In traditional Jewish, Christian, and Islamic thought, only those religions derived from biblical sources were considered monotheistic, with monotheism being regarded as their most basic belief. They have traditionally interpreted scriptures as exclusive monotheism.

Ancient Middle-Eastern religions may have worshipped a single god within a pantheon and the abolition of all others, as in the case of the Aten cult in the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, under the chiefly influence of the Eastern-originating Nefertiti. Iconoclasm during this pharaoh's rule is considered a chief origin for the subsequent destruction by some groups of idols, holding that no other God before the preferred deity (dually and subtly acknowledging the existence of the other gods, but only as foes to be destroyed for their drawing of attention away from the primary deity).

The Hyksos, continued an inheritance of Akhenaten's religious policies. Other issues like the Divine Right of Kings may possibly also stems from pharaonic laws on the ruler being the demigod or representative of the Creator on Earth. The massive tombs in the Egyptian pyramids which aligned with astronomical observations, exemplify this relationship between the pharaoh and the heavens and was subsequently adopted by Christian royalty by claiming a direct lease on ruling by the grace of God.

Judaism and the Hebrew Bible

Monotheism, polytheism or monism?

• Shema — 'listen' or 'hear'
• Yisrael — 'Israel', in the sense of the people or congregation of Israel
• Adonai — often translated as 'Lord', it is used in place of the Tetragrammaton
• Eloheinu — 'our God', a plural noun (sid to imply majesty rather than plural number) with a
• pronominal suffix ('our')
• Echad — 'one'

This is a declaration of the fundamental nature of God as being one whole "unity" from the suggestive plurality of the Elohim.

Gen.1:26 And Elohim said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Elohim is morphologically plural in form in Hebrew, but generally takes singular agreement when it refers to the God of Israel (so the verb meaning "said" in this verse is wayyomer ויאמר with singular inflection, and not wayyomru ויאמרו with plural inflection), and yet in this case the "our" and "us" seems to create a presumption of plurality.

The Kabbalah or mystical sect of Judaism considers God being one or "Echad" to be a unity of the three sepherot of Kether, Hokhmah and Binah which are considered the Jewish version of the Trinity which is found in the Zohar.

This is similar to the monistic conceptualization of God rather than a definitive exclusive monotheistic God.

Monotheistic interpretations

However, the Hebrew Bible teaches that, at Creation, and Eve knew God (and so did their descendants) but that over the ages, God and his name were forgotten. This is how one of the most important Jewish sages, Maimonides describes the process in his work the Mishneh Torah:

In the days of Enosh mankind made a huge error..they reasoned that since the Lord created the stars and the heavenly spheres and placed them in the skies giving them great significance, and they serve before Him, it is therefore fitting to praise and elevate them and give them honor believing this to be the Lord's will to honor that which He makes great and honorable..The people then built altars to worship the stars and to praise and bow down to them..and this was the essence of idol worship (avoda zara)..After a few generations false prophets arose and said that the Lord had actually commanded people to worship the stars..and they built images in their honor..spreading these false images by building them in gathering places, under trees, on tops of hills, and in valleys, gathering people who bowed down to them declaring: 'Such and such an image brings good or bad luck and therefore fear it'..after a number of generations, the Divine Name was completely forgotten..until the mighty one (Abraham), began to question this in his mind and asked 'How could it be that the heavenly sphere moves without a Mover behind it? because it is impossible that it moves itself', and he had no teacher and no-one to inform him for he lived in Ur of the Chaldees surrounded by foolish idol worshippers..He (Abraham) subsequently arose and made it known to the people that there is only one Lord in the entire world and that only He should be worshipped, gathering people from city to city and kingdom to kingdom until he came to the land of Canaan calling out as it says: '[Abraham] planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called in the name of God, Lord of the Universe (El olam). (Genesis 21:33)' (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Sefer Mada ("Book of Knowledge"), Chapter 1, Hilchos Avodah Zarah ("Laws of [forbidden] idol worship"). Hebrew text)

Judaism claims to have an important advantage over all other religions because its earliest history, beliefs, laws, and practices are preserved and taught in the Torah and Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) which provides the clearest textual source for the rise and development of what is named Judaism's ethical monotheism which means that:

(1) There is one God from whom emanates one morality for all humanity. (2) God's primary demand of people is that they act decently toward one another..The God of ethical monotheism is the God first revealed to the world in the Hebrew Bible. Through it, we can establish God's four primary characteristics:

1. God is supranatural.
2. God is personal.
3. God is good.
4. God is holy.

..in the study of Hebrew history: Israel's monotheism was an ethical monotheism.

