Ancient Semitic religions

thumb|Mandaic language|Mandaic [[incantation bowl from Southern Mesopotamia c. 200–600 CE – Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada]] Mandaeism (Classical Mandaic: ), sometimes also known as Nasoraeanism or Sabianism, is a Gnostic, Dualistic and ethnic religion with Greek, Iranian, and Jewish influences. Its adherents, the Mandaeans, revere Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Noah, Shem, Aram, and especially John the Baptist. Mandaeans consider Adam, Seth, Noah, Shem, and John the Baptist to be prophets, with Adam being the founder of the religion and John being the greatest and final prophet.

Samaritanism (; ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Samaritan people, who often prefer to be called Israelite Samaritans. Samaritans originated from the Hebrews and Israelites and began to emerge as a relatively distinct group after the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the Iron Age. Keeping the Patriarchal and Mosaic covenant as specified in the Samaritan Torah (Biblical Hebrew: תּוֹרָה, 'Law') is central to the Samaritans' continuity as an Indigenous Heritage in the Holy L

group of ancient Semitic religions

Yahwism, also known as the Israelite religion, was the ancient Semitic religion of ancient Israel and Judah and the ethnic religion of the Israelites. The Israelite religion was a derivative of the Canaanite religion and a polytheistic religion that had a pantheon with various gods and goddesses. The primary deity of the religion and the head of the pantheon was Yahweh, the national god of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. The majority of scholars hold that the goddess Asherah was the consort of Yahweh, though some scholars disagree. Below this divine pair were secondary gods and goddesses, su

Polytheistic religions of the Semitic peoples

religion in Ancient Carthage

Ancient tale from Ugarittic religion

thumb|Gilded statuette of El (deity)|El from [[Ugarit, Father of the gods; explains the origin of the word Ilah.]]

An aretalogy (), from ἀρετή (aretḗ, “virtue”) + -logy,or aretology (from ancient Greek aretê, "excellence, virtue") in the strictest sense is a narrative about a divine figure's miraculous deeds where a deity's attributes are listed, in the form of poem or text, in the first person. The equivalent term in Sanskrit is ātmastuti. There is no evidence that these narratives constituted a clearly defined genre but there exists a body of literature that contained praise for divine miracles. These literary works were usually associated with eastern cults.

Ugaritic epic legend

overview of ancient religious practices in the modern-day Middle East

Adon () literally means "lord." Adon has an uncertain etymology, although it is generally believed to be derived from the Ugaritic ad, “father.”

A nefesh (from ; , nefashot) is a Semitic funerary monument typically placed near a grave, intended to be seen from a distance as a visible marker of the deceased.

biblical source criticism theory