How did ancient Israel move from many gods to one?

Mark S. Smith describes a path from polytheism in the 12th century BCE, when Yahweh was the most important god among several, through monolatry in the later monarchy, where only Yahweh was worshipped though other gods were thought to exist, to monotheism after the exile (587-538 BCE). He sees two lines of development. Convergence merged features of other deities into Yahweh. Differentiation was Israel's rejection of its Canaanite heritage (doi.org). [2]

Smith's reconstruction starts with El as the original god of early Israel, then El as head of a pantheon with Yahweh as a warrior god, then the two identified as one. Texts such as Psalm 82 and Genesis 49 are cited as traces of the earlier stages. Ugaritic texts discovered in 1928 helped scholars see this Canaanite background (doi.org). [2]

One proposal links the change to a series of crises. A struggle between supporters of Baal and Yahweh in 9th-century Israel under the Omrides was the first impetus. After Samaria fell at the end of the 8th century, Yahweh's anger became the explanation for the defeat, which fed a Yahweh-only movement in Judah. The reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah expressed that outlook, though their failure shows how durable traditional polytheism was. Only after Jerusalem fell was the same explanation turned into full monotheism (murdoch.edu.au). The biblical account of Josiah's reform in 621 BCE describes removing the cults of Baal and Asherah and centralizing worship in Jerusalem (doi.org). [1] [2]

Smith also suggests that Assyrian and Babylonian imperial theology, in which many gods were treated as aspects of Marduk, may have encouraged Israel to elevate Yahweh and eventually treat other gods as non-entities or as his creations. By the last centuries BCE, the dominant Jewish view was that other gods were angels (doi.org). [2]

One position treats monotheism as a distinct later stage. A survey of recent scholarship says only a small minority of pre-exilic Israelites were developing monotheistic ideas, and that consistent monotheism arrived in the Babylonian exile (tandfonline.com). Isaiah 45 is often cited as a clear formulation, treating other deities as nonexistent (doi.org). [3] [2]

A second position, in Smith's Oxford volume, holds that biblical monotheism is not a separate stage but a kind of rhetoric. It is community discourse that absolutizes Yahweh's claim on Israel, developed when empires and exile removed older political markers of identity. The claim was that other nations' gods were not really gods (academic.oup.com). [4]

A third position, in the Wiley Blackwell Companion, accepts that objections exist to the term but concludes monotheism remains a reasonable label for some Israelite expressions. It argues that Israelite monotheism redefined divinity itself: other gods became the created order or were defined as opposed to Yahweh (onlinelibrary.wiley.com). The results do not say which view most specialists hold on the label, though the overall late dating is widely shared. [5]