The history of Judaism

Question 1

The history of Judaism

Answer 1

• ancient Israelites’ entire mode of existence was affected by their belief that throughout history they stood in a unique relationship with the divine

Question 2

Nature and characteristics

Answer 2

• assimilated foreign elements and integrated them into their own social and religious systems, thus maintaining an unbroken religious and cultural tradition
• various teachings of Judaism have often been regarded as specifications of the central idea of monotheism
• affirmed a God who created and rules the entire world and who at the end of history will redeem all Israel (the classical name for the Jewish people), all humankind, and indeed the whole world
• Law embraces practically all domains of Jewish life, and it became the principle means by which Judaism was to bring about the reign of God on earth

Question 3

Periodization

Answer 3

• the first fall of Jerusalem (586 bce) the ancient “Israelitic” religion gave way to a new form of the “Jewish” faith, or Judaism, as formulated by the reformer Ezra (5th century bce) and his school
• Most Jews share a long-accepted notion that there never was a real break in continuity and that Mosaic-prophetic-priestly Judaism was continued, with only a few modifications, in the work of the Pharisaic and rabbinic sages well into the modern period.
• history of Judaism can be divided into the following major periods: biblical Judaism (c. 20th–4th century bce), Hellenistic Judaism (4th century bce–2nd century ce), Rabbinic Judaism (2nd–18th century ce), and modern Judaism (c. 1750 to the present).