Category: History & Timelines

Prophets

Disclaimer: I do not claim just one belief but am instead a student of both Gnostic and Modern belief systems. I have been a student of the world religions, especially in relation to that of the stars and earth.

This page focuses on the living entities that have thought to have produced a message from God that would affect the masses and the development of human thought. A central theme of all religions revolves around consciousness because this is what creates the world in which we live day to day and together over large amounts of time. New creative worlds and experiences can be formed, which we have done according to many of these prophets’ teachings throughout the world. What I have found most interesting is how closely “related” the world’s story is.

This is different than those entities that could be entiled as ‘gods’ but are actually large cities, nations, or religious groups of the time. Many times rival groups assumed them to be rival gods of their own area of land. In this way, I have found that ancient religions give power to their own god-land-nation and their rivals are perception of their beliefs being wrong/different than their own. Creating an epic war of all nations that continue as a war of the gods through human experiences.

These are some of the more ancient human beings that claimed to understand parts of that war of the gods and in most caseses, changed huge aspects of consciousness by speaking their message to a vast population of peoples.

Pre-Adam & Eve

The Wisdom of the World Snake (that eats itself)

The Cosmic Wheel and Eternal Life, depicted as any type of spiral, swirl, or swastica design.

The Void of Space and Stars as the Heavens, usually depicted as a Divine Femenine that birthed the Solar System (including the Planets).

Night and Day produced by the creation of the Moon by Earth.
Which occured due to the impact of Thaia in which it collided with protoearth and once completed had formed the Core of Earth (swallowed Thaia). The material blasted from this collision came mostly from Earth herself, and collected and formed our Moon to continues to orbit us today.

Adam

The earliest forms of “humans” are 3.4 million years old all found in Africa. We may or may not have had another civilization before the one we have today, as our earliest peoples suggest (pre-ice-age). As to suggest the theory of Atlantis (fire to land) and Mu (water to air) civilizations. Others have suggested that “spiritual matter/s” have incarnated here from Venus and Mars, and other constellations such as Sirius, Orion, Pleadieas, and Lyra.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam (possible location: Temple of Solomon)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manu_(Hinduism)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-chromosomal_Adam
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adapa (the South Wind whose legend states that

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah

Noah, or Gilgamesh or Utnapishtim

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgamesh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utnapishtim

Early Middle Assyrian cylinder seal impression dating between 1400 and 1200 BC, showing a man with bird wings and a scorpion tail firing an arrow at a griffin on a hillock. A scorpion man is among the creatures Gilgamesh encounters on his journey to the homeland of Utnapishtim. – Wiki on Gilgamesh

Abram

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahor,_son_of_Terah

Terah, the ninth in descent from Noah, is the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran is the father of Lot, who is Abram’s nephew; the entire family live in Ur of the Chaldees. Haran dies in his native city, Ur of the Chaldees. Abram marries Sarah (Sarai), who is barren, and on the death of Terah, Abram, Sarai, and Lot depart for Canaan, but settle in a place named Haran, where Terah died at the age of 205…

Wiki on Abraham

When reading about Adbraham we often depect him as a person, that created members of a family. But it is also very interesting to consider that this was actually a group of peoples, or a nation if you will that moved from one location and then joined another, Ur Kasdim to Canaan, and then to Haram.

  • Terah, the 9th decendant from Noah (his sons were Abram, Nahor and Haran)
  • After an encounter with God they moved from Ur (see Ziggurat of Ur from 21st century BC) to the land of Canaan
    (The name “Canaan” appears throughout the Bible, where it corresponds to “the Levant”, in particular to the areas of the Southern Levant that provide the main settings of the narratives of the Bible: the Land of Israel, Philistia and Phoenicia, among others.) In which a pre-existing community that overlapped with Egypt and other conscious developments.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur_of_the_Chaldees

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaan

Muhammad

570 CE

Thought to have been the messenger and light bringer of the litteral Word of God. Translated and then coppied by followers were memorized large portions which became the Quran. He also repaired and replaced the Black Stone.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam (religion)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sufism (mystics of Islam)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quran (sacred text)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Quran
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone (fixed and replaced by Muhammad)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masjid_al-Haram (Great Mosque of Mecca, surrounds Kaaba of Suadi Arabia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaba (the box)

Zoroaster

Notice: The Wings are not attached but appear to bow to him from behind. And that the ‘legs’ of the ring are serpentine in shape. (See gnostic symbols)

Religion of the Eternal Fire

1700–1100 BC ~

“Zoroastrianism exalts an uncreated and benevolent deity of wisdom known as Ahura Mazda (lit. ’Wise Lord’) as its supreme being.”

