By the beginning of the 2nd century, the influence of the Hellenistic Age in Judaea was quite strong; indeed, it has been argued that, if the Seleucids had not forcibly intervened in Jewish affairs, Judaean Judaism would have become even more syncretistic than Alexandrian Judaism. As a transplant of Palestinian Judaism, it asserted its historical legitimacy to the Sāsānian dynasty (224-651), who protected Jewish practices against interference from fanatical Magian priests, and to native Jewish officials, who argued for the validity of indigenous Babylonian deviations from Palestinian norms. The early Mesopotamian religions did not have a law to follow or a Holy Book to follow. [2], Although plainer when compared with some of the learned literary creations of Mesopotamia, Canaan, and Egypt, the earliest biblical writings are so imbued with contemporary ancient Middle Eastern elements that the once-held assumption that Israelite religion began on a preliterate level must be rejected. Two centuries later in 330 BC the Macedonian Greek emperor Alexander the Great overthrew the Persians and took control of Mesopotamia itself. [4], The religious development of Mesopotamia and Mesopotamian culture in general was not particularly influenced by the movements of the various peoples into and throughout the area, particularly the south. By the seventh century, the demographic and intellectual center of Jewish life had moved from the Land of Israel to Mesopotamia (and, to a lesser extent, Persia), where roughly 75 percent of world Jewry now lived. [2] [2] Judaism | History, Beliefs, & Facts | Britannica.com, Ancient Mesopotamian religion - Wikipedia, Were the Jews Moneylenders Out of Necessity? answer! [3] Jewish scholars compiled the Babylonian Talmud starting in 474 as the spiritual codex of Judaism, transferring Judaism into a spiritual and moral movement. [2], By historical times they resided in southern Mesopotamia, which was known as Sumer (and much later, Babylonia ), and had considerable influence on the Akkadian speakers and their culture. Judaism enjoyed a heightened dignity in the eyes of the world, not only because of the creation of the State of Israel but also because of Judaism’s close relations with other world religions. Question : How did Judaism differ from the religions of Mesopotamia and Egypt? Mesopotamian religion, beliefs and practices of the Sumerians and Akkadians, and their successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians, who inhabited ancient Mesopotamia (now in Iraq) in the millennia before the Christian era. [9] Ancient Religions By: MLB As civilization has progressed through the ages, many religions have arisen and taken hold around the world, two if the most interesting, being the religious beliefs of the ancient Mesopotamian and the Greeks. [2] The old Judeo-Arabic dialect of Lower Mesopotamia in cities such as Fallujah, Baghdad, Karbala, Basra and Ramadi, and to a lesser extent the dialect of Iraqi Christians, preserve features of the older medieval language of Iraq. The large Jewish community of Antioch --which, according to Josephus, had been given all the rights of citizenship by the Seleucid founder-king, Seleucus I Nicator (died 280 bce )--attracted a particularly large number of converts to Judaism. You are a Mesopotamian living in one of the villages in the foothills. The direct antecedent to Judaism is the Temple worship in the 200 BCE-70 CE era. The Hebrews were the ancestors of the Jewish people. [14] Judaism, whether in its "normative" form or in its sectarian deviations, never completely departed from this basic ethical and historical monotheism. I spologize to any strict adherents to Judaism, to whom the clear answer is that certainly no faith can claim greater age, since their faith can be traced back to the source. [3], Most significantly, the two forms of European Judaism differed in their approaches to the identical rabbinic base that they had inherited from the East and in their attitudes to Gentile culture and politics. A number of cultural and geographical elements of Mesopotamia appear in Hebrew Culture, such as the worship of Baal and Astarte; and the cities of Ur, Babylon, and Nineveh. Jews sought to establish commonwealths in Cyrene, Cyprus, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. Women gathered to make food, clothing, and tent repairs for their camp. Monotheism in Christianity: Definition & Overview, Monotheism: Islam, Judaism & Christianity, People of the Book: Comparing Judaism, Christianity and Islam. [3] [24], These introductory essays cover most major aspects of Jewish studies from the Bible and its time up to