What is a God in the Ancient Near East? Intro to 3 more Parts, June 2025 | Vol. 13.6 by Michael B. Hundley
Michael B. Hundley is Assistant Professor of Teaching in Religious Studies at the University of Memphis. He has published multiple books on the intersection of human and divine in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near East.
His article has many images and accessible text.
What is a God in the Hebrew Bible? Part I: The Divine Cast of Characters, July 2025 | Vol. 13.7 by Michael B. Hundley
A member of BSA posted the above article as being interesting and the following comment was made by
Charles Bledsoe.
Today if you look up the word “god” in a dictionary you’ll find definitions such as the following two:
- (in Christianity and other monotheistic religions) the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being.
- (in certain other religions) a superhuman being or spirit worshiped as having power over nature or human fortunes; a deity.
If one’s idea of God is more along the lines of definition #1 then many of the deities of antiquity would be excluded. Most of them were not conceived to be the creator and ruler of the universe, nor a supreme being. However, polytheistic gods did fit definition #2, they were believed to be superhuman, and to have power over nature, and our lives and well-being. By that definition I would say that a great many mythological entities qualify as divine, or semi-divine; even demons, who in the Greek understanding were lesser divinities (not in the same league as the Olympian gods), or semi-divine spiritual beings (daimons) who had some influence over nature and our lives; and who in Jewish texts such as the Book of the Watchers descend from angels, who are semi-divine spiritual beings. Ancient religions were characterized by great inclusiveness and abundance (superabundance?) in the divinity department. So the answer to the question What is a god? is: more than modern monotheists might think. And that answer also holds for the more specific question What is a god in the Hebrew Bible and early Jewish tradition?, which was monolatrous, not strictly monotheistic. The understanding of divinity of the culture that produced the Hebrew scriptures was certainly more inclusive than the monotheism that modern Christians and Jews might retroject back upon it.