“The unique historical features of Zoroastrianism, such as its monotheism,[5] messianism, belief in judgement after death, conception of heaven and hell, angels and demons, free will among others may have influenced other religious and philosophical systems, including Abrahamic religions and Gnosticism,[6][7][8] Northern Buddhism,[7] and Greek philosophy.”

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroaster
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoroastrianism_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avesta (primary sacred texts)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amesha_Spenta (the 7 eminations)

Moses

  • Law Giver to Isreal and hornored among most Jews
  • Concevied secretly, and set off by mother downstream to Egypt where he was raised and then went to Mount Saini and received the 10 commandments which then broke before rewriting them, the Torah (first 5 books) among others.
  • Possibly linked to King Mesha of Moab with similar naratives

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesha around 850 BCE, Mesha Stele found in Dibon (near Jordan, east of Dead Sea)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osarseph
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exodus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gudea_cylinders (found east of Ur made by Lagash in 2125 BC ancient Girsu in Iraq, now in Paris France)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girsu or Tello was a city of Sumer, northwest of Lagash

It is possible the Moses is dended from the Jacob tribe.

Mani

Mani in Coa’an temple, China

Iran origin, founder of Manichaeism influenced by Gnosticism. Born near Babylonia which at the time was Parthian Empire.

April AD 216 – 2 March AD 274 or 26 Feb AD 277

Jesus

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_years_of_Jesus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James,_brother_of_Jesus (James the Just) or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James,_son_of_Alphaeus (James the Lesser) (he led the original Nazarene Community in Jerusalem)

The Old Gods of Mesopotamia

The Old Gods of Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

The earliest discovered civilizations and early dynasties of the middle east begin with dates such as 4th century BC, such as Ur and Nippur of 3100 BC.

Anu, Void of the Sky/Heavens

Anu

The Anu District of Uruk was originally called ‘Kullaba’ (Kulab or Unug-Kulaba) prior to merging with the Eanna District.

He is also thought to be the ancestor of the Anunnaki, the major deities of the Sumerian religion.

Meanings: the personification of the Sky, Heaven, a supreme god, ancestor of all deities, thought to be the ruler of all other deities of the world and ruling authority over moral rulers and kings, who “contains the entire universe”

Family: consort is Ki, sons are Enlil and Enki

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anunnaki

Ki, Earth

Ki

Essentially Ki is personified as Earth and births Enlil (wind) and is born from her mother (earth tilt) and father (sky tilt). She gives birth to the Anunnaki.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ki_(goddess)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninhursag (Sumerian)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kishar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antu_(goddess) (Akadian worship in Babylonia) birthed the Anunnaki and the Utukki (the Udug or demons/spirits both good and evil in variety with the earliest concepts of exorcism or spiritual aid – An incantation from the Old Babylonian Period (c. 1830 – c. 1531 BC) defines the udug as “the one who, from the beginning, was not called by name… the one who never appeared with a form.” per wiki )


Enlil

Enlil, Lord of the Wind & Storms

Meanings: Lord, Lord of Wind, Lord of Storms

Enlil was the patron god of the Sumerian city-state of Nippur (in modern Iraq) and his main center of worship was the Ekur temple located there.[14] The name of the temple literally means “Mountain House” in ancient Sumerian.[15] The Ekur was believed to have been built and established by Enlil himself. It was believed to be the “mooring-rope” of heaven and earth, meaning that it was seen as “a channel of communication between earth and heaven”. A hymn written during the reign of Ur-Nammu, the founder of the Third Dynasty of Ur, describes the E-kur in great detail, stating that its gates were carved with scenes of Imdugud, a lesser deity sometimes shown as a giant bird, slaying a lion and an eagle snatching up a sinner.[15]

The Sumerians believed that the sole purpose of humanity’s existence was to serve the gods.
They thought that a god’s statue was a physical embodiment of the god himself.

Wiki on Enlil

With the establishment of the Babylonian empire, under Hammurabi, early in the 2nd millennium BCE, the religious, as well as the political center of influence, was transferred to Babylon, Marduk became lord of the pantheon, many of Enlil’s attributes were transferred to him, and Ekur, Enlil’s temple, was to some extent neglected.

