The Ancient Israelites : A Look At Their Polytheism And Transition Essay

of the world and retreated into the heavens, leaving Shu to reign in his place.

When Moses and the Israelites came to the land of Canaan, twelve spies were sent in to explore. They came back and reported that the land was bountiful, but the Canaanites had a mighty army that could crush the Israelites. Soon, the bad report spread through the nation of Israel and the people rebelled. They cried to God, asking why He would lead them so far, only to let them die by the Canaanite sword.

The Hebrews served a monotheistic God, who they called Yahweh. He is an all-powerful and non human like being. They believed he made them in his image and gave them dominion over the earth. Their God was unlike any other gods at the time because he was friendly, compassionate, forgiving and all-powerful. God gave the Hebrews structure, a background, hope, and purpose. Every society needs rules to protect and keep the community in line. God gave Moses the ten commandments which they lived on.1 The Hebrews created the Bible a sacred book containing their lives and relationships with God. The Bible gave the Hebrews an understanding of how the world and humankind emerged. They also believed in an afterlife. Heaven for people who lived a righteous life and Hell for people who lived an unholy life in the eyes of God. So the Hebrews had a set of laws follow and hopes to believe in. This unified the Hebrews because they had the same goals, beliefs and obligation to suppress their desires for the well being of God and their society.

Moses: Like the other monotheistic faiths, my people believe in one God, and only one. The Greek, for example, believe in more than one God; this makes them polytheistic.

In thinking about living in the first century Palestine as a Jew, I choose to focus on factors that influence political and religious loyalties: There is only one God.

In modern times when one thinks of Monotheism, the first religion that comes to mind is Christianity. But what is Monotheism? Monotheism is the belief that there is only one god. But is Christianity the first group of people to believe in one god? The answer is no, monotheism comes a long way. Zoroastrianism was the first monotheistic religion approximately 3500 years ago. The religion was founded by Prophet Zoroaster in ancient Iran. The second monotheistic religion known to man kind is Atenism founded by the Pharaoh Akhenaten. And the third Monotheistic religion is Judaism.

Liberation Theologian, Gustavo Gutiérrez linked creation with the exodus as one continual event to explain God’s salvific nature. The link reveals God’s continual involvement in human history, not a God outside of human history. Gutiérrez argues that God sets the Israelites free from their oppression because God desires a more just world. Similarly, James Cone links God’s election of the Israelites with the exodus to explain liberation from oppression. According to Cone the link between election and the exodus is inseparable and serves as a major consideration in Cone’s definition of theology. Cone argues God continues active involvement in human history through the prophets in the Old Testament. The major difference between Gutiérrez and

The Israelites possessed little worldly power or wealth, but they created a powerful religion, known as Judaism which is a form of

Monotheism and the doctrine of the Trinity (cf. Deut. 4:35; 6:4; Exodus 20:3-6; Neh. 9:6; Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 43:10; 44:6, 8; Matt. 3:16-17; 28:19; 1 Cor. 12:4-6; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 4:4-6).

Judaism was formed in 2000 bc. by Abraham in the land of Canaan. They were the first monotheistic religion, this means they only worship one god. They call their deity “God” (Jehovah in hebrew).

Judaism as well as its offshoot and formation into the Christian religion both place great emphasis on the notion of their monotheistic God as revealed in the early scriptures. To them God has revealed Himself as the one Lord of all. Evident in the first Commandment that was

When assigned the monotheistic inquiry project it was clear to me what I wanted to focus on and learn more about. That topic was the Arab Israeli conflict. This topic was only briefly discussed as a class when we watched a video on how the conflict is today. With having such little information on why the conflict was happening or how it all came to be I set out in search of answers asking myself what is the Arab-Israeli conflict? and how does the religious views of the Muslim Arabs and the Jewish Israelis effect the Arab-Israeli conflict?

Studying the religion of the Ancient Israelite People must be done in a careful manner. The ways in which biblical scholars frame significant ideas can have a major effect on how their point is received. Today’s ideas about the religious lives of Canaanites have been drawn on primarily from The Hebrew Bible and archaeological evidence. In their respective works, biblical scholars Benjamin Sommer and Carol Meyers choose to interpret these pieces of religious evidence is varying ways; Meyers takes a more cultural approach while Sommer’s has a theological leaning. Recognizing these different perspectives, I prefer the approach that Meyers takes because of its focus in anthropology.

The Old Testament consisted of a set of documentations of religious scriptures, which were written by different people at various times for a different audience. Most of the Old Testament contains short stories of traditional stories and those stories of distinguished ways God established mankind. These stories are often told to the people in narrative form, which are guidelines often referred to as laws, songs, genealogies, and a list from these authors that composed the Old Testaments. The pressing of set documentation is essential because it is the framework for the lives of God 's followers. The term “Old Testament” originated as a means to express spoken traditions and God 's creation of that particular era. It is an method of philosophical investigation was designed to answer the why questions within these spiritual text documentations. These religious documentations consisted of four parts. These four sections retrieved from the Old Testaments are the laws, history, wisdom and prophecy. The laws are a rule of behavior enforced within the community. The rules are sometimes called “Torah.” When analyzing this Torah, these rules viewed within the first five spiritual books of the Bible. For example, in the first Torah in Genesis, it explains the creation, Noah’s Flood, Abraham and Isaac, and Joseph’s coats of many colors. However, the laws in Exodus were in regards to the going out. The going out took about 40 plus years, until the people led to

Over thousands of years, the religion of Judaism has evolved. With years of suffering, persecution, and dispersion the Jews’ religion stays constant. When researching the religion, the history is extremely strong, and the doctrine of the religion dates back thousands of years. With such a vast history, one might want to examine the change into modern society.