wer. The other primary deity was called YHWH (or Yahweh) and enjoyed a much more mysterious and illusive reputation. He was very numinous, and one was to have great respect, but great fear for him at the same time. Ba’al was not ever really feared, as his cycles (metaphorically seen as the seasons) were fairly well known, and not at all fear-inducing. The fact that the early Jews and Canaanites had these two radically different representations of a deity active in their culture, basically assured that there would be splits in the faith. One group inevitably would focus on one of the gods, and another would focus on another. In this way, the single religion could support multiple types of worship, leading to multiple philosophies and patterns of behavior, which could then focus more and more on their respective niche, widening the gap into a clear cut distinction between religious groups. This early time period was generally quite temporary and non-centralized, stemming from the fact that technology was at a very low level, and people’s lifespan was fairly short. These conditions led to a rapid rate of turnover in religious thought, and left many factions of people to their own devices. Widespread geographic distribution coupled with poor communication certainly did not help in holding the many faiths together. The Tribal Period in Jewish history is one of the more splintered eras in the religion, but since these people were all living in the area near Jerusalem, the common thread can be seen clearly through the other less-defined elements of the religion. Divided Monarchy By its very name, it is apparent that this period of history is host to a great deal of divergence in the Jewish religion. As Solomon was king, people began to grow more and more restless. Some objected to worshiping a human king, while others balked at the oppression of the poor that was going on. Political unrest in this period led to a decisive split in ...
