Many wandering Hebrew Tribes came from the desert and found settlement in Canaan. They had their own national God, Jehovah, as did the races of people around them. Based on certain traditions is how they accounted for their origin and the manner in which Jehovah became their national God. “Jehovah is the Latinized rendering of the name of the God of Israel. It arose among Christians in the Middle Ages through the combination of the consonants YHWH (JHVH) with vowels of Adonai (“My Lord”)” though altogether their religious faith and observances were much the same as the other nations that surrounded them.
Over time they absorbed many of the religious customs and beliefs from these nations—even to making pilgrimages to the sacred tombs of long dead Canaanites. After many years, such customs grew into law and legends were made into history. The first authentic records known, they practiced a religion to their God, Jehovah, which is similar to other nations nearby regarding their gods.
Biblical Books, up to the Sixth Century B.C. did not exist in anything like their present form. To get a true account of the history of that time is difficult because later writers who projected their own ideas into past events manipulated the Books in their present form. However, by the Eighth century B.C. we have compositions that belong to that century itself and from that period onward there are records to assist us in understanding the history of those times.
It was the Prophets who first saw the need to began the purification of the religious concepts of Israel by teaching a higher truth. Before this higher truth teaching, Israelites had an abstract, intangible belief, but it remained for the Prophets to make it a practical religion. The Code of Deuteronomy was prepared a short time before the 18th year of the reign of Josiah, and it was said to have been discovered in the Temple. (2 Kings 23:24) This code does not, therefore, belong to the age of Moses, though it is represented as coming directly from him. Maybe this was done because Moses, being such an important influence, and by saying that it came from him, it was given a higher endorsement than if coming from the Prophets of the day.
Maybe Israel, through a mere natural custom, is often the most superstitious, to a Codified Law with Divine sanctions. On the other hand, drawn from the Books of the Old Testament shows a development, too, but it is a story that covers only the highlights, the general outline of the story that those writers wanted to tell. The references considered “side issues”, generally accepted customs and practices and beliefs, were left out of the Biblical account, unless they conformed to the wishes of the writers of those Books. The first five Books of the Bible is an account of what later writers believed, and the early history must have been their views and reflects their times.
If this was the modern theory of its day, we can now understand why there is a threshold to how long Christians can entertain any belief not held by them. What must the future hold? God is the God of mankind, it is our responsibility to find common ground with those we have commonality, and forgive one another.
(Isaiah 2:6) “We are told the Lord has rejected you because you welcome foreigners from the East who practice magic and communicate with evil spirits, as the Philistines do.”
2 Kings 23:24
New International Version
24 “Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the Lord.”
2 Kings 23:24
King James Version
24 “Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the Lord.”
2 Kings 23:24
Living Bible
24 “Josiah also exterminated the mediums and wizards, and every kind of idol worship, both in Jerusalem and throughout the land. For Josiah wanted to follow all the laws that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the Temple.”
John 20:19-23
New International Version
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” ”
John 20:19-23
King James Version
19 “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
20 And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.”
John 20:19-23
Living Bible
19 “That evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors, in fear of the Jewish leaders, when suddenly Jesus was standing there among them! After greeting them, 20 he showed them his hands and side. And how wonderful was their joy as they saw their Lord!
21 He spoke to them again and said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and told them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you refuse to forgive them, they are unforgiven.” ”
2 Kings 17:33
New International Version
33 “They worshiped the Lord, but they also served their own gods in accordance with the customs of the nations from which they had been brought.”
2 Kings 17:33
King James Version
33 “They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.”
2 Kings 17:33
Living Bible
33 “But they continued to follow the religious customs of the nations from which they came.”
Isaiah 2:6
New International Version
The Day of the Lord
6 “You, Lord, have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. They are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and embrace pagan customs.”
Isaiah 2:6
King James Version
6 “Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.”
Isaiah 2:6
Living Bible
6 “The Lord has rejected you because you welcome foreigners from the East who practice magic and communicate with evil spirits, as the Philistines do.”