Soon the idea of many gods was eclipsed by the rebirth of monotheism. Previously, this was tried during the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaton’s reign. He was considered an innovator by most standards but his enlightenment only lasted his lifetime. Upon his death polytheism was accepted once more. And monotheism did not come into being again until around 742 BCE when, some believe, a member of the Judean family had a vision of Yahweh in the temple which King Solomon had built in Jerusalem. Whether these are actual facts or theories is still fodder for debate but there can be no arguing that a single god found his way into mankind at approximately this date.
And, it is believed, this new Yahweh of the Axial Age was not just a tribal deity who was biased toward one or another tribe. Instead, this new god was for his glory and could no longer be confined to the Promised Land but rather spread across the east. From southern Italy to China, this rapid alteration happened and was recorded in the writings of Confucius, Zoroaster Mahavira, the authors of Hindu, Pythagoras, Lao-Tzu, Buddah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel (Stark, 2007).
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