Is all of the Bible monotheistic?

[Byblos]

Made up to BE Gods or beings that were made up and never existed at all?

Made up to be gods of course. Like I said, the actual persons or objects (idols) did in fact exist.

[PaulSacramento]

Understood and agreed

[ultimate777]

You asked what we thought and we gave you our opinion, sorry it wasn't what you wanted it to be.

What I wanted, figuratively speaking, was for you all to tell me whether rain was forecast, and you at least, Paul, told me about something else. I hope I can make myself clear to you.
Do you think: "You asked what we thought and we gave you our opinion, sorry it wasn't what you wanted it to be" was called for under the circumstances?

Moses is traditionally stated as the author of the Pentateuch ( the five books of the torah) BUT that doesn't mean he was the only writer or that they weren't edited after his death

That's what I believe but I think some fundamentalists disagree wih us.

( to include mention of his death for example) and Moses wrote down the traditions that were passed down to him that were existing by oral traditon.PaulSacramento
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[PaulSacramento]

Sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound the way it seems to have sounded to you.
As for this part:

That's what I believe but I think some fundamentalists disagree wih us.

Well, I don't think that any fundamentalist questions that the parts that mention things that Moses was around to see or that happened after His death, were written by others.
At least I don't think they do !

[inlovewiththe44]

Kinda going along with this, I recently stumbled upon this video. I was curious to see what history buffs, or anyone else, has to say about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... lnnWbkMlbg#!

[inlovewiththe44]

And I totally understand if you don't feel the need to watch the whole thing. It's pretty long.

[Ivellious]

I am a history buff, so I thought I'd give this a go. I watched the video (and the second part, which wasn't at all related to the link that was posted). It was very interesting, in my opinion. Some of it I had indeed heard of before, some was new to me. I guess I'll run through my various thoughts. Some of the points are very loaded with bias, but the strictly historical bits are good in my opinion.

I have heard that the Biblical account of Exodus from Egypt is kind of not accurate at all. Archaeologists generally agree that the "slavery" present in Exodus is either greatly overstated or completely false.

I think the most interesting piece to note is how monotheism never existed until long after the Jews left Egypt. Prior to that there was no Jewish God and every group of people believed in a great many deities, sometimes involving a "head" or "father" deity.

The parts that show that the Old Testament was written over a long period of time that crossed between polytheism and monotheism was interesting, particularly how in the original texts, Yahweh was simply one of many gods that predated Judaism. The historical account of how Yahweh was at first the patron deity of the Jews and only later came to be the "one God" was nice to see.

The video points out that it is ridiculous to say that the Bible (at least the Old Testament) was never edited or re-written to fit current needs and cultures. It is clear that new prophets re-wrote the stories of Yahweh after-the-fact to eliminate other deities that in the past were considered Yahweh's equal (even by most Jews).

If nothing else, it is clear that the Old Testament was strongly influenced and based on other regional cultures and polytheistic stories, in particular the story of creation and the story of Abraham. The ability to easily trace the deities and characters to other, earlier stories of the region is clear.

There's more, but perhaps I'll let some people watch the video and comment on it. I have an anthropologist/archaeologist friend, too, so maybe she can tell me if she has any insight on the video's content.

[inlovewiththe44]

Thanks for the response, Ivellious. I'll be interested to hear what your friend has to say.