\n<\/p>\n
Mark S. Smith\u2019s book\u00a0The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>opens with a quotation from the 6th c. AD writer on Roman antiquity,\u00a0Lydus<\/a>.<\/p>\n There has been and is much disagreement among theologians about the god honored among the Hebrews<\/em>\u00a0(De mensibus<\/em>\u00a04.53)<\/p>\n Indeed.<\/p>\n For the next 200 pages, Smith looks at the \u201crole of Yahweh within Israelite religion\u201d vis-a-vis older Canaanite deities like El, Baal, and Asherah (also known to us from the Bible).<\/p>\n Ferreting out how the ancient Israelites came to worship Yahweh and what that meant in the context of ancient polytheistic\u00a0cultures has been a huge topic ever since modern biblical scholars\/archaeologists began\u00a0learning new\u00a0things about (1) ancient Israel and (2) ancient polytheistic cultures.<\/p>\n The bottom line, mainstream view\u2014I shudder even to attempt to summarize it in one sentence\u2014is that the Hebrew scriptures contain a record of Israel\u2019s diverse and changing views concerning God, where the experience of the Babylonian Exile was a major turning point in the emergence of monotheism (the belief that only one God exists) out of monolatry (many gods exist but only Yahweh is worthy of worship).<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n God, in other words, has a history\u2014or at least on the pages of the Old Testament. We are seeing development over time in\u00a0how God was understood<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This mainstream view does not rest well with the biblical progression of events, namely: Israel knew Yahweh as the\/their only God from the time of Abraham, and how well they did as a people\/nation depended on remembering that and worshiping\/obeying Yahweh alone.<\/p>\n For biblical scholars of the last century or so, this picture is complicated by<\/p>\n (1) the Bible\u2019s own hints and nods<\/strong> at a more\u00a0complicated \u201cearly history of God\u201d (hence Smith\u2019s book), and<\/p>\n (2) our considerable and growing understanding of religion in general in the ancient Near East, especially Canaanite and Ugaritic religion<\/strong>, which are closest to Israelite religion.<\/p>\n I\u2019m used to this sort of thing, but I know many are not. That\u2019s fine. The point, though, is that the modern study of the Old Testament has irrevocably affected what we can expect from the Bible in terms of \u201cbrute information\u201d about God.<\/strong><\/p>\n The modern study of the Old Testament doesn\u2019t tell you what to believe, like a bully, but it\u00a0has<\/em>\u00a0placed the Old Testament firmly in its culture moments\u2014so firmly, in fact, that a well rounded view can\u2019t just make believe the last hundred or so years of thinking on this subject didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s my take-away from all this\u2014and I\u2019m asking you (or at least humor me) to believe me when I say that this is not a last minute frenzied punt from my own end zone before the sack. My life, such as it is, is about synthesizing my own spiritual life with what I\u2019ve been trained to do and what I do for a living, which is to say I\u2019ve thought about this a good bit and hang out with others who have done the same.<\/p>\n Studying the Bible and Israel\u2019s past is a regular reminder to me that my ultimate object of trust is God<\/a>, not the Bible (or how I understand the Bible). That\u2019s not knocking the Bible. It\u2019s acknowledging that the Bible\u2014even where it talks about God\u2014is a relentlessly contextual collection of ancient literature that takes wisdom and patience to handle well, and in doing so drives us\u00a0toward\u00a0further\u00a0contemplation of God\u00a0here and now.<\/em><\/p>\n I see Jesus and Paul\u00a0already sounding that note when they\u00a0began reshaping traditional expectations\u00a0of God<\/a>.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t come to this place quickly or casually, though from my vantage point today, it feels rather commonsensical to me\u2014though I don\u2019t impose that on anyone, at least not until I gain supreme, ultimate power, which is the plan.<\/p>\n One last point, to anticipate\u00a0a common\u00a0response: \u201cBut how can you know anything about God other than what the Bible tells you?\u201d Fair question, but that potential problem does not dismiss the observation about God in the Bible. When you get close to the Bible, prepare to have your view of the Bible reoriented<\/strong>. The irony is that it is the study of the Bible that has led me down this path.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s a nice path, at least for me. God is more outside of my control this way<\/a>, which I can\u2019t help but think is as it should be. As Lydus said over 1400 years ago, Yahweh isn\u2019t easy to get your arms around\u2014for Israelites or for those who have followed in their footsteps.<\/p>\n You can listen to my podcast on this topic HERE<\/a><\/strong><\/span>. You can read more about the nature of the Bible and Christian faith in\u00a0The Bible Tells Me So<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(HarperOne, 2014) and\u00a0Inspiration and Incarnation<\/a><\/strong> (Baker 2005\/2015).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nGod is bigger than the Bible.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n