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Very little is known of early Hebrews prior to their Exile from Egypt. It is generally believed that they took on the normal forms of Canaanite worship consisting of deities such as El, Ba`al, Asherah, Astarte, Shapash, Yerah, etc.

Although according to Hebrew tradition, it is said that from the times of Abraham until we reach Moses, Elohim, before he revealed himself as YHWH to Moses in the Book of Exodus, was the deity of the family line. He was the only venerated deity and all others were seen as false gods.

Post-Mosaic/Pre-Exilic

This is a very interesting topic to discuss because it is still very unclear to modern scholars. After Joshua's Conquest of the Promised Land we are told both in the archaeological record and in Biblical literature that the Israelites worshipped the Canaanite deities. Deities such as Ba`al, Asherah, etc. The archaeological record also shows that there was also an extremely heavy influence of Egyptian culture and many scarabs and seals have been excavated from both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel and Judah bearing images of the Egyptian Horus and winged serpents. This imagery is seen until the reign of Hezekiah when he is finally forced to serve as a vassal under the Neo-Assyrian king Sennacherib (after the fall of Samaria and the Exile of the Israelites in the Northern Kingdom under the direction of the Neo-Assyrian Sargon II). During this time period there is still a lot of cults dedicated to the worship of YHWH and His name is still in fact theophorically used in personal titles; but he obviously was not the only deity around and worshipped at that time.

It was at this time that blame was cast unto Judah for straying away from the worship of YHWH. "It was YHWH punishing us" they believed. The rise of a henotheistic religion (on its way to a true monotheism) began. Evidence in the Old Testament scriptures clearly display anomalies indicating a henotheistic pantheon to which YHWH was the main deity of worship (under the scribe or scribes). I cover these details in my book, An Adopted Legacy. I personally believe that Judahite belief didn't truly convert to monotheism until the Post-Exilic Period under the campaigns of the Zoroastrian Cyrus the Great in Persia. I cover this in the same book listed above and showcase a couple of highlights in my topic on the Post-Exilic Period.

During the Exile

The Book of Jeremiah (52:28-30) mentions three separate occasions. The first was in the time of Jehoiakim in 597 BCE, when the Temple of Jerusalem was partially despoiled and a number of the leading citizens were removed. After eleven years (587 BCE, in the reign of Zedekiah) a fresh rising of the Judaeans occurred; the city was razed to the ground and a further deportation ensued. Finally, five years later (582 BCE), Jeremiah records a third captivity. After the overthrow of Babylonia by the Persians, Cyrus gave the Jews permission to return to their native land (537 BCE), and more than 40,000 are said to have availed themselves of the privilege. Previously, the northern tribes had been taken captive by Assyria and never returned; survivors of the Babylonian exile were all that remained of the Children of Israel. The Persians had a different political philosophy of managing conquered territories than the Babylonians or Assyrians: under the Persians, local personages were put into power to govern the local populace.

When the Israelites returned home, they found a mixture of peoples practicing a religion very similar, but not identical, to their own. Hostility grew between the returning Jews and the Samaritans, the mixed-blood people of the region, and has continued to this day. According to the Bible, the Samaritans were foreign people settled into the area by the kings of Assyria and who had partially adopted the Israelite religion. Although there are many other conflicting theories about the Samaritans' origins, many of them may have simply been Israelites who remained behind and thus had no part in the sweeping changes of the Israelite religion brought about among the captives. Alternatively, perhaps the fierce purity of the Jewish religion and cultural identity of the Babylonian Jews returning from exile, seventy years after their deportation, completely eclipsed the partial fate of the mixed group of Israelite survivors, who had practiced paganism for hundreds of years in Israel (including the worship of a golden bull), and who had inter-married with the peoples sent into the territory by the Assyrians (a practice strictly forbidden by Mosaic Laws, and punished by Nehemiah).

Impact Upon the Jewish Philosophy of the Time

The Babylonian Captivity and the subsequent return to Israel were seen as one of the pivotal events in the drama between God and His people, Israel. Just as they had been predestined for, and saved from, slavery in Egypt, the Israelites were predestined to be punished by God through the Babylonians, and then saved once more. The Babylonian Captivity had a number of serious effects on Judaism and the Jewish culture. For example, the current Hebrew script was adopted during this period, replacing the traditional Israelite script.

The Post-Exilic Period

Also known as the Second Temple Period: ca. 515 BCE to 70 CE. At around 539 BCE the Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great of Persia. It was not too long earlier (ca. 587 BCE) that the kingdom of Judah had been conquered by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar and their citizens were Exiled to the east in the land of Babylonia. Like most imperial powers during the Iron Age, Cyrus allowed the citizens under his empire to practice their native religion/beliefs as long as they incorporated the Persian king into their worship (either as a full or semi-deity or at least the subject of recognition).

