Israel’s Choice ——Monotheism Under National Identity

Memory is of great importance in the history of Israel.The Israelites are always asked in the Bible to remember that they must not forget their God,Yahweh,and to be a kingdom of priests,a holy nation.Yet the authenticity of biblical memory is not infallible,and with regard to the treatment of the biblical narrative,Yerushalmi acknowledges that memory is always faulty and can be successfully manipulated and constructed.This article attempts to explore how the Exodus narrative constructed an identity for Israel at that time from the perspective of memory history and understanding of monotheistic beliefs through the need for communal identity.It can be argued that Israel’s monotheism was a response to external threats and internal challenges,and that this ’exclusivity’ was projected into Israel’s religious outlook in the process of establishing itself as a nation by establishing others,which in turn led to the development of monotheism.The paper is divided into three parts,the first of which discusses the polytheistic tradition of Canaan and Yahweh image.In the reality of life at that time,the Israelites shared a common culture with the Canaanites and there were no clear boundaries or great differences between them.In essence,the culture of Israel is ’Canaanite’.Through the study of the polytheistic tradition of Canaan,it can be found that the image of Yahweh is closely related to the images of some of the main gods in Canaan,Yahweh’s faith was born out of the polytheistic worship of Canaan.The second part analyses the Exodus narrative and the reality of the crisis facing Israel behind it through the lens of the history of memory.The disintegration of the Northern Kingdom and the fall of Jerusalem shattered the identity of the entire community of Israel,a crisis that prompted the prophets to respond to and explain their current failures and demanded a new understanding of themselves.The biblical authors reshaped Israel’s identity by attributing to ancient revelation ideas that later developed in the age of monarchy and exile.The third part analyses the Exodus memory with Moses as the key figure who leads Israel to establish a covenant with Yahweh,and through the Sinai covenant,Israel is given a new identity-God’s chosen people.This concept of otherness was also reflected in the monotheistic beliefs of ancient Israel,which removed the other gods from Israel’s genealogy and allowed the worship of only one god,the core of which was the prohibition of the worship of many gods.