Posted by:
Tevai
(
)
Date: April 25, 2012 03:14PM
I don't think "stole" is the right characterization for what went on in the ancient world. The more we are finding out from archaeology, linguistics, scientific analysis of things like trees and grains, etc. the more we are coming to understand that there was a tremendous inter-cultural "conversation" and interchange going on in the ancient world...by centuries, and now known to be millennia, before historians of the 19th and 20th centuries ever anticipated or thought, in their times, was possible.
There was a lot of very ancient cultural "fusion" going on: cultures taking this and that from other cultures they became aware of or which began making an impact (in trade, war, etc.) on the "initial" culture.
And never, ever underestimate the influence of ancient women when it comes to the growth and change of ancient religion. All that "pillaging and raping" meant that "foreign" women were regularly inducted into tribes and groups foreign to THEM, and when they got pregnant (as they usually did), the children they gave birth to were raised with the "kitchen gods" of their mothers as much as they were by the temple-or-whatever gods of their fathers. (This is the fundamental reason why Judaism is passed down through the maternal line: in ancient times it was the mother who generally, TRULY, decided the REAL religious upbringing of her children.)
We now know that ancient peoples, in most areas, were being strongly influenced by peoples far, far away from them geographically...but were on the same trade routes, or "philosophy" routes, or warpaths.
My own personal exception to all of the above is Islam. It has always been my impression (though I am definitely mostly ignorant in this area) that Mohammed did, in fact, "steal" the parts of Judaism he chose as a basis for Islam, then declared everyone not following his dicta (for example: the Jews he "stole" from) infidels. Mohammed's written understanding of Judaism, which he stated he was, in effect, "borrowing" from, is SO skewed that it indicates not only (to me) outright theft, but conscious malice as well.
Mohammed aside, however, I think the pretty much global process was not "stealing," but FUSING. (Syncretizing.)
And the concept of Elohim, regardless of its probable Canaanite origin, had (so far as we know now), it's ACTUAL origin (we think) in the pre-Vedic Hindu concepts which led to the concept of Brahaman (the "one" god; the god who was not only god of all, but of what we would now call the "universe" as we know it), and of Nirguna Brahman ("the Godhead behind God," it has been called by Meister Eckhart: Absolute Reality itself; pure self-existent being, all of which is beyond the ability of our human minds to comprehend).
These concepts, which are increasingly being discovered and proven (from current archaeology, etc.) to be thousands and then even more thousands of years more ancient on this planet than we have ever before thought possible, eventually--so far as we can figure out now--"arrived" as human understanding(s) at what we now call the Middle East...and this led to the Canaanites...which contemporaneously or consecutively, led to the Hebrew concepts of Elohim (the god of "our" universe, because the Hebrews--unlike the ancient Hindus--could not yet consciously conceive of anything BEYOND our particular universe).
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2012 03:18PM by tevai.