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More likely it looked like the religion from which Judaism emerged, the ancient Semitic religion (polytheist, idol-worshipping). IIRC this is mentioned in the
by betterunix2 8y ago
More likely it looked like the religion from which Judaism emerged, the ancient Semitic religion (polytheist, idol-worshipping). IIRC this is mentioned in the Quran regarding the inhabitants of Mecca.
- mirimir 8y agoThis makes the most sense to me. As others note, there were many polytheistic traditions. Including, as you say, the ancient Semitic religion. As a biologist, I imagine it as a phylogenetic tree. One of the major monotheistic branches of the Semitic religion that's survived is Judaism. With its Christian fork, and the various Protestant forks. The other is Islam, with early forks (e.g., Shabakism and Druze) and later ones (e.g., Bahá'í and Bábism). Two other surviving monotheistic branches of the Semitic religion are Samaritanism and Yazdânism (among Kurds). I gather that they forked about the same time as Judaism, and before Islam. So I'm guessing that it was a similar fork that became Islam. It was rereading Matthew Woodring Stover's Jericho Moon that got me thinking about this. It focuses on an attack by Habiru raiders (aka Hebrews, led by Joshua) on the Semitic Jebusites in Jerusalem (led by Adonizedek). This was several years after the sacking of Jericho. The Habiru worshiped "Yahweh Sabaoth, El Shaddai", and considered him to be the only God (although he did have angels/aspects/avatars/personas, which could be summoned individually by sacrifice). I gather that the Jebusites (and other Canaanites) were also descended from Noah's Exodus, but worshiped other Goddesses and Gods, in addition to El (El Elyron). Which is, in part, why the Hebrews attacked them. Or at least, justified taking their land and stuff.