how did Judaism go from a tribal religion in the ancient Middle East to an...

J

Julia

Member
...originator of Universal Monotheism? Yahweh was once part of a pantheon of other anthropomorphic deities worshipped by the Hebrews who later became a nation, Israel, and devoted themselves to Yahweh/El alone.

how did the religion morph from common mythology to modern theology that gave birth to the Abrahamic religions?

I've always wondered.. how did this one culture's influnce, religion, extend itself and go on to virtually dominate the planet? to destroy other religions and mythologies..? why did it lead to, for instance, Christianity becomign so intent on domineering other cultures?
I said "FOR INSTANCE, Christianity" - I'm not denying that Islam is the same way and it's extremism can be far worse

and oh, btw, the ancient Hebrews WERE polytheistic. http://wsu.edu/~dee/HEBREWS/PREMOS.HTM
 
C

CherwashereJPA

New member
Could you kindly draw a very real & very important line there between Judaism & Christianity?

It is Chrisianity that spread to the world & domineers others. Judaism is VERY DIFFERENT than Christinaity. While Xtainity would teach that they are similar, take it from a Jew, we got just at attacked & we certianly shouldn't have to defend those attack methods.

Xtainity was an emperalistic religion for a long time. So was/is Islam. Judaism never was. It was considered right for Jews & part of the environment where there were other cultures doing what was right for them. It never claimed exclusivity to God nor that others needed to be Jewish to access God or be judged positively by God.

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Early Judaism & polytheism

Is total speculation that there are perfectly good scholarly mainstream arguments against. Your own link says:

" All these conclusions are brilliant but tentative, for we'll never know for sure much of anything substantial about Hebrew history and religion during the age of the patriarchs or the sojourn in Egypt." and "Little or nothing can be known for certain about the nature of Hebrew worship before the migration from Egypt."

You may want to pick a site that isn't obviously conjecturing & ignoring counter points. He also is igoring basic Jewish knowledge of the texts. The author is coming from a Christian base & sadly that's usually pretty inaccurately bias on many fronts. He does give his own biases away in the middle of the article with both termonology & motivation given with no supporting data at all.

Being a Professor doesn't make people accurate...only motivated to present their views.
 
D

DreBob

Member
If the history of Judaism is correct, your basic premise is wrong. Monotheism must have been the original belief, and polytheism grew from it.

Nevertheless, you provide no validation for your claim that Jews were one polytheistic, so it's really pointless to debate straw men.

Aside from being incorrect and incomplete, your argument is also bigoted. I am unsure how you can fault Christianity for being "intent on domineering other cultures" and not mention Islam's plan of jihad and fatah, their restriction on freedom of speech in every Islamic nation, their penalty of death for free-thinking.

Your bias is showing.

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You're updated your question to provide two key bits of information. Good. Unfortunately, neither piece helps your argument.

Even scripture indicates that the Hebrew people turned to other Gods and other beliefs, both before and after Moses. This is not in dispute. Your link speaks of pre-Mosaic polytheism. But my point to you was that the Jewish belief states that monotheism came first, prior to Egyptian captivity, prior even to Abram/Abraham, in the Garden of Eden. If this is so, it's really pointless to debate polytheism or other idolatry in Egyptian captivity. It happened. We all agree on this.

And while you did indeed say "for instance, Christianity," your original point was that Christianity is "intent on domineering other cultures."

And that's the point I took issue with. You've not offered any substantiation for this claim other than your own bias, and you've ignored -- for instance -- coordinated, planned, intentional attempts by Muslims to institute global Islam. This smacks of a desire to take Christianity to task, not decry cultural imperialism.

Please look into the Islamic policy of fatah. Are you aware that Muslims are trying to make the entire planet Islamic? That they're working to take over non-Muslim places through peaceful immigration and growing their population? Did you know they're seeking to implement sharia law in areas of the United Kingdom? That they want to do the same in Detroit, MI? That predictions indicate that by 2050 (or before), France will be 80% Muslim because of their coordinated efforts to topple that country's government?

You've got no legitimate reason to chastise Christianity for "domineering" other cultures in the face of Islam's efforts. This is like being in a plane that's out of fuel, and complaining to the stewardess that your drink doesn't have enough ice.
 
R

RH

Member
Zoroastrianism predates Judaism and is monotheistic. Judaism was heavily influenced by the teachings of Zarathustra.

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/religion/zoro.html
 
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