In Household and Family Religion in Antiquity there are chapters on the family religious practices of pre-exile Judaism with information that may come as a surprise. Not all of the pre-exile Jewish families worshiped only one god, according to Rainer Albertz in the chapter "Family Religion in Ancient Israel and Its Surroundings." Family religion was designed to help the family in its need for survival.
Artifacts found in domestic religious contexts in Israel and Judaea include shrines to house the divine figurines, zoomorphic, male, and female figurines, libation vessels, divination paraphernalia, incense vessels, chalices, and more. Female figurines may represent Asherah, the mother goddess. Albertz writes:
"Up to the seventh century, the members of Israelite families lived in their own religious sphere that was not much influenced by the official religion of the Israelite and Judaean states."
Albertz says motivation for the domestic cult included illness and distress, infertility, pregnancy and birth, and ancestor worship.
Changes to Judaism
Based on Jeremiah (2:27), Albertz says that as late as the late 7th century, there was no indication that there was anything amiss for a Jewish family to worship other gods for personal needs. After Josiah's reforms in 622, things changed, sacrifices were taken out of the family house and performed at the temple of Jerusalem. Then, after the kingdom of David collapsed in 587 B.C., standard practices emerged, at least in part as a way of maintaining a religious identity that would survive the crisis. There were new rites and customs. These include circumcision, observance of the Sabbath, and dietary rules.
