Were Sumerian deities the start of the Judaism belief systems?

Question

I have been doing some research and I had someone direct me toward the old Sumerian beliefs. I am amazed at the number of things the Judaism systems took directly from the Sumerian belief systems. In some facets it is as if the only thing they changed was from many gods to just one god.

Answer 1

The Torah, the law of Judaism and core basics of the covenant of Israel..has elements that were unique to the ancient Hebrews and that set them apart from all other surrounding belief systems. Having said that, those people also arose from among peoples for whom polytheism had been a deeply ingrained way of life for perhaps thousands of years before they appeared! Monotheism was only one of the radical ideas of Judaism.

There is debate which arose first..the beliefs of the ancient Habiru ( Hebrews) or the monotheism of Ahkenaten..worship of Aton as "light beyond the sun"..which still had elements of human as representative of God incarnate in it..thus distinguishing it very much from the core of Judaism of an omnipotent INCORPOREAL deity.

At any rate..Judaism did most certainly use the language of the peoples around them to describe the development of their beliefs. The titles given to God in the Torah reflect this also much in the same way our own English useage of the word GOD refers to DEITY..the word EL for God ( signifying great strength and supremacy) and Elohim ( meaning literally supreme deity ) come from the Sumerian deity who was the primary deity of their pantheon..Al or El. the English word God derives from the ancient Visgoth primary deity name of Gott..and Gott in German still means God, but we are not referring to Visgothic Gott worship when we say God..any more than the ancient Hebrews were worshipping the Sumerian deity EL when they used that word for primary deity. By the time of the writing of the Torah..the Hebrew word El meant simply deity..and the texts clearly distinguished when it was in reference to a different deity or other heavenly being with either prefix, suffix or grammar. Baal certainly should come to mind. Beelzebub ( Lord of the Flies) are two idolatrous deities condemned in Tanakh. I believe it is logical that the Genesis story and Noah's story arose from very old oral tradition before the adoption of monotheism. But by the time of the writing of the Torah..they had long eschewed polytheism as representing any legitimacy and it was not ever a part of Judaism.

It is most certain that the first Hebrews had converted from polytheism to monotheism. The story of the Torah itself relates a development of a concept of the Creator of all things..to humanity coming to worship many things as deities..to Abraham discovering that there is one God who is ONE and a covenant establishing his descendents as dedicated for eternity to be a light unto the nations in living a path with their then..tribal deity. The development of awareness and relationship..whereby this God of Abraham, then Isaac, then Yakov ..was embraced as first a tribal..then national ( nation covenant of Yisrael ..quite literally meaning struggle with God ) deity and their role as a light unto the nations in this God of all creation for all humanity.

Judaism took elements of terms and beliefs from Zoroastrian..but not the same forms of borrowing that Christianity later did with adoption of the good/evil demi-god of the underworld duality and the Romanized version of Mithras as a savior deity whose sacrifice atoned and placated the supreme deity.

Zoroastrian beliefs of that form go back to antiquity where spirits of nature were worshipped..Tammuz worship was often related to worship of the ancient tree spirits that were placated in mid winter with decorating trees to entice them to "resurrect" in the spring with new life. Jeremiah chapter 10 condemns this practice..Tammuz was also a deity born of a virgin like Mithras. Jews living amid those beliefs often became apostate to Judaism. Tanakh condemns such behaviors repeatedly..and then along came Christianity who borrowed heavily from such elements of belief and then calls itself " completed" or "fulfilled" Judaism!
It is another form of replacement theology..Judaism replaced beliefs surrounding it..that do appear to have disappeared. Christianity has claimed for 2000 plus years Judaism was done away with but they've got some awfully powerful blinders when saying that while spending millions to convince us to abandon that covenant they claim was done away with and "nailed to the cross".

I'm not here to play my God's better than yours..or any form of proselytizing or one upmanship. I just wanted to note that while Judaism is replacement theology to the beliefs that preceeded it..it is also a belief that is very much alive after 4000 years.

That "only" thing you think was changed..was a pretty big thing..but really not the only. The other major thing was that humans were not god in human form..that limits God's omnipotence. Human sacrifice was also a big no no..and most ( if not all that I've found) religions of the ancient Mid East engaged in some form of human sacrifice to placate a deity. Those are pretty big differences.

Answer 2

To be quite honest, unless another culture came before the Sumerians, the Sumerians are the creators of "religion", they influenced the Egyptians, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and essentially a vast majority of the ancient world. Most of the mythology found in the BIg 3 can be traced back to the Sumerians. The people who follow these religions claim otherwise but we find no evidence for their claims, as we only Judaism, etc, begin to appear after the Sumerians.

The Sumerians are the "creators" of civilization and were a very advanced civilization. We can assume there were peoples, cultures, civilization, etc, in ancient Mesopotamia that came before or influenced the Sumerians (advanced civilizations don't just suddenly pop up), but they were the first ones to isolate what we call "civilization" and bring it to a level not recorded yet in human history. As such, you'd be hard pressed not to find an ancient civilization in Mesopotamia that wasn't influenced by the Sumerians. We see it very clearly with the Egyptians, for example. Because of their vast influence, you will find a lot of their "religious" ideas, practices, etc, in the religions that emerged in ancient times.

Answer 3

Actually, EVERY culture in the Middle East is based on what the Sumerians built from the ground up. Monotheism, however, might have been suggested by the Cult of the Aton in Egypt; and the particular tribal god of the Hebrews (Yahweh) was borrowed from the Kenites, an Arab people living in the Sinai. There are hints of this in Exodus. Moses' father-in-law Jethro was a Kenite sheikh and priest who initiated him into the practice of Yahwism.

Answer 4

The Sumerians were Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz of the Tower of Babel. Nimrod was Noah's great grandson and his name means "Let Us Revolt." Noah's grandson Nimrod knew of the days before the great flood because Noah and Noah's sons spoke of this time. The time before the flood is where much of mythology comes from.

Jesus said, before He returns that it will be as it was in the days of Noah, marrying and giving in marriage, etc. Judaism goes back further than that . . . it goes back to Creation.

Sumerian belief system brought the false gods and goddesses back into the earth after they were destroy ed by the flood. The fallen angels mixed with mankind and there were monsters and giants in that day. Genes were mixed as we are trying to mix today. We have the mouse with the man's ear on it. They had that goat with the man's head and torso on it. They had the head of the jackal on the body of the man. Just read some mythology and shortly you will see advanced biology doing the very same evil. God doesn't let this evil happen. He once destroyed the earth by water and this next time it will be destroyed by fire.

Answer 5

The connections are stronger with the Canaanite traditions, but since the Mesopotamian cultures tended to share their gods, you're on the right track.

Reread the beginning of Genesis. There's plenty of evidence that it was written in a polytheistic culture, with monotheism coming in much later.

Answer 6

Judaism didn't begin with the Sumerians. It began with Creation.

Why wouldn't the area's cultures have similar stories/myths about the creation and the flood and anything else? It doesn't mean that they borrowed from one another--these people didn't develop full-blown cultures in vacuums and then invite visitors in to hear their original stories and myths.

Of course there will be parallels because their ancestors experienced it more or less all together.

Answer 7

Once the Model A Ford was invented, all that was needed was to modify what was there to make the next one, all the way to today's variety of automobiles. Religions work pretty the same way, with a twist: rework the old ones, then claim they copied yours.
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Answer 8

Yes there were a lot of ideas kicking around back then that are common to both. Also Zoroastrianism.

Answer 9

Some say the persians

Answer 10

What kind of things are you talking about? As far as I can remember the two religion are quiet different.