The Clashing of Polytheism and One G-d In Middle East Affected the World

Nadene  Goldfoot                                                

 Then and Now Bible Map compares a Bible map of Israel, Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia during Old Testament times―side-by-side with a map of modern-day Middle Eastern countries including Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, and Israel.  

 Blue water top left is Mediterranean Sea;  then pink land is Arabian Desert; Green land left is Mesopotamia , yellow land left is (Persia, Media Armenia ) going northward.     

Pink land on right is Saudi Arabia, then above the yellow is pink which is Syria;   Orange land is Iran on right.  Green is Iraq on right.                                                                                                                                      

        Here we see Egypt where Jews lived in Goshen, the Nile Delta area in Pink.  the green Akkadian Empire and the small Sumer land with Ur.  Canaanites along the coast were a mixture of Horites, Hittites and Hebrews dating back to the Hyksos period of 17th century BCE.  Syrians used the name  for themselves.  They were almost obliterated or assimilated by the Israelites by the 13th century BCE; and by the Philistines along the coast in 12th century BCE,  and then the Arameans in the north by the 11th century BCE.  The remnants fought kings David and his son, Solomon and were absorbed.  The name was remembered by the Sidonians and Phoenicians.                                                                                                                                        

  There were twelve principal deities in the Greek pantheon. Foremost was Zeus, the sky god and father of the gods, to whom the ox and the oak tree were sacred; his two brothers, Hades and Poseidon, reigned over the Underworld and the sea, respectively.     

                                                                     

Roman Gods, similar to the Greek ones only Roman names  The most important group of deities were the Deii Consentes, the twelve gods and goddesses of the Roman pantheon: Jupiter and Juno, Neptune and Minerva, Mars and Venus, Apollo and Diana, Vulcan and Vesta, Mercury and Ceres.

In biblical days, all these places believe in polytheism;  many gods. The whole world believed in many gods;  Greeks, then Romans, India with Hindi's, England, you name them.  

Only one pharaoh, Akhenaten, believed in one god. He founded the palace-city of Amarna as a centre for his religious beliefs. Akhenaten's religious reforms were not entirely new, but his exclusion of the cult of other deities marks a break with traditions. The Aten, or sun disc, was worshipped as the main deity.  believe in the sun as a god (one god), and it was a terribly unpopular idea for the people.  

         The Hindu deity concept varies from a personal god as in Yoga school of Hindu philosophy, to thirty-three major deities in the Vedas, to hundreds of deities mentioned in the Puranas of Hinduism. Illustrations of major deities include Vishnu, Lakshmi, Shiva, Parvati, Brahma and Saraswati. Today that has changed.  The majority of Asian Indians practice the Hinduism. The other major regions are Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Christianity and Islam; and a small percentage of population practice Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Baha'I' Faith.                                 

                                           Abraham and Sarah                                       That was 3,971 years ago. Abraham and his family believed in one god.  

     Moses bartering with a new Pharaoh who didn't know him; in releasing the Israelites to Moses.  It is not surprising then that there were over 2,000 deities in the Egyptian pantheon. Some of these deities' names are well known: Isis, Osiris, Horus, Amun, Ra, Hathor, Bastet, Thoth, Anubis, and Ptah while many others less so.   

Abraham and his family believed in one god.  Moses was from his family born in 1391  who brought his people the Mosaic law which in turn was the Jewish law, continuing the belief in one G-d.  That was 3,414 years ago.  They were on the Exodus from Egypt to Canaan at the time.  It continued without Moses being he died just before arriving at Canaan, but Joshua took over leading the people.  Where it took Moses 40 years to lead the 600,000 Israelites and others out of Egypt to Canaan, today one can fly there from Cairo to Jerusalem in 5 hours and 30 minutes.  

Christianity was born out of  Hellenistic Judaism by Jesus who died in 29 CE,, but taken over by Emperor Constantine's mother, Helena. They Hellenized the one G-d belief even more as time went on, adding pieces to it from the Roman experience.  

The government was now the Byzantine Empire centered in Constantinople, Turkey. 

It was introduced to the area of modern Germany by 300 AD, while parts of that area belonged to the Roman Empire, and later, when Franks and other Germanic tribes converted to Christianity from the fifth century (400s)  onwards. The area became fully Christianized by the time of Charlemagne in the eighth and ninth century (700s and 800s).

By 640, again; in 721 and 873 The Jews in the Byzantine Empire were forcibly converted to Christianity.  

