What were the most major/prominent religions of the world before the birth of Christianity?

[Anonymous]

[Lliam]

There were no "prominent" religions prior to the Holy Roman Empire in Europe that was spread mostly by force. It was later spread to new lands like Africa and the Americas during the period of exploration and colonialism that began in the late 15th century.

Even Judaism was confined to one small group of people in a tiny part of the world. They were the first ones who tried to impose their religion by force and exclude others.

But many religions existed prior to Christianity.
Think of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Ancient Greece and Rome, Celtic and Germanic religions, the Incas, Aztecs and Mayans, Pacific islanders, Africans, Asians, and indigenous people in every corner of the world.

Today, there are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, although most have relatively small, regionally based followings.

Most religions that were practiced by our ancestors have since faded away into obscurity and are now only learned about today in the pages of history textbooks or encyclopedias. However, certain faiths have stood the test of time and are still practiced by millions, even billions of people in modern times.
Hinduism 15th – 5th century BCE
Zoroastrianism 10th – 5th century BCE
Judaism 9th – 5th century BCE
Jainism 8th – 2nd century BCE
Confucianism 6th – 5th century BCE
Buddhism 6th – 5th century BCE
Taoism 6th – 4th century BCE

[strateguy632]

Before christian like in 200 bc... was greek gods. other nations had minor groups. The only "most prominent major" was greek gods. Only greek faith. But everyone realized those gods were too weak to be any god.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

Depends on where you were in the world. We have no real scale for what was prominent outside of regional histories. Obviously in the Roman Empire, the Roman polytheistic pantheon was the dominant religion as all other religions were outlawed. In India, Hinduism was and still is a very popular and ancient religion that is also polytheistic. Egypt still had their pantheon of gods, Japan had Shintoism, the Gaelic tribes had their pantheons and so on and so forth.

[oldpigg]

Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Zoroastrianism.

[strateguy632]

The first 3 even predicted jesus. Budha said "500 years". Mahabharta named god "isa" one who does all the divine jobs maintain and destroy, and judaism has the prophecy you know isaiah jeremiah.

[nicfire171]

Judaism and paganism. Mostly Baal worship at least in the Middle East.

[strateguy632]

If you go back that far.

[jshm2]

Judaism, and paganism, mainly.

[jahaims]

Look it up

[Anonymous]

Judaism