What event transformed the Hebrew religion from polytheism to monotheism?

Answer 1

The first attempts to transform the Hebrew religion occurred after the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom, Israel, in 722 BCE. Large numbers of Israelite refugees had flooded south into Judah, apparently creating ethnic tensions. Monotheism was to become seen a solution to divergent religious beliefs.

Yahweh was the principal God of Judah, and some scholars believe that long before the fall of Israel there had already been a small Yahweh-only (monotheist) sect, but that it was constantly at loggerheads with the monarchy, evidenced by the anti-monarchical tirades written into the Deuteronomic History. King Hezekiah seems to have adopted monotheism as the official religion, but this did not survive his death, as his son Manasseh returned to polytheism. However, in the seventh century BCE, King Josiah once again sought to impose monotheism as the state religion of Judah.

Although Judah is often thought to have become completely monotheistic after the time of Josiah, it is clear from the biblical account that he was only partly successful in his campaign to stamp out polytheism, which continued to thrive among the Jews into the Babylonian Exile.

The Babylonian conquest and the Exile ended forever the reign of the Judahite kings, leaving the priests as the only viable leadership for the Jewish people. The priests (or at least the most important ones) were monotheists and began to rewrite Jewish history, as well as ridiculing the old gods and the practices of polytheism. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel referred to the gods as defiling themselves, using the words for human excrement. Gradually the power of the priesthood and their unrelenting propaganda transformed the Hebrew religion into the monotheistic faith we know today.

After their conquest of the Babylonian Empire, the Persians allowed the Jews to return, and contributed financial resources and personnel to re-establish monotheistic Judaism in Jerusalem and to teach the Jews about their own (Jewish) religion. The Persians were also monotheistic and believed that it did not matterwhat you call Ahura Mazda, as long as you worship him.

Nevertheless, some remnants of polytheism appear to have survived into the early centuries of the common era. For example, we can see evidence of Lady Wisdom being worshipped in the Jewish diaspora until at least the end of the first century CE.

• Answer

Dictionaries define "Judaism" as The monotheistic religion of the Jews, since the founding principle of Judaism was and is the belief in One God, creator of the universe. This was the teaching which was spread by Abraham, and has continued since then. From Judaism, belief in One God has spread through the Western world.

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Jews have always worshiped the One God. Abraham worshiped "the Lord God of Heaven and Earth" (Genesis 14:22 and 24:3) and complained about the Philistines' lack of fear of God (Genesis 20:11).
Jacob confiscated the idolatrous images taken from Shechem (Genesis 35:2) and got rid of them (Genesis 35:4); and refrained from invoking the gods of Nahor (Genesis 31:53). Rachel pilfered Laban's statue-images (Genesis 31:19) in order to prevent him from idolatry (Rashi commentary, ibid.). Joseph placed his hope in the God of the Forefathers (Genesis 50:24).
At the time of the Exodus, God wrecked the Egyptian idols (Exodus 12:12) and warned against idolatry (Exodus 22:19). Later, Moses characterized the Golden Calf as "a great sin" (Exodus 32:21, 30) and punished the worshipers (Exodus ch.32). During the rest of his lifetime and that of Joshua (Judges 2:7), no incidents of Israelite idolatry were reported.

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Shortly before he died, Moses warned the people that he suspected that they would eventually succumb to the lure of the idols (Deuteronomy 29:17). Joshua gave a similar warning (Joshua ch.24).
These warnings came true. Many of the Israelites went astray after the foreign gods (Judges 2:11). However, they never invented their own idol. It was always the baneful influence of other peoples. And there were times when the entire Israelite nation repented (Judges 2:1-4) and prayed to God (Judges 3:9, 3:15, 6:6, 10:10).
Those who did sin did not represent or influence normative Judaism, just as the later Sadducees and Essenes did not. They were deviating from the Torah's standard; they were publicly, repeatedly, and scathingly excoriated by the prophets, and they caused God's retribution to come upon the entire people (2 Kings ch.17).

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Because of the idol-worship that did happen, ancient images of idols have been found in Israel too. Images of God aren't found because it is forbidden to represent Him through imagery (Deuteronomy 4:15-16).
It should be noted that idolatry was never universal among the Israelites. The belief in One God was continued in every generation, whether by the few or the many; and it is those who handed down that tradition whose beliefs we Jews continue today. Deborah ascribed victory to God (Judges 4:14), Gideon tore down the idolatrous altar (Judges 6:25-27); Samson prayed to God (Judges 16:28), as did Hannah (1 Samuel 1:11) and Samuel (ibid. 12:18); Eli blessed in the name of God (1 Samuel 2:20), Saul built an altar to God (1 Samuel 14:35); Jonathan ascribed victory to God (1 Samuel 14:12), as did David (1 Samuel 17:46); and Solomon built the Temple for God (1 Kings 8:20). A number of the kings "did what was right in God's eyes": David (1 Kings 15:5), Solomon (see 1 Kings 3:3), Asa (1 Kings 15:11), Yehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:43), Yehu (2 Kings 10:30), Yehoash (2 Kings 12:3), Amatziah (2 Kings 14:3), Azariah (2 Kings 15:3), Yotam (2 Kings 15:34), Hizkiah (2 Kings 18:3), and Josiah (2 Kings 22:2). Part of this righteousness was their destroying whatever idolatrous incursions had occurred among the populace (1 Samuel 7:3-4, 2 Chronicles 15:8, 2 Chronicles 17:6, 2 Kings 18:4). Even at the height of the unfortunate spread of idolatry among the less-loyal Ten Tribes, there were thousands who remained loyal to God (1 Kings 19:18).

