The Bible says that Abraham lived in places which did not exist yet in abrahamic times. And the massive exodus left no archeological sign, and no record anywhere.
Yes, ancient Israelites were polytheistic : everybody was polytheistic in the Country of Canaan ! In fact, the Canaanite kingdom of Ugarit (well before XV century BCE until XII century BCE) left a lot of documents written in many languages & alphabets.
Ugarit main God was ‘’El’’. El and Ashera had seventy divine children. All Gods and Goddesses of course. Among them, there was Baal and Yahweh.
Before the King Josias (approx. 600 BCE), polytheistic archeological objects were found by hundreds everywhere. The archeologist Israel Finkelstein explains : « (…) During most of the monarchic period, the Israelite religion, though centered on the national god Yahweh, was based on Canaanite myths, beliefs, and cult practices, and a great goddess was worshipped alongside the main male god. » (…) « The inscriptions and artifacts related to cultic practices show that Israelite monotheism was product of a long and gradual process. Jerusalem during Josiah’s reign is considered by many as the time and place where Judahite religion consolidated into monotheistic Judaïsm as we know it, a development that further crystallized during the exilic and post-exilic periods. »
The Bible confirms polytheism : Jeremy 2.28 There were also children sacrifices through holocaust (Jeremy 32.32 / Jeremy 32.35 / Ezechiel 20.31 / etc). The ‘’King’’ Solomon himself build a place for sacrifices to Moloc (1 King 11.7)
At time of King Josias, each place had its own main God : El used to be the main God of Ugarit. Memosh was the main God of Moab, Qaus the main God of Edom, Hadad the main God of Bagdad, Yahweh the main God of Juda, and Elohim the main God at Jerusalem.
Thom STARK explains : « Over time, Yahweh and Elyon are conflated, they sort of merge into one god. At this stage Yahweh starts to be seen as creator-god. »
The Egyptians & the Babylonians used to conquer the Canaan area. At a time where their presence was less pressing, King Josias tried to unify the people around him. At that time, unifying meant having the same Law, i.e. worship the same God.
It was precisely the time & place where King Josias ‘’found’’ the Books of Moses, i.e. the Law (2 Kings 22.4 to 23.23). These writings were very old : what, 7 centuries ? Written in an alphabet (hieroglyphs ?) which was no more in use for centuries. But Josias could read them immediately.
To me, King Josias discovered/invented the Judaic monotheism, with all the stories he could ‘’read’’ in Moses Writings. That was around -620 BCE.
In the Middle East area, at that time, it would be the fourth oldest monoteism, after the ones of Akhenaton, Mithra, and Ahura Mazda.
