Monolatry and Henotheism

Scholars generally accept that monolatry (accepting the existence of many gods, but believing only one to be worthy of worship) and Henotheism (similar to monolatry, but more tolerant in that it allows for the worship of any of those gods depending on personal preference) is a step on the path to monotheism (acceptance and worship of a single god). A good analogy for Henotheism is with baseball fans - A Chicago Cubs fan admits that there are other worthy teams, and that they probably have their good qualities, but certainly nothing approaching the awesomeness of the Chicago Cubs!

The pantheon of gods sitting beside Yahweh in the pre-Jewish era (probably before the Babylonian exile in 597 BCE) were::

• the Caananite deity, "El"
• the Semitic mythological mother goddess and consort of Yahweh, "Asherah"
• another Caananite/Akkadian deity, "Baal"
• a Babylonian god, "Marduk"
• ... and many others

The older books of the bible refer to some of these other gods. In the book, Genesis, god says, "Let us make man in our image". Who is "our" in this statement, why is it plural? Biblical apologists argue that he is conversing with the angels, and others stress the trinitarian view of god (father, son, holy ghost). But it may also mean he is talking to the other gods. Psalms has "There is none like you among the gods, O Lord"; "For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods"; "Our Lord is above all gods"; "Ascribe to Yahweh, you heavenly beings, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength."; "He is exalted above all gods"; "For Yahweh is a great god, and a great king above all gods". And of course the first commandment of the old testament, "You shall have no other gods before me". These and other references show that in the old testament, there are other gods, but none as worthy of worship as Yahweh.