I’ve been trying to learn more about Jewish history and better my relationship with Hashem and as I’ve been doing research on Jewish history I’ve come across the notion that the Torah and Judaism as a whole was originally henotheistic (the recognition of other gods but not worshipping them) instead of monotheistic. I’ve seen some say that Jews originally worshiped Canaanite gods and other idols and gradually evolved into henotheism and then monotheism. Some also say that Jews merged the Canaanite gods YHWH and El. Is this true? Is there any actual evidence for this? And if it’s not true, what’s the evidence that it isn’t?
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Do you have a source for this? It seems very difficult to reconcile with core tenets of Judaism – Moses Supposes Dec 30 '23 at 19:35
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If you are talking about the religion known as Judaism based on the Torah as we have it today, it is clearly not henotheistic because it actively forbids the worshipping of other gods (henotheism means the religion permits the worship of other gods, as opposed to monolatry). If you are saying that originally Judaism was based on a different set of principles, and that the Torah is a later creation... respectfully such a question would then be outside the scope of this forum and would be better suited to a biblical-criticism forum or the like. – BID Dec 31 '23 at 02:58
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See the beginning of שערי אורה – zunior Dec 31 '23 at 23:29