"And I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God.  And you shall know that I, the Lord, am your God who freed  you from the labors of the Egyptians.”[49]

            The primary agenda of biblical Israel was to supplant the popular polytheistic religion of the Ancient Near East with the institutional ethical monotheistic supremacy of Yahweh. “…[T]he concept of monotheism is embedded in the domain of religious discourse…”[50] and the conflict between the One God of the Hebrews and the “the plenitude of deities”[51] of the pagans was the central theme of the Biblical narrative. “Polytheism is rejected unequivocally and absolutely”[52] by the prophets.  They “never ceased to thunder”[53] against it.  The Hebrew scriptures boldly declared:

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.[54]

This commandment “clearly and unambiguously mandate[d] the absolute prohibition on polytheism and idolatry for the entire people of Israel.”[55]  It is important to note that this commandment is not attributed to some human lawgiver-sage. “No Biblical law is ever attributed to Moses personally or to any prophet” by the scriptures.[56]  God himself “is the giver of law.”[57]  Since “it is He who liberated them from Egypt, God demands that Israel recognize as god no other divine beings.”[58]  Lest they forget to whom they owe their devotion, the Lord and his prophets continually reminded the people regarding their deliverance from bondage.[59]  Yahweh was not to be a member of a pantheon of Gods. He would have no rivals for his worship.  Kohler said:  “The God of Judaism is not one god among many, nor one of many powers of life, but is the One and holy God beyond all comprehension.”[60]

After considerable effort, Israel fulfilled her quest for monotheism.  Her “great achievement”[61] was a doctrine unique and separate from the beliefs of her polytheistic predecessors and neighbors.  Using the Decalogue as a foundation, the Bible teaches Yahweh “alone is God, the one and only creator and ultimate cause of all phenomena.”[62]  He “created all things in pairs. Heaven and earth, man and woman,... but his glory is one and unique.”[63] Cohon noted:

“What is unique about the religion of Israel is the character of God as revealed to man.  Unlike the deities of neighboring nations, which but reflected the moral character of their worshippers, the God of Israel possessed a mind and a will of His own, embodying the highest ethical attributes…No other religion can show anything parallel to this.  The gods of the nations are always conceived as arbitrary and changeful, or as themselves subordinate to blind fate, or as essentially capable of being bent into sympathy with whatever is for the time being the chief desire of their worshippers…”[64]

            Whether monotheism was revealed as believed by some or developed slowly as believed by others,[65] it was the basic element of the religion of Biblical Israel.  However, Israel’s polytheistic neighbors were a constant threat against the doctrine of one God.  Therefore, Biblical writers battled against this polytheism, constantly declaring: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.”[66]

            There can be no doubt that despite the strongly fought campaign of the institutional religion, Israel was heavily influenced by her polytheistic neighbors. It is universally recognized that “Israel did not arise out of a vacuum.”[67]  The Mesopotamian and Israelite thought, language, and social structures were somewhat comparable. Israel “was an oriental nation among the great nations of the ancient Orient. Their culture was the matrix in which hers was shaped.”[68]

It was against this Mesopotamian influence that the Biblical authors fought.  The religions of the various Mesopotamian civilizations were centered on polytheistic pantheons. The theological views of the polytheistic “Sumerians set the pattern for the later Akkadians and then the Babylonians and Assyrians.”[69]   Since “anthropomorphism is a normal phenomenon in all primitive and ancient polytheistic religions,”[70] we can assume a resident alien from Mesopotamia would picture his pantheon with human physical form or psychological characteristics.  Each of the high gods had the human-like “traits of having a history of being born, of being parents, and some, of having died or repeatedly dying.”[71]  The polytheistic life of the gods was often portrayed in various art forms.[72]  While the Hebrew Bible does use anthropomorphic imagery[73], the Bible allows “no visual representation of God, no image, icon or symbol.”[74]  The Decalogue states:

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”[75]

Nor is there any discussion regarding the life of God in the text.  While anthropomorphism was common to both religions, the Biblical writers rejected associating human-like qualities with deity and were intent upon a God unlike those of the neighboring pagan societies.

            The monotheistic concepts which were founded by Biblical Israel have served as the foundation for modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.  No other religious ideal has proved as powerful or durable in the human consciousness.