The great revolution of the Hebrew Bible is reflected, in my view, in the very beginning of the story of Noah. After God repents of creating the human being due to human wickedness, the story of Noah begins – “These are the generations of Noah, Noah was in his generations a righteous person and whole-hearted; Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6, 9). The Biblical revolution is reflected in this verse.
The great revolution of the Bible is not monotheism, but the way in which God is conceived (as a moral God who demands morality), as reflected in the story of the burning bush, which is a story of revelation – revelation of the very name of God (YHVH) to Moses. The essence of the name of God (YHVH) is that God demands morality, as expressed in Psalm 23 – “the Lord (YHVH) is my shepherd…He restores my soul, He leads me in paths of righteousness for the sake of His name” (Psalm 23, 1-3). This is the essence of the revelation to Moses at the burning bush (that God demands morality) where God first reveals God’s nature as a God of history as opposed to a power of nature (as in the pagan conception of gods as powers of nature) – “Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, the Lord (YHVH) God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you; this is My name for ever…I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt” (Exodus 3, 15-16). God, in the verse here, is depicted as having seen the oppression and persecution that the people Israel have suffered in Egypt, and the mentioning that YHVH is the name of God in the verse signifies God’s moral opposition to such oppression and persecution.
Indeed, in the Bible, the existence of other gods of other peoples is presupposed rather than denied. In the ten statements (the Biblical term is ten statements and not ten commandments), the statement “I am the Lord your God” declares that YHVH is the God of Israel (to whom the people Israel are to be loyal) among the many gods that are presumed to exist; while the statement “You shall have no other gods before Me” is a demand of the people Israel to serve YHVH alone without denying the existence of other gods of other peoples. Abraham refers to YHVH as the “most high God” (Genesis 14, 22) implying that YHVH is the greatest God among a pantheon of gods. After the crossing of the Reed Sea (the Hebrew term is Reed Sea and not Red Sea), in the song of the sea, it is written, “Who is like unto You among the gods, O Lord (YHVH)?” (Exodus 15, 11). The verse presupposes the existence of other gods who cannot be compared to YHVH. In addition, in the ten statements YHVH is referred to as a “jealous God” (Exodus 20, 5 and Deuteronomy 5, 9) who demands exclusive worship (service) and loyalty. Of whom is YHVH jealous if no other gods exist?
In the Biblical culture gods exist, and gods have personal and concrete names such as Ba’al and Ashtarte in the Canaanite culture, and YHVH in the Israelite culture. The Bible demands of the people Israel to be loyal to YHVH among the many gods demanding loyalty. The Bible demands not faith or belief in a theological sense but loyalty in a psychological sense – and, such loyalty will express itself in behavior and a certain way of life. Loyalty to Ba’al will necessarily express itself in a fertility cult in which the essence of religion is ritual practice, whereas loyalty to YHVH will express itself in a life of obedience to the moral will of YHVH in which the essence of religion is morality and not ritual. The Biblical revolution then is in the way that God is conceived as a God who demands morality – and, the essence of religion is thus morality and not faith or ritual.
The great revolution of the Hebrew Bible is that for the first time in human history God is conceived not only as a God of power (as a source of nature and creation), but in the main as a moral God (as a source of revelation and redemption) who demands morality – and the essence of religion then in the Biblical conception is not faith or ritual practice but morality, as reflected in the verse (Deuteronomy 6, 18) “And you shall do that which is righteous and good in the eyes of the Lord”. The Biblical name of the Jewish people, Israel (ישראל), in Hebrew contains the words righteous (the very same word righteous as in the verse “you shall do that which is righteous and good in the eyes of the Lord”) and the word God, and if divided in the middle means righteous of God (ישר אל) – and, the people Israel then are to be a people devoted to righteousness and right living as the essence of religion. Abraham, the spiritual father of the Jewish people is singled out as a person who “will keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice” (Genesis 18, 19).
If we return to the verse about Noah (Genesis 6, 9), the verse begins by saying that “these are the generations of Noah”, and seemingly what should follow is that we will be told that Noah had three children, as written in the next verse (Genesis 6, 10) “And Noah begot three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth”. However, shockingly, interrupting the verse (Genesis 6, 9), immediately after it is written that “these are the generations of Noah”, we are told not about Noah’s children but about Noah’s moral character reflecting the great revolution of the Bible emphasizing morality as the essence of religion – “Noah was in his generations a righteous person and whole-hearted; Noah walked with God”.
The Biblical story of Noah can only be properly understood in comparison with the Babylonian flood myth of Gilgamesh. In the Babylonian account, the gods as powers of nature are powerful but not inherently moral, and the hero of the story is arbitrarily saved from the destruction of the flood as an expression of the power of the gods – with no connection at all to any moral concerns. The Biblical account is crying out from the very beginning of the story in describing the moral character of Noah that Noah is being saved not due to God’s power but due to God’s moral will, reflecting the great revolution of the Bible emphasizing morality as the essence of religion. Just when we expect to be told about Noah’s biological descendants “these are the generations of Noah” – we are shockingly told of Noah’s moral character “Noah was in his generations a righteous person”. In distinction to the Babylonian myth, Noah is being saved not arbitrarily but due to his moral character, as an expression of the moral will of God conceived in the Biblical conception as a God who demands morality and righteousness as the essence of religion.