modern Judaism. [4] The parallels are not just a figment of the imaginations of scholars. They asserted that after 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. By the seventh century, the demographic and intellectual center of Jewish life had moved from the Land of Israel to Mesopotamia (and, to a lesser extent, Persia), where roughly 75 percent of world Jewry now lived. Accustomed in Jerusalem from early times to look to the east for help, and aware, as the Roman procurator Petronius was, that the Jews of Babylon could render effectual assistance, Babylonia became with the fall of Jerusalem the very bulwark of Judaism. The local religion of Mesopotamia finds its way into Genesis indirectly, for example when Laban chased Jacob down in an attempt to get back his household gods. [4] In religious or mythological cosmology, the seven heavens refer to seven levels or divisions of Heaven. [2] Through his personal example and his life’s work, Mendelssohn made it possible for his fellow Jews to join the Western world without sacrificing their Judaism; indeed, he convinced them that Judaism is compatible with an intellectual commitment to universal reason. Ancient Mesopotamia: This History, Our History. Judaism is the complex phenomenon of a total way of life for the Jewish people, comprising theology, law, and innumerable cultural traditions. They had nomadic camps which had 25-50 people in them. [3] In the early 6th century BCE, though, this traditional idea was challenged. [3] [3] The son of Enlil and Ninlil, he was the god of thunder and of the spring rains and floods as well as the god of the plow. The people of Mesopotamia originally consisted of two groups, East Semitic Akkadian speakers (later divided into the Assyrians and Babylonians ) and the people of Sumer, who spoke a language isolate. In Mesopotamian religion, the city god of Girsu. Judaism is a development of Canaanite religion, both Indo-European and Semitic religions influenced the ancient Greek religion, and Zoroastrianism was a product of ancient Indo-Iranian religion primarily the ancient Iranian religion. [3] [4] [16], According to our tradition - and as recorded in the Torah - our ancestor Abraham was the first to recognize that there was only one true deity, and he brought his family and supporters from Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan (later, the land of Israel) three or four generations before his grandchildren and great-grandchildren moved down into Egypt, and lived there for something over two hundred years before leaving, following Moses into the Sinai desert. Judaism believes in one god and one god only. [11] Judaism was now, for all intents and purposes, a Diaspora religion, even on its home soil. The criteria used to identify dividing points in the history of the Jews and Judaism are especially notable when it comes to the start of the modern period. [2] Cyclical time is based on the idea that for everything there is a season, and that every outcome happens repeatedly. [3] [14] Mesopotamian religion finally declined with the spread of Iranian religions during the Achaemenid Empire and with the Christianization of Mesopotamia. [14] A number of written prayers have survived from ancient Mesopotamia, each of which typically exalt the god that they are describing above all others. [14] Living in the land of Canaan, situated midway between the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt at the heart of the Fertile Crescent, the ancient Hebrews were exposed to the religious cultures of multiple world powers. | Chegg.com, 9781463201562: Jewish-Christian Conversation in Fourth-Century Persian Mesopotamia (Judaism in Context) - AbeBooks - Naomi Koltun-Fromm: 1463201567. [3] Privacy Policy  | In 539 BC, Mesopotamia was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire (539-332 BC), then ruled by Cyrus the Great. Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic, worshipping over 2,100 different deities, many of which were associated with a specific state within Mesopotamia, such as Sumer, Akkad, Assyria or Babylonia, or a specific Mesopotamian city, such as; ( Ashur ), Nineveh, Ur, Nippur, Arbela, Harran, Uruk, Ebla, Kish, Eridu, Isin, Larsa, Sippar, Gasur, Ekallatum, Til Barsip, Mari, Adab, Eshnunna and Babylon. [8], Presumably, the book of Genesis has its roots in Mesopotamia from the early part of the second millennium BC. Rights Reserved. Both Babylonian rabbinical schools opened this new era for diaspora Judaism well, and the ensuing discussions in their classes furnished the earliest stratum and style of the scholarly material deposited in the Babylonian Talmud. The modern study