fanucon

At what point did the Monotheistic religion that Abraham proficed become the Henotheistic religion of today?

mg01

Can you clarify your question? Are you asking at what point did modern historical methods begin to challenge the Abrahamic monotheistic idea, or are your asking what or where from the Bible itself are these challenges derived?

fanucon

what caused the shift?

Abraham started the Monotheistic religion.

within several chapters it was including Satan and Angels etc.

i discount adam and eve, i make the assumption that it was designed Post Abraham time period as a means of explaining to the people where did We come from, How did God create us

mg01

The academic perspective is that the religious devotion to YHWH which is attributed to Abraham did not begin to approach any sense of being monothesitic until the 5th century after the Babylonian exile.

Writings from the 7th and 6th century during the the time of Hezakiah and Josiah both reflect a henotheist perspective where YHWH, the Elohim of Israel is simply the greatest of all Elohim.

The same henothisitic perspective seen regarding the tales of Moses which also recognizes the existance of other deities but claims YHWH is superior a la first commandment.

All the tales of Genesis fall into the same category which you place the tale of Adam and Eve, etiological tales that serve as both origin stories and to unite disparate peoples under one heritage and tradition.

The presence of Satan in Genesis is a later projection by Christians. The Hebrew authors had no equilivient concept. There is an underworld, Sheol, which is the equilivent of Greek Hades, but there is no "diety of the dead" delivering punishment, a later idea inherited from Persia manifest in later apocalyptic writings.

The Hebrew word translated in English as "angels" is "mal'ach", which simply "messenger". It is a reference to lesser deities that served the will of the chief deities. "Messengers" of this sort appear in Genesis even to Abraham as in the story of Hagar and with the story of Sodom of Gamorah.

fanucon

when i search Christianity it always states its a Monotheistic religion.

all the churches ive belonged to made the statements aiming that its a monotheistic religion.

is Monotheism and Henotheism that commonly misinterpreted?

Should someone correct wikipedia?

mg01

By their own traditions, Orthodox Jews and fundamentalist Christians maintain the belief that the relgion they subscribe to was monthesitic from the outset. After all, the Bible says so. However the fact that even the most conservative scholars date the earliest parts of the text (embedded poetry) to the 12th century, which is at least 600 years after the time of Abraham by the Biblical chronology itself, plus the fact that the text itself demonstrates a belief that other Gods existed, the monotheism of Abraham is not widely accepted outside of the religious traditions which make the claim.

Another thing to keep in mind is these are terms that were not used before the 1700's. If you could ask Abraham was he a monotheist or a henotheist he wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about.

The wikipedia statement reflects what is generally accepted by the religious traditions themselves. I would be surprised to see that some discussion of the devemopment of monotheisim were not present.

Everything pertaining to religious matters should be qualified as to the source. The idea of reincarnation for instance can't be discussed as fact. It is a belief held by Hindus. "According to Hindu tradition, one is reincarnated after death." The same is true for claims based on the Bible. "According to the Bible, Abraham founded the montheistic religion devoted to YHWH." In either case, those who subscribe to the tradition will be more likely to accept the ideas that those who do not.

The whole concept is circular, western belief in God is derived from the Bible and the authority of the Bible is derived from God.

lpetrich

And there are serious questions about whether there was a historical Abraham, whether he was as historical as the various other legendary ancestors that many people have believed in.

Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher in The Bible Unearthed have discussed the question of the possible historicity of the stories of the patriarchs and their matriarchs, discussing the results of techniques like Sitz im Leben ("Situation in Life"), dating some writing by checking on the presence or absence of what it describes.

Not only are some of the customs described in the patriarch stories rather common ones in the Middle East over the centuries, those stories have some anachronisms. Perhaps the most notable one is the presence of camels, which became a common beast of burden in the Middle East only in the 1st millennium BCE. However, from where they appear in the Bible, the patriarch stories would be in the early 2nd millennium BCE.

This is like how the Homeric epics contain some memories of Mycenaean Greece, like boar's-tusk helmets and bronze armor, and some confused half-memories, like riding chariots into battle and getting out of them to fight. Chariots were often used for the actual fighting; and some chariots were even equipped with scythes sticking out of the sides. So one concludes that chariot warfare went out of style in the Greek Dark Age, perhaps from leaders back then being too poor to afford chariot armies.

Roger Pearse

Is this someone's homework?

fanucon

no, just that noones been able to answer it.

everyone just gives me a blank stare

Toto

Do you understand why the question doesn't make a lot of sense? You are assuming that there was a change from monotheism to henotheism, while most historians assume that there was a change from polytheism to henotheism to monotheism, with the monotheists projecting their ideas back onto Abraham.