Genesis 1 clearly says God created the entirety of the initial cosmos and all of the first humans, and Numbers 27:16 calls Yahweh the god of all humankind/flesh or the giver of breath to all living things depending on the translation. Yahweh is indeed the uncaused cause in the Torah's philosophy, and the sole one, in fact, though Genesis does not say this quite so openly. Its exact wording only teaches that Yahweh preceded physical matter, humans, and animals and is metaphysically responsible for creating them. Does the Torah in any way teach that other gods exist alongside Yahweh, though? When I use the word gods here, I am exclusively speaking of literal uncaused causes, the only concept of a truly divine being. A created/contingent being, like Athena is to Zeus and Zeus is to his own parents and so on in Greek mythology, is not a god or goddess; they could be superhuman in lifespan or explicitly supernatural in power, but to be an actual deity, a being must have not been created. Many entities of pagan philosophy are no such thing.
Even so, the worship of one deity or pseudo-deity (like a demigod) over others with simultaneous acknowledgement of the existence of more is called henotheism. According to some people, the Torah—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—is henotheistic despite its reputation for rigid monotheism. One can see frequent mentions of beings featured in pagan religions early in the Bible. A host of statements such as a handful to be highlighted do not settle on their own whether the Torah teaches henotheism, with monotheism allegedly becoming predominant in later texts like the prophetic writings of the Old Testament. For instance, see Exodus 12:12, written below. It is still the case that, for instance, the phrasing of Yahweh passing judgment on the gods of Egypt could be meant in a way that denies their very existence. This would simply not be overly clarified in the verse in question.
Exodus 12:12—"'On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.'"
Exodus 20:3—"'You shall have no other gods before me.'"
Again, alone, these verses do not particularly establish explicit monotheism in the Torah's theology, but it certainly goes further than Exodus 20:3 in condemning the worship of other gods as something evil, deserving execution. Neither do those like Exodus 22:20 with its prescription of capital punishment for anyone who sacrifices to a god other than Yahweh. Deuteronomy 17:2-5 later addresses in its direct wording all acts of worship expressed towards other gods or the natural world, in saying that any man or woman who does such a thing has committed a sin worthy of death; however, Exodus 22:20 still teaches some form of theological exclusivity in prohibiting sacrifices to other gods, as do Deuteronomy 17 and 29 in a more holistic manner. There is no inherent henotheism conveyed in such passages, since it would come down to whether the author meant that other gods actually exist, even if they are not true gods and goddesses but lesser superhuman beings. Similarly, in Deuteronomy 12:31, for instance, nothing necessitates that the philosophy espoused in the text would entail the existence of Canaanite gods, only that some people practice those religions in the name of other gods and that it is righteous to not imitate them:
Exodus 22:20—"'Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the Lord must be destroyed.'"
Deuteronomy 12:31—"You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods."
Deuteronomy 17:2-5—"If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the Lord gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God in violation of his covenant, and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars in the sky, and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death."
Deuteronomy 29:18—"'Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations . . ."
While there is not any logical necessity in these exact words communicating nothing but monotheism, a philosophy holding that only one uncaused cause exists (or in a much looser sense, lesser "gods"), they certainly do not contain any strict affirmation of henotheism. A person could assume they teach this, but it would only be an assumption, an unproven non sequitur believed on the basis of mere preference or custom or persuasion. If there is no overt declaration of henotheism, then, does the Torah teach monotheism? Though the ideas of Genesis 1 do require that Yahweh preceded the universe and is the God of all the cosmos and all humanity, it does not directly contradict the existence of multiple uncaused causes. Indeed, it is not in Genesis but in Isaiah that it is directly articulated that Yahweh was not preceded by another deity/"god" (Isaiah 43:10) as opposed to being created by the real uncaused cause or some other being created by the true uncaused cause (and so on, however far back the causal chain would go to the real deity); of course, if Yahweh is the only god, this would also require that he is the uncaused cause. Other parts of Deuteronomy are in fact very plainly monotheistic, just like the eventual declarations of Isaiah (Isaiah 43:10-11, 44:6, 45:5-6, 18, 21-22, 46:9):
Deuteronomy 4:39—"Acknowledge and take to heart today that the Lord is God in heaven above and the earth below. There is no other."
Deuteronomy 32:39—"'See now that I myself am he! There is no God besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.'"
If there were lesser "gods," though the word would be very misleading in light of the conceptual distinction between a genuine uncaused cause and beings like the Olympians [1], the Bible would still not be inconsistent with such things. However, in declaring that there is no other deity, the likes of Deuteronomy and Isaiah are not denying the existence of additional supernatural entities; they, together with Genesis, only present Yahweh as the only deity whatsoever, with all "others" being according to the Torah inanimate idols (Deuteronomy 4:28) and thus by default unworthy of reverence or perhaps demons (Leviticus 17:7). The Bible is monotheistic, yes. The Torah is also monotheistic. It just is not as apparent as many people might expect based upon how fervently some insist that the entirety of the Bible is clearly monotheistic, instead of there being any isolated ambiguity at all about whether it is holding up Yahweh as the supreme God out of a pantheon.
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