The Comparison Of Egyptian, Hebrew, And Indian Religions

The Comparison of Egyptian, Hebrew, and Indian Religions
Religion has played a vital role in developing civilizations. There are many reasons as to why religion has played such a significant role in people’s lives. Religion emerged as a way to explain the universe and our purpose as human beings. The beginning of religion is very similar, it starts as a polytheistic belief, meaning the civilizations worshipped many gods. The religions often had many similar ceremonies and rituals to honor their gods. The religions started becoming more complex as time went on. The religions helped unite the civilizations. Religions also often correlated with the government of the civilizations. The religions of the Ancient civilizations were very similar. I

believe that religion is vital to a good civilization because it defines the culture of the civilization, leads to new discoveries, unites the civilization, and provides the answers the people are searching for.

I will prove the importance of religion through the comparison of the Egyptian, Hebrew, and Indian religions.
The Egyptians were one of the first known civilizations. “Religion played a very influential role in the life of the Ancient Egyptians, leaving it’s impress on politics, literature, architecture, art, and the conduct of daily affairs.” (Page 56) Throughout their history as a civilization their religion changed from polytheistic to monotheistic and then back to polytheistic. The beginning religion focused on the importance of the sun god, Re. This “solar faith” didn’t offer any spiritual blessings for its followers. Following this solar faith was the cult of Osiris. He was portrayed as a nature god that rose from the dead. Osiris also portrayed human like qualities and Osiris’ death gave the people the promise of an afterlife. This belief is what started the idea of mummification and that people could take their worldly possessions with them into afterlife. These ideas were all merged together. The

people were not satisfied and searched for magical practices to save them. Priests would offer magical charms that granted salvation. These magical practices lead to a great religious movement lead by Pharaoh Akhenaton. He initiated the worship of a new deity named Aton and this religion proved to be the first existence of a monotheistic religion. Aton was the creator of all and offered the Egyptians a more individual religion. Aton was a heavenly father watching over his creatures that rewarded his people for good behavior. “Conceptions like these of the unity, righteousness, and benevolence of God were not attained until the time of the Hebrew prophets 600 years later.”(Page 59) This religion ultimately failed because people were too attached to the old gods. King Tut restored religion to its old ways which lead to the selling of magical charms and rituals associated with life after death. I chose to examine this civilization’s religion because of all the changes it went through and the importance of them developing the first known monotheistic religion.
The Hebrew civilization was well known for their achievements in religion.

There were stages in the Hebrew religion which started as polytheistic like the other ancient civilizations. The Hebrews then converted to monotheism but also recognized the existence of other gods. Their god was called Yahweh and had human characteristics. The Hebrew people worshipped Yahweh and the set of rules he sent down to Moses. These set of rules would become known as the Ten Commandments and these set of rules not only affected individuals but ultimately the entire community. This created the idea that people were all equal and to act morally. God expected his people to act in good character and if they did they would benefit from it. The Hebrew religion was the first to have “prophets”. These prophets taught the word of their God and can be closely compared to preachers. There were three major doctrines that made up the core of the prophets’ teachings, which included: Yahweh is the ruler of the universe and that other gods are false, Yahweh is a god of righteousness and that evil comes from humanity, Yahweh demands ethical behavior from his Israelite followers. (Page 82) The final stage of Judaism was the idea of an “end” and what will happen at the end of time. They believed that God would send them a messiah that would lead to a world of peace. Jesus was considered the messiah by many people and his followers would become known as Christians. However, there were Jews that believed he was

not the messiah and that there was hope that the messiah would come. I chose to examine this civilization’s religion because of how different it was compared to the other religions and its similarity to the concept of monotheism in Ancient Egypt.
Indian religion was important to every stage of Indian development. They had a relatively simple polytheistic religion to begin with. The gods they worshipped were based upon nature and forces of nature and were always changing. The gods required sacrifices to remain happy and gave blessings to the Indian people in return for the sacrifices. There was a religious drink called “soma juice” which was made from plants and was known to help people see the gods. This was an important practice for their religion. This simple religion grew more complex as the Indian civilization grew. There were many religious achievements including the completion of the Four Vedas. The Four Vedas formed the basis for the Indian religion known as Hinduism. The Four Vedas was orally passed down and was eventually written down. The “Epics” were also introduced which served as the bible for the common people. The Vedas were only for the people higher in the caste system. The Indians made sacrifices to their gods so the world would be without chaos. There was a thirst for knowledge by the Indian people which lead to the creation of the Upanishads. These works address the nature of human existence and questioned humanity’s importance in the universe. The main points of the Upanishads included: There is a supreme being, the material world is just an illusion, there is a cycle of souls being reborn, and Enlightenment is an escaped from the material world and results in a union with the supreme being. There was a time of religious reform which lead to the creation of the religions Buddhism and Jainism. Buddhism followed a new approach to religion. There were no souls or gods and emphasized a code of ethics. The followers of Buddhism were not to be selfish and that selfishness caused suffering. Jainism was also discovered with the goal to live a life of harmlessness. They did believe in souls and even in inanimate objects. They were very pacifist and wouldn’t kill anything including insects. I chose to examine this civilization’s religion because of how these religions were similar to philosophies and how these religions focused on bettering one’s self.
There are many similarities and differences between these three civilization’s religions. I chose to examine these three civilizations because they were some of the beginning civilizations and I could see the pattern on how they built off of each other. All the religions discussed started the same as a polytheistic religion and got more complex as the civilizations grew. The Egyptians were the first to create a monotheistic religion which was very similar to the religion of the Hebrews. Each believed in a supreme being that watched over its people and there a promise of an afterlife. These two religions are also the first to give a creation story. There are claims that the religion Judaism was influenced by the Akhenaton’s religion. These religions were similar because the offered a sense of unity for its followers. There were many differences though because the Egyptians didn’t keep this monotheistic religion and converted back to their old ways of worshipping many gods. The Hebrew religion was the first religion to create a code of law for the religion which would be known as the Ten Commandments. This can be compared to the Indian religion that included many codes of conduct and sacred writings including the Four Vedas, The Epics, and the Upanishads. The Hebrew religion was the first organized monotheistic religion and is notably different than the religions of other ancient civilizations. There were many differences in the Indian religion as well. There were several religions in India including Buddhism and Jainism both which were not centered around the idea of a god. These religions focused on the bettering one’s self and achieving Enlightenment. These religions notably build off one another and change with the change of people. The Egyptian religion started as a polytheistic religion and completely changed to monotheism. It was then changed back to polytheism to please the people. This idea of monotheism served as a basis for creating the Hebrew religion of Judaism. The Indian civilization realized that people shouldn’t be selfish and religion was started for selfish reasons. These “religions” took a completely different approach than previous religions.
These religions played a key role in developing civilizations and show the change in people. Religion initially emerged as a way to achieve answers to explain the universe and their existence. However, these religions developed the civilization’s culture, government, technical advances, and was a unifying force for its people. It was proved through the examination of these religions the huge impact religion has on defining a civilization.