Answer to Question 1
In early Mesopotamia, Hebrews forged the fundamentals of their faith: monotheism, the belief in a single, all-powerful creator-god, and the renewal of the covenant binding them to their god in exchange for divine protection.
Although monotheism first appeared a bit earlier, in the worship of the sun god Aten as more powerful than all the other Egyptian gods, Hebrew monotheism differed in that the Hebrews perceived Yahweh as the one and only god. Moreover, as Supreme Creator, Yahweh did not descend from nature or from other gods, but preceded the physical universe. Unlike the Babylonian universe, described as spontaneously generated and perpetually chaotic, the Hebrew Creation was divinely planned and invested with moral order by a benevolent, all-knowing Being. Finally, in contrast to the Babylonian world, where squabbling gods made human beings their servants, the Hebrew universe was the gift given by its Creator to his supreme creation: humankind.
The Hebrew belief system stands apart from other ancient concepts of divine power in its focus on ethics and morals. Ethical monotheism,the veneration of a single god as moral monitor, was unique in the ancient world. Its practice dignified individual moral judgment and became the most lasting of the Hebrew contributions to world culture.
Answer to Question 2
A
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