According to experts, in the world there are tens of thousands of religious movements and faiths. Many former forms of worship go into oblivion, giving way to new ones. Today, historians are wondering: what was the first religion on earth?
Instruction manual
1
All existing religious teachings are grouped into several main areas, of which Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism are the most famous. A study of the history of the emergence of these religions allows us to conclude that religious worship, which appeared on earth from the very beginning.
2
The directions listed above can be divided into 2 groups: “Abrahamic” and “Eastern”. The latter include Hinduism, Buddhism, and a number of related trends that originated in Southeast Asia. While Buddhism appeared in the 6th century BC, becoming the same age as Confucianism, Hinduism has a markedly greater experience. It is believed that the earliest date of its origin is 1500 BC. Nevertheless, Hinduism is not a single system of religious teachings, as it unites various schools and cults.
3
The "Abrahamic" group of religions consists of three related areas: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The first two forms of worship have a common doctrinal source - the Old Testament, the first part of the Bible. Islam, which appeared in the 7th century AD, took as its basis the Qur'an, which relies heavily on the experience of the entire Bible, including the New Testament. Unlike the “eastern” group of religions, which have many fundamental differences in the understanding and even the very existence of God, the “Abrahamic” forms of worship are distinguished by the main feature - monotheism, faith in one and the same Creator. This detail is emphasized by the name of God in the “Abrahamic” religions: for Muslims it is “Allah”, which indicates a related “Elohim” of the Jews, in the Old Testament which God is also called “Jehovah” (Yahweh), which is confirmed by Christians. The commonality of these fundamental doctrines makes it possible to trace the historical path of the emergence of "Abrahamic" religions.
4
Judaism is the earliest of the listed forms of religious worship. The Torah, the first five biblical books of the Old Testament, (also called the Pentateuch), began to be written around 1513 BC. Nevertheless, this work describes in detail the period of the formation of mankind and the history of the origin of religion long before the writing of the Bible. Based on the analysis of the initial chapters of the Old Testament, the researchers concluded that there were previous manuscript sources, on the basis of which the Bible began to be written.
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The Bible greatly facilitates the study of the historical background, as it contains a detailed chronological line. Thus, according to biblical chronology, Abraham, who is respected by representatives of all "Abrahamic" religions, practiced serving God at the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC. The famous worldwide flood that God's servants were able to survive in the Holy Scriptures dates from about 2370 BC. According to the Bible, hundreds of centuries before the flood, people also professed a single faith in God. In particular, the Bible cites the words of the first woman of Eve, who mentioned Jehovah (Yahweh) as God, who gave life to the first people on earth.
6
The religious and cultural influence that the Bible had on eastern and western civilizations, as well as the presence of a strict chronological line with a description of the system of religious worship practiced by the ancient world, distinguish the Bible from the total mass of other religious documents. Today, the Bible is considered an authoritative religious source for more than half of the world's inhabitants. Unlike many cults, the Bible is fundamental, which allowed the religious form presented in it to maintain a unified system of worship of God for a long time. In turn, this helps to trace the history of the confession of faith in the biblical God for millennia. These circumstances allow us to conclude that the first religion on earth was the one described in the Bible.
