Adam and Eve had 3 sons. Take all the time you need.
Adam and Eve had 3 sons. Take all the time you need.
The actual original stated history near the start of the religion is that Adam and Eve weren't the "first people" to exist, just the first Jewish/Christian people created by God. Since it was common belief and understanding at the time that other gods also existed from the other religions and created their own peoples.
Judaism was monotheistic only in regards to following a single god, but it fully recognized other existences in a much larger pantheon.
It was only later that Jewish and Christian scholars denigrated the existence of other gods to be "demons" worshipped by pagans and thus lower than the "one true god" and all that nonsense.
Jew checking in, can confirm. You can even see evidence of this in the modern translation.
“Thou shalt have no god before me” doesn’t say anything about after
Ignoring the fact that many of the ten sayings are mistranslated. “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” is actually the second saying in Jewdaism.
However, your view is correct. It is a prohibition on Idolatry. Many of the proto-Jews probably still worshipped other, singular gods from other religions and this was a means to get everyone on the same track. It was probably created the same time the idea of the LORD/YHWH was formed around 800BCE
Which is a point I never see theist mention. It doesn’t say that there are no other gods. It says I am the one you are going to pray to. It doesn’t say that because the population didn’t believe it. They “knew” that there were other gods.
The Bible first chapters are so much different if you just admit what the text is telling you.
Proto Jewdism was highly influenced by Egyptian religion. Many themes and plots being pulled from there. It wasn’t until these proto-Jews spent time around Zoroastrianism that the religion really took its modern form.
There is evidence of proto-Jews worshiping other gods but there is no evidence of worship of more than one God though.