Wiki on Nippur

Later Enlil would be defeated by Marduk in the Babylonian times, and by the late Bronze Age (early Iron Age) he is embodied as a storm and warrior deity who leads heavenly armies against Isreal. At that time El, Yahweh, Asherah, and Ball were worshiped. Yahweh absorbed the position of El into the Yahwist religion. Yahweh was proclaimed as the creator of the cosmos and the one true God of the world. During the Second Temple period saying this name become taboo and Jews would subsitute it with Adoni (see Dumuzid below), or “My Lord”.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlil
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kish_(Sumer) (ruins of 5300-4300 BC)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews (or “Yehudim” israeli pronunciation)

Ninlil

Ninlil

Ninlil “lady of the open field” or “Lady of the Wind”), also called Sud, in Assyrian called Mulliltu, is the consort goddess of Enlil.

Wiki on Ninlil

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninlil
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullissu (consort of Ashur) who identified with Ishtar of Nineveh, later becoming embodied by Aphrodite

Enki

Enki, Lord of Earth, Water & Springs (Mercury)

“Lord of Earth”, Spring, Running Water, House of Water, Mercury

The Adda Seal, an ancient Akkadian cylinder seal showing (from left to right) Inanna, Utu, Enki, and Isimud (circa 2300 BC)

He was originally the patron god of the city of Eridu, but later the influence of his cult spread throughout Mesopotamia and to the Canaanites, Hittites and Hurrians. He was associated with the southern band of constellations called stars of Ea, but also with the constellation AŠ-IKU, the Field (Square of Pegasus).
Beginning around the second millennium BCE, he was sometimes referred to in writing by the numeric ideogram for “40”, occasionally referred to as his “sacred number”.
The planet Mercury, associated with Babylonian Nabu (the son of Marduk) was, in Sumerian times, identified with Enki.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eridu (ruins)

Inanna

Inanna, or Ishtar

Seal of Ishtar – notice the 8 pointed sun/star, chained lion, right foot up, winged, left-hand staff facing down, 6 weapons upon her back, horned headdress

Inanna[a] is an ancient Mesopotamian goddess associated with love, beauty, sex, war, justice and political power. She was originally worshiped in Sumer under the name “Inanna”, and was later worshiped by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians under the name “Ishtar”. She was known as the “Queen of Heaven” and was the patron goddess of the Eanna temple at the city of Uruk, which was her main cult center. She was associated with the planet Venus and her most prominent symbols included the lion and the eight-pointed star. Her husband was the god Dumuzid (later known as Tammuz) and her sukkal, or personal attendant, was the goddess Ninshubur (who later became conflated with the male deities Ilabrat and Papsukkal).
Inanna was worshiped in Sumer at least as early as the Uruk period (c. 4000 BCE – c. 3100 BCE), but she had little cult activity before the conquest of Sargon of Akkad.

Wiki on Inanna

Dumuzid, later known as Adonis

Dumuzid, later known as Adonis

Dumuzid (Sumerian: 𒌉𒍣𒉺𒇻, romanized: Dumuzid sipad) or Dumuzi, later known by the alternative form Tammuz,[b] is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with shepherds, who was also the first and primary consort of the goddess Inanna (later known as Ishtar). In Sumerian mythology, Dumuzid’s sister was Geshtinanna, the goddess of agriculture, fertility, and dream interpretation. In the Sumerian King List, Dumuzid is listed as an antediluvian king of the city of Bad-tibira and also an early king of the city of Uruk.

In Inanna’s Descent into the Underworld, Dumuzid fails to mourn Inanna’s death and, when she returns from the Underworld, she allows the galla demons to drag him down to the Underworld as her replacement. Inanna later regrets this decision and decrees that Dumuzid will spend half the year in the Underworld, but the other half of the year with her, while his sister Geshtinanna stays in the Underworld in his place, thus resulting in the cycle of the seasons. In the Sumerian poem Inanna Prefers the Farmer, Dumuzid competes against the farmer Enkimdu for Inanna’s hand in marriage.

