By Aaron Schwartz The predominant form of religion in different ancient societies was polytheism. But exactly in Egypt idea of monotheism appeared for the first time. The first man, who tried to carry out this idea, was Pharaoh Amenkhotep IV who lived in XIV century B. C. He forbad cults of some influential Egyptian gods and formed new cult of one God Aton God of the Sun. This Pharaoh changed his name into Akhenaten and built new capital Akhetaton. His religious doctrine was very similar to Zoroasters one (Jews have very similar doctrine in the Old Testament). God may be only one, also people adored different animals, for example, bull, dog. But his reform had not any results: after his death all ancient gods and cults came back and the name of Pharaoh was cursed. Zoroastrism is a religion of the ancient Iranians and it was formed separately from all main centers of the Near East civilization.Zoroastrism takes his beginning from the ancient religious beliefs of Indo-European people. The basic theory of Zoroastrism is fixed in the ancient book Avesta. Zoroastrism of Avesta it is a teaching of the prophet Zoroaster. He lived and preached in VII VI century B. C. and was contemporary of Budda and Lao-tszy. It is interesting that the Near East region did not facilitate the appearance of great religious leaders and only in the outlying areas we can see such leaders, who came from the Jewish and Iranian herdsmans tribes. The system of Zoroastrism tried to comprehend this world, understand the basis of its connections and relations. The central place in this system took Ethics and ethical principles are the main criteria of human behaviour. The basis of this religion is that everything is divided into two sides world of the Good and world of the Evil, forces of Light and kingdom of Darkness (as we know, there is the same idea in Bible). World of the Good in this dualistic system is represented by Ahura-Mazda and world of the Evil Angra-Mahniah. There is the endless war between these two beginnings. Spirits of the Good are the creative force, spirits of the Evil are the destructive force. This dualistic idea about fight between Light and Darkness had great social and ethical importance. Zoroaster called man for being better, kinder, to fight against evil forces. In hymns and poems of Avesta we can see three basic terms of the Good: Good Deed, good Thought, Justice. People should be friendly, be moderate in their thoughts and emotions, and help people. Honesty and faithfulness were extolled, stealing, scandal and crimes were blamed. The most important ethical doctrine of Zoroastrism was that the Evil and peoples sufferings depend on the behaviour of people, which can make their lives and happiness themselves. The idea of becoming clean is very important also (not only thoughts, but also physical body). Corpse was a symbol of non-purity. There was very specific tradition of funeral. There were the open towers where people left corpses and these bodies were pecked by griffons. In the process of becoming clean fire played the very important role. The rituals of Ahura-Mazda were carried out at some open places, with fire, sinning and vine. People adored not only fire but also some animals dog, bull, horse.Mythology of Zoroastrism is very interesting. There are a lot of things, which we can find in Bible. The first man was also drove out the Paradise. In this mythology also are the conceptions of the Paradise and the First sin with the mans punishment, man lost immortality. There is interesting conception about human soul after physical death, if man was very kind, he fought against evil, he would go to the Paradise. Zoroaster said: Think, say and do only good things. This conception of connection of human behaviour and his fate is usual thing for the developed religious systems. There is prophetic doctrine about the end of the world, about apocalypses and about Messiah (incarnation of Zoroaster). Judaism imitated Zoroastrism in many things. The end of the world (according to Avesta) is triumph of the Good and then world will be regenerated without diseases and death. According to Judaism world will be regenerated too in the days of Messiah. Fervent prophecies of Jewish prophets were full of ideas about Messiah, a prophet of future, who would come to save the world and the general harmony would come after that. Daniel the prophet said: The Son of mankind comes, whose Kingdom will be eternal Judaism is a religion of ancient Jews. The history of ancient Jews and process of their religion formation are known from the oldest part of Bible the Old Testament. The structure of power in the world of supernatural was similar to the power of Pharaoh. The views of such kind might have favoured the formation of the idea of monotheism. Semitic tribes were polytheistic and they worshiped different gods and spirits, believed in soul existence; that is why they could easily adopt any god from any other religion, especially if it was from the defeated tribe pantheon. It is obvious that Yahweh was one of such gods. He was a kind of patron or divine ancestor of certain kin of Jewish people. The cult of Yahweh became the main one with the course of time, having left behind the other cults and having appeared in the time light. Bible demonstrates the influence of ancient Egyptian culture on religious concepts of Jews. The comparative analysis between the Aton Gods hymn (Egypt mythology) and psalm 103 of Bible makes it plain. These two texts in similar expressions and in some contexts praise the Great Single God and the deeds of him full of wisdom. Akhenaten`s reformation had an impressive influence on the religious concepts of small people, which inhabited a territory near Egypt in the middle of II millennium B. C. So the appearance among the Jewish tribes a reformer, a prophet, a leader (depicted in the Bible under the name of Moses) is quite natural. He took out the Jews from Egypt, changed and improved their beliefs, moved Yahweh on the first plan, ascribed to him all the laws and reforms. Term paper The Old Testament consists of five books. The first book tells about the world creation, about Adam and Eve, about the first ancient Jewish patriarchs, about Joseph and Egyptian captivity. The Exhodus tells about escape of Jews from Egypt, about Moses and his conceptions and Yahweh cult formation. Leviticus is a code of religious rules, rituals and dogmas. The forth and the fifth books give historical essay of Jewish history after Egyptian captivity. The Bible was sacred book which task was to impart to readers blind beliefs into Gods importance and his miracles. Texts of the Old Testament taught the Jews the obedience to Yahweh, to the prophets, who spoke from his name. Buy custom essays But, however, the content of the Bible is not concerned about these. Its texts are full of the serious thoughts about the universe and fundamental principles of beingness, about peoples relationships, about moral, about social values. The main idea of the Old Testament is the idea that Yahweh chose the only nation the Jewish one; though the God is single for every nation (as in Zoroastrism). As a conclusion, we can say that all these religions have many common features: idealogy, attitude to the world, doctrine of behaviour. There are many differences between them also but it because of that Zoroastrism and doctrine of Akhnaten were closer to the ancient cults than Judaism. custom essay Aaron is a professional freelance writer at custom essays writing service: custom-essay.netNow he is a technical writer, advertising copywriter, & website copywriter for Custom Essay Network. 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