Ancient Egypt and Ancient Israel

Ancient Egypt and Ancient Israel

The ancient Egyptians and ancient Israelites civilization are two of the oldest known civilizations in the world's history. Although ancient Egypt and ancient Israel are geographically close to each other, their religions are literally two opposites, and it affected their culture extremely. Ancient Israel and ancient Egypt were similar in the rights granted to women; however, Israel's religion was conservative and monotheistic while Egypt on the other hand was opulent and polytheistic.

The Israelites believed in only one god, Yahweh. They believed Yahweh rescued them under the leadership of Moses from slavery and oppression in Egypt. Yahweh led them through the wilderness of Sinai to a land of their own. Even though they believed in one god, many Israelites were attracted to the ecstatic rituals of the Canaanite storm-god Baal and the fertility goddess Asherah. In contrast to ancient Israel, Egypt on the other hand had of polytheistic beliefs and rituals. The practice of Egyptian religion was basically to provide for the gods and gaining their favor. Formal religious practices were mostly done on pharaohs. They believed in after death; they thought that after someone died, they went to the kingdom of the underworld. Ancient Egyptians worshipped over one thousand gods, most of them being animals or half human half animal. The most important god was Ra, who was the sun god; other gods were Sobek, Baslet, Thoth, Oris, and Alen. The Egyptians held festivals for their gods and they built fabulous temples for them known as the pyramids.

Throughout history, women have faced many struggles with equality. Ancient Israelite women and ancient Egyptian women were both equal to men. However, their equalities were different in the way that Egyptians women were respected and loved by their husband while Israelites women were married out of obligation. Both Egyptian and Israelite women lived with limitations; they were both domestic servants to their husbands and both of these civilizations women's primary roles were to manage household affairs. Israelites and Egyptians women sure did have jobs but since they could not work in the government, they were mostly singers, dancers, or prostitutes.

Both Israel and Egypt are known to be one of the best traders of their time, however even though they were both into trading, there were certain differences in the way they traded. The Egyptians had the Nile River and they mostly produced agricultural products. The Israelites had harder, harsher climates that they had to face and they focused on the development of commerce and merchants was the reason why the Israelites had to develop a complex trade routes than the Egyptians.

The two civilizations were very similar with their social lives. Both civilizations had an upper class that was kings and landowners and each of the upper class people