Everything has a beginning. Many times the older a thing, idea, concept, thought or practice is the more difficult it becomes to access its true origins. When it comes to the idea of God or gods this is especially true.
God(s) have been around, at least as long as human civilization has existed. Humans, by nature, are a curious lot who come out of the womb asking that one important question — “Why?” It is a part of humanity’s genetic code and there is no getting around it. We want to know and that means asking questions, especially those with seemingly unknowable answers, and we don’t like that. Therefore, when confronted with that ultimate question, “Where did all this, including myself, come from and why?” Well, the answers will be endless according to our time and place in the herald of history. Keeping that in mind here is a brief list of "Godheads" beginning with the first known human civilization up to our current period in the early 21st Century CE. Whatever was thought about and practiced by those peopling the planet before 7000 BCE is anybody’s guess since before and immediately after the Younger Dryas period (pre/post-deluge) remains a total mystery, even though we have certain evidence (Gobekli Tepi) that their existed a grand civilization prior to the Great Flood of antiquity.
I am of the opinion that all myths, legends and tales have their origins in some kind of perceived fact or actual experience lived by those in the past. Over time and distance those facts become immersed in the lore of those carrying it along, gets expanded with new names, places while the crux of the story remains the same. The same can be said of the idea of God, gods or divine beings.
Who was this God, gods or divine beings will depend on the storyteller, however, as stated earlier everything has a beginning. Our journey begins in the first post-Flood empire that came to be known as Sumeria. From that point on their story has become the foundation upon which every basic idea of a God or gods has arisen and while all began as pantheistic, all save two have evolved into a type of trinitarian point of view. In our society of today (2023 CE) nearly all current religions, save two (Judaism and Islam), have maintained this trinitarian idea or a polytheistic viewpoint, e.g. Hinduism.
Let us look at how it all began: (Please note that all these are polytheistic in their inception and can sometimes be interchangeable depending on the region and dates).
[All Dates are Approximate and Empires May Overlap]
Sumerian Empire: 5000 - 1750 BCE
Head of the Pantheon is Anu (An)
The main two under him are his sons Enki and Enlil
Egyptian Empire: 3100 - 30 BCE
The Head of the Pantheon is Ra
Under him are Thoth (Ptah) and Osiris
Hindu/Indian Empire: 2500 BCE - 2023 CE
The Head of the Pantheon is Krishna
Under him are Vishnu and Shiva. Also included is Shakti, the feminine creative force or energy. All these within Hinduism are interchangeable depending on the era and region.
Akkadian Empire: 2334 - 2154 BCE
Head of the Pantheon is An
Under him are his two sons Ea (Enki) and Enlil
Hittite Empire: 1600 - 1300 BCE
Head of the Pantheon is Anu
Under him are Alalu (Enki) and Kumarbi (Enlil)
Babylonian/Persian Empire: 1220 - 334 BCE
Head of the Pantheon is Marduk, aka Bel (son of Enki and grandson of Anu who displaced Anu from his seat of power)
The two under him are Nannar/Sin and Utu/Shamash (Enlil)
Assyrian Empire: 900 - 600 BCE
The Head of the Pantheon is Ashur
Under him are Sin and Adad
Canaanite then Israeli Empire: 1250 - 586 BCE/1948-2023CE
The Head of the Pantheon is El
Under him are his two sons Baal and Y-H-V-H (Yahweh)
Eventually Y-H-V-H won the day and by the end of the Babylonian Exile rose to be the only God worshipped in Judaism under the tutelage of Ezra the Scribe, Zerubbabel the architect and Nehemiah the politician.
Greek Empire: 1200 - 323 BCE
The Head of the Pantheon is Zeus
Under him are Poseidon and Ares
Roman Empire: 753 BCE - 305 CE
The Head of the Pantheon is Jove (Jupiter)
Under him are Apollo and Mars
Norse/Germanic (Viking) Empire: 500 BCE - 700 CE
The Head of the Pantheon is Odin
Under him are his two sons Loki (Enki) and Thor (Enlil)
Ottoman Empire: 1250 - 1850 CE
Only one God named Allah
Western Empires — Holy Roman/Spanish/British/American — AKA the Christian Empire: 305 - 2023 CE
The Head of the Pantheon is the Father
Under him yet somehow co-equal are the Son (aka Jesus) and the Ruach (aka the Holy Spirit)
What each of these religious ideologies have in common is their starting place — the Sumerian pantheon of gods. While the names and roles of each have changed over thousands of years the basic concept(s) have remained the same.
The real question isn’t Why? But - How? How did these ancient Sumerians who gave us the first known writing, forms of government, agriculture, religion, book-keeping, commerce, etc; that we continue practicing today; how did they come up with this whole worldview of gods and goddesses to explain not only the unexplainable but those things beyond their scientific understanding of the time?