Gilgamesh references Tammuz in Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh as the love of Ishtar’s youth, who was turned into an allalu bird with a broken wing. Dumuzid was associated with fertility and vegetation and the hot, dry summers of Mesopotamia were believed to be caused by Dumuzid’s yearly death. During the month in midsummer bearing his name, people all across Mesopotamia would engage in public, ritual mourning for him. The cult of Dumuzid was later spread to the Levant and to Greece, where he became known under the West Semitic name Adonis.

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumuzid
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adonis – mortal lover of goddess Aphrodite (Venus)

Ninurta

Ninurta, or Nimrod

“God of Agriculture”

“Lord [of] Girsu”),[3][4] is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was first worshipped in early Sumer. In the earliest records, he is a god of agriculture and healing, who cures humans of sicknesses and releases them from the power of demons. In later times, as Mesopotamia grew more militarized, he became a warrior deity, though he retained many of his earlier agricultural attributes. He was regarded as the son of the chief god Enlil and his main cult center in Sumer was the Eshumesha temple in Nippur. Ninĝirsu was honored by King Gudea of Lagash (ruled 2144–2124 BC), who rebuilt Ninĝirsu’s temple in Lagash…
In the epic poem Lugal-e, Ninurta slays the demon Asag using his talking mace Sharur and uses stones to build the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to make them useful for irrigation. In a poem sometimes referred to as the “Sumerian Georgica”, Ninurta provides agricultural advice to farmers. In an Akkadian myth, he was the champion of the gods against the Anzû bird after it stole the Tablet of Destinies from his father Enlil and, in a myth that is alluded to in many works but never fully preserved, he killed a group of warriors known as the “Slain Heroes”. His major symbols were a perched bird and a plow.
Ninurta may have been the inspiration for the figure of Nimrod, a “mighty hunter” who is mentioned in association with Kalhu in the Book of Genesis. Conversely, and more conventionally, the mythological Ninurta may have been inspired by a historical person, such as the biblical Nimrod purports to be. He may also be mentioned in the Second Book of Kings under the name Nisroch.[a] In the nineteenth century, Assyrian stone reliefs of winged, eagle-headed figures from the temple of Ninurta at Kalhu were commonly, but erroneously, identified as “Nisrochs” and they appear in works of fantasy literature from the time period.

Wiki on Ninurta

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninurta
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisroch (2 Kings 19:37, Isaiah 37:38 in the days of Babylonia, who was killed by his two sons)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sennacherib (whos father killed Marduk and who allied with Elamites and destroyed Babylon before the attack on Jerusalem, before transfering )

Stone relief carving of an eagle-headed genius from the temple of Ninurta at Kalhu; such depictions were widely, but erroneously, identified as Ninurta in the nineteenth century and were popularly known as “Nisrochs”

Nuska

Nuska

In Babylonia and Assyria Nuska is the symbol of the heavenly as well as of the terrestrial fire. As the former he is the son of Anu, the god of heaven, but he is likewise associated with Enlil of Nippur as the god of the earth and regarded as a first-born son.
A centre of his cult in Assyria was in Harran, where, because of the predominance of the moon-cult, he is viewed as the son of the moon god Sin and his wife Ningal, though Nuska was with Enlil when Sin wasn’t born yet, and Enlil had not married Ninlil—Sin’s mother. Nuska is by the side of Ea, the god of water, the great purifier. He is called upon to cleanse the sick and suffering from disease, which, at the time thought to be by demons, was looked upon as a species of impurity affecting the body.
The fire-god is also viewed as the patron of the arts and the god of civilization in general, because of the association of all human progress with the discovery and use of fire. As among other nations, the fire-god was in the third instance looked upon as the protector of the family. He becomes the mediator between humanity and the gods, since it is through the fire on the altar that the offering is brought into the presence of the gods.
While temples and sanctuaries to Nusku-Girru are found in Babylonia and Assyria, he is worshipped more in symbolical form than the other gods.
Because his presence is common and universal, he is not localized to the same extent as his fellow deities, and, while always enumerated in a list of the great gods, his place in the systematized pantheon is more or less vague.

Wiki on Nuska

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuska

Ashur, or the Assur Kingdom of Old Assyria

Anshar seems to embody the ancient empire heritage/peoples before Babylon formed. And later is translated to higher rank than even that of Enlil or Enki (personified beings that formed or became nations/groups or families). Translating to “the whole heaven” in Enuma Elisha (the Babylonia creation myth). Being parents of Anu (god of heave, lord of constellations, kings of gods, spirts and demons).

