Take the 2-minute tour ×

The jews do not prolyselytes at all.

In fact, originally, Yahweh, is Jewish national god. Jewish scripture almost never claim unambiguously that Yahweh is god of all beings. He never complains about non jews worshiping other gods.

The Chinese, the mongol, have their own supreme God.

So why jewish God suddenly got 3 billions followers while other gods don't sell.

share|improve this question

closed as unclear what you're asking by Mark C. Wallace, Drux, Felix Goldberg, Kobunite, Pieter Geerkens Mar 2 at 13:06


What supreme god does the Mongols and Chinese have? A better example is probably Zoroastrianism, which does have a supreme god, but isn't very proselytizing. –  Lennart Regebro Mar 1 at 12:57
Equating the Jewish god with the god of Christianity is convenient for your question, but are they really perceived as the same e.g. by the respective believers. I rather doubt it. –  Drux Mar 1 at 13:32
@Drux I think it is generally known in both communities that it's the same God, yes. If this is the case with Muslims, I don't know. –  Lennart Regebro Mar 1 at 16:11
@JimThio I think that is a complete misrepresentation of botgh Chinese religion and the status of the Chinese emperor. –  Lennart Regebro Mar 1 at 16:12
@LennartRegebro IMHO nothing is "known" (as opposed to believed) about god(s) :) –  Drux Mar 1 at 16:25

1 Answer 1

up vote 3 down vote accepted

It's not so "suddenly", it was a process spanning 2000 years and two major religions. But it is possible to make a quick summary of why:

The Jewish religion created two "spin-offs" Christianity and Islam, that ended up being the official religion of two empires, the Roman and the Umayyad Empire.

Both these religions were very proselyting, making it of the highest importance to convert people so they could be saved for an afterlife. In Christianity's case this even excused converting people by force, as the afterlife often was seen as more important than this life.

The Muslim empires ruled large parts of the world up until the end of the 19th century, and although not always intensely proselyting, at the very minimum you were encouraged to convert as this would get you lower taxes.

The Roman empire did split quite soon after becoming officially Christian, but the various shifting empires the followed in Europe spread Christianity throughout Europe. And then, by mostly luck, a European happened upon the gold-rich and easily conquered Americas, instantly making Europe wealthy and kick-starting several Christian Empires bent on conquering and converting the world.

As a result, the highly regional god Yahweh has become the most widely worshiped god on the planet.

share|improve this answer
Only 2,000 years. My Old Testament must be out of date! –  Pieter Geerkens Mar 1 at 15:05
@PieterGeerkens The point being that expansion and proselyting got started with Christianity. –  Lennart Regebro Mar 1 at 16:13
I learned that Jews were proselytizing in Babylon Here's some people arguing about the issue: judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/17635/… Proselytizing is spreading the religion through persuasion. A better answer might address also why this DIDNT happen in Asia. There are many more people there and if they had one faith it would still outnumber or rival the Christians. I think thats the question thats being asked by the OP. –  Razie Mah Mar 1 at 18:19
@RazieMah But you have to admit that there aren't many Jews in Babylon today, so from todays perspective that proselyting isn't very important for the question. :-) –  Lennart Regebro Mar 1 at 19:08
@LennartRegebro The Jews are small religion but its enduring. The people they convert stay Jewish. The Babylonian religion is a dead religion, built completely on geography and empire, like most religions honestly. The Jews in Babylon learned to be Jewish anywhere without a Jewish state. I think religions that don't require a "state" spread. This question is rather complicated when i think about... –  Razie Mah Mar 1 at 20:05
