Why was the concept of monotheism so radical for Near Eastern civilizations?

Answer 1

If we define the 'Near East' as the Levant region of Western Syria down to Palestine, then monotheism appears not to have arrived until the middle of the first millennium BCE. Margaret Barker (The Great Angel, A Study of Israel's Second God) says that monotheism was a Deuteronomic novelty imposed with incomplete success onto Israelite faith just before the Exile.

King Hezekiah made the first documented attempt to impose monotheism on the people of Judah. This first attempt failed, as Hezekiah's own son, Manasseh, remained faithful to the polytheistic religion of Judah, as did the people. However, King Josiah reintroduced Hezekiah's reforms around 625 BCE, with some apparent success, although there is biblical evidence that polytheism continued alongside the monotheistic state religion even during the Babylonian Exile.

Hezekiah intoduced monotheism following the arrival of large numbers of refugees from the northern kingdom of Israel after its destruction by Assyria. It is likely that his concern was national unity, with native Judahites and the Israelite refugees worshipping the one God and with all official rites centralised in the Temple at Jerusalem. This radical proposal attempted to meld the different traditions of Israel and Judah in a turbulent political environment.

Josiah may have owed his later success to careful planning, with the previously unknown Book of Law (Deuteronomy) said to have been found in the Temple, creating a perspective of antiquity. The Pentateuch was compiled during Josiah's reign, and the traditions of the Israelites were carefully incorporated, alongside those of the Judahites. Thus the descendants of the Israelite refugees could accept the Hebrew Bible as their own, just as the native Judahites did.