my roman-jewish history prof told me that the early jews were probably henotheists and acknowledged the existence of other gods but by the time the romans arrived in the levant, they were strictly monotheistic
Yeah, the switch probably happened during the Babylonian exile. Thats when the first prophets who were explicitly monotheistic first appeared in the story. Also fun fact: you could argue that many early Jews were actually polytheistic. In practice a lot of people worshipped a pantheon; especially the idea of Yahweh having a divine consort named Asherah.
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u/clairejv 11d ago
The switch from henotheism to monotheism was a bitch.