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Gods and the One God

In antiquity, all monotheists were polytheists.

By Paula Fredricksen

Consider these three texts from the ancient Mediterranean world:

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Endnotes

1.

J.B. Frey, Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaicarum, vol. 1, prol. p. 82; discussion in Emil Schürer, History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ, ed. Geza Vermes and Fergus Millar (Edinburgh: Clark, 1973–), vol. 3, p. 65.

2.

George Ewart Bean, Journeys in Northern Lycia 1965–67, Deut. Akademie Wein philosophisch-historische Klasse 104 (1971) 20–22, no. 37.

3.

Justin, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. 56 (Christ as the “other god” who actually frames the cosmos; according to his reasoning, all seeming theophanies in the Old Testament are actually Christophanies, ch. 56–62).