• How reliable is the Jewish tradition?

"Although critics contended that the Hebrew Bible is untrustworthy, time and time again, the archaeological record supports places, times, and events mentioned in Scripture." (Professor John Arthur Thompson, The Bible and Archaeology). The personal names Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are names of the time and area mentioned in the Bible (ibid).

"One city after another, one civilization after another, one culture after another, who were known only from the Bible, have been restored to their place in ancient history through archaeology" (Prof. Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction).

No parchment, scroll, or inscription has ever been found that would support the Bible-critics' JEPD (different sources) hypothesis, which remains a set of mere postulates. And those ancient writers who mention, describe, summarize or translate the Torah (Josephus, Samaritans, Targum, Septuagint etc.), describe it in its complete form.

Archaeological finds, such as the Ugarit documents and those of Nuzu, Mari, Susa, Ebla, and Tel el-Amarna, have repeatedly caused the critics to retract their claims. The entire social milieu portrayed in the Torah, once criticized as anachronistic, has been shown to be accurate, including customs of marriage, adoption, contracts, inheritance, purchases, utensils, modes of travel, people's names and titles, etc. Professor Gleason Archer states: "In case after case where inaccuracy was alleged as proof of late and spurious authorship of the biblical documents, the Hebrew record has been vindicated by the results of excavations, and the condemnatory judgment of the Documentary theorists have been proved to be without foundation."

Answer 2

The lifetime of Abraham.

• Link: Was Abraham real
  

At the time of Abraham the Hebrew, the world was full of pagan cults; they were polytheistic, worshiping multiple deities and lacking moral character; with their rites accompanied by things such as human sacrifice, "sacred" prostitution, and animal worship.

• Link: How polytheism began

Abraham, after engaging in relentless contemplation, arrived at the conclusion that there is One God and that this should be taught to others as well. He became the first to advance the idea of ethical monotheism: the worship of God, and the appropriate ethical code of conduct. This is what is meant by his "calling out in the name of the Lord" (Genesis ch.12). As a young man, he remonstrated with passersby in public, demonstrating to them the falsehood of their idols; and our tradition tells how he was threatened and endangered by Nimrod.

Subsequently, his father Terah relocated to Harran; and it is here that Abraham began to develop a circle of disciples (Rashi commentary, on Genesis 12:5). Later, God told Abraham in prophecy to move to the Holy Land, which is where he raised his family. He continued his contemplations, eventually arriving at the attitudes and forms of behavior which God later incorporated into the Torah given to Moses.

Abraham became the greatest thinker of all time. His originality, perseverance, strength of conviction, and influence, cannot be overestimated.
He founded the Jewish people and lived to see his work live on in the persons of Isaac and Jacob; and he taught many other disciples (Talmud, Yoma 28b).
Abraham entered into a covenant with God (Genesis ch.15 and 17), welcomed guests into his home (Genesis ch.18) unlike the inhospitable Sodomites (Genesis ch.19), prayed for people (Genesis ch.18), eulogized and buried the deceased (Genesis ch.23), and fulfilled God's will unquestioningly (Genesis ch.22). He became renowned as a prince of God (Genesis 23:6).
The practices of Abraham were based upon the ways of God. These were the teachings of Abraham and his descendants (unlike idolatry, which had no moral character; with worship of the gods accompanied by things such as human sacrifice, "sacred" prostitution, and animal worship).

• Link: Pagan practices

It is therefore clear why God expresses His love for Abraham (Isaiah 41:8) and calls Himself the God of Abraham (Genesis 26:24), and says that Abraham obeyed Him fully (Genesis 26:5).
The gravesite of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives (Genesis 49:29-32) is located in Hebron and has been known and attested to for many centuries.

• Link: Archaeology

Answer 3

First of all, we need to establish, honestly and as accurately as we can, when the Hebrew religion was polytheistic and when there is sufficient evidence that it had evolved into monotheism. Until the twentieth century, no one imagined that the early Israelites were polytheistic, or that the Hebrew people once worshipped a pantheon of gods. Recent expert hermeneutic study of The Bible, supported by the discoveries of archaeology changed all this.

Scholars say that throughout the period of the Judges and the early monarchy, the Israelites and Judahites were polytheistic, worshipping many of the gods of their Canaanite forebears. Mark S. Smith (The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel) says that the number of deities in Israel was relatively typical for the region. He says that earliest Israel knew El, Baal, a new dynastic or national god, the divine council, a partial divinisation of deceased ancestors (Rephaim), and perhaps the cult of a goddess. A stele erected by Sargon, the Assyrian king who conquered Israel, counts "the gods in whom they trusted" among the spoils he took from Samaria, the capital of the former northern kingdom of Israel. This is a reference to valuable idols belonging to the Israelites, and shows that the Israelites were still thoroughly polytheistic in 722 BCE, as were the Judahites.

Deuteronomy 32:8-9 says that the Most High God El, here called Elyon, divided the nations among his sons and that Yahweh (YHWH), received the people of Israel as his portion. Scholars say that Deuteronomy was actually written in the seventh-century-BCE reign of King Josiah. This passage appears to be evidence of the emergence of monolatry, which recognises the existence of other gods, but holds that only one God need be worshipped.

There is debate over whether Judaism had achieved the progression to monotheism before or during the Babylonian Exile, but scholars are almost unanimous in saying that by the time of the Return from Exile, Judaism was monotheistic.