Aššur was a deified form of the city of Assur, which dates from the mid 3rd millennium BC and was the capital of the Old Assyrian kingdom. As such, Ashur did not originally have a family, but as the cult came under southern Mesopotamian influence, he later came to be regarded as the Assyrian equivalent of Enlil, the chief god of Nippur.
Enlil was the most important god of the southern pantheon from the early 3rd millennium BC until Hammurabi founded an empire based in Babylon in the mid-18th century BC, after which Marduk replaced Enlil as the chief god in the south. In the north, Ashur absorbed Enlil’s wife Ninlil (as the Assyrian goddess Mullissu) and his sons Ninurta and Zababa—this process began around the 14th century BC and continued down to the 7th century.

Wiki on Ashur
King Ashurnasirpal’s throneroom relief showing Ashur hovering above the tree of life.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/En%C5%ABma_Eli%C5%A1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anshar

Assyrian and Babylonian

Tiamat

Armenian Nephilim

Historic World Religions

Ancient Mesopotamia – Sumer, Iraq

Between 6-5th millennium BC

It is also one of the first civilizations in the world, along with ancient Egypt, the Caral-Supe civilization, the Indus Valley civilization, the Minoan civilization, and ancient China. Living along the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, Sumerian farmers grew an abundance of grain and other crops, the surplus from which enabled them to form urban settlements. Proto-writing dates back before 3000 BC. The earliest texts come from the cities of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr, and date to between c. 3500 and c. 3000 BC.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire (during 2334-2154 BC )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargon_of_Akkad (during 24-23 c BC )
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Amorites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire from  2334 – 2154 BC

More:

Ancient Egypt’s Religion

The earliest examples of religion from ancient Egypt are from around 2375 BC where we see a complete array of deities and ritual processes based on some kind of understanding of the non-visible processes such as death, healing, and energy transference. They had a very good idea about the body and its organs. This form that is revealed probably existed in its development for a few thousand years in oral tradition while developing the first forms of language, trade, and ownership which led to the building, the first sciences, and spiritual growth.

Hindu

Ultimately the name and diversity of the religion/s of Hinduism spans a long range of time, and several sacred texts and traditions. Originally the word Hindu was Sindu, and therefore was first used in language to reference India’s peoples whom lived across and near the river named Sindu. The most popularized Hindu religion comes from the Vedic period, and the Vedic texts. However, there are at least six primary subsects of what would all be considered Hinduism. It expands a vast set of beings/deities and can be perceived as poly, pan, or mono-theistic depending on the time and way of understanding mythologies of the Indian’s culture and lineage through ‘Hinduism’. The word ‘hindu’ is found in the Avesta.

Some text may be as old as 3rd or 2nd millenium (2000 BC). However the Vedic period was in 500-300 BC. insterestingly though, they were not really considered a religion, it wasn’t until 1830s that the world Hinduism would be used to describe certain beliefs of the native culture of the peoples of India.

The term “Hinduism” was coined in around 1830 by those Indians who opposed British colonialism, and who wanted to distinguish themselves from other religious groups. Before the British began to categorise communities strictly by religion, Indians generally did not define themselves exclusively through their religious beliefs; instead identities were largely segmented on the basis of locality, language, varṇa, jāti, occupation, and sect. In the 18th century, the European merchants and colonists began to refer to the followers of Indian religions collectively as Hindus.

Wiki on Hinduism

Zoroastrianism

The Avesta (text) and Zoroaster (prophet) origins are unclear but are probably from sometime between 1500-500 BCE. The language used for this is similar to the Vedas of a similar time.

It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil and an eschatology which predicts the ultimate conquest of evil by good. Zoroastrianism exalts an uncreated and benevolent deity of wisdom known as Ahura Mazda (lit. ’Lord of Wisdom’) as its supreme being. Historically, the unique features of Zoroastrianism, such as its monotheism, messianism, belief in free will and judgement after death, conception of heaven, hell, angels, and demons, among other concepts, may have influenced other religious and philosophical systems, including the Abrahamic religions and Gnosticism, Northern Buddhism, and Greek philosophy.

Wiki on Zoroastrianism

Yahwism

The religion of Isreal, in which Isreal is first mentioned in the 13th century BCE attests to worship as early as 12th century (Late Bronze Era).

