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Many scholars of the Hebrew Bible have postulated that the source of the taunt-song of Isa. xiv 12-15 is to be found in Ugaritic religious literature. Many of these scholars believe that the passage contains elements of both El and Ba'al myths, an assumption that leads them to discount the proposition that all the mythological strands of Isa. xiv 12-15 can be correlated with a single Ugaritic myth. Still others contend that only a single myth concerning the usurpation of El can account for all of the mythological features. This article disputes both of these positions, arguing that no usurpation of El is in view, and that the mythological provenance of Isa. xiv 12-15 can be entirely correlated with the Ba'al-'Athtar myth.

Israel's view of God and his relationship to other divine beings in the Hebrew Bible has long been the subject of scholarly debate. The dominant critical consensus since the late nineteenth century holds that Israel's faith evolved from polytheism or henotheism to monotheism. Passages in the Hebrew Bible that assume the existence of other gods are compared to other passages that put forth the declaration that "there are no other gods besides" the God of Israel as proof of this view. Other scholars who reject this evolutionary paradigm tend to assume passages evincing divine plurality actually speak of human beings, or that the other gods are merely idols. This view insists that "monotheism" must mean that the existence of other gods is denied. Both views are problematic and fall short of doing justice to the full description of Israel's view of God and the heavenly host in the Hebrew Bible. This article overviews the difficulties of each view and offers a coherent alternative.

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Most Hebrew Bible scholars believe that Israelite religion evolved from polytheism to monotheism, an evolution in which the biblical writers participated. The dominant version of this consensus is that this religious evolution culminated by the end of the exile or shortly thereafter. A minority perspective places the evolutionary end point later. At issue is the presence of the language of divine plurality, positive references to other gods ‫ים(‬ ‫ֹלהִ‬ ‫אֱ‬ or ‫ים‬ ‫לִ‬ ‫)אֵ‬ under YHWH's authority, in Jewish religious texts composed during and after the Second Temple period. This article surveys the language of divine plurality in the Hebrew Bible and the sectarian literature at Qumran to show its conceptual continuity and longevity, and rejects the notion that it is incongruent with a belief in the uniqueness of YHWH.Copy of a publication in Tyndale Bulletin. www.Tyndale.cam.ac.uk/Tyndale-Bulletin Hayman cited only two Qumran texts in his article: 1QM 15:14 and 4Q491 11, both of which contain the word ‫אלים‬ ('gods').