Just check it out. The Bible has to be looked at as a conglomeration of texts and stories - in order to understand what it is, you have to look seriously at where it came from and how it developed.

Hope this helps.

This article by Bishop Kallistos Ware on how to read the Bible is very interesting and addresses the question of historical context.
http://orthodoxeurope.org/page/11/1/4.aspx

I’d also recommend reading some Joseph Campbell, in particular Myth as Metaphor, Metaphor as Religion. One Campbell quote that I have always found helpful is that fixation on particular symbols (e.g. taking them literally) blocks access to the numinous / the Divine.

The problem with fundamentalism is that by insistence on taking everything literally, it loses sight of the symbols and metaphors by which we can access the Divine, and actually blocks access to the Divine. Was the book of Revelations meant to be taken literally? I think not - it’s a set of coded symbols, probably intended for initiates. And makes no sense without some interpretation from the Tradition and an understanding of what the symbols mean.

Re the question “was Judaism originally polytheistic?” - very likely - you may find Raphael Patai’s 1967 book “The Hebrew Goddess” interesting.

Note, I am not saying I have all the answers. I’ll never have all the answers. But sometimes matters such as these come down to choosing between what I see in a text based on evidence, and what others tell me the evidence should say.