of Mesopotamia ( Assyriology ) is still a fairly young science, beginning only in the middle of the Nineteenth century, and the study of Mesopotamian religion can be a complex and difficult subject because, by nature, their religion was governed only by usage, not by any official decision, and by nature it was neither dogmatic nor systematic. [3] [22] [3] [7] As a result of the Holocaust, Judaism has become a non-European religion; its three major centres, which together include more than three-fourths of world Jewry, are Israel, the Slavic region of the former Soviet Union, and the United States. Judaism: Important sites and regions of biblical Judaism.The family of the Hebrew patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) is depicted in the Bible as having had its chief seat in the northern Mesopotamian town of Harran--then (mid-2nd millennium BCE) belonging to the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni. By the mid-12th century, the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela discovered Jewish inhabitants almost everywhere he went, from Spain to Mesopotamia. Skeptical, non-believing scholars try to paint early Judaism as polytheistic, but there is no solid evidence for this. There were many "sympathizers" with Judaism (known as sebomenoi, "fearers of the Lord"), who observed one or more Jewish practices without being fully converted. Hebrews Culture Hebrews were nomads and lived a very simple life. These religious beliefs and practices form a single stream of tradition. In particular the societies of Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria, all of which existed shortly after 3000 BCE and were mostly gone by 400 CE. [2] [3], These works, especially Against Apion and Jewish Antiquities, are also defenses of Judaism against anti-Semitic attacks. Jews today continue to pride themselves on the fact that the "ethical monotheism" of Judaism is the basic building block of Western religion. [3] The empire fell between 612 BC and 599 BC after a period of severe internal civil war in Assyria which soon spread to Babylonia, leaving Mesopotamia in a state of chaos. Reshaping Identities in Late Antique Syria-Mesopotamia. [4] founded the faith that would become known as Judaism. From there Abraham, the founder of the Hebrew people, is said to have migrated to Canaan … Israelites originated in Mesopotamia then lived as slaves in Egypt, before escaping. [10] Judaism - Judaism - Biblical Judaism (20th–4th century bce): The Bible depicts the family of the Hebrew patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (all early 2nd millennium bce)—as having its chief seat in the northern Mesopotamian town of Harran, which then belonged to the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni. [7] [18], Judaism endowed the Jews with a uniform code of law (the Talmud), which contained myriad rabbinicaldiscussions, debates, and rulings on economic, social, communal, and religious issues; and a set of institutions (courts and the rabbinical Responsa) that fostered contract enforcement, networking, and arbitrage across distant locations. As a nation Mesopotamia corresponds to modern day Iraq, Kuwait, northeastern part of Syria, part of southeastern turkey, and some parts of southeastern Iran. [24] [5] [10] | Evidence for Christianity, What was the Jewish religion before Judaism? [2] This view was to percolate, with pitiless logic and simplicity, through Judaism into Christianity. The Letter of Aristeas, though ascribed to the Egyptian king Ptolemy II Philadelphus (308-246 bce ), was probably composed by an Alexandrian Jew about 100 bce to defend Judaism and its practices against detractors. [14] He obeyed the call of God to depart northern Mesopotamia and travel to Canaan. [17], These developments in Mesopotamia and Persia, and later in North Africa, Syria, the Iberian Peninsula, and Sicily, vastly increased the demand for literate and educated people--the very skills Jews had acquired as a spillover effect of their religious heritage of study. [14] ... Jerusalem is a site of major significance for the three largest monotheistic religions: Judaism, Islam … [3] The identity of the religions, strongly suggests that the Exiles brought back with them the Zoroastrian traditions, including the erection of a Temple, which was carried out in Mesopotamia itself, before the return of (some) of the Exiles. [3] [19] [3], His efforts made Judaism philosophically respectable and the study of philosophy a religiously acceptable pursuit. [4], Largely owing to the discoveries at Qumrān, many scholars now regard primitive Christianity, with its apocalyptic and eschatological