Why Monotheism Does Not Appear in the Bible

Dan McClellan, a scholar of the Bible and religion, makes a direct claim: monotheism as we understand it today is a post-biblical philosophical innovation. The Bible acknowledges the existence of multiple gods from beginning to end, and no passage literally denies the existence of other gods.

The Biblical Text Acknowledges Other Gods

The Bible contains extensive rhetoric about the incomparability of Adonai, saying no one compares, calling other gods "nothing" and "less than nothing." But McClellan points out that this is rhetorical language, not ontological denial. The same kind of rhetoric appears in the Bible about Assyria and Babylon in relation to Israel's God. Saying something is "like nothing" because it is so inferior is a common rhetorical device, not a statement that the thing does not exist.

Multiple passages explicitly acknowledge the existence and even the power of other gods. Any passage that could be read as denying other gods would flatly contradict those texts.

Why Monotheism Requires Creation Ex Nihilo

McClellan argues that monotheism as we define it today depends on the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, the idea that God created everything from nothing. That doctrine did not develop until around 170 CE, well after the biblical period.

Before that, Greek philosophical frameworks described matter as existing in states of "being" or "non-being" depending on whether it had form and function. References in 2 Maccabees 7:28 and parts of the New Testament use this framework, describing formless matter, not creation from absolute nothing.

The term "monotheism" itself emerged even later, beginning with the Cambridge Platonist Henry More around 1660 CE. The concept builds on creation ex nihilo as its foundation, which means it could not have existed during the period when the Bible was composed.

Why People Read Monotheism Into the Bible Anyway

The motivation is ideological continuity. Believers want their monotheistic faith to be rooted in their inspired scripture. To maintain that link, scholars have developed various strategies for reading monotheism into the biblical text, or for redefining monotheism so that it can be identified there. McClellan rejects these approaches as retroactive projections.

He recently published an essay on monotheism in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, and has an edited volume forthcoming from a conference he helped organize, titled "The Meanings and Ends of Monotheism."

Key Takeaways

• The Bible acknowledges multiple gods throughout; no passage literally denies their existence
• "Incomparability rhetoric" is not the same as denying other gods exist
• Monotheism requires the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, which did not develop until around 170 CE
• The word "monotheism" itself dates to around 1660 CE
• Reading monotheism into the Bible is a retroactive projection driven by ideological continuity

Resources

• Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion -- McClellan's essay on monotheism published here