Editing Judaism (section)

==== Historical Analysis ====
According to [[Biblical criticism|critical scholars]], the Torah consists of inconsistent texts edited together in a way that calls attention to divergent accounts.<ref name="yehezkal" />{{page needed|date=July 2017}}<ref name="biblical" /><ref name="speiser" /> Several of these scholars, such as Professor Martin Rose and [[John Bright (biblical scholar)|John Bright]], suggest that during the First Temple period the people of Israel believed that each nation had its own version of a god viewed as superior to all other gods.<ref name="history" />{{page needed|date=July 2017}}<ref name="history12" />{{page needed|date=July 2017}} Some suggest that strict monotheism developed during the Babylonian Exile, perhaps in reaction to [[Zoroastrian]] dualism.<ref name="ephraim" /> In this view, it was only by the [[Hellenistic period]] that most Jews came to believe that their god was the only god and that the notion of a bounded Jewish nation identical with the Jewish religion formed.<ref name="beginnings" /> [[John Day (biblical scholar)|John Day]] argues that the origins of biblical [[Yahweh]], [[El (deity)|El]], [[Asherah]], and [[Ba'al]], may be rooted in earlier [[Canaanite religion]], which was centered on a pantheon of gods much like in [[Greek mythology]].<ref name="goddesses" />