interests, as part of a broad spectrum of attitudes within Judaism itself, rather than as peripheral to Jewish development or to the norm set by Pharisaic Judaism. When the Syrian ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes tried to prevent the practice of Judaism, a revolt was led by the Maccabees (a Jewish family), winning Jewish independence in 128 B.C. [3] Abraham was basically the father of the Jewish civilization, and he was born in the Sumerian city-state of Ur around 2000 BC. Judaism and the Egyptian religions organized their stories into days of creation, with the first day being the creation from a formless darkness of turbulent water. [21], The authors hold positions in major academic institutions throughout the United States and Israel. It was prevalent in Persia, which included much of the southern part of Mesopotamia, which is Iraq today. Beginning readers will learn the rudiments for further study, and scholars will be refreshed by the balanced, yet challenging treatments found here.These introductory essays cover most major aspects of Jewish studies from the Bible and its time up to modern Judaism. Note: Footnotes & Links provided to all original resources. [3], This book is part of a series of twelve books entitled Judaism in a Nutshell that addresses modern-day Jewish issues such as God, spirituality, holidays, and interpersonal relationships in a concise format. Judaism is a tradition grounded in the religious, ethical, and social laws as they are articulated in the Torah — the first five books of the Hebrew Bible. [4] Because historical circumstances made Babylonia the mediator of this tradition to all Jewish communities in the High Middle Ages (9th-12th centuries), the Babylonian version of Jewish religion became synonymous with normative Judaism and the measure of Judaic authenticity everywhere. In Antioch the apocryphal book of Tobit was probably composed in the 2nd century bce to encourage wayward Diaspora Jews to return to their Judaism. [3] The salient trends of Sephardic Judaism did not imply relegation of the rabbinic class to a secondary role. [2], Flood myths appear in almost every culture around the world, including cultures that never had contact with Mesopotamia. [2] [2] More than 2,500 years ago, after the destruction of the Jewish temple of Judea, Jews were originally brought to the region between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers, also known as Mesopotamia. [3] Remarkable is the conversion of the king of Adiabene to Judaism. In the fourth millennium BC, the first evidence for what is recognisably Mesopotamian religion can be seen with the invention in Mesopotamia of writing circa 3500 BC. It was a common understanding throughout the ancient world that the temple, and thereby the city, was secure so long as the temple was well-maintained and deity was pleased with the people. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all believe in the same God, and base their religions on the same text. [25] Prior to THAT - again as our traditions - and as recorded in the Torah - they were polytheists, living in Mesopotamia, with the usual set of creation and historical event stories (like "the Flood’ and "the Tower of Babel’). The eastern European immigrants who moved in large numbers to American shores from 1881 to 1914 were profoundly different in culture and manners from the older elements of the American Jewish community, and they and their descendants have made American Judaism what it is today. [3] Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenant that God established with the Children of Israel. Egyptian religion and Sumeriam worship, to name two, are almost certainly older, but I doubt there are any living adherents. Following a brief Sumerian revival with the Third Dynasty of Ur or Neo-Sumerian Empire, Mesopotamia broke up into a number of Akkadian states. This manifesto announced that Judaism was an evolutionary faith and no longer a national one, and it declared that the Mosaic and rabbinical laws regulating diet, purity, and dress were "entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state." [3] Judaism after the year 70, required both children and adults to read and to study the Torah. As the world’s oldest religion, Mesopotamian beliefs influenced the monotheistic religions that came after, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. [2], The Sumerians left the first records, and are believed to have been the founders of the civilisation of the Ubaid period (6500 BC to 3800 BC) in Upper Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia: Israelite pre-history, the legendary era of the