FROM CULT TO CULTURE
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perspective of progress is usually considered as the step from a
primitive ritualism to a "pure" monotheism, is evaluated by Oskar
Goldberg according to the specific weight of religious substance in–
herent in the ritual of the cult and which is lacking in the "pure"
monotheism of the prophets or in late philosophy. Jahve, the Elohim
of Israel, goes before his people by day as a cloud and by night as a
pillar of fire. He walks among the people and has his dwelling among
them. J ahve, the Elohim of Israel, lives in active presence among
his people, whereas King Solomon, the builder of the centralized
sanctuary and the enlightened philosopher-king, sermonizes on ab–
stract principles. The late psalmists can see in the gods of the
peoples only idols, the work of man's hand. Thus the way is opened
for the development of the abstract theological monotheism of Juda–
ism and Christianity.
In the Babylonian exile the people of Israel indeed encountered
gods that were mere idols, bereft of all numinal powers, because
Babylon, like later Rome and today the West, was the incarnation of
"culture." The story of the tower of Babel symbolically concentrates
within this society all the powers that have been taken away from
the biological divine forces and that now join in the building of a
technical civilization. This civilizaton is the activity of the progeny of
Cain, the first technician and founder of cities.
Only when the biological communities collapse can the organiza–
tion of the state flourish. The society of the state aims by technical
means to halt the progressive disintegration of the biological com–
munity. The Babylonian and Roman deities are gods of the state
and not the biological center of peoples. They are civic representa–
tives and their pantheon belongs to the category of civic theology.
Babylon is (for the Pentateuch and the prophet Isaiah) a "no
people" and its gods "no gods." Only such state gods are treated in
the Pentateuch as nonentities, whereas the gods of Egypt appear as
potent antagonists of Israel's god. The exodus of the people of Israel
out of Egypt is for the Pentateuch primarily a war waged between
J ahve, the Elohim of Israel, and the Elohim of Egypt.
Goldberg's "archaic exegesis" has, I think, led to some striking
results by bringing the primordial strata of myth and ritual of the
Pentateuch into relief. The cultic communion presupposes the actu–
ality of Jahve and the negative but active reality of the "other gods."
