💾 Archived View for scholasticdiversity.us.to › religious_literacy › judaism.gmi captured on 2024-05-10 at 10:32:22. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2024-03-21)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Judaism is a monotheistic religion that develops out of Ancient Near Eastern polytheism, moves from polytheism to monolatry by worshipping the god Yahweh (considered part of the Ancient Near Eastern Pantheon) over other gods (who are still believed to exist), and eventually undergoes drastic changes in Theology and practice after 586 BCE, when the Neo-Babylonians take over Judah, destroy the first Temple in Jerusalem, and exile the Israelites to Babylonia.
In Babylonia, they interact with Zoroastrianism, which was monotheistic at the time. During this time, many of their already-developed stories and texts are edited and revised in light of the fall of Judah and the start of the Diaspora in order to explain these events through a new perspective on the past. They do this by compiling and editing (redacting) these stories, which become the Torah and Deuteronomistic History (Genesis to II Kings, excluding Ruth), in a way that shows the cycle of sin and repentance of the people. This cycle of sin and repentance explained Theologically the reasons for the destruction of the Temple and the Diaspora at the time. This is also when we see a clear shift, particularly shown in the Prophets, away from the Temple and Sacrificial practices, especially now that the Temple is destroyed and unusable.
One other important development during this time was the shift from a God that is limited to a place, and might have been thought to be inferior to the god(s) of the conquerors (as was usual for the time), to a God that uses the conquerors to punish the people. This is what allowed the people to continue their belief and practice when usually they might have assimilated to the conqueror's religion, and this is what furthered the development of monotheism and an all-powerful universal God within Judaism.
In 539-538 BCE, when Cyrus became King of Babylonia (after the Persian Empire in 559 BCE), he declared a position of religious toleration, and so allowed Jews to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. This becomes the Second Temple. Later, when Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah are written, this is portrayed as a fulfilment of prophecy (particularly of Jeremiah) when God has forgiven the people and allowed them to return. Ezra 1:4 suggests that some Jews stayed behind in Babylonia/Persia.