Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism PDF
Preview Of God and Gods: Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism
. Advisory Board Steven E. Aschheim Hebrew University of Jerusalem Annette Becker Université Paris X–Nanterre Christopher Browning University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Natalie Zemon Davis University of Toronto Saul Friedländer University of California, Los Angeles Emilio Gentile Università di Roma “La Sapienza” Gert Hekma University of Amsterdam Stanley G. Payne University of Wisconsin–Madison Anson Rabinbach Princeton University David J. Sorkin University of Wisconsin–Madison John S. Tortorice University of Wisconsin–Madison Joan Wallach Scott Institute for Advanced Study Jay Winter Yale University Of God and Gods Egypt, Israel, and the Rise of Monotheism Jan Assmann This book was published with support from the George L. Mosse Program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The University ofWisconsin Press 1930 Monroe Street, 3rd Floor Madison, Wisconsin 53711-2059 www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/ 3 Henrietta Street London WC2E 8LU, England Copyright © 2008 The Board ofRegents ofthe University ofWisconsin System All rights reserved 1 3 5 4 2 Printed in the United States ofAmerica Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Assmann, Jan. OfGod and gods : Egypt, Israel, and the rise ofmonotheism / Jan Assmann. p. cm.—(George L. Mosse series in modern European cultural and intellectual history) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-299-22550-X (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 0-299-22554-2 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Henotheism—Egypt—History. 2. Henotheism—Israel—History. 3. Monotheism—Egypt—History. 4. Monotheism—Israel—History. I. Title. II. Series. BL221.A88 2008 211´.309—dc22 2007040021 For In friendship and gratitude Acknowledgments ix Introduction 3 1 Understanding Polytheism: The Three-Dimensional Structure of the Divine World 9 2 Seth the Iconoclast: Polytheism and the Language of Violence 28 3 All Gods Are One: Evolutionary and Inclusive Monotheism 53 4 The Axial Age and the Separation of State and Religion: Monotheism as an Axial Movement 76 5 Five Steps toward Canonization: Tradition, Scripture, and the Origin of the Hebrew Bible 90 6 No God but God: Exclusive Monotheism and the Language of Violence 106 Conclusion: The Mosaic Distinction 127 Notes 147 Bibliography 167 Index 185 Index Locorum 195 vii I am grateful to the Mosse Foundation—in particular Steven Aschheim, its scientific advisor, and John Tortorice, its director—for having been given the chance to rethink various issues in the right place and in the right format: in Jerusalem and in a series of lectures. I could not have wished for a better context to present and discuss my thoughts on mono- theism, in a place where over the course of fifteen years so many discus- sions and related activities have helped them to take shape. Chapters 1, 3, and 6 were originally delivered as lectures in early De- cember 2004 at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem. Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 7 were substantially rewritten for this study in order to place the revolutionary character of biblical monotheism within a broader con- text. Chapters 2 and 4 derive from lectures given in Solymite contexts. Chapter 2 deals with the question of religious violence in the context of Egyptian polytheism and is based on an unpublished lecture presented in June 2000 in Jerusalem in the context of the conference entitled “Good and Evil” organized by Moshe Idel. Chapter 4—which situates the monotheistic revolution within the broader context of the “Axial Age” and looks for antecedents of this Great Transformation in ancient Egypt—is based on a lecture originally entitled “The Axial Age in World History,” presented at a 2001 conference organized by Shmuel N. Eisenstadt and Johann Arnason (published as “Axial ‘Breakthroughs’ and Semantic ‘Relocations’ in Ancient Egypt and Israel”); I am grateful to these colleagues and friends for their critical and stimulating input. Chapter 5, which traces the various steps that eventually led to the for- mation of the Hebrew canon, is based on a paper I contributed to a conference entitled “Forms of Transmission,” organized by Ulrich Raulff and Gary Smith at the Einstein Forum in Potsdam (published as “Fünf Wege zum Kanon”). ix
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