| PAGE Book | LOC Kindle | CHAPTER 32 |
| 220 | 5987 | With the Israelites, the clue is in the name they gave themselves: IsraEL. They worshipped the same gods as the rest of Canaan, a pantheon headed by a god called El: Stravrakopoulu, Francesca: God An Anatomy (Kindle Edition), Picador, 2021, Loc 567; Römer, Thomas: The Invention of God, Harvard University Press, 2015, pp. 72-74, 78. |
| 220 | 5990 | Yahweh did not arrive among the Israelites until around 1000 BCE: Römer, T: op cit, p. 87. |
| 220 | 5990 | possibly brought by a tribe that migrated north into Canaan: Römer, T: op cit, pp. 71-85. |
| 220 | 5992 | It is likely that Yahweh became a royal or national god of the Israelites under one of their first kings, possibly David: Römer, T: op cit, pp. 85, 88-89. |
| 220 | 5993 | the Song of Moses: Stravrakopoulu: God An Anatomy, Loc 530-550; Stark: The Human Faces of God, Loc 2406-2500. The Septuagint retains the line about ‘the number of the gods’. |
| 221 | 6023 | In Israel … Römer, T: op cit pp. 116-121. For a slightly different take on the story of the golden calf, see Friedman: Who Wrote the Bible, pp. 70-74. |
| 221 | 6026 | In Judah … Römer, T: op cit pp. 124, 131. |
| 221 | 6027 | human sacrifices were sometimes made (to Yahweh) in times of crisis: Römer, T: op cit pp.137-138. |
| 222 | 6066 | the first was probably E, written in the northern kingdom of Israel not long before its destruction by Assyria: Friedman: op cit, pp.61-67; Finkelstein & Silberman: The Bible Unearthed, pp. 12, 45. |
| 222 | 6068 | The resulting population explosion triggered an economic and social revolution: Finkelstein & Silberman 2002 pp. 243-6. |
| 222 | 6070 | And with this social, economic and political revolution came a religious revolution: Finkelstein & Silberman The Bible Unearthed, pp. 246-9, Lane Fox: The Unauthorised Version, pp. 61-4. |
| 222 | 6074 | apart from briefly in Egypt some 600 years earlier: Thomas Römer states that there is no evidence of any connection between the Egyptian and Judean moves to the worship of a single god (The Invention of God, pp. 232-234). |
| 222 | 6075 | The next text to be written was J: Friedman (Who Wrote the Bible? pp. 86-7) and Robin Lane Fox (The Unauthorised Version, pp. 58) date it before the fall of Israel; Finkelstein & Silberman (The Bible Unearthed, p. 46) date it after. |
| 222 | 6077 | the debate over the date of the D text: Friedman: op cit, pp. 101-2; Finkelstein & Silberman: The Bible Unearthed, pp. 277-281; Römer, T: The Invention of God, pp. 193, 203, 216-218. |
| 223 | 6082 | The Babylonians marched back into Judah: Friedman: op cit, pp. 98-99. Lane Fox: The Unauthorised Version, p. 71. |
| 223 | 6085 | The Bible tells us the most exemplary punishment they meted out to (Zedekiah): 2 Kings 24:18-25:7. |
| 223 | 6091 | The traditional explanation would be that Marduk, the Babylonian national god, was stronger than Yahweh: Barton, John: A History of the Bible: The Book and Its Faiths, Penguin Random House, London 2020, p. 105; Römer, T: The Invention of God, p. 214. |
| 223 | 6095 | Yahweh himself had visited this devastation upon his own people, as a punishment for breaking their covenant in which they promised to worship only him: Römer, T: op cit, pp. 215-216. |
| 223 | 6098 | The Deuteronomistic History: Römer, T: op cit, pp. 216-218; Friedman: Who Wrote the Bible? Pp. 146-149. |
| 224 | 6122 | Is it a coincidence that democracy and human rights have flowered in those societies imbued with the Judeo-Christian ethos? For an extended discussion of the benefits Christianity has brought (from a liberal point of view), see Tom Holland’s Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, Little, Brown Book Group, 2019. |
