The Jews definitely thought Yahweh was one god amongst many, and an inferior one at that. I~ have already touched on this in the forum, but it has now been lost.

 

In Deut 32:7-9 we have evidence that Yahweh was one of many gods.

 

"Remember the days of old,
         Consider the years of all generations.
         (O)Ask your father, and he will inform you,
         Your elders, and they will tell you. 
    8"(P)When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
         When He separated the sons of man,
         He set the boundaries of the peoples
         (Q)According to the number of the sons of Israel. 
    9"(R)For the LORD'S portion is His people;
         Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance. 

 

The problem is that in English, you can never see this, but in the original language, it is evident. This is because any word for anything that resembles a god becomes God or Lord or similar, with monotheistic inferences. However, in this passage ‘Most High’ is actually El Elyon, and ‘Lord’ is Yahweh. The god most high gives the 70 nations (as they believed) to his divine sons, or council, of which Yahweh is a member. Yahweh is given Israel to have dominion over. This is very explicit in the passage above. Eventually, the pantheon was streamlined to fewer gods, and combined El Elyon and Yahweh.

 

In Daniel 7 (particularly 13-14) you have Yahweh after defeating the monsters of the deep and dragons and so on, he (One like the Son of Man) assumes a position in heaven next to El Elyon (Ancient of Days). Eventually, these two Gods get combined, and Yahweh ‘consumes’ El Elyon’. This is reflected in Genesis 14 when the blessings indicate a double God blessing showing the streamlining. This is further shown in Psalm 82 when God topples the other gods from their thrones and condemns them to Sheol where their stumbling causes earthquakes.

 

And then there is the Divine Council and so on. Really, the Jewish and Christian religions are so incredibly obviously ‘anthropogenically’ evolved that it is amazing that anyone believes that this is true history. Or believe that they can harmonise all the totally contradictory passages like the ones above to fit in with a monotheism.

 

It was clear that there was a monolatry where Yahweh was not the main god that evolved into a bi-theism that then evolved into a monotheism.