The Historical Roles Of The Hebrews As A Monotheistic God

About 500 years after the death of Abraham, his descendants through Isaac were living in Egypt as slaves. Genesis 37 to 50 tells the story of how this came about. The 10 oldest sons of Abraham's grandson Jacob disliked their younger brother Joseph so much that they found a way to sell him to traders who in turn sold him to an Egyptian officer as a slave. In his new land, Joseph went through a series of ups and downs and eventually became the prime minister of Egypt, the highest official under the king. God enabled Joseph to foresee an approaching time of famine, and used him to store up food and then distribute it during the famine. His political position made it possible for him to settle his father's family in Egypt's most fertile territory. Here they prospered for many years. However, the time came when the leaders of Egypt began to view the rapidly growing Israelite community as a threat. As a result, they made slaves of the Israelites, treating them with ever-increasing harshness. Finally, desperate because the descendants of Jacob continued to multiply, they issued an order that all their male babies be destroyed at birth. The first 12 chapters of Exodus tell the story of how the Lord responded to the cries of His people. He miraculously provided Moses to be their leader, sent 10 plagues on the Egyptians, helped the Israelites celebrate their first Passover, and led them out of the land of bondage. It appears that as they left for Canaan, they had no

The Ancient Hebrew culture was a culture defined by many things but mostly for their construction of their religion. Hebrews or the religion Judaism

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

According to the tradition, God entered into a covenant or contract with the tribes of Israel, who believed that Yahweh had spoken to them through Moses. The Israelites promised to obey Yahweh and follow his law. In return, Yahweh promised to take care of his people,” (Spielvogal 38). The covenant between the Israelites and Yahweh could only be fulfilled by obedience to the law of God” (Spielvogal 38). “The Israelites believed that certain religious leaders or holy men, called prophets, were sent by God to serve as his voice to the people. These “men of God” went through the land warning the Israelites that they had failed to keep God’s commandments and would be punished for breaking the covenant: “I will punish you for all of your iniquities.” (Spielvogal 38,39). Family was the center of the social structure for Hebrew life. Family was made up of blood related individuals living in a common place. Marriage was also important to the Hebrew family. Similar to Hammurabi’s Code, some Hebrew people accepted polygamy, while the majority rejected it, and believed monogamy was preferred form of marriage. What makes Moses so different from Hammurabi is that Hammurabi’s codes are still used today, but mainly in the Middle East, while The Ten Commandments that Moses was given by Yahweh still have a

The first covenant was between Moses and God. A covenant is like a contract between God and people. The contract says that if the people do as God says that they will be rewarded. In the covenant that God made with Moses, God promised that the Hebrews would have a perennate place to live. To get the reward the Hebrews had to only warship God and reject all others. The Hebrews also so had to live their life following the 10 Commandments.

According to the reading of Job, ancient Hebrews believed that God only punished those who have acted unjustly. In the year 2000 B.C. , the stories in the Bible were told and passed on orally through generations before finally being written down around 1000 years later in 1000 B.C. This time period was crucial because this was the time where ancient Hebrews started evolving and becoming a greater community in which only one God was present rather than multiple gods, as believed by the Mesopotamians and Egyptians. Having one God rather than many who specified in a particular area meant that this one God guides everything and everyone. There is no such thing as an unjust God, hence God is just and therefore only punishes those who are unjust.

In the sixth chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, it is written that the words “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone” should be said and spoken of “when you lie down and when you rise”. The words “The Lord is our God, the Lord alone” would suggest that the Old Testament is monotheistic, and thus, the ancient Israelites were largely monotheistic themselves. But even with this implication that the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Israelites were monotheistic, a range of primary sources, both biblical and archaeological, suggest that the ancient Israelites had acknowledged the existence of, and actively worshipped or prayed to, more than one deity before adopting a single god, Yahweh, as their primary deity. It is more accurate to characterize the religion of ancient Israel as polytheistic, the belief that more than one god exists. Moreover, it is important to recognize that the religion of ancient Israel had, through reform, begun to shift to monolatry, the primary worship of a single god without the denial of the existence of other gods. These primary sources range from archaeological finds, such as The Kuntillet Ajrud inscriptions, to scripture within the Hebrew Bible, in the books of Jeremiah, Psalam, Deuteronomy, Exodus, and Genesis.

The book of, Genesis and Exodus by the New King James version, tells the creation of nations and humans, to the freeing Israelites from Egypt. After the creation of the earth and people in Genesis God focuses on Abraham who once he carries out Gods commands is promised many descendants who will become the nation of Israel. In exodus just as Abraham was promised the nation of Israel was formed although Israelites suffer under the enslavement of the Egyptians God tells Moses to lead the cause of freeing Israelites from Egypt. Abraham and Moses are good citizens for god they both follow Gods requests and rules even when they do not completely agree or are sure of Gods demands.

Religion is the belief that has its own boundary and teach what to do or what not to (Jim Blynt) Isn’t religion views differently and change the people's views when they know the meaning of religions. The Judaism, which share monotheistic faiths express to devotees that the weak and poor will persevere under the leadership of Yahweh. These faiths allow anybody to provide moral and spiritual codes that shape the cultures of Judaic. Religion continues to impact almost every aspect of human civilization in both positive and negative ways.

If one were to discuss Western civilization in its entirety, it would be difficult not to include Judaism, the religion of the Hebrew people. The Hebrews, the ancestors of the Jewish people, were a small generally nomadic group of herders from Mesopotamia that would eventually settle in early Palestine to birth a religious movement that would ripple through the known world for millennia to come. Judaism, whose name comes from the ancient southern kingdom of Judah, is one of the world 's oldest living religions, in addition to being the first religion based on monotheism, or a belief in one God, and would later become the driving force behind Christianity, the primary religion of the West.

In Genesis, the world’s population held many different belief systems. The similarity, however, was that these religions were composed of different polytheistic foundations. The belief in countless deities and idols allowed people to appease their fears in an unpredictable world. There was no controlling nature; no ability to influence crop growth, or weather, or death, and it can be argued that comfort might have been molded from praying to various deities that seemingly controlled these variables. For example, a sun god, earth god, water god, all might factor into the lives of people who are looking for answers where there is just mystery and unpredictability.

God was extremely faithful to Israel when they were in the desert. He used miracles to provide for them. He provided food and water. He made sure their clothes would not wear out. God loves his people.

The book of Hebrews was written to encourage and support the Jewish Christians who had become discouraged by those who were pressuring them to return to Judaism and the Mosaic Law. Paul

Henotheism is defined as the adherence to one God without denying the existence of other deities. Many scholars have suggested that the people of ancient Israel were henotheists. Their arguments are based off the scriptures that refer to God as more powerful than the other gods. An example of this would be found in Exodus 18:11, “Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods, for he did this to those who had treated Israel arrogantly.” Just because other gods are mentioned throughout the Bible does not specifically mean that the Bible teaches henotheism. Henotheism was thought to be created to depict the early stages of monotheism. In 1st Corinthians 8:5-6, Paul the Apostle told the Corinthians, “There are many gods, but for us there

In many ways, Judaism can be seen as originating with a small ethnic group. However, that changed with the destruction of the Temple first in 586 BCE by the Babylonians and by the Romans in 70 CE. First, what does it mean that Judaism has a core rooted in the beliefs of a small ethnic group? How did the destruction of the two temples lead to a more “Universal” Judaism not confined to a people or place? Finally, consider how Judaism is a religion firmly rooted in the reading and analysis of its sacred texts. Explain how Judaism “interacts” with God in the study of scriptures.