Quote Originally Posted by Kellen Bassette View Post
Orthodox Judaism pretty much implies the Pharisees...they more or less won out between the competing sects. Polytheism still existed among the Jewish people even at the time of Jesus, but of course that was not compatible with mainstream YHWH worship.

There were many other wandering teachers, but obviously the lasting impact of Jesus is hard to compare with most of the others. It's incredible really, how the teachings of the gurus/prophets of the major religions are still so pertinent in world events, thousands of years later.
People tend to confuse current monotheistic views with that the people of the ANE thought of monotheistic.
Monotheistic jews would have regard ONE creator God, YHWH, and any number of lesser gods ( the Sons of God).
The notion of there being only ONE God ( as opposed to One God to worship or One supreme God) would have been totally alien to ANE Jews.
The bible is clear that not only did other God exist BUT that the nations of the world ( other than Israel) were given up to them because they chose to worship them than YHWH.