Religion and Cult: One God or Many?

The Bible makes it clear that the official state religion of Israel was the sole worship of the God Yahweh, centered at the Jerusalem Temple. However, in “Religion and Cult” Professor Dever shows that there’s always another side to the story. Archaeological remains demonstrate that popular Israelite religion was in fact quite diverse. It included belief in other deities (especially the goddess Asherah), the use of carved figurines and cultic rituals at household shrines. Monotheism was in fact a long, hard-fought struggle that only fully triumphed after the destruction of Israel and Judah in the sixth century B.C. This was part of the How Archaeology Illuminates the Bible DVD.