Altorientalischer und israelitischer Monotheismus (1906 Baentsch), book
Altorientalischer und israelitischer Monotheismus (1906) is a book by Bruno Baentsch.
Abstract
"Ein Wort zur Revision der entwicklungsgeschichtlichen Auffassung der israelitischen Religionsgeschichte."
As both title and subtitle of his work suggests, Baentsch here offers a revision of the prevailing scholarly notions of the origins of Monotheism in Israel that were popular in his day. As a Christian German scholar who was inundated by the groundbreaking approach of Wellhausen, who argued that the idea of monotheism evolved slowly throughout Israel's history and become more pronounced only with the prophets in the 8th century BCE, Baestch challenged this position from the perspective of a field of research that has come to be known as "Religionsgeschichte."
Baetsch, like others from the "Religionsgeschichte" School, combined a rigorous historical-critical methodology with a comparative religions approach. Accordingly, by employing evidence from both archeology and other ancient near Eastern literature, Baetsch claimed that traces of monotheism could be seen in other religions of the ancient Orient. For him, Babylonia, Egypt, Phoenicia, and Canaan had more or less a definite monotheism, which affected the faith of those in Israel. Yet this form of monotheism was unique in that it was held in combination with polytheism and polydemonism. Since Abraham originated in Babylon, a sort of practical monotheism was already present with him. Though Baetsch does not draw a direct line between Abraham and the later religion in Israel, his perspective does suggest that already before the time of Moses, monotheism existed among the tribes of Israel as it did within other religious cultures of the Ancient Near East. As a result, for Baentsch, monotheism did not originate with Moses, but existed before him, among the tribes of Israel. When Moses became in charge, however, he innovated on this idea and developed it into the form that we see in existence today.
~Deborah Forger
Editions and translations
Published in Tübingen [Germany]: J. C. B. Mohr, 1906.