Is Dan McClellan Right About Monotheism in the Bible?

Dan McClellan argues that there is no monotheism in the Bible. Is this right?

Dan is aware of the many verses throughout Isaiah 44-46 that are often taken in a monotheistic light. For example, where the God of Israel repeatedly says:

• Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior. Isaiah 43:10-11
• I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Isaiah 44:6
• And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any. Isaiah 44:8
• I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God. Isaiah 45:5
• There is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. Isaiah 45:6
• They will plead with you, saying: “Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no god besides him.” Isaiah 45:14
• For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:18
• And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me. Isaiah 45:21
• Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. Isaiah 45:22
• I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. Isaiah 46:9

Those 10 examples are just from Isaiah 43-47 alone. And we can find the same language elsewhere, like in Deuteronomy. Here are three examples:

• The Lord is God; there is no other besides him. Deuteronomy 4:35
• the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Deuteronomy 4:39
• See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. Deut. 32:39

But Dan makes the point that this rhetoric is also used of other personified wicked entities, like foreign cities, in the same portion of Isaiah:

• Now therefore hear this, you lover of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children.” Isaiah 47:8
• You felt secure in your wickedness; you said, “No one sees me”; your wisdom and your knowledge led you astray, and you said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one besides me.” Isaiah 47:10

And therefore Dan follows a tradition of scholarship (going back to people like James Barr) that interprets this language not as a denial of the ontological existence of other deities, but as a statement of absolute superiority over them. Is that right?

In this video I argue that when the Bible speaks of other gods, it primarily means either:

Whether we call this monotheism is a matter of terminology. But what the Bible presents in non-technical language amounts to monotheism proper, since there is one God from whom and for whom all things (including other “gods”).