The Byzantine Empire was the eastern Roman Empire covering a vast land area till 637 CE which included Palestine.  As they developed they brought on more regulations concerning Jews.;  our religious life.  Emperor Justinian (527-565) continued to pressure against Jews with elaborate anti-Jewish laws in his Code, issued a decree in 533 which interfered with the conduct of the synagogue services.  Heraclius is reported in 614 to have issued an edict ordering the conversion of the Jews.  The practice of Judaism was formally forbidden by successive emperors;  by Leo in 723, by Basil I in 873 and 874; by Romanus Lucapernus in 932-936, etc.  On each occasion Jewish life re-established itself though Jews were treated with contempt.  

Although Christianity in Britain tends to be associated with the arrival of St Augustine's mission to the English from Rome in 597, it had already taken root in Roman Britain in the 4th century.  England expulsed the Jews in 1290 and didn't allow any back until 1655; 365 years of being away.  

Eastern Europe took longer to become Christianized.                               In 966 Mieszko I, the founder of the dynasty, was baptised and introduced Christianity to Poland. Thus, Poland entered into the sphere of Christian and Latin traditions in about 970 CE, then. The Piasts united the lands that covered roughly the present territory of Poland. During the following centuries, the Polish State expanded eastwards.  Vladimir decided to adopt Christianity - the state religion of Byzantium - one of the mightiest states in Europe and Asia of that time. Historians consider 988 CE as the year of Christianity adoption in Russia.     The Christianization of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Lietuvos krikštas) occurred in 1387, initiated by King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Jogaila and his cousin Vytautas the Great. It signified the official adoption of Christianity by Lithuania, the last pagan country in Europe.  By 1495 Jews were expelled from Lithuania.  

Remember it was in 1492 that Columbus said the ocean blue.  180,000 Jews were expulsed from Spain.  50,000  were converted to Christianity to be able to remain in Spain, known as conversos. On March 31, 1492, shortly after the end of the Granada War, the Catholic Monarchs signed the decree of expulsion of the Jews in Granada, which was sent to all the cities, towns and lordships of their kingdoms with strict orders to not read it or make it public until May 1. The Granada War (Spanish: Guerra de Granada) was a series of military campaigns between 1482 and 1492 during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, against the Nasrid dynasty's Emirate of Granada.  The Nasrid dynasty was an Arab dynasty that ruled the Emirate of Granada from 1232 to 1492. It was the last Muslim dynasty in the Iberian Peninsula.

Islam didn't take place with Abraham's other line of Ishmael, son of Hagar, Sarah's  Egyptian handmaid until about 610 CE when Mohammad was 40. This happened 1,413 years ago.  It was Mohammad (570-632 CE)  from Medina, Saudi Arabia, who heard the Jewish history being orated by Jews and Christians he had passed by and listened to or during the Meccan trade caravans he was on.  Mohammad became a prophet, and was a general leading his troops as well, so he was already a leader. Being he couldn't read or write, he had scribes take his dictation down and the Koran was written.  Mohammad thought the Jews would convert to his new concept of religion, but they wouldn't, so he was confused and angry.  Suddenly the Koran had phrases added that were against Jews. 

The Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) conducts flight operations with an unmanned aerial vehicle in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations, Oct. 23. Components of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group and 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) are deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to help ensure maritime security and stability in the Middle East region. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Moises Sandoval

Since the 30th of October 2023, U.S. troops have been attacked by Iranian-backed militias at least 23 times in less than two weeks, Pentagon officials said Oct. 30, providing the most comprehensive account of the American military’s recent confrontation with Tehran’s proxies in Iraq and Syria. At least 14 of these rocket and one-way drone attacks have occurred in Iraq, while another nine were carried out in Syria, the officials said.  Several of the militia attacks took place after the U.S. launched airstrikes against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the groups it backs in eastern Syria on Oct. 26 in an effort to deter further hostilities. “Iran’s strategic objective has not changed,” a senior defense official told reporters. “Iran’s objective for a long time has been to force a withdrawal of the U.S. military from the region. What I would observe is that we’re still there.”  U.S. troops are in Iraq and Syria to advise and mentor local partners who are working to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group. Some 2,500 U.S. troops are in Iraq working with Iraqi forces, while 900 troops are in Syria.   

Resource:

https://www.amazon.com/Middle-East-Then-Now-Testament/dp/9901980429  map picture