Thanks for stopping by. I am in agreement with you that the Hebrew Bible has been heavily edited–especially by the Deuteronomists, as well as Priestly circles–to expunge references to other gods. However, their editing does not appear to have been systematic (as a number of texts referring to the reality of other gods demonstrates), and I see not insubstantial evidence of polytheistic tendencies in the Hebrew Bible. Moreover, this is confirmed, as you suggest, by relevant archaeology. In my view, the Deuteronomists were really the innovators, and their texts and those they edited reflect this fact. Thanks for contributing!

Best,

TYD

Two things

1. Around biblical scholars, it is wise to avoid using the 3rd person plural form of “to be” when referring to Elohim (ie, don’t say “Elohim are”), unless you really are talking about multiple gods. If you’re talking about biblical Elohim in a generic way, I advise saying “is,” not “are.”

2. Outside of Mormon circles, “Jehovah/Jesus” is not accepted.

I know you all are Mormons, so it is OK to say these things here, I’m just giving you tips on dialogue with “goiim” (gentiles).

Great post.

I will see what I can do. This series is currently in six parts, and several of them engage questions of interest to you. However, I should probably add a seventh part dealing with LDS Christian discourse on Jehovah. Thanks for the extra idea.

Best,

TYD

I, of course, expect YOU to answer these, and all my other unwritten questions, definitively in your six-part series.

That is actually the subject of my next two posts! Stay tuned!

Best wishes,

TYD

Thanks for your comments!

You said:

In church we’ve been trained, for the most part, to read the entire OT in accordance with the last claims [i.e., that there is only one God/god in existence]…

I think that your comment is important: the projection of the present onto the past causes a historical collapse, in this case removing the (interpretation of the) text from its original socio-historical context.

I agree with your reading of Exodus 15:11 and will discuss those issues further in parts 2 and 3 of this series.

Best wishes,

TYD

The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament is not my area of study, but my understanding of this argument is that the OT shows a movement from Jehovah as a tribal god, where Jehovah is the god of a certain group of people and other tribes have other gods; to claims about being the most powerful tribal god; to claims about being the only god in existence. In church we’ve been trained, for the most part, to read the entire OT in accordance with the last claims (although most LDSs will modify it to see it as a claim that Jehovah is the only god for our world, as other gods exist for other “worlds”).

I do think, however, that if we take passages such as Exodus 15:11 at face value we come up with a reading that is more along the lines of the first claim; i.e., Jehovah was seen as the god of a particular group of people and other people had other gods.