Monocult makes monotheism. Unamuno, Life 4.3

 Unamuno first discusses the contribution of Judaism to Christianity.


Brotó, decíamos, el cristianismo de una confluencia de los dos grandes procesos espirituales, judaico y helénico, cada uno de los cuales había llegado por su parte, si no a la definición precisa, al preciso anhelo de otra vida. No fué entre los judíos ni general ni clara la fe en otra vida; pero a ella les llevó la fe en un Dios personal y vivo, cuya formación es toda su historia espiritual.

Jahvé, el Dios judaico, empezó siendo un dios entre otros muchos, el dios del pueblo de Israel, revelado entre el fragor de la tormenta en el monte Sinaí. Pero era tan celoso, que exigía se le rindiese culto a él sólo, y fué por el monocultismo como los judíos llegaron al monoteísmo. Era adorado como fuerza viva, no como entidad metafísica, y era el dios de las batallas. Pero este Dios, de origen social y guerrero, sobre cuya génesis hemos de volver, se hizo más íntimo y personal en los profetas, y al hacerse más íntimo y personal, más individual y más universal, por lo tanto. Es Jahvé, que no ama a Israel por ser hijo suyo, sino que le toma por hijo, porque le ama (Oseas XI, 1). Y la fe en el Dios personal, en el Padre de los hombres, lleva consigo la fe en la eternización del hombre individual, que ya en el fariseísmo alborea, aun antes de Cristo.


We just said that Christianity arose from a confluence of two great spiritual processes or traditions, the Jewish and the Greek, each of which had arrived on its own at the definite desire for another life, even if that life was not itself conceived in definite terms. Among the Jews, faith in another life was neither common to all nor clear, but such as it was, it did lie at the end of their faith in a personal and living god, which they cultivated over the course of their entire spiritual history.

Yahweh, the Jewish God, began as one deity among many others: the god of the people of Israel, revealed in the thunder of the storm on mount Sinai. But he was so jealous that he demanded an exclusive cult from his worshippers, and it was by way of monocult that the Jews arrived at monotheism. Yahweh was adored as a living force, not a metaphysical entity: he was the god of battles. But this god, originating from society and war in a process we shall revisit, made himself more intimate and personal in the revelations of the prophets, and in becoming more intimate and personal, he became also more individual and universal. It is Yahweh who loves Israel not simply for being his child, but because he chooses the nation as his child, acting out of love (Hosea 11.1) (†). Faith in a personal God, the father of all mankind, brings with it faith in the eternity of each individual person, which we see dawning already in the doctrines of the Pharisees, before Christ (‡).


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(†) "For Israel was a child, and I loved him, and summoned his offspring from Egypt" (Hosea 11.1). This is my rendering from the LXX: ὅτι νήπιος Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἐγὼ ἠγάπησα αὐτόν, καὶ ἐξ Αἰγύπτου μετεκάλεσα τὰ τέκνα αὐτοῦ.

(‡) You can read more about the doctrine of the Pharisees and other Jewish sects in the work of Flavius Josephus (c. 37-100 CE): Antiquitates 18.12; de Bello Judaico 2.154-166.