what it supposedly offers as evidence.





Thanks for the recommendation-- another book that I'll just add to the great chance I may be squashed someday by an avalanche of unread books. I'm just getting started on one of Lewis' books dealing with change in the Middle East and, after that, I'm reading one of Joseph Campbell's books on the rise of the Abrahamic religions.

I've long been familiar with the view that some historians have in regards to the evolution of polytheism to monotheism in ancient "Judaism". For most, I don't think it's a much a question of "if" as a question of when. One historian (can't remember which) feels that when the author of Genesis mentions the "God of Abraham", that this was an indication of our polytheistic past. However, some other historians feel that it may be simply a recognition of the Sumerian god "El" (Eloheim in Hebrew; Allah in Arabic) as being the only "true" deity that eventually got accepted by Hebrews.

It's all very interesting, but I really don't lose much sleep over it.



Shalom,
Vern

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"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."-- Einstein

Emanuel Tov offers Deut. 32:8 as a classic example of harmonization. See, also, the beautiful translation and commentary offered by Alter:

Remember the days of old,
give thought to the years of times past.
Ask your father, that he may tell you,
your elders, that they may say to you.
When Elyon gave estates to nations,
when he split up the sons of man,
He set out the boundaries of peoples,
by the number of the sundry gods.

8. When Elyon gave estates to nations. Elyon (the High One) is the sky god of the Canaanite pantheon, who appears to have been assimilated into biblical monotheism as an epithet for the God of Israel (see the comment on Geneis 14:19-20). The use of this designation here probably reflects the antiquity of the poem.

by the number of sundry gods. The Masoretic Text here reads lemispar neney yisra'el, "by the number of the sons of Israel." It is hard to make much sense of that reading, though traditional exegetes try to do that by noting that Israel/Jacob had seventy male descendants when he went down from Egypt and that there are, at least proverbialiiy, seventy nations. This translation adopts the reading of the text found at Qumran (which seems close to the Hebrew text used by the Septuagint translators: lemispar beney 'elohim. This phrase, which appears to reflect a very early stage in the evolution of biblical monotheism, caused later transmitters of the text theological discomfort and was probably deliberately changed in the interests of piety. In the older world-picture, registered in a variety of biblical texts, God is surrounded by a celestial entourage of divine beings or lesser deities, beney 'elim or beney 'elohim, who are nevertheless subordinate to the supreme God. The Song of Moses assumes that God, in allotting portions of the earth to the various peoples, also allowed each people its own lesser diety. Compare Moses's remark about astral deities in Deuteronomy 4:19.

Psalm 82 is also instructive.

I not infrequently "lose ... sleep"[/i] over a good book ...

Shalom.

Jayhawker, a Jewish friend of mine has recommended this book to me:
The Hebrew Goddess - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was wondering if you've read it, and if so, if you have any comments about it. It's not a recent work, so I wasn't sure if it might refer to material which has been debunked, or for which there may be better translations now, etc. If you have any information about it or any opinions, I'd be interested.

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"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love."
- Carl Sagan

No, Mirage, I have not. Nor am I familiar with its author. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Interesting commentary. Where exactly did you pick this up? By chance, do you ever use the Jewish Study Bible by JPS? I'm on vacation right now in Arizona, so I don't have my resources with me, but I'd be interested in the JPS commentary on the verse.

Shalom and thanks again,
Vern

__________________
"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."-- Einstein

I don't understand the question. I quoted my sources.
Yes, but I do not have it available (and will not until Shabbat).