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Question: Monotheism: Early Hebrews, Atenism, and Zoroastrianism!?
Were the religion of the early Hebrews, Akhenaten’s religion (Atenism) and Zoroastrianism all forms of monotheism!? How are they similar and how are they different!? Who developed monotheism first!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
Atenism was first!. Its a toss up as to if Hebrew religion came next or Zoroastrianism because there is debate as to when Zarathushtra (the founder lived)!. Some say 1000 BC so it might be older than the Hebrew faith!.

Atenism wasn't around long enough (about 20 years) to really be forced on the other two!. Its ideals might have influenced them, but the Egyptian reactionaries which overthrew it did a good job of stamping out any sign of it!.

There is some debate among scholars as to if Zoroastrianism is monotheistic or not!. The modern followers of the faith would certainly claim it is!.

There is a single supreme God, Ahura Mazda!. He is the alpha and the omega!. He has always been and will always be!. The descriptions of the nature of Ahura Mazda is essentially same as Yahweh (God in English, Allah in Arabic)!. Your duty as creations of the one true God is to do good works!. Life is a struggle between good and evil!. At the end of time, Ahura Mazda will gather all the good who have ever lived to his side and destroy the wicked!. Sound familiar doesn't it!.

There is good reason to believe that Zoroastrianism influenced the Hebrew traditions!. Certainly, the ancient Persians (Iranians) who adopted Zoroastrianism as their state religion regarded the Hebrews as kindred spirits!.

When the first Persian King Emperor, Cyrus the Great, conquered Babylon, he did two things!. First, he issued the first deceleration of religious freedom in the world basically saying he everyone was free to worship as their conscious dictated!. It can still be seen in the British museum in London!.

The second was to recognize that the Hebrews where worshipers of the one true God!. Most of Israel had been conquered, and the Hebrew population had been to Babylon as slaves !. He gave them back their homeland which is what is today Israel and occupied territories!. In fact, when President Harry Truman supported the establishment of Israel in 1948, he would keep saying "I am Cyrus"!.

Shiite Muslims in Iran traditionally regard Zarathushtra as a holy prophet of Allah along with Moses, Jesus, and Mohamed!. Zoroastrians are given a reserved seat in the Iranian parliament along with Christians and Jews so all sects of Allah have representation!.

However, many western scholars, specially Roman Catholics, do not regard Zoroastrianism as monotheistic!. This is really a matter of semantics!.

In Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda has a great enemy called Angra Mainyu!. He is a hideous demon with horns!. He also sounds familiar doesn't he!. Angra Mainyu's purpose is to seduce mankind into doing acts of evil!. The idea is that good must be a choice made of free will!. Ahura Mazda created Angra Mainyu so that people could choose to be good!.

However, many western scholars interpret Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu as being equals!. Therefore, the religion is a two god polytheistic religion!. Practitioners disagree!. Ahura Mazda created Angra Mainyu just as God created Lucifer in the Christian texts!. also, Ahura Mazda will eventually destroy Angra Mainyu and all who follow him on judgment day!. This sets the idea of a single supreme God!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Hi, while most of the above answers have official support i!.e!. are recognized as true by most occidental theories and books probably the first monotheistic religions were developed and influenced by the oldest and first monotheistic religions which stated that the creator of the universe and everything was a female mother figure which symbolized mother earth i!.e!. Mother Earth as the Mother who gave birth to the universe!. This could be arguable however, since the followers o the mother goddess were tolerant enough not to forbid or war against other Gods and/or forbid them, and although the evidence of the existence of cults dedicated exclusively to the mother goddess appear thousands of year before Atenism, Zoroastrianism, or Judaism, most precisely around 30!.000 to 40!.000 years or more before them according to the precision of different carbon dating procedures and scholar thesis, images of the Mother Goddess are to be found in Paleolithic sites!. For example the original Venus of Willendorf found on 1908, is one of the earliest representations of Paleolithic religion!. It is a statue made out of limestone that fits in the palm of a hand!. It !. represents Mother Earth and is a symbol of fertility, creation and continuation of life!. The Venus of Willendorf is one of the earliest conceptions and representations of the Mother Goddess!. Due to the late date of discovery modern scientists named it Venus in homage to the Greek goddess Venus, although it is ignored what was the named given to it by its followers!. Latter representations of Mother earth and a mother goddess, about which there is further information are found all around the Mediterranean basin and many other places around the world most of which predate any claims that might be made by Akhenaten′s, Zoroaster or Hebrew followers therefore there are representations found in different cultures of the mother goddess which do proof to certain degree the parallel existence of such belief are quite prior to the earliest diffusionist theories, based upon the idea that some notion, or idea was born first at some place which can be identified, and spread, hence the word difussionism to other, places and cultures!. What would be a better proof of the existence of something that finding that that thing existed in many different places at the same time, and hence was considered true by many different peoples and cultures even though the names and representation styles might vary slightly!? Hence representations of the Mother Goddess have been found which were built around 50!.000 years at least or so before even Akhenaten was born!.!.!.!. this representations, vestiges, proofs or whatever you might call it have been found all around the world even though under different names some of these found in occidental cultures where Gea, Gaia, Rhea, Cybele, Hecate, Isis, Aphrodite, Demeter , Freyja, Frigg, Hathor, Ishtar, Isis, Jord, and other found in non-occidental cultures as Devi, Durga, Kamakhya, Kali, Laxmi, Mut, Nerthus, Ops, Tawaret, Yashoda etc (see how when it is in their interest scholars include regions of the orient, Africa, Asia or whatever as occidental) and many other names found in original American, Asian, African native archeological sites!.