To sum it up with the affects of external influences:

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We learn in 2Chronicles (36:22-23) and in Isaiah (45:1) of how Cyrus of Persia was viewed by the Jews. He was held in high honor and deemed the anointed one of the Lord. Under him, building projects were ordered to build a new temple for YHWH in Jerusalem, and on top of that, the Jews were now free of the exile that Nebuchadnezzar had originally decreed. The Jews had every reason to embrace everything that Cyrus and Persia had done. Curiously enough, it was around this time that the Biblical scriptures and Hebrew beliefs were starting to evolve. The Jewish religion was starting to adopt more of a dualistic theme; paralleling that of the Zoroastrians. Now, if there was good, then there always was evil. Zoroastrianism was the first to introduce an evil entity always opposing the good; the supreme deity was the Ahura Mazda, while the opposing force was the Angra Mainyu, which literally translated to evil spirit. Originally in Hebrew lore, mankind was evil and there was no entity to influence them either way. At the same time, new figures and roles were adopted in Hebrew belief. You had the corruption of Sātān and his role to God, Belial, and Mastema; all evil spirits opposing the great YHWH , a role never assigned beforehand. These themes are even more apparent in the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran, some even display the concept of menog, where a person or object in this world has a counterpart in the archetypal world; an idea of double creation. The two religions agree in certain respects with regard to their cosmological ideas. The six days of Creation in Genesis find a parallel in the six periods of Creation described in the Zoroastrian scriptures. Could much of the Priestly have come after the Exile? Also, Isaiah 40-48 offers striking parallels with the Gatha 44:3-5. Besides the common procedure of rhetorical questions, there is the notion of a god who has created the world and, notably, light and darkness.

The very idea of a creator god may be common to all of the western part of the Semitic world, but the notion that God created light and darkness appears in both prophets, helping to add a later date to at least some of the Priestly source. In terms of angelology and demonology, a newer development of the post-Exilic literature, which is emphasized throughout the next chapter, is the new role of the angels. The angelology of the older scriptures, which was nearly as dim as their Sheol, became occupied with such figures as Michael and Gabriel. The seven post-Exilic angels (Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Israfil, Israel, Uhiel and Uriel) are vividly reminiscent of the seven Amesha Spenta of the later Avesta. The Zoroastrians believed that the soul rises from the dead body, and for three nights after death resides in the material world and then proceeds to the other world. This may be termed individual resurrection. Jesus Christ is also said to have risen from his sepulcher three days after crucifixion. The later Zoroastrianism also predicates a collective resurrection (Rastakhiz) when all the dead will rise. The concept of resurrection that was embedded in parts of the early Hebrew scripture as Exodus and Deuteronomy became vivid in the writings of the post-Exilic prophets. Daniel 12:2-13 refers to rising after death and receiving rewards. In Isaiah 26:19, the dead will rise again from the graves; the ground will give birth to the dead. To take away from all the points made, the Israelites, based on the pre-Exilic writings, had not developed eschatology. They rather believed in Sheol, or an underground and desolate world where the good and bad after death will equally end up; a theme already common to most Near Eastern beliefs at this point in history and prior to it. Therefore the notions of judgment after death and reward of heaven and retribution of hell were nonexistent in their tenets. YHWH was also originally the covenant god of the Israelites, and did not have a universal status; the dualistic forces of good and evil, angelology and demonology were absent in their beliefs, as reflected in the books of pre-Exilic Judaism.

Relating this to the sons of God and the nephilim, in Zoroastrianism we have the similar ahuras and daêvas. Ahura is the Avestan word for God/gods and angels while daêvas was later corrupted to mean demons or anything having to do with evil. The original meaning for daêva comes from the root div, which means "to shine"; leading daevas to originally translate as "the shining one(s)". Oddly enough, what has taken a negative tone in Indo-Iranian culture is just the opposite in the neighboring Indian culture, which was a term used regularly to denote any deity. Scholars believe that the reason for such a word play may come from the opposing beliefs of the two cultures. While one side promoted monotheism, the other polytheistic side went against everything the first stood for. Anything or anyone not recognizing the supreme Ahura Mazda as the one and only good deity must be evil, and that is probably why a general and most commonly used term for God/gods in one culture meant something evil in the other. That may be a reason as to why we find Hindu deities such as Indra labeled as a daêva. It was the worship of the daêvas that brought suffering and distress to mankind, creating the classical situation for a prophet to arise and offer salvation through consolation and hope for the people; this role was taken by Zarathushtra. During the post-Exilic period, when Zoroastrianism was at its highest influence, it is extremely possible that the Jews of the time adopted such themes. Starting to take a more dualistic approach in their own religion, it can easily be seen that anything going against the supreme YHWH was evil, including those very sons of God that came onto the daughters of men, bringing forth their evil offspring, the nephilim. Coincidently enough, the angels spoken of in the post-Exilic literature are described as pure and bright as Heaven; consequently, they are said to be formed of fire, and encompassed by light.

Early Israelite History

Pre-Mosaic

Post-Mosaic/Pre-Exilic

During the Exile

The Post-Exilic Period