From what other mythologies did the Hebrews/Israelites piece together their mythology?

Question

From what other mythologies did the Hebrews/Israelites piece together their mythology?

Answer 1

All the mythologies in ancient times were based on multiple gods and goddesses.

By stark contrast the earliest writings of the monotheistic Hebrew religion was completely unique.

Answer 2

um... they didn't. they don't have a mythology. actually, if you do some real research and check into the historical facts, you will see that there is more archaelogical evidence in favor of the Bible than most people are willing to admit.  

Answer 3

Look up information on Sumerian mythology, the Mesopotamians were the earliest to develop a myth of beliefs about the beginning of the world and the flood.  Also in the story of Gilgamesh (which is one of the earliest story/poems ever written) it tells of a man named Utnapishtim, who was the survivor of the Great Flood.  He is very similar to the Hebrew's Noah.  

Sumerian mythology gets a little weird in that they believed that the first gods that created the human race were shape-shifting lizards.  

All this being said, Sumerian mythology pre-dates Hebrew/Israelite beliefs & mythology.  It is the earliest known mythological groups.  Sumer is one of the earliest civilizations ever recorded even pre-dating Sodom & Gomorrah and Jericho.

Edit:  LunaCity is wrong, there have been excavations and archealogical digs that have proven the existence of Sumer as the earliest civilization.  Hello, does anyone ever remember reading about the Crescent Valley - Mesopotamia in grade school.  The capital city was Sumer.  There are tons of evidence just look it up.  This is where present day Iraq & Iran is.  I'm sorry, but LunaCity is wrong.

Answer 4

That's a really interesting question. I don't think anyone knows.

It's sort of un-PC to try to analyze the roots of an existing religion. We can get away with it for the Greeks and Romans, because they are dead religions, but try telling a Christian that "Oh that virgin birth thing really comes from such-and-such myth...". Same thing for Judaism.

The monotheism migrated to them from the Zoroastrians. But the stories of Adam and Eve and the Flood, were probably descended from other pre-existing near-eastern pagan religions.

Unfortunately, we don't really know that much about the ancient pagan religions in the region, since the temples and shrines were destroyed during the rise of Islam and their practice was suppressed. Particularly in Saudi Arabia, it would probably be impossible to get permission to even attempt an archeological expedition to study pre-Islamic religious sites.