| 225 | 6164 | they allowed the Jews to return home and restore their temple in Jerusalem: Finkelstein & Silberman: The Bible Unearthed, pp. 298-299. |
| 225 | 6165 | the P document was probably composed around this time: Friedman (Who Wrote the Bible, p. 210) has an earlier date. For Finkelstein & Silberman (The Bible Unearthed, p. 310) and Thomas Romer (The Invention of God, pp. 214, 225-6), it is mostly during or after the restoration of the Temple |
| 225 | 6169 | you should go to the Temple in Jerusalem and make an appropriate sacrifice: Friedman: Who Wrote the Bible, pp. 190-193. |
| 227 | 6211 | This was the gateway to a massive revolution in Jewish theology, the development of monotheism: Römer, T: The Invention of God, pp. 216-218; Hayes, Christine: Introduction to the Bible (Kindle Edition), Yale University Press 2012, Loc 476; Stark: The Human Faces of God, Loc 2784. |
| 227 | 6216 | Polytheistic religions have mythology, the story of how the gods came to be. In the Bible, all this has disappeared: Hayes: Introduction to the Bible, Loc 482-489. |
| 227 | 6218 | Polytheistic gods need names: Römer, T: The Invention of God, pp. 26, 240. |
| 227 | 6223 | Jews and Christians learned to read all these references to (God’s) body allegorically, but we should not forget that they were originally written to be taken literally: This is Francesca Stravrakopoulu’s theme (God An Anatomy, Kindle Edition, Picador, 2021). For a discussion of allegorical interpretations, see Loc 968, 1254-1281. |
| 227 | 6225 | Overt references to statues of Yahweh disappeared from the Jews’ holy texts. However, this did not stop their enemies recording the capture of Jerusalem Temple statues on the stone steles that commemorated their victories: Römer, T: The Invention of God, pp. 157-159, 239-240. |
| 228 | 6230 | in the words of Richard Dawkins: Dawkins, Richard: The God Delusion, Bantam Press, London 2006, p. 31. |
| 228 | 6238 | The most intellectually rigorous Jews and Christians see this aspect of the Old Testament for what it is, a remnant of its polytheistic origins: Stark: The Human Faces of God, especially chapters 4-6. |
| 228 | 6240 | Monotheism has a big problem with evil: Hayes: op cit, Loc 6707-6716; Römer, T: The Invention of God, pp. 223-224. |
| 228 | 6242 | One explanation for evil and suffering is to say that God is not evil but just: Stark: The Human Faces of God, Loc 455-477. |
| 228 | 6244 | In this meaningless life of mine… Ecclesiastes 7:15. |
| 228 | 6246 | And so the idea of divine justice in the afterlife develops: Stark: The Human Faces of God, Loc 566-576, 3783. |
| 228 | 6247 | the wicked simply perish (what the first Christians probably believed): John 3:16; Wray, TJ & Mobley, Gregory: The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil’s Biblical Roots (Kindle Edition), Palgrave MacMillan 2005, Loc 2963. |
| 229 | 6255 | Another solution to the problem of evil is to give God an antagonist: Wray & Mobley: op cit, Loc 1893-1898. |
| 229 | 6256 | Satan is a very minor character in most of the Old Testament: Wray & Mobley: op cit, Chapter 3; Hayes: Introduction to the Bible, Loc 508-516. |
| 229 | 6260 | This leads to eschatology, a belief in end times and a final, devastating war between good and evil: Wray & Mobley: The Birth of Satan, Loc 1899-1907; Römer, T: The Invention of God, pp. 243-244. |
| 229 | 6262 | The end times would not only entail the defeat of Satan but also the return of a Davidic king anointed by God to lead the Jews to ultimate victory over the Gentile nations: Martin, Dale B: New Testament History and Literature (Kindle Edition), Yale University Press, 2012, Loc 6353-6359; Stark: The Human Faces of God, Loc 5292-5362. |
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Paul Clark 