The Early Hebrew Religion - Article Example

The early Hebrew religion is believed to be polytheistic; it consisted of the praise and worship of many gods. For instance, they referred to God as ‘Elohim’ rather than ‘El’. They also believed in animistic worship, the worship of nature such as trees and other natural objects, eventually becoming anthropomorphic, that is god or gods took the human forms. In later Hebrew religion, Yahweh became a figure that transcends both human and material worlds. It is believed that individual tribes probably worshipped different gods, as there is no evidence of only one God being worshipped during that time. (2)Around 1300 BC, Hebrews became a nation and also had their own national god.

Despite a few Babylonian texts that associate power with Maduk, Hebrew was the first religion to insist that their god was the only universal god. Judaism is known as one of the earliest monotheistic religions. It is believed that the Hebrew monotheism began with the introduction of Yahweh cult according to Exodus during the 1300-1200 BC in the migration to Egypt. It gave a concept of rule of law and also the concept that covenant that the god has a good relationship with the community of people (1) The Jews were also forbidden to idol worship or represent god in any sculpture or form and regarded Yahweh as the creator or god.

Earlier Hebrews worshipped other gods but emphasized that Yahweh was the ruler of the universe. Another innovation by the prophets is righteousness where Yahweh became the ‘god of righteousness’ and in the eyes of Yahweh the good were always rewarded and the evil was punished. In this religion, ritual practices became unimportant and the requirement of doing right things, punishing evil as a means to produce and build a harmonious society. The monarchy brought about differences in wealth, poverty, subjective power and centralized state.

The most cognitive crisis in Hebrew History was the Exile. The Hebrews were exiled by Babylonians and Romans into widespread colonies around the world and the scattering is often termed as Diaspora. (2)The most intense revolution in Hebrew religion took place during the migration from Egypt and Moses became the greatest innovator. His influence had a great impact in the Hebrew religion and this eventually became permanently Mosaic religion. (2)