Reddit mentions of Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel

Bill Dever dealt with this subject in his somewhat sensationally titled 2005 book Did God Have a Wife? His basic thesis is that the monotheistic religion of the Bible was that of a wealthy, literate, priestly elite, while the popular religion adhered to by over 90% of the people in ancient Israel was a polytheistic one in which the chief god, as in other polytheistic cultures of the region, was married.

>I still love the way they taught the Bible because it felt like a history lesson.

Hah. If only you knew what is really in the bible...

Perhaps these sites will help. You can follow along in your bible, or you can use the translation I strongly recommend, the "Names of God" translation, which has used the very oldest names pulled from the oldest available sources for the bible. Here it is online:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=NOG

And you might want to read/peruse the following sources, using that translation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZECezMYug8c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlnnWbkMlbg

More resources: http://www.leighb.com/genesis.htm

http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/cflood.htm

http://contradictionsinthebible.com/are-yahweh-and-el-the-same-god/

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Canaanite_Religion

I think the title page on this site is mis-stated. I suspect it's supposed to read "No Sign of Israel in Ancient Egypt". At any rate, it discusses a portion of the lack of evidence for the "Exodus" - from the viewpoint of the ancient Egyptian histories: https://ashraf62.wordpress.com/2012/03/17/in-ancient-egypt-canaan-revisited-without-israel/

There are several good books on the subject. This book refers to scriptures that you can look up in a decent translation of the bible (hence my earlier reference to the "Names of God" translation) and confirm for yourself the traces of polytheism that can still be found in the bible: https://www.amazon.com/Early-History-God-Biblical-Resource/dp/080283972X

Then there's this book: https://www.amazon.com/Did-God-Have-Wife-Archaeology/dp/0802863949

There's also the Yale online course "Introduction to the Old Testament With Christine Hayes":

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLh9mgdi4rNeyuvTEbD-Ei0JdMUujXfyWi

That might keep you busy for a while.

I's not the "same Bible," though. Not really. The Bible is not one book, it is a library of books written over hundreds of years by many different authors with many different theological viewpoints or assumptions.

If you're really interested in a decent academic treatment of the evolution from polytheism to monotheism in the Bible I would recommend


From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths and Legends by Avigdor Shinan and Yair Zakovitch

Another good book on the subject of Israel's original polytheism and rather late (post exilic) conversion to monotheism is William Dever's Did God Have a Wife?: Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel

Argh! I came too late for this!

Anyway, the reason for worshipping other gods so frequently is that the Israelites really never believed in only one God, until the exile in Babylon.

Rather, it was the OTHER way around: In brief periods of time before the exile, the Israelites (or should I say Judahites?) were forbidden from worshipping various gods - or even worshipping Yahweh outside the "official way" - due to the religious reforms of Hezekiah (around 715 BCE) and later, Josiah (around 622 BCE).

Archaeologist William G. Dever explains in his book "Did God have a wife?" how evidence of polytheistic cult have been found in various Iron Age sites, e.g. statues of Asherah, 8th century BCE pieces of pottery with written texts saying "Yahweh and his Asherah", the one from Kuntillet Ajrud being the most famous.

Your interpretation of Israel falling in sin over and over because they were "very stubborn" is the consequence of a clever retcon done by the writers of Deuteronomy and the books of Judges, Samuel and Kings. In other words, they rewrote the past. You can notice this when you read the second book of Kings, the parts where some king "did do what was wrong in the Eyes of the Lord" simply meant "allowed worship of other gods". With a little wit, you'll understand that these passages were written by a prophet of Yahweh and obviously had a bias to them.

If you wish to know a more detailed account on how Israel went monotheistic, you can read "The Early History of God" by Mark S. Smith (warning: Very difficult read), where he details how the various gods of Canaan merged and differentiated until Yahweh became the dominant deity.

EDIT: For example, the passages where Yahweh is depicted as standing on a cloud are adaptations (perhaps we should say plagiarisms) of Baal as "rider of clouds". Take a look at Psalm 29, where the imagery to describe God is of storms and thunder. Canaanite Baal was always known as the god of storms. And God speaking on the top of a mountain also parallels with Baal.

You're spot-on with regard to the "genderless" approach to deity taken by many Abrahamic religions or denominations. In Judaism, you'll find generally one of two options: either God is referred to alternately as male or female (only in modern, very liberal branches of Judaism-- and even then, not in every congregation), or God is referred to primarily in masculine terms but then the Shekinah is referred to in a feminine sense. The Shekinah is a sort of "Holy spirit", and in that manifestation, is accepted in all forms of Judaism, from ultra-Orthodox to the most liberal branches. Some people-- both Jews and scholars-- conflate or equate the Shekinah to the ancient goddess Asherah; this is a pretty controversial opinion, but regardless, there's essentially irrefutable evidence that Judaism descended from Levantine polytheistic religions that certainly included goddesses as well as male deities, so there's that. This is a particularly interesting scholarly book on that matter.