Rolling, C. Essay 2
Henotheism is related in that it recognizes many gods yet chooses to be committed to one, but leaves room for other deities. Many cultures in ancient times believed in more than one god but honored one god above others. The revolutionary belief that a single god could require his devotees to honor no other gods is the cornerstone of the Mosaic religion. Henotheism allegiance to one god while conceding that others also exist- characterizes numerous biblical passages scattered throughout the Old Testament.
(Harris 86)
Who is like you, O Lord (YHWH), among the gods? (Exodus 15:11) Israel’s God is “incomparable” in his justice and saving power, but he is not the only deity in the universe.
“For the Lord is a great
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6:3). There is no evidence in the Pentateuch that the patriarchs worshiped any of the gods of the land of Canaan. However, Jacob’s wives and members of his household worshiped other gods: “Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you’” (Gen. 35:2).
“You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). There is no evidence in the Pentateuch that the patriarchs worshiped any of the gods of the land of Canaan. However, Jacob’s wives and members of his household worshiped other gods: “Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Put away the foreign gods that are among you’” (Gen. 35:2).
The ancient Israelites were not fully developed monotheists. The Bible is filled with prohibitions against worshipping or serving other gods. There are almost one hundred references found in the Hebrew Bible forbidding the worship of pagan gods. (claudermariottni.com)
“Do not invoke the names of other gods” (Exodus 23:13)
“Do not follow other gods, any of the gods of the peoples who are all around you”
Unlike the Jewish people today, some Jews did not deny the existence of other gods from other cultur...
Exodus is concerned with the relationship aspect of the Patriarchal promises. Sometimes this relationship is expressed in various ways such as a blessing or guidance. By saying "I am the God of your father — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob", He showed that he is faithful. He is faithful to His promises, such as God promised to give the Jews the land. When Moses turns to God's promises, he is in essence saying, “God we are not worthy of your blessings, we are here because of you, and we depend on you.” God acted as a parent towards a child. He wanted the best for His children. He, out of love for his children responded to them in different ways. At times he was tough, at other times gentle. Sometimes he enforced the rules and other times he would bend them depending on the occasion. Sometimes he denied his children of certain things and other times he gave openhandedly. He wants to love us and take care of us. Moses learned from God’s parenting skills. God taught lessons to his people as a parent would do. He also rescued his children when they were in trouble by defeating the powerful Egyptians and brought us out so that we could be his people.
The Nation of Israel, specifically Abraham, has been credited with the birth of the first monotheistic religion; however, monotheistic principles were present in other ancient civilizations before the creation of the chosen people of Israel, specifically with Zoroastrianism and ancient Egyptian religions.
For example, Akhenaten worshiped only one god, Aton, the sun god. For this reason, he had denounced all other Egyptian gods and goddesses as false and disregarded worship for them. Thus, Akhenaten’s monotheism failed to find a place among his people. Furthermore, Akhenaten’s god didn’t bring comfort and tranquility to his people either. In fact, Ancient Egyptians were distressed and yearned for their familiar god, for those gods made Egypt flourish with wealth and might. Even so, Akhenaten had outlawed the gods of Egypt’s past with the help of his wife, Nefertiti. But, when Akhenaten and Nefertiti died, their religion and god died with them. In fact, Akhenaten’s own son restored the former gods and goddesses into their proper places of worship. Unfortunately, Akhenaten’s reign still could not be erased from the Ancient Egyptians minds and they took their revenge. The mummified body of Nefertiti was mutilated. She suffered damages to her mouth, preventing her from speaking before the gods in the afterlife. Thus, Nefertiti will not find rest, doomed from entering paradise because she cannot speak her name in front of the gods who she had help outlaw in
...f the divine world but the kings were in charge of vocalizing god’s wishes on earth. The most famous of these law codes was Hammurabi’s law code. The Hebrews tried to establish order by using Yahweh’s Ten Commandments and the Torah. Mesopotamian deities were hard to please and easily angered. The Mesopotamians constantly felt they were letting their gods down and usually didn’t even know the reason behind it. Hebrews had a much more forgiving god. Through texts like “The Book of Job”, it is apparent that Yahweh was a tough god but always forgiving and fair in the end. He had few demands of his people and all of them were ethical and easy to adhere to. As long as his devotees followed Yahweh’s laws, they were all capable of receiving his blessings. Through it all, it seemed that God and religion was at the center of every aspect of life in the ancient civilization.
Ancient Greek religion was a polytheistic religion that believed in many gods and goddesses. To Greeks, these gods and goddesses would be able to control everything. Each god or goddess had his or her own distinct personality and territory. “Greek myths explained the origins of the gods and their individual relations with mankind” (Hemingway). Unlike current religions, like Christianity and Judaism, Greek gods were not known for being moral or being truly good or evil. Many of the Greek gods and goddesses were disorganized and self-contradicting. Although this was apparent to the Greeks, the Greeks believed that their religion was to brighten their own lives, rather than give them godlike guidance. The best example of a self-contradicting Greek god is Zeus – father of all gods and humans (Cunningham and Reich 32-33).
The idea of gods and goddesses began as far back as the ancient Egyptians, but the ancient Greeks were the first group to form a religion based on gods and goddesses. They believed that the gods and goddesses were not different from humans. Some of the few ways humans were different from gods were that the gods were stronger and lived forever. Since the Greeks believe in many gods, they are Polytheists.