Prophets Elijah in the 9th century, and at the latest Hosea in the 8th. Worship of Baal and Yahweh coexisted. Until King Ahab and Queen Jezebel would elevate Baal to the status of a national god.

Yahwism is the name given by modern scholars to the religion of ancient Israel. Yahwism was polytheistic, with a plethora of gods and goddesses. Heading the pantheon was Yahweh, with his consort, the goddess Asherah; below them were second-tier gods and goddesses such as Baal, Shamash, Yarikh, Mot, and Astarte, all of whom had their own priests and prophets and numbered royalty among their devotees, and a third and fourth tier of minor divine beings, including the mal’ak, the messengers of the higher gods, who in later times became the angels of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

The practices of Yahwism included festivals, sacrifices, vow-making, private rituals, and the adjudication of legal disputes. Contrary to the picture presented in the Hebrew Bible, the Temple in Jerusalem was not the central, or even sole, temple of Yahweh, but the king was the head of the national religion and thus the viceroy on Earth of the national god, a role reflected each year when he presided over a ceremony at which Yahweh was enthroned in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

Wiki Yahwism

Canaanite

2000-300 BC

Cainites refer to the relations of Cain and Able (the first murder, or act of evil) in 2nd century, (in East Roman Empire) and an important text from this time was the Gospel of Judas (revealing the truth about 11 and betrayal) and Canaan is the location Abram was led to by God (from Ur). By 300 AD Caaninites in Hebrew translated simply to “merchant”.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaanite_religion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cainites

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Amorites

Jainism

900 BC

Jainism also known as Jain Dharma, is an ancient Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four Tirthankaras (supreme preachers of Dharma), with the first in the current time cycle being Rishabhadeva, whom the tradition holds to have lived millions of years ago; the twenty-third tirthankara Parshvanatha, whom historians date to 9th century BCE; and the twenty-fourth tirthankara, Mahavira around 600 BCE. Jainism is considered to be an eternal dharma with the tirthankaras guiding every time cycle of the cosmology. The three main pillars of Jainism are ahiṃsā (non-violence), anekāntavāda (non-absolutism), and aparigraha (asceticism).

Buddhism

600 BC

Dharmavinaya — “doctrines and disciplines” — and Buddha Dharma, is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on a series of original teachings attributed to Gautama Buddha.[3] It originated in ancient India as a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, spreading through much of Asia. It is the world’s fourth-largest religion

Wiki on Buddhism

Judaism

535 BCE

At its core, the Tanakh is an account of the Israelites’ relationship with God from their earliest history until the building of the Second Temple (c. 535 BCE). Abraham is hailed as the first Hebrew and the father of the Jewish people. As a reward for his act of faith in one God, he was promised that Isaac, his second son, would inherit the Land of Israel (then called Canaan). Later, the descendants of Isaac’s son Jacob were enslaved in Egypt, and God commanded Moses to lead the Exodus from Egypt. At Mount Sinai, they received the Torah—the five books of Moses. (…) Eventually, God led them to the land of Israel where the tabernacle was planted in the city of Shiloh for over 300 years to rally the nation against attacking enemies. As time went on, the spiritual level of the nation declined to the point that God allowed the Philistines to capture the tabernacle. The people of Israel then told Samuel the prophet that they needed to be governed by a permanent king, and Samuel appointed Saul to be their King. When the people pressured Saul into going against a command conveyed to him by Samuel, God told Samuel to appoint David in his stead. Once King David was established, he told the prophet Nathan that he would like to build a permanent temple, and as a reward for his actions, God promised David that he would allow his son, Solomon, to build the First Temple and the throne would never depart from his children.

Wiki on Judaism

Gnosticism

Gnosticism (refers to ‘having knowledge’) is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized personal spiritual knowledge (gnosis) above the orthodox teachings, traditions, and authority of religious institutions. Viewing material existence as flawed or evil, Gnostic cosmogony generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden God and a malevolent lesser divinity (sometimes associated with the Yahweh of the Old Testament) who is responsible for creating the material universe…. Gnostics considered the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the supreme divinity in the form of mystical or esoteric insight. Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.

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There are many branches of thought within Gnosticism because of its ancient origins.

