What did people worship before Muslims?

Answer 1

The Bible tells us that the northern kingdom, Israel, was at all times polytheistic. The biblical references to the kings of Israel show every one of them as polytheistic in their beliefs. Biblical references that tell us about popular religion in Israel - what the people themselves believed - show that the nation was polytheistic from its inception until its destruction by the Assyrians. The southern kingdom, Judah, was polytheistic until the reign of Hezekia, who made a failed attempt to impose monotheism in the 7th century BCE. Arguably, if a recognisable forerunner of Judaism existed before this time, it was only a small sect, constantly at odds with the powerful kings of Judah. Hezekia's son, Manasseh, allowed polytheism to flourish once again, evidence that monotheism had not taken root among the ordinary people. It was only in the time of King Josiah, almost a century later, that the beginnings of what we would call Judaism really became the state religion of Judah. Yahweh, the Judaic God, was the supreme God of Judah. But there were lesser gods. There are frequent references to Asherah and to her groves, throughout the Bible. The Second Book of Kings (23:5) tells us that priests at Jerusalem burnt incense to the sun and the moon and to the planets and to all the host of heaven. Since Asherah was the Hebrew Venus, she would probably have been the goddess of fertility. Archaeologists have found two separate engravings dedicated to "Yahweh and his Asherah", that show Asherah to have been worshipped as the consort of Yahweh. Archaeologists have also found numerous small carved pregnant female statues, that they believe represented Asherah. The Bible itself tells us of other gods the Hebrew people worshipped, including the moon god, sun god and many of the same gods as their neighbours worshipped. There was no heaven or hell - souls of the dead simply went to a place of rest, sheol, regardless of the life that had been led. There was no Satan nor angels. The two supernatural men who met Lot in Sodom were elohim - gods.

=== === Summary: The religion of Israel was always monotheistic and distinct from the religions of the surrounding peoples. Polytheistic idolatry was always seen as an aberration and departure from the true religion of Israel. Literary theories do not adequately account for the evidence both internal to and external to the Jewish scriptures and developed without due recognition of archaeological evidence and imposed invalid assumptions on the religion of Israel.

During the 19th Century a particular view prevailed in scholarly circles which basically applied evolutionary principles to the field of religion, in this case, the religion of Israel. Biblical archaeologist G E Wright, PhD explained it this way: "The Graf-Wellhausen reconstruction of the history of Israel's religion was, in effect, as assertion that within the pages of the Old Testament we have a perfect example of the evolution of religion from animism in patriarchal times through henotheism to montheism. The last was first achieved in pure form during the sixth and fifth centuries. The patriarchs worshipped the spirits in trees, stones springs, mountains etc. The God of pre-prophetic Israel was a tribal deity, limited in his power to the land of Palestine. Under the influence of Baalism, he even became a fertility god and sufficiently tolerant to allow the early religion of Israel to be distinguished from that of Canaan. It was the prophets who were the true innovators and who produced most, if not all, of that which was truly distinctive in Israel, the grand culmination coming with the universalism of II Isaiah. Thus we have animism, or polydemonism, a limited tribal deity, implicit ethical monotheism, and finally explicit and universal monotheism." Wright, George Ernest "The present state of Biblical Archaeology " in The Study of the Bible Today and Tomorrow ed by Harold R Willoughby p89-90. The assumptions of the documentary hypothesis were that the religion of Israel must be understood to follow an evolutionary paradigm in its development. This included their belief that the supernatural is impossible and that Israel's religion must be explained in purely naturalistic terms. In this regard J E Orr stated: "...if, on impartial consideration, it can be shown that the religion of Israel admits of explanation on purely natural principles, then the historian will be justified in his verdict that it stands in this respect on the same footing as other religions. If, on the other hand , fair investigation brings out a different result, - if it demonstrates that this religion has features which place it in a different category from all others, and compel us to postulate for it a different and higher origin, - then the fact must be frankly recognized as part of the scientific result, and the nature and extent of this higher element must be made the subject of inquiry. It will not do to override the facts - if facts they are- by a priori dogmatic assumptions on the one side any more than on the other." Orr, James. The Problem of the Old Testament, New York:Charles Scribner's Sons, 1917.

p14 In this work Orr goes on to point out, as have many since, that the documentary hypothesis started with certain assumptions which they set out to prove. Another of these was that such a lofty view of God was not possible for Israel in the time of Moses since they had not reached that stage in the development (evolution) of their religion. Speaking of the creation of the world, Wellhausen himself stated "in a youthful people such a theological abstraction is unheard of and so with the Hebrew we find both the word and the notion only coming into use after the Babylonian exile." Wellhausen,J . Prolegomena to the History of Israel. Trans. by Black and Menzies. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black,1885. Originally published in 1878 under the title History of Israel. One of the problems with this approach, as quite a number of scholars have noted is that it involves circular reasoning. They found what they already believed was so. Orr as have many after him, is speaking of the necessity of keeping an open mind.

