Polytheism and the Old Testament

by Christopher Flynn — Wednesday, October 28, 2009

I came across an interesting article that suggests the old testament was polytheistic. It's a very idea and this would clarify some nagging questions I've always had like why did god have so many different names? Maybe they were actually different gods that they later said were really the same one? Here is another link that also discusses it.

Also why does god refer to himself in the plural? The excuse is that it's the trinity talking amongst themselves but wouldn't that make them distinct individuals? If the trinity were truly one, how could they talk to themselves? A slightly schizophrenic god?

Even when I was still a catholic, I had trouble accepting the trinity. If they were three different forms of the same god I could get that, but three distinct gods is the attitude I've always gotten about the trinity. How could the "father" send his only son to earth if they weren't different people? And why would he have so many conversations with his father if they were the same person? Things make much more sense if you realize that it's really polytheism that they've branded as monotheism asking you to "have faith" regarding their truth stretching.

I think there are still a lot of unanswered questions about when and were this started but I suspect that before Moses started to work on the pentateuch (first 5 books of the bible), there was more than likely a lot of oral traditions that he borrowed from. But also how does polytheism work it's way back into the new testament? Maybe those stories were borrowed as well? Sure makes more sense to me.