Christianity

Diverse branches in both the east and west have expanded since the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

Christianity began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the 1st century in the Roman province of Judea. Jesus’ apostles and their followers spread around the Levant, Europe, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, the South Caucasus, Egypt, and Ethiopia, despite initial persecution. It soon attracted gentile God-fearers, which led to a departure from Jewish customs, and, after the Fall of Jerusalem, AD 70 which ended the Temple-based Judaism, Christianity slowly separated from Judaism. Emperor Constantine the Great decriminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan (313), later convening the Council of Nicaea (325) where Early Christianity was consolidated into what would become the State church of the Roman Empire (380). The early history of Christianity’s united church before major schisms is sometimes referred to as the “Great Church” (though divergent sects existed at the same time, including Gnostics and Jewish Christians). The Church of the East split after the Council of Ephesus (431) and Oriental Orthodoxy split after the Council of Chalcedon (451) over differences in Christology,[4] while the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism (1054), especially over the authority of the bishop of Rome. Protestantism split in numerous denominations from the Catholic Church in the Reformation era (16th century) over theological and ecclesiological disputes, most predominantly on the issue of justification and the primacy of the bishop of Rome. Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization, particularly in Europe from late antiquity and the Middle Ages.[5][6][7][8] Following the Age of Discovery (15th–17th century), Christianity was spread into the Americas, Oceania, sub-Saharan Africa, and the rest of the world via missionary work.

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Manichaeism

Manichaeism was founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian prophet Mani (216-274 AD).

Manichaeism taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness.[5] Through an ongoing process that takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light, whence it came. Its beliefs were based on local Mesopotamian religious movements and Gnosticism.[6] It revered Mani as the final prophet after Zoroaster, Gautama Buddha, and Jesus.

Manichaeism was quickly successful and spread far through the Aramaic-speaking regions.[7] It thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world. Manichaean churches and scriptures existed as far east as China and as far west as the Roman Empire.[8] It was briefly the main rival to Christianity before the spread of Islam in the competition to replace classical paganism. Beginning with the pagan emperor Diocletian, Manichaeism was persecuted by the Roman state and was eventually stamped out of the Roman Empire.

Wiki on Manichaeism

Catholic Orthodoxy

110 AD

Paul and the Apostles traveled extensively throughout the Roman Empire, including Asia Minor, establishing churches in major communities, with the first churches appearing in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, then in Antioch, Ethiopia, Egypt, Rome, Alexandria, Athens, Thessalonica, Illyricum, and Byzantium, which centuries later would become prominent as the New Rome.[70] Christianity encountered considerable resistance in the Roman Empire, mostly because its adherents refused to comply with the demands of the Roman state—often even when their lives were threatened—by offering sacrifices to the pagan gods. Despite persecution, skepticism, and initial social stigma, the Christian Church spread, particularly following the conversion of Emperor Constantine I in 312 AD.

The first known use of the phrase “the catholic Church” (he katholike ekklesia) occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another (Saint Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans). The letter states: “Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, there is the universal [katholike] Church.”[52] Thus, almost from the beginning, Christians referred to the Christian Church as the “one, holy, catholic (from the Greek καθολική, ‘according to the whole, universal'[53]) and apostolic Church”.[20] The Eastern Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same early church.

A number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim: the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox. In the Eastern Orthodox view, the Assyrians and Orientals left the Orthodox Church in the years following the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431) and the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451), respectively, in their refusal to accept those councils’ Christological definitions. Similarly, the churches in Rome and Constantinople separated in an event known as the East–West Schism, traditionally dated to the year 1054, although it was more a gradual process than a sudden break.

To all these churches, the claim to catholicity (universality, oneness with the ancient Church) is important for multiple doctrinal reasons that have more bearing internally in each church than in their relation to the others, now separated in faith.

The Catholic Church shared communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church until the East–West Schism in 1054, disputing particularly the authority of the pope. Before the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, the Church of the East also shared in this communion, as did the Oriental Orthodox Churches before the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451; all separated primarily over differences in Christology. In the 16th century, the Reformation led to Protestantism also breaking away. From the late 20th century, the Catholic Church has been criticised for its teachings on sexuality, its doctrine against ordaining women, and its handling of sexual abuse cases involving clergy

Wiki on Catholic Chruch

Islam

The prophet Muhammad (in 670-632 CE) crafted the scriptures of the Quran. The religion of Islam’s origin dates back to Mecca, around the 7th century. By the 8th century, the Umayyad Caliphate extended itself into the Islamic Golden Age, from the 8th to 13th century (around 800 AD).