Another major flaw in treating the religion of Israel this way was that it ignored all of the many archaeological discoveries that were beginning to be made which explicitly contradicted the documentary theory. One of these is noted by Kathleen Kenyon during her excavations at Jericho (1952-58) noted the absence of a temple after the destruction level at which she believed belonged to a new people who could have been the Israelites, thus pointing to centralized worship. Another excavation at Hazor which studied the relevant destruction layer found deliberate desecration of cultic objects, indicative of Israelite monotheism.

Scholars have noted the vast difference between the religion of Israel, apostacy notwithstanding, and that of the surrounding Canaanite peoples. Wright notes that "Biblical Hebrew had no word for goddess. Equally phenomenal is the preservation of God's mystery and holiness by the prohibition of images, either of God himself or of any other spiritual being in heaven or on earth, a prohibition preserved in the oldest law which the Old Testament contains." Wright, The Old Testament Against Its Environment. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1950. Central to this whole question is the time when Judaism began. All would acknowledge that the Hebrew Bible, specifically the Torah forms the basis of Judaism. According to the documentary view this was written much later than Moses and not at all by him and thus the specific claims made by the Bible itself are thus viewed as fictions. Such a view is contrary to the evidence, as well as attacking the credibility of the document itself.

Since the actual evidence both internal to the scriptures and external to them (chiefly archaeological) points clearly to Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, we must look prior to the time of Moses to examine what the people worshiped before then. Right from the beginning scholars have noted the distinguishing mark of Israelite religion as that of monotheism. Merrill Unger notes that even the patriarchs who were in the middle of pagan polytheism, and occultic divination were 'in danger of corruption. The teraphim of Rachel (Gen.31:19), the 'strange gods' which Jacob ordered put away from his household (Gen. 35:2) and hid under an oak in Shechem (v.4), are indicative of contamination. However the patriarchs were remarkably free from the divinatory methods of surrounding pagan peoples.' Unger, Merrill F. Archaeology and the Old Testament. Grand Rapids:Zondervan Publishing co. 1954. page 127

Regarding the earliest stages of the religion of Israel Wright notes: "..even in its earliest and basic forms is so utterly different from that of the contemporary polytheisms that one simply cannot explain it fully by evolutionary or environmental categories."

Wright G E, op. cit., page 7. Similarly W F Albright points out that 'every fresh publication of Canaanite mythological texts makes the gulf between the religions of Canaan and of Israel increasingly clear.' Albright, W F. "Recent Progress in North Canaanite Research," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. No. 70, April 1938, 24.

As part of the documentary development of the religion of Israel the existence of idols is discussed as proof of the progression. Evidence is found which supports the theory, even though another explanation would be logically just as valid and would also square with the Biblical record and the external evidence.

No-one disputes the existence of both idolatry and polytheism, and even the existence of a mixture of these with the pure worship of Yahweh. There was, throughout the Old Testament history of Israel a constant conflict between true and false religion, with the latter frequently in the ascendancy.

It is quite another thing to draw the conclusion that the true religion of Israel was therefore polytheism and idolatry when in actual fact these are presented as a departure from the true religion of Israel. Regarding the quote above:"Archaeologists have found two separate engravings that show Asherah to have been worshipped as the consort of Yahweh."

According to Ungers Bible Dictionary Asherah was not the consort of Yahweh but of Baal. (page 484)

In addition to this, it is quite incorrect from a Hebrew grammatical viewpoint to change asherah to Asherah. "The technical question here is this: Can a proper noun be determined? According to the authorities on biblical grammar and the formalities of Biblical Hebrew, the answer is no. The initial "A" in the word cannot be capitalized, and the word must therefore be a common noun. In other words, asherah can't be Asherah. It has to be something else. There are several candidates: One is a wooden pole; another is a sacred grove; and a third is a holy place at which you can invoke the deity, or pronounce a blessing. " ["Yahweh of Samaria and His Asherah", by David Noel Freedman, Biblical Archaeologist (vol 50).]

Apparently Freedman's position is in favor of asherah referring to a consort for Yahweh but he acknowledges the necessary constraints of Hebrew grammar.However, many writers assume this indirect reference to be 'as good as' a directreference (why, they never say…), and hence ascribe 'consort-status' to Asherah. But it should be noted that there is still quite a leap from 'yahweh and his asherah' to 'yahweh and his CONSORT ashera. (source,Glenn Miller: See Link)

In any case, even if this were to be indicating that someone had (capital A) Asherah as a consort to Yahweh, contrary to the true religion, this would not prove that the true religion of Israel was officially polytheism. Given the history of Israel, it would be surprising indeed if no idolatrous objects were found, but it is the conclusions drawn from this that are in question.

The fact that idolatry is so frequently mentioned in the Old Testament is an indication both of the fact that it happened but even more importantly of the fact that it was regarded as an utter abomination in God's sight - the goddess Asherah apparently particularly delighting in destroying humans, as highlighted in the Baal epic. The context in which it was so frequently mentioned is also to show the need for God's judgment first upon the Northern kingdom but then finally upon Judah. Thus Israel's idolatry was not the norm, even though undoubtedly widely practiced, but was an aberration from the true monotheistic religion of Israel. This is how it is repeatedly described, the Kings of the Northern Kingdom, beginning from Jeroboam I 'caused Israel to sin'. This is mentioned no less than thirteen times. This poses another problem for the view that Israel's monotheism only developed later, since the United Kingdom of Israel under Solomon clearly had a temple with centralized worship.

