From The Canaan Tradition To The Memory Of Moses

The ethnic group and religious life is highly isomorphism in ancient Israel.To analyse the Israeli ethnic identity is equivalent to the analysis on its religious ecology.The paper attemp to comprehend the Israeli formation by exploring religionary evolution of ancient Israel,through the perspective of memory-history as well as the origin of the monotheism as a clue.the origin of monotheism as a clue.As the two important historical memories of the Hebrew faith,they have the relationship of unity and contradiction in the context of the Canaanite polytheistic worship and the Moses henotheism.Polytheism is the necessary prerequisite for monotheism.On the one hand,there is multi-god tradition in ancient Israel,Ugariat mythology and the Old Testament text has a great affinity,EL,Baal is the origin of the Yahweh image.On the other hand,the Canaan tradition is hidden behind the Old Testament texts and archaeological materials,and the ancient Israelites have chosen to forget and conceal polytheistic,that is not compatible with cultural memory.There is no "history of jump" from the tradition of Canaan to Moses memory,between the reality and the text presented by the revolutionary,interrupt,it is the result of screening and cut off collective memory for ethnic group.Moses in memory is the core figure of the "special cultural psychology" of the Israeli,and also the greatest common divisor of its ethnic identity.It is very complicated that The Moses's image,which derive overlay multiple roles include the prophets,the priests and the kings.There have three characteristic in Mosaic Distinction: First of all,"exclusive" that originate from the Prophet Hosea the "Holy Marriage Metaphor" in 8th century B.C was the key clue for Jahveh rise to be the only divinity and derive the idolatry system eliminating Polytheism to establishment " heresy" for the explicit ethnic identity boundary;Furthermore,the concept of "Chosen People" from Prophet Amos in 9th century B.C provides ethnic identity entitled self-awareness,which become the emotional bond that unites the group;Last but not least,"the Law of Moses" by taboos,customs,celebrations and other ritualized way to resist the decadent ideas and constantly refresh the concept of "Chosen People" for ethnic identify is later than previous two peculiarity.The three characteristics was dated back to the Exodus narrative and known as the part of Moses memory through the Reform of King Josiah in 7th century B.C for the integration of the North and South ethnic groups;It was the the memory of Moses,not Canaan tradition,which brought about ethnic cohesion and centripetal force that conserve the ancient Israel people ethnic identity in a series historical challenges.Monotheism is the by-product of identity,which is a means more than a purpose.In a word,the Israelites proactively and intentionally interrupt the original polytheistic religious tradition by exclusive monotheism and traced the monotheistic faith to the Moses in the 13 th century BC for the needs of a Group identity in the Biblical Era.The pile-up history makes it possible that false great figure turn into a real cultural memory,that is the transformation from the Canaan tradition to Moses memory.