The ancient Greeks practiced a religion that was in effect, a building block to many ensuing pagan religions. This religion revolved around their reverence to the gods. Essentially, the Greeks worshipped numerous gods, making their religion polytheistic. They believed that exercising the opportunity to choose between a wide array of gods to worship offered them a great sense of freedom that they treasured. After all, the Greeks were known for their intellectual distinction of which their means of worship played a huge part. Each city-state, or polis, thus had an affiliated god who protected and guided its residents. Within a given polis, the belief in common gods unified the people. Ultimately, the Greeks yearned for this unity and order in the universe, which is a characteristic that is not unlike that of people today. It might seem contradictory that they believed in many gods and sought organization at the same time, for larger numbers are inherently unstable. But, to the god-fearing Greeks, each god represented a different facet of life that together upheld an organized universe if each of these gods was properly appeased. To satisfy these gods, the Greeks participated in activities such as prayer and sacrifice and erected divine temples and centers for oracles in honor of specific gods. There is evidence of this institutionalization early on in the reign of the Olympian gods, thus forming the Olympian religion.
The people thought of all the gods to be wise and would seek their guidance in certain situations. Their religious beliefs brought this respect, and in some ways fear, to honor the gods so they would be gracious in return. “Religious beliefs instilled fear of the gods, who could alter the landscape, and desire to appease them” (Bulliet, 19). The Mesopotamians believed that the gods were human like in form, but that if they were to be unhappy by something the people did, they could alter anything in their lives, and in some cases even kill
Throughout time each civilization has spread its folklore about their gods. Mythology is the collection of a societys myths and during older times mythology was thought to be created by the people who did not see the world like everyone else. Those people saw the world full of beautiful, magical possiblities. Many of the stories still hold an impact on the world today. Maybe not in the sense of worship, but people are intrigued to figure out the state of mind of the ancient people that once worshipped these gods. Some civilzations worshipped these gods in hope that they would help them in their daily lives. Most civilizations had gods for everything taht imacted their lives. Civilizations had gods that controlled the weather, the harvest, or
Ancient Hebrew culture differs from what we see around the world today. The Hebrews, even their human king, prayed to their heavenly king YHWH. Today we do not pray to our President because none should pray to another human. But Christians do not refer to God as their “President” because it is a completely different level of what we have than what the Hebrews have. YHWH is their protector. He allows their nation to prosper as they have throughout time. He is their one, true God. In America we have several gods, in addition to our God as Christians. We worship athletes, actors, material items, and other distractions that forces God to take his hand of protection off of us. The Hebrews do not get distracted with worldly matters that could keep them from an eternity in Heaven with Yahweh in “hekal” which is Hebrew for “big house”. (Power) In this same article, Cian Power goes on to explain the genuine love the Hebrews, distinctively the human king, have for YHWH more in-depth. The following excerpt comes from his writing entitled Kingship in the Hebrew
To begin with, the ancient Greeks explained the creation of the universe, in particular the Earth and its elements, by a system of anthropomorphism in which their gods are human-like and are representatives of these elements. For example, Zeus is the god of heaven while Hades is the underworld lord (Hesiod, p.145). Unlike the Christians’ god who is “flawless”, the ancient Greeks’ divinities are portrayed as humans and are far from perfect. Their gods behave like ordinary people except they are immortal and have supernatural powers. Like any human being, the Greeks’ gods have love, jealousy, sadness, etc. For instance, in Euripides’ Bacchae, Zeus falls in love with Semele, which makes Hera becomes jealous and tries to kill Semele and Dionysus (Euripides, p.209). The Greeks even have a physically imperfect god, Hephaestus. This is to say that the gods’ attitude toward mortals is affected by how people treat them as the Greeks’ gods have emotions like humans.
Egyptian religion is polytheistic. The gods are present in the form of elements of life – natural forces and human condition. Greek religion is also polytheistic. Like Egypt, the Greek gods exist to represent different aspects of life, but they also play an active social role in the people’s lives. In Greek mythology, the gods have feelings and flaws as the normal people do. Greek Gods have even had children and committed adultery with people. The Egyptian gods interact more with each other than with the people. They interact with the people more on a supernatural level. Osiris, the Egyptian god of agriculture and afterlife, judges people when they die. Amon, the king of gods, is hidden inside the ruler (This “king of gods” title was not always so as the popularity of Aton, the sun-disk rose through the reformation of Pharaoh Akhenaton in 1369-1353 BC). Hebrew religion, being monotheistic, had only one all-powerful god. Instead of being believed by the people to be somewhere in the world, the Hebrew god was completely separated from the physical universe. Abraham in Canaan (about 1800 BC) is the first known practicer of monotheism. As for monotheistic resemblance in other cultures, the Greek god Zeus is seen as a leader of the other gods, but not independent of them. Akhenaton’s short-lived reform of Egyptian religion reveres Aton as the source of all life. This is the earliest religious expression of a belief in a sole god of the universe. Akhenaton’s challenge to the power of the priests did not last beyond his own lifetime.
existence of a single god. (“Monotheism”) “For the Pharisees, God is primarily one who makes demands. For them, the Scriptures of the Old Testament were a set of rules that must be kept at all cost.” (“Jesus Challenges the Pharisees”)
that exists and this can be read in the sacred texts, the Koran and the Bible. For all three monotheistic religions, God is the only one that can be considered as the Creator of the Universe, the All-Powerful and the venerable divine being that is gracious and merciful. They also accept the fact that this god is the same God that Abraham worships as stated in the Old Testament. This particular similarity between these three religions has given them the name “the Abrahamic religions” by some experts. Despite the varying names these three religions have for this particular god, in essence, they are one at the same. Abraham is also considered the father to the children of God, which are often referred to as the people of Israel. (Lin) What differs in the three religion’s concept of God is how they advocate them. One can see that Christianity and Judaism are close to their belief of God. They noted that Je...