Philo, Herod, Paul, and the Many Gods of Ancient Jewish "Monotheism"

Many gods lived in the Roman Empire. All ancient peoples, including Jews and, eventually, Christians, knew this to be the case. Exploring the ways that members of these groups thought about and dealt with other gods while remaining loyal to their own god, this essay focuses particularly on the writi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Fredriksen, Paula 1951- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press 2022
In: Harvard theological review
Year: 2022, Volume: 115, Issue: 1, Pages: 23-45
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Philo, Alexandrinus 25 BC-40 / Herod I Judea, King 73 BC-4 BC / Paul Apostle / Gods / Monotheism
IxTheo Classification:AX Inter-religious relations
HD Early Judaism
NBC Doctrine of God
Further subjects:B Pneuma
B Jews
B Gods
B Monotheism
B Paul
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Summary:Many gods lived in the Roman Empire. All ancient peoples, including Jews and, eventually, Christians, knew this to be the case. Exploring the ways that members of these groups thought about and dealt with other gods while remaining loyal to their own god, this essay focuses particularly on the writings and activities of three late Second Temple Jews who highly identified as Jews: Philo of Alexandria, Herod the Great, and the apostle Paul. Their loyalty to Israel’s god notwithstanding, they also acknowledged the presence, the agency, and the power of foreign deities. Reliance on "monotheism" as a term of historical description inhibits our appreciation of the many different social relationships, human and divine, that all ancient Jews had to navigate. Worse, "monotheism" fundamentally misdescribes the religious sensibility of antiquity.
ISSN:1475-4517
Contains:Enthalten in: Harvard theological review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0017816022000049