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[Meme Man]

Why didn't Yahweh reveal himself to the people that practiced pre-Abrahamic religions, such as Vedic Hinduism? Did he wait until several ancient religions got it wrong until deciding to make the Jews his chosen people?

As far as I know, even basic Judaism did not start until about 1200 B.C.E., which is after the formation of other religions around the world. I am not aware of any evidence that Judaism was known to Asia, for example, until at least several hundred years later. What gives?

[jimwalton]

According to the Bible, Yahweh revealed himself to the first homo-sapiens. The date of Adam and Eve is unknown, but it's certainly not 4000 BC or 6000 BC. You can read read about YHWH Elohim in Genesis 2, so he was around (and so was belief in him) long before Abraham (see also John 8.58).

By the time we get to Genesis 4, there are "plenty" (not sure how many) of people on the planet. Yahweh is distinctly around in Genesis 4, and 4.26 lets us know that people were calling in his name, therefore Yahwism was around long before Abraham.

Yahweh is around at the time of the flood (unknown when that was, but most likely before 10,000 or even 20,000 BC).

The Tower of Babel can be dated within the range of 3000-2000 BC, and YHWH was around then (Gn. 11.5ff.).

Abraham is traditionally dated at around 2000 BC (plus or minus), and that's when YHWH calls him out from among others to create a people for himself.

Was the knowledge of him available to other nations? Possibly. According to the Bible (Genesis 10), some of the names of the people groups could easily include what we now know as Europe, Africa, and Asia:

Gomer: Probably Russians, possibly Germans
Javan: Greeks
Gog, Tubal, Meshech: Probably Russians
Cush: Ethiopia (possibly Arabia)
Mizraim: Egypt
Lehabites: Libya
Sinites: Possibly China

Lots of others. I won't bother to go through them all, but you can see how peoples from the 3 continents are possibly mentioned here. So very possibly these people did have access to knowledge about YHWH, but chose to create and follow other belief systems. All before Abraham.