Judaism & Monotheism

Walk into any temple in the ancient Near East around 2000 BCE and you would find a crowded pantheon. The Mesopotamians worshipped Marduk, Enlil, Ishtar, and dozens more. The Egyptians had Ra, Osiris, Isis, Thoth — a divine cast numbering in the hundreds. The Canaanites sacrificed to El, Baal, Asherah, and Mot. Every city had its patron god. Every river, mountain, and storm belonged to some deity who needed feeding, flattering, and fearing.

Religion was transactional. You gave the gods offerings — grain, wine, animal blood — and they gave you rain, victory, fertility. If the crops failed, you had offended a god. If an enemy conquered your city, their gods were stronger than yours. The divine world was a mirror of the political world: messy, competitive, hierarchical, full of bargaining.

Then came the claim that there is only one.