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Now, to be clear, this question is not on whether YHWH is the only God that should be worshipped. That’s pretty simple. It is my belief that the Ancient Israelites were at least aware that they were commanded to pledge allegiance to one god and one god only.
I also understand that the topic of whether ancient Israel was strictly monotheistic is a topic that is highly contested in mainstream biblical scholarship and archaeology. That is perhaps a huge question for another time.
However, I will take a balanced view on this in order for this question to be asked properly – I think that the Ancient Israelites were monotheistic in the sense that YHWH alone is the greatest, but it seems evidentially clear that they at least believed other gods existed. Whether they were truly “gods” as we define it today is another question, but the evidence in the bible itself points to the Israelites believing that there were other gods (however false we may see them to be).
Consider the various references to other gods:
““You shall have no other gods before me.”Exodus 20:3
“Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?”
Exodus 15:11
Yet in Isaiah we see the absolute denial that other gods (key point of lower case g) can exist:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.”
Isaiah 45:5-6
So my question is, does Isaiah 45 teach that no other gods physically exist?
Naturally, you may have to draw on your own opinion of biblical monotheism, but I hope I’m not opening a can of worms on this long-winded debate. Given that passages like Exodus 20 still suggest that other gods exist, why does Isaiah 45 suddenly counter this and say no other god can exist at all? This seems contrary to the ancient Israelite view presented in the Penteteuch.
To clarify again, arguing for the existence of other gods and whether the earliest biblical writers believed in them does not necessarily mean arguing for “polytheism” or even the idea that ANE gods were actually “gods”. Please don’t ascribe the 21st century implications of what other “gods” existing means into this question – I’m not suggesting polytheism at all or trying to be unorthodox. I’m looking at this from a strictly ANE perspective.
It seems that the early biblical writers, though monotheistic (if you allow me to use this term incredibly broadly), still believed that other gods existed (even if they viewed them to be ultimately false). So why the sudden change in Isaiah and complete denial of this?
Hermeneutically, does Isaiah speak of no other gods existing in the sense that Yahweh is the only true God? What is being said here in the text about other gods?