When Moses returned with the Ten Commandments. The first stated that "you shall have no other gods before me" (Exodus 20:3). Furthermore, Israelites recite the Shema Yisrael ("Hear O' Israel") which partly says, "Hear, O' Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." Monotheism was and is the central tenet of the Israelite and the Jewish religion.

Christian view

Islamic view

Transliteration wa-lillahi l-mašriqu wal-maġribu fāynamā tuwallū faṯamma wağhu allahi inna Allaha wasi‘un ‘alīmun

Translation To Allah belong the east and the west: whithersoever ye turn, there is the presence of Allah. For Allah is all-pervading, all-knowing.

From the above, we can see that--like Judaism and Christianity--the Qur'an's interpretation of God is that of a being whose spiritual presence is experienced in the universe. Islam has a simple expression of monotheism. The Arabic word for monotheism is TawhidTawhīd means 'unification', i.e. to unify or to keep something unified. The Shahadah (الشهادة), or the Islamic creed, is the declaration of belief in the unity of God (Allah in Arabic) and the prophethood of Muhammad. Its recitation is considered one of the Five Pillars of Islam by Sunni Muslims. When sincerely stated aloud, one is considered to have officially declared oneself a convert to Islam. The (salaat) in Islam, for example, involve explicit monotheistic testimony. Islam declares the "Unity of God" as their primary teaching. Furthermore, Islam considers Christianity's Trinity as a distortion of Jesus's original teaching after the fact.

Source of Abrahamic religions

Can there be different types of monotheism?

• Theism a term that refers to the belief in the existence of a god or divine being.
• Deism is a form of monotheism in which it is believed that one god exists. However, a deist rejects the idea that this god intervenes in the world. Hence any notion of special revelation is impossible, and the nature of god can only be known through reason and observation from nature. A deist thus rejects the miraculous, and the claim to knowledge made for religious groups and texts.
• Monistic Theism is the type of monotheism found in Hinduism and in the scriptures of the semitic religions. The long time Monistic interpretation of Hindu scriptures is different from the interpretation of Semitic scriptures which claim exclusive monotheism as it encompasses pantheism, monism, and at the same time includes the concept of a personal God as an universal, omnipotent supreme being. The other types of monotheism are qualified monism, the school of Ramanuja or Vishishtadvaita, which admits that the universe is part of God, or Narayana, a type of panentheism, but there is a plurality of souls within this supreme Being and Dvaita, which differs in that it is dualistic, as God is separate and not panentheistic.
• Pantheism holds that the Universe itself is God. The existence of a transcendent supreme extraneous to nature is denied. Depending on how this is understood, such a view may be presented as tantamount to atheism, deism or theism.
• Panentheism, or Monistic Monotheism, is a form of theism that holds that God contains, but is not identical to, the Universe. The One God is omnipotent and all-pervading, the universe is part of God, and God is both Immanent and Transcendent. This is also the view of Process theology and also Vishistadvaita Vedanta Hinduism. According to this school, from Ramanuja, the universe is part of God but God is not equal to the universe but in fact transcends it as well. However, unlike
• Process theology, God in Vishistadvaita Vedanta Hinduism is omnipotent. Panentheism is thought of as "God is within the universe as the soul is within the body".

  Substance monotheism, found e.g. in some indigenous African religions, holds that the many gods are different forms of a single underlying substance, and that this underlying substance is God. This view has vague similarities to the Christian trinitarian view of three persons sharing one nature.

Comparison to polytheism

Monotheism can be divided into different types on the basis of its attitude towards polytheism: inclusive monotheism claims that all polytheistic deities are just different names for the single monotheistic God; Smartism, a denomination of Hinduism, follows this belief and holds that God is one but has different aspects and can be called by different names (this belief dominate the view of Hinduism in the West); exclusive monotheism, on the other hand, claims that these deities are false and distinct from the one God, either invented, demonic, or simply incorrect, as Vaishnavism, a denomination of Hinduism, regards the worship of anyone other than Vishnu. Exclusive monotheism is a well-known tenet in the beliefs of the Abrahamic religions.

See also Jewish eschatology