Judaism True Monotheism

Judaism and True Monotheism

Monotheism is the belief in one and only one supreme, all powerful, incomprehensible God. Judaism is known today as a monotheist religion and is seen by some to have started that way. Although some theorist believe that monotheism was started in Israel by the Jews either under Abraham or Moses, the exact time of when true monotheism was created is still a mystery. After critically observing textual evidence, an argument against Judaism being the first and true monotheist religion can be challenged and reasoning behind its arrival can be diversified. Many sects of Judaism believe that “Abram” or Abraham was the bringer of monotheism to the Jews. It is said that, “Abraham had no teacher nor did he have anyone
Although some see Moses as the giver of monotheistic Judaism at the direct hands of God, other scholars, “...point out that before Moses there was evidence of monotheistic belief in the religious reforms of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaton in the fourteenth century BCE. In this light, Moses is seen as following the path of this Egyptian revolutionary figure” (Cohn-Sherbok 14). I find this fact to be very debatable, however if you are observing this claim with Jewish beliefs you could easily point out that Egypt is a huge part of the Jewish story. It is seen in the story of Exodus the struggles Moses faces when trying to lead the Hebrews out of Egyptian exploitation. Because of the intermixing of Hebrew and Egyptian culture, it is not implausible that Moses would adopt a belief system prior to his existence, especially due to his geographical similarity. You can also begin to critically observe what exactly this claim means for Moses as a religious figure. In the case that he actually referenced this from Egypt, it questions whether Moses either added this to what God told him or worse fabricated it all together. Either way you look at it, if the truth was that Moses did reference Egyptian theology than Judaism and possibly other religions could be
Such a view, they insist, conflicts with the Biblical narratives of the tribal and monarchial periods that give evidence of a struggle on the part of some Israelites to remain faithful to God in the face of competing deities. For these writers, monotheism should be understood as the result of a clash of cults and religious concepts. According to this latter view, Israelite religion was not monotheism but monolatry,” which is the recognition of the existence of many gods, but with the consistent worship of only one deity (Cohn-Sherbok 14). I believe that it is easy to understand why true monotheism was not acted out fully at first. The Jews were people of constant exile and their religion constantly was adapted, changed completely, and added on to for a period of time. “Now that they were decimated and threatened with extinction, the priests, sages and scribes of Early Judaism knew that their very survival depended on their commonly shared concept of One Yahweh” (Sanders 206). This lead to the uniting of many different peoples and culture, and by smashing all of these things together, it’s inevitable that some Jews would hold on to their past ways. There is comfort in numbers and by being taught and getting used to polytheism it must have been hard letting go of the Gods and Goddess that consoled you in