An atheist podcast tried to do a "drop the mic" "gotcha" moment recently by announcing that the ancient world of Israel and Canaan was essentially polytheistic...
Yes, we all learned that... from the Bible when we were all 2 years old!
Not just Canaan, but Egypt and Babylon, Persia and the Hittites, the Greeks and the Romans... the entire religious culture of the ancient world (as today) is worshipping all kinds of gods - both demonic and products of human handiwork (materially and intellectually).
In Exodus 12:12 we see how the gods of Egypt were judged. After the crossing of the Red Sea, Moses sings a song of triumphant worship (Exodus 15:11): "Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you - majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?"
Deuteronomy 32:15-18 -
"Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, he became heavy and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Saviour.
They made Him jealous with their foreign gods and angered Him with their detestable idols.
They sacrificed to demons, which are not God-- gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear. You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
The LORD saw this and rejected them because He was angered by His sons and daughters".
The prophets frequently challenge the polytheism of ancient Israel and Judah.
Just as now, there are many gods that try to take the place of the one God who is Father, Son and Spirit.
There has always been polytheism - (just as there have always been unitarianism).
Anyone who reads the Bible is never going to be shocked by the idea that the worship of ancient Israel was set in a cultural/religious context of deep and sophisticated forms of polytheism... AND that there were constant attempts to integrate this polytheism into the ancient Trinitarian faith of Israel/Judah.
However, the Psalms and the Prophets constantly push back against these heresies - not so much rejecting the fact that there are many "gods", many spiritual beings who claim the role and play the part of gods... but that it is madness to worship or serve them when they in turn are entirely under the authority of the Divine King, the LORD Christ, the Son of the Father, the Son of Man.
Psalm 86:8-10 - "Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord; no deeds can compare with yours."
Psalm 82:1 - "God presides in the great assembly; He gives judgement among the gods:"
Psalm 95:3 - "The LORD is the great God, the great King above all gods."
Psalm 135:5-6 - "I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The LORD does whatever pleases Him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths."
Psalm 97:7-9 - "All who worship images are put to shame, those who boast in idols - worship Him, all you gods! Zion hears and rejoices and the villages of Judah are glad because of your judgements, O LORD. For you, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods."
Paul in the New Testament seems to be aware of the ongoing religious context of polytheism.
1 Corinthians 8:5-6 - "Even if there are those called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many gods and many lords), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live".
Colossians 1:16 - "By Christ all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him."