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Henotheism

Akivah

Akivah

Well-Known Member
I just learned a new word today, henotheism. This is a belief and worship of a single god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities.The person that introduced me to this word made the comment that early Jews were henotheists instead of monotheism. To my surprise, Wikipedia backs him up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henotheism
Rabbinical Judaism as it developed in Late Antiquity is emphatically monotheistic, but its predecessor, the various schools of Hellenistic Judaism and Second Temple Judaism, and especially the cult of Yahweh as it was practiced in ancient Israel and Judah during the 8th and 7th centuries BC, have been described as henotheistic.
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I know that Wikipedia is not an authoritative source. To my mind, while some Jews did recognize other gods, the bible always referred to these people in negative tones, as idol worshippers.
 
C

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
Tumah said:
If they were worshiping other gods (idols), wouldn't that make them not henotheists?
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No.
The ancient Israelites believed in many gods. They were only supposed to worship one, at least according to some Israelite authorities. Obviously the people did worship and believe in many others or it wouldn't have been a problem.

The god of the Israelites went from "our god" to "the strongest and best god" to "the only god". But they definitely believed in more gods at various points in time.
Tom
 
rosends

rosends

Well-Known Member
from the little I know of Henotheism and the claims regarding the ancient Hebrews, it seems to be an argument based on language. If, the scholars say, God said for the people to put no other God before him, then this concedes the existence of other gods with which the people were familiar and were to reject. I see that this fails for a couple of reasons:
1. that the people might see that other groups worship other gods and the Hebrews are commanded to reject that practice doesn't mean that the Hebrews actually believed that those gods existed, just that the idea of them in the minds of others did. Ask a Christian today if his understanding that Hindus have a pantheon of gods means that he believes in the actual existence of those gods. My guess is that he will say "no."

2. The concept of creating references to gods does not mean that anyone creates other things as Gods. I can tell my college buddies that, after a long night of drinking that I am going to worship the porcelain idol. I can then be told that that is a bad practice but that doesn't mean that when I did it I actually believed that the toilet was a god or an object of actual worship.

but just based on the little I know it seems that the lack of supporting documents makes this an argument based on a series of inferences
 
Tumah

Tumah

Veteran Member
columbus said:
No.
The ancient Israelites believed in many gods. They were only supposed to worship one, at least according to some Israelite authorities. Obviously the people did worship and believe in many others or it wouldn't have been a problem.

The god of the Israelites went from "our god" to "the strongest and best god" to "the only god". But they definitely believed in more gods at various points in time.
Tom
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I don't understand how what your distinction. Whether other gods are real or not, if we worship any other god but ours, it is called idol-worship.
 
Akivah

Akivah

Well-Known Member
rosends said:
from the little I know of Henotheism and the claims regarding the ancient Hebrews, it seems to be an argument based on language.
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When you put it that way, it seems that everyone could fit these definitions. I think most people accept that people of other religions worship something different from what they worship. But does that recognition of different beliefs mean that we recognize that other divine entities exist? I don't know.

I know that some people worship allah, jesus, and vishnu. But I don't believe these are divine entities. Does that recognition rise to henotheism?
 
C

columbus

yawn <ignore> yawn
Tumah said:
I don't understand how what your distinction. Whether other gods are real or not, if we worship any other god but ours, it is called idol-worship.
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One can believe in the existence of many gods, while only worshipping one or a few.
That is what henotheism means.
Tom
 
McDoogins

McDoogins

Member
They had one god that was the most important god, but before that when they travelled they prayed to other gods.

It wasn't until Judaism, I believe that everyone believed you could have only one god that would be with you all the time in any place.

Think of it as dial up vs wifi. Haha

Edit: meant everyone.
 
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Tumah

Tumah

Veteran Member
columbus said:
One can believe in the existence of many gods, while only worshipping one or a few.
That is what henotheism means.
Tom
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OK, but they were worshiping all of them. At least, that's what the books of the Prophets keep going on about. So how does that differentiate from polytheism?
 
rosends

rosends

Well-Known Member
Akivah said:
When you put it that way, it seems that everyone could fit these definitions. I think most people accept that people of other religions worship something different from what they worship. But does that recognition of different beliefs mean that we recognize that other divine entities exist? I don't know.

I know that some people worship allah, jesus, and vishnu. But I don't believe these are divine entities. Does that recognition rise to henotheism?
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That's my problem with the claim -- it can be applied to so many people and so many situations. The leap from that to "those deities really do exist, but I choose to worship on a particular one" is huge and one which I have yet to see proven.
 
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