Conclusion

Abstract

Chapter Eleven briefly articulates the contents of the core chapters. The volume was intentional in restricting its treatment of divinity to El and Yahweh—with minimal coverage of female divinity, the plurality of divinity and the preternatural (angelic and demonic)—for pragmatic reasons. These topics, especially Levantine goddesses, deserve full scale treatments. To illustrate this (as an apology), Chapter Eleven has a lengthy excursus detailing what a full treatment of just a single goddess (ʿAštart = Astarte) would entail using the same parameters espoused in the current volume (e.g. text, iconography, ancient Near Eastern comparanda). The volume concludes with comments about how humans (modern and ancient alike) privilege certain divine attributes in their conceptualizations of divinity. Yet overall, ancient Israel’s wedded traditions argue that God cannot be reduced to a single attribute, a single explanation. God’s traits do not sit in isolation from one another. They are holistic and integrated.