Exodus Chapters 33:12-34:26 & Numbers Chapter 28:19-25
LA JOLLA, California — For this week, we divert from the regular sequence of readings because Passover takes precedence. The Exodus passages come from Ki Tissa, which I covered for Shabbat March 14, plus a partial chapter from Numbers, to be covered later in my year-long series.
This week’s Exodus passages cover an agreement by God with Moses to lead the route through the desert; with Moses’ denied request to see the face of God; Moses’ carving of new stone tablets; God’s promise of kindness to the 1000th worthy generation and punishment to a fourth generation of violators; God’s demand for purification from paganism in the promised land; God’s demand for the observance of Shabbat and the festivals; and lastly the obscure warning: “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”
The Numbers verses are basically a reiteration of the sacrifices expected annually on Passover and Shavuot.
I have chosen three passages, from which I sought Internet sources for comparison with our Hebrew texts.
I.Exodus 33:11 The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another.” The Internet yields no clear cut example of a pagan leader having a direct conversation with a god. However, Augustine rebuffed a pagan priest for ‘counterfeiting shadows of divine honor to himself.’ [1]
The New Testament makes an ambiguous reference to Jesus in this context: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:18)
Predominantly, the Hebrew Bible discounts anthropomorphic features of God. Certain verses evoke a vision of God without describing the appearance of what is seen, e.g. Exodus 24:10‑11; Deuteronomy 4:12, 15, which rejects the idea of a divine body: “And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no form (temuna)…” [2]
II.Exodus 34: 6-7 “The Lord…proclaimed (to Moses) “The Lord! the Lord! a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; yet He does not remit all punishment, but visits the iniquity of parents upon children and children’s children, upon the third and fourth generations.”
On the Internet, I found no such declaration attributed to gods. I was reminded repeatedly that Emperors/Kings were declared to be gods. Some stood out for advanced humane ideas, e.g. Hammurabi, whose code (1750 BCE) was notable. As I’ve discussed in previous essays, much of his humane ideas likely were borrowed into the Torah. Even he made no known declaration of the sort in these Exodus verses.
III. Exodus 34: 12-14 “Beware of making a covenant with the inhabitants of the land against which you are advancing, lest they be a snare in your midst. No, you must tear down their altars, smash their pillars, and cut down their sacred posts; for you must not worship any other god, because the Lord, whose name is Impassioned, is an impassionate God.”
The internet does not show such jealousy by pagan gods. Pagans had many gods, including a chief god, e.g. Zeus, and a nation was likely to adopt additional gods of neighbors or of conquered nations.
We know that the Hebrew belief system evolved, with fits and starts, into our familiar monotheism by the time of the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE).
Israelite literature refers to Asherah, God’s consort, who is actually depicted visually in the Sinai ruins at Kuntillet Ajrud, These ruins were discovered while Israel held the Sinai peninsula after the six-day war.
The Hebrew Bible repeatedly bemoans Israelites reverting to worship of Baal.
Our passage, likely written in the late 6th century BCE, objects to any practices other than the monotheism of Israel. Given the above, I believe the text manipulates the actual history of the settlement and takeover of the promised land. According to scholars, we were not fully monotheistic before the Babylonian captivity.
Speaking of pagan beliefs:
a) Hymns of the Rigveda, the oldest scripture of Hinduism, mentions many deities, but praises them successively as the “one ultimate, supreme God or Goddess, asserting that the essence of the deities was unitary and the deities were nothing but pluralistic manifestations of the same concept of a divine God.
b) Zoroastrianism has a supreme god (Ahura Mazda), but it does not deny other deities.
c) Greek and Roman religion began as polytheism, but under the influence of philosophy, differing conceptions emerged. Zeus (or Jupiter) was considered the supreme, all-powerful and all-knowing, king and father of the Olympian gods. According to Maijastina Kahlos, ‘monotheism was pervasive in educated circles in Late Antiquity’ and ‘all divinities were interpreted as aspects, particles or epithets of one supreme God.’ Maximus Tyrius (Rome-2nd century A.D.) stated: “…you will see one according law and assertion in all the earth, that there is one god, the king and father of all things, and many gods, sons of god, ruling together with him.” (This sounds like Christianity.)
Biblical stories allude to the belief that the Canaanite gods existed and were thought to possess power in the lands by the people who worshiped them and their sacred objects.
Lastly, there are numerous accounts of polytheistic neighbors of Israel showing fear or reverence for the Israelite God.. In 1 Samuel 4:6, the Philistines fret before the second battle of Aphek when they learn that the Israelites are bearing the Ark of the Covenant, and therefore Yahweh, into battle.
Mark S. Smith* refers to this stage in our history as a form of monolatry. He argues that Yahweh underwent a process of merging with El and that the cults of Asherah were common in the period of the Judges. [3]
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NOTES
*Monolatry- belief in the existence of many gods but with the consistent worship of only one deity.
[1] Debate and Dialogue, Kahlos, Maijastina, U. of Helsinki, 2016, p. 83
[2] The Body of God in Ancient Rabbinic Judaism: Problems of Interpretation, José Costa, Université Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle jose.costa30.at.live.fr pp. 12, 18
[3] The Origins of Biblical Monotheism, M.S. Smith, Oxford U. Press, 2003
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Irv Jacobs is a retired medical doctor who enjoys writing about a variety of interests, including both religion and science. To access more of his articles, please click on his byline at the top of this page. He may be contacted via irv.jacobs@sdjewishworld.com