Delta4Embassy
Gold Member
"Looking at the ancient Semitic religion as it existed in the centuries before the time of the Hebrew emigration, one can find several interesting similarities to some aspects of Judaism. The ancient Semitic religion was polytheistic, but one of the main gods was known as “El”, which is similar to the Hebrew word for God, which is “Elohim”2. In fact, it is likely that ancient Judaism was also polytheistic, but where Elohim was the supreme God. One can even find stories in ancient Semitic writings that seem to have partially inspired Biblical stories such as the Great Flood, the Tower of Babel, and the Garden of Eden.
The more one looks at the details of ancient Semitic culture, religion, and language, the more clear it becomes that the Torah and Judaism originated as a cultural evolution from older beliefs and older scriptures. Probably nobody today believes that ancient Semitic scriptures are the word of God, and nor should they. These writings were compiled by ancient people who were just trying to make sense of life and who had very limited information to go with. It would be silly to believe, this day and age, that such scriptures are true. Despite this, probably hundreds of millions of people throughout the world believe that the scriptures that originated as a cultural evolution from the ancient Semitic beliefs are the word of God.
The scriptures that make up the Torah, the Tanakh, the Bible, are for the most part quite fancifully invented stories that were written by people thousands of years ago who had very limited information available to them. Their beliefs naturally changed over time, from century to century, but at a certain point their writings were copied more accurately and were then passed from generation to generation. This is how the Bible originated. It did not originate as the word of God. If more people understood ancient history better, then they would realize that the Bible is certainly not a book that one should base their life on. It is just one of many books that might have some wisdom, but it also has many flaws. We should all try to understand more about the ancient Semitic peoples and their customs and beliefs and how Judaism originated from this. We would all benefit from this understanding."
Pre-Jewish Ancient Semitic Religion
The more one looks at the details of ancient Semitic culture, religion, and language, the more clear it becomes that the Torah and Judaism originated as a cultural evolution from older beliefs and older scriptures. Probably nobody today believes that ancient Semitic scriptures are the word of God, and nor should they. These writings were compiled by ancient people who were just trying to make sense of life and who had very limited information to go with. It would be silly to believe, this day and age, that such scriptures are true. Despite this, probably hundreds of millions of people throughout the world believe that the scriptures that originated as a cultural evolution from the ancient Semitic beliefs are the word of God.
The scriptures that make up the Torah, the Tanakh, the Bible, are for the most part quite fancifully invented stories that were written by people thousands of years ago who had very limited information available to them. Their beliefs naturally changed over time, from century to century, but at a certain point their writings were copied more accurately and were then passed from generation to generation. This is how the Bible originated. It did not originate as the word of God. If more people understood ancient history better, then they would realize that the Bible is certainly not a book that one should base their life on. It is just one of many books that might have some wisdom, but it also has many flaws. We should all try to understand more about the ancient Semitic peoples and their customs and beliefs and how Judaism originated from this. We would all benefit from this understanding."
Pre-Jewish Ancient Semitic Religion