224 Baruch J. Schwartz
primary issues were historical, not strictly literary. Unlike Hoff mann and
Cassuto, he comprehended, and accepted, the critical postulate that the
biblical literature was the key to reconstructing biblical history. What he
refused to accept was the manner in which the reconstruction was carried
out. Th e broad scope of his vision enabled him to distinguish between what
was persuasive and what remained open to question in the reigning criti-
cal theory.
On three central issues, all of which touch on the Pentateuch, Kaufmann
diff ered from conventional critics. First and foremost, he rejected the no-
tion that Israel’s monotheism had evolved gradually from the paganism of
the Semitic peoples. He was convinced that the faith of Israel was a radical
and thorough rejection of the paganism that preceded it and that Israelite
development began with the revolutionary new religious idea of one, sov-
ereign, nonmagical, ethical, transcendent deity. Unique among biblicists
both Jewish and Gentile, Kaufmann inquired into the essential nature of
polytheistic paganism and concluded not only that biblical monotheism
was a complete departure from it rather than a stage in its gradual meta-
morphosis but also that biblical literature is utterly unaware of the true
nature of paganism, presenting it as mere “fetishism” — the worship of im-
ages of wood and stone — rather than the manipulative, effi cacious magical
cult of a pantheon of whimsical, cosmic deities embodying the universe
and natural forces. By the time biblical literature began to develop, argued
Kaufmann, Israel had no direct knowledge of the nature of polytheism. It
follows that Israel’s religion had been thoroughly pervaded by the exclusive
monotheistic idea, that of a sole God managing events without concern for
competing deities constantly undermining His labors, an omnipotent God
uninfl uenced by magical forces that could be manipulated to force or stay
His hand, and most important, a moral God who could be counted on to
act justly rather than arbitrarily or whimsically.
Th e importance of this line of inquiry in Kaufmann’s writings of course
goes far beyond its implications for Pentateuchal criticism.14 Still, the latter
is what concerns us here. If the monotheistic idea was fully formed from
the outset of Israel’s national life and indeed formed the kernel of Israel’s
culture from its inception, then one of the accepted grounds for viewing the
Pentateuchal literature as a late stage in biblical tradition is undermined.
Th e thorough monotheism of the Pentateuch, Kaufmann maintained, be-
longs to and refl ects the earliest phase of Israel’s religious creativity. Adopt-
ing this position, Kaufmann in a sense reinstated the traditional view of
the growth of the biblical tradition: the Torah predated prophecy, indeed