One way that this problem is resolved is either to ignore it altogether, or to suggest as some do that Solomon never existed. A reason that this idea has gained a degree of traction among archaeologists is that they find no evidence for Solomon in a particular period of the history of Israel. The reason for this is relatively simple. The wrong time period is being examined and so one would not expect to find any evidence for Solomon, if the Biblical record were true.

Answer 2

Well, i think it was mainly idol worship. The prophets kept revealing the message of God but it was ignored.







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Answer 3

One thing that researchers agree upon is that mankind has always believed in a Higher Power. Archaeology has shown that no ancient society ever existed that did not believe in the supernatural. (See: Can you show me that God exists?)According to Jewish tradition (Rashi commentary, Genesis 4:26), monotheism is more ancient than polytheism. Maimonides describes the process by which polytheism began: "A couple of centuries after the Creation, mankind made a great mistake. They said that since God had created the stars and spheres and placed them on high, accordingly it is fitting for people to praise and honor them. They perceived this to be the will of God, that people should exalt and honor the stars. They began to praise them and prostrate themselves before them, because they reckoned this would be indirectly honoring God too."

In secular scholarship as well, and based upon a massive worldwide study of the most ancient inscriptions and the earliest levels of civilization, Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt (in his twelve-volume Der Ursprung Der Gottesidee) concluded that the original belief was monotheistic (see footnote 1, below). It was a simple belief in the Creator (Dyeus Pater; Sky-Father) with no imagery of any kind. It gave way relatively quickly to polytheism and idolatry, but its traces could still be seen by the careful researcher, just as (for example) Proto-Indo European has left indelible marks within the later languages. Other traditions also are traceable worldwide, such as the religious significance of the number seven, and the immortality of the soul.

Idolatry and immorality came before Judaism but after the original brief monotheism, as the spiritual level of the ancient nations descended and they succumbed to their desires (Talmud, Sanhedrin 63). Even then, the subsequent idolatry retained traces of the original belief.
Abraham (who founded Judaism) came at a time when the (relatively) new idolatry had completely supplanted peoples' awareness of One God. Being surrounded by idolaters, he discovered the truth through his own efforts; but in effect he was actually reinstating the original belief. His efforts were corroborated later, when the Torah was given at Sinai. (See: Biography of Abraham and Moses)
This explains why Adam, and a few others, were considered something akin to Torah-sages. Though they came before Judaism, they had the original beliefs and practices which were later revived in the Torah-tradition.

Footnote:

1) Albright, "From the Stone Age," p.170; and J.A. Wilson, "The Culture of ancient Egypt," p.129. Also Baron, "A Social and Religious History," vol. I, p.44 and 311. Also James Meek, "Hebrew Origins," p.188, quoting Langdon, Lagrange and John Ross. Also Martin Nilsson, Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaften, 2nd ed., p.61, 141, 220 and 394.

See also:

Were the Israelites monotheistic?

Answer 4

The Bible tells us that the northern kingdom, Israel, was at all times polytheistic. The biblical references to the kings of Israel show every one of them as polytheistic in their beliefs. Biblical references that tell us about popular religion in Israel - what the people themselves believed - show that the nation was polytheistic from its inception until its destruction by the Assyrians.The southern kingdom, Judah, was polytheistic until the reign of Hezekia, who made a failed attempt to impose monotheism in the 7th century BCE. Arguably, if a recognisable forerunner of Judaism existed before this time, it was only a small sect, constantly at odds with the powerful kings of Judah. Hezekia's son, Manasseh, allowed polytheism to flourish once again, evidence that monotheism had not taken root among the ordinary people. It was only in the time of King Josiah, almost a century later, that the beginnings of what we would call Judaism really became the state religion of Judah. Yahweh, the God of modern Judaism, was the supreme God of Judah. But there were lesser gods.
There are frequent references to Asherah and to her groves, throughout the Bible. The Second Book of Kings (23:5) tells us that priests at Jerusalem burnt incense to the sun and the moon and to the planets and to all the host of heaven. Since Asherah was the Hebrew Venus, she would probably have been the goddess of fertility. Archaeologists have found two separate engravings that show Asherah to have been worshipped as the consort of Yahweh. Archaeologists have also found numerous small carved pregnant female statues, that they believe represented Asherah.

The Bible itself tells us of other gods the Hebrew people worshipped, including the moon god, sun god and many of the same gods as their neighbours worshipped.
There was no heaven or hell - souls of the dead simply went to a place of rest, sheol, regardless of the life that had been led. There was no Satan nor angels. The two supernatural men who met Lot in Sodom were elohim - gods.

Answer 5

* Most were adherents (followers) of Judaism. * Some had no religion. * Some were converts to Christianity.

Answer 6

In Islam, it is said that people used to worship idols; especially throughout Egypt. Then when Prophet Yusuf (PBUH) came, he converted everyone to Islam.