Ethical Monotheism Research Paper

One of the three great monotheistic world religions, Judaism began as the faith of the ancient Hebrews, and its sacred text is the Hebrew Bible, particularly the Torah. Fundamental to Judaism is the belief that the people of Israel are God's chosen people, who must serve as a light for other nations. God made a covenant first with Abraham, then renewed it with Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. The worship of Yahweh (God) was centered in Jerusalem from the time of David.

Hammurabi’s code influenced the people of his kingdom greatly, he set valuable legitimate standards that have lasted to this day. Not only did this code set standards but it also includes a modern-day take of court and justice procedures. The Ten Commandment shaped people’s belief not only for Christians, it also shaped morality in all cultures and religions. Because of the two laws/codes, civilizations learnt what was right and what was wrong; the two laws influenced them to do the same. What would happen if one disobeyed the rules? It would count as a sin or be punished, which is also the way legal judiciaries do, however the punishments are not so brutal. Why? Because people have learnt how to be wise with the decisions they make, civilizations have gotten a moral sense because of these laws. In addition to the last point stated, the two laws give a basic and complex legal code that defends the innocent, punishes the guilty, it establishes a right to own and regulate private land, allows for self-defense, enforces the law to treat people with respect etc. All of the laws stated above apply to modern day society and culture, especially in judicial

Laws are usually inspired and taken from the common knowledge of the society, whether the common knowledge was good or bad it does not make a difference. To illustrate, common laws derive from ethical backgrounds passed through generation to generation, where they feel that these traditions are sacred, and they cannot change it, because they fear the resistance that might develop form that change. Similarly, any religion after certain time gets to change in the name of modernity and prestige. To explain more, Hammurabi

The ancient law code was based on the older codes from Sumerian. These types of laws are written in the in the large black stone monument, so it could be seen by everyone in the public (Ascaso et al., 760). There are penalties that one had to face for breaking the laws, such as if one done something to someone than what one did to them is done to the instigator as well. But then, the way he did things could be crueler and harsher than one might think. "The code of Hammurabi is the longest unbroken piece of writing that we have from ancient Mesopotamia" (Levin, 15).

Laws have been around since the beginning of civilization. While today most countries are pretty ‘laxed compared to ancient Babylonian times, some countries, particularly the ones in the Middle East, still have strict laws similar to Hammurabi’s Code. In today’s society Hammurabi’s Code may be viewed as a little excessive; however, for the time they were written, i find these laws to be justifiable. Hammurabi’s Code was fair to the less fortunate. He ensures equality of people with justifiable punishments for crimes people have committed which are best highlighted through his family care, property, and personal injury laws.

Moses: Like the other monotheistic faiths, my people believe in one God, and only one. The Greek, for example, believe in more than one God; this makes them polytheistic.

The law codes of the United States are based on the Ten Commandments and various standards that humanity has conceived throughout history. However, before Moses climbed Mount Sinai and “the Lord descended upon it with fire”, the First Babylonian Empire in ancient Mesopotamia was ruled by Hammurabi, who developed the earliest known law code in world history (Exodus 19:2-25; class discussion, 08/29/17). Hammurabi’s Law Code, as it is known today, could be thought of as an early interpretation of morality. Despite the good moral intentions of the law code, these laws are strict, cruel, and, in some cases, unusual. With over two hundred laws, divine right, the act of revenge, and inequality of punishment between classes took up a large amount of this ancient Babylonian law code.

In the first century Palestine, during this period, many people from Judaism believed that there was only one God because of the Jewish biblical tradition. Since “both Jesus and his original disciples were children of Israel, that primarily explainable in terms of Jewish customs and beliefs” (pg. 43). The shared beliefs were from the Hebrew Bible, which proclaimed that there is one God of Israel by the name of Yahweh (Deut. 6:4-5). They did this by remembering the most important commandment (Mark 12:28-30). This made them loyal to worship the God of Israel named Yahweh.

In modern times when one thinks of Monotheism, the first religion that comes to mind is Christianity. But what is Monotheism? Monotheism is the belief that there is only one god. But is Christianity the first group of people to believe in one god? The answer is no, monotheism comes a long way. Zoroastrianism was the first monotheistic religion approximately 3500 years ago. The religion was founded by Prophet Zoroaster in ancient Iran. The second monotheistic religion known to man kind is Atenism founded by the Pharaoh Akhenaten. And the third Monotheistic religion is Judaism.

Picture the laws we have now. Now imagine how they would be 3,815 years ago. How different would they really be? How would the differences affect society? Hammurabi was the king of Babylon in 1800 B.C.E. who wrote one of the world’s oldest orders of laws. This particular set of laws is used to research and understand ancient Mesopotamia's overall history, and thoughts about justice this brought us to learn about "Hammurabi's Code", the previously mentioned oldest order of written down laws though this was one of the oldest order of written down laws. Though this is one of the oldest sets of laws, there is a question that's been asked for thousands of years: "were these laws just?" It is true that the set of laws is described as "harsh", and "hasty", but they were written like this because they were the first try at justice. People didn't know any better. This is why a great number of Hammurabi's laws concerning bestowment of power, family, and theft were just and fair to all those it applied to.

The term "Ethical monotheism" can be broken down into two meanings: 1. There is one God from whom emanates one morality for all humanity. 2. God's primary demand of people is that they act decently toward one another. When it comes to the relationship between Jews and Ethical monotheism, it is expected of Jews to be the ones closest to holding its values. In some important ways, this is true. Jews do hold that God judges everyone, Jew or Gentile, by his or her behavior. This is a major reason that Jews do not force their religion on others or try to convert people to view their same opinions: Judaism has never believed that non Jews have to embrace Judaism to attain salvation or any other reward in the afterlife.

The monotheistic belief of Judaism recognises that God is omnipotent, omnipresent and pure spirit. The concept of the oneness of God, is expressed through the Shema which is an affirmation of faith Jews proclaim, commencing with “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.”- Deuteronomy 6:4. This

The Jewish religion has also undergone many transformations over the years. It started off in its earliest years as being animistic, with Hebrews worshipping forces of nature. As a result this religion had a number of practices that concerned magic and animal sacrifices. The Hebrew religion also became polytheistic which involves several gods. Hebrew religion eventually became anthropomorphic, in which God or gods became human individuals and had human characteristics. Eventually most Hebrews concentrated on one main God who they referred to as Yahweh. Yahweh is a mysterious term used in Hebrew that reads YHWY (in biblical Hebrew there were no vowels), and that still to this day its pronunciation

Judaism as well as its offshoot and formation into the Christian religion both place great emphasis on the notion of their monotheistic God as revealed in the early scriptures. To them God has revealed Himself as the one Lord of all. Evident in the first Commandment that was

The rise, development, and spread of monotheism (the belief in one God), is one of the most significant and fascinating dimensions of human civilization. The three major monotheistic faiths are Judaism, Christianity and Islam, these religions have spread to other kingdoms throughout the world by use of missionaries.