Yet the male predominant cultures which replaced early matriarchal cultures, mainly Hebrew (who also had a goddess before Moses forbid such things), Greek and after latter Christian based cultures ignored these reality and keep on discussing about monotheism without even considering that the first historical proofs of any god or religious professions are dedicated to these first original Mother Goddess!. They fight about who copied who when they all were just copying others who might have not had the means to pass on their cult or whose cults have not been found or properly understood yet!.!.!. so at least in my opinion the first monotheist religions were based on the Mother Goddess since what is more logical than to explain the conception and creation of what is not known by inducting it from what is known i!.e!. the mother and woman as creator of life!? However, no matter whatever I say, officially, the occidental truth or occidental version that is taught at schools and universities, which is based on a ethnocentric prejudice whereby for example the people of Australia live upside down and Australia is the bottom etc, let it be known that I have nothing for or against such a beautiful country as Australia, but despite being occidental myself I am quite bored by the stupidity, shortsightedness and prejudice of occidental Anglo-Saxon bigotry as real truth, will keep discussing about the origin of monotheism in the same terms and completely ignore any proof of the contrary no matter how real and hard evidence is and even if it hit them in the head!.

Hope not to irate any other sages with my humble opinion but hey what can I say!. The proofs exist and they are there for everyone to see!. Hope it helps
Tao
Your Answer:
Hi, while most of the above answers have official support i!.e!. are recognized as true by most occidental theories and books probably the first monotheistic religions were developed and influenced by the oldest and first monotheistic religions which stated that the creator of the universe and everything was a female mother figure which symbolized mother earth i!.e!. Mother Earth as the Mother who gave birth to the universe!. This could be arguable however, since the followers o the mother goddess were tolerant enough not to forbid or war against other Gods and/or forbid them, and although the evidence of the existence of cults dedicated exclusively to the mother goddess appear thousands of year before Atenism, Zoroastrianism, or Judaism, most precisely around 30!.000 to 40!.000 years or more before them according to the precision of different carbon dating procedures and scholar thesis, images of the Mother Goddess are to be found in Paleolithic sites!. For example the original Venus of Willendorf found on 1908, is one of the earliest representations of Paleolithic religion!. It is a statue made out of limestone that fits in the palm of a hand!. It !. represents Mother Earth and is a symbol of fertility, creation and continuation of life!. The Venus of Willendorf is one of the earliest conceptions and representations of the Mother Goddess!. Due to the late date of discovery modern scientists named it Venus in homage to the Greek goddess Venus, although it is ignored what was the named given to it by its followers!. Latter representations of Mother earth and a mother goddess, about which there is further information are found all around the Mediterranean basin and many other places around the world most of which predate any claims that might be made by Akhenaten′s, Zoroaster or Hebrew followers therefore there are representations found in different cultures of the mother goddess which do proof to certain degree the parallel existence of such belief are quite prior to the earliest diffusionist theories, based upon the idea that some notion, or idea was born first at some place which can be identified, and spread, hence the word difussionism to other, places and cultures!. What would be a better proof of the existence of something that finding that that thing existed in many different places at the same time, and hence was considered true by many different peoples and cultures even though the names and representation styles might vary slightly!? Hence representations of the Mother Goddess have been found which were built around 50!.000 years at least or so before even Akhenaten was born!.!.!.!. this representations, vestiges, proofs or whatever you might call it have been found all around the world even though under different names some of these found in occidental cultures where Gea, Gaia, Rhea, Cybele, Hecate, Isis, Aphrodite, Demeter , Freyja, Frigg, Hathor, Ishtar, Isis, Jord, and other found in non-occidental cultures as Devi, Durga, Kamakhya, Kali, Laxmi, Mut, Nerthus, Ops, Tawaret, Yashoda etc (see how when it is in their interest scholars include regions of the orient, Africa, Asia or whatever as occidental) and many other names found in original American, Asian, African native archeological sites!.

Yet the male predominant cultures which replaced early matriarchal cultures, mainly Hebrew (who also had a goddess before Moses forbid such things), Greek and after latter Christian based cultures ignored these reality and keep on discussing about monotheism without even considering that the first historical proofs of any god or religious professions are dedicated to these first original Mother Goddess!. They fight about who copied who when they all were just copying others who might have not had the means to pass on their cult or whose cults have not been found or properly understood yet!.!.!. so at least in my opinion the first monotheist religions were based on the Mother Goddess since what is more logical than to explain the conception and creation of what is not known by inducting it from what is known i!.e!. the mother and woman as creator of life!? However, no matter whatever I say, officially, the occidental truth or occidental version that is taught at schools and universities, which is based on a ethnocentric prejudice whereby for example the people of Australia live upside down and Australia is the bottom etc, let it be known that I have nothing for or against such a beautiful country as Australia, but despite being occidental myself I am quite bored by the stupidity, shortsightedness and prejudice of occidental Anglo-Saxon bigotry as real truth, will keep discussing about the origin of monotheism in the same terms and completely ignore any proof of the contrary no matter how real and hard evidence is and even if it hit them in the head!.

Hope not to irate any other sages with my humble opinion but hey what can I say!. The proofs are there for everyone to see!. Hope it helps
Tao

find more although not much more:
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Aknehton was the first monotheist, but doubt if he 'forced' it on Jews - He obviously couldn't force it on ANYONE, since he was dethroned by powerful priests in his kingdom, and his religion was rebuked!.

More accurately, Jews were influenced by him!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Akhenaten was first and the jews under Moses copied him
Until he forced the jews to accept his sky god they worshipped other things like gold statues etc!. Www@QuestionHome@Com