patriarchs, and the fate of the Israelite and Judahite monarchies are inextricably linked to the rise and decline of the major empires controlling Mesopotamia. At the beginning of the 21st century, it appeared that Judaism would have to contend with as many problems as the other major religions did, but it would face them with no less confidence--and with more confidence than it had felt at the start of the previous century. Remember, Sumerians were the earliest culture that was found in Mesopotamia. [3] [24] The conflict between philosophers and anti-philosophers in Provence and northern Spain represented a clash between two mature Jewish subcultures of diverse geographic origins, the Sephardic and the Ashkenazic, each of which had in the course of centuries developed different esoteric doctrines to transcend the legalistic formalism and confining dogmas of normative Judaism. This volume presents case studies of the phenomena that contributed to group identity in late antique Syria-Mesopotamia, in particular traditions reflecting interactions between Judaism and Christianity, among various Christian groups, and among other religious traditions of late antiquity (such as Zoroastrianism or 'paganism'). [3] [3] [18] [10], Judaism appears from its inception to be a fully developed monothism, with out all the superstitions of Mesopotamian religion and the fantastic (and unbelievable) stories of gods and their petty intrigues. [3] Because he was by origin an Idumaean, he was regarded by many Jews as a foreigner. A small group of anti-Zionists remained a significant force in the 1930s and ’40s, but their central organization, the American Council for Judaism, represented the descendants of earlier German Jewish immigrants. [3] The Romans conquered Jerusalem in 63 B.C. Which is older: Judaism or Zoroastrianism? Between this period, that is, the origins in Mesopotamia and the creation of the new nation in Egypt, Hebrew history centered around Palestine. [26] The tradition of ancient Judaism, therefore, was based on the reality of the one people of God. Mesopotamia’s historical existence corresponds to the Bronze Age i. e. roughly between 3rd millennium till 10th century AD. a crescent shaped area where on of the first civilizations began; covers present day countries of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Even in areas where it had taken root, by the middle of the 19th century, European Reform (now usually called "Liberal Judaism") lost much of its early radicalism. The Hebrews were different from others of their time because the Hebrews were monotheistic; they believed in only one God. STUDY. The early Mesopotamia region was home to a lot of early civilizations, and one of those is the Jewish civilization. The equation of Pharisaic with "normative" Judaism can no longer be supported, at any rate not before the destruction of the Temple in 70 ce. [3] [22] Research numerous resources on the world history topics! of Mesopotamia and Egypt. In the Jerusalem temple, valuables were seized twice … Both Zoroastrianism and Judaism have laws and Holy Book to worship. The economy was flourishing in Mesopotamia, so the Jewish population decline caused by conversions had been counterbalanced by an influx of Jewish immigrants, especially from the Land of Israel and North Africa, where the economic prospects were worsening. [2] For Christians this text is called the Old Testament, for Jews it is … Sciences, Culinary Arts and Personal Religion in the Ancient World: Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people, one of the oldest surviving religions in history. [3] [21], 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. Move to the River Plains. [2], Tradition has it that the Hebrews came with father Abraham from Ur in Mesopotamia around 2000 bc, along with Abraham's El Shaddai ("god of the mountain"). [3] [14] [2] What surprised you? [16] There are often striking similarities between Jewish and Greek documents of sale, marriage, and divorce in Egypt, though some of this--as with the documents of the Elephantine Jewish community--may be due to a common origin in the law of ancient Mesopotamia. These scholars set out to praise Judaism as one of the cofounders of the Western tradition; they argued that, because the Jews produced great culture whenever they were not excluded from European society, they would repeat such accomplishments under conditions of social and political equality. [3] Under Mr. Apisdorf’s leadership, JLF has distributed more than 67,000 books to unaffiliated and marginally affiliated Jews across the continent in an effort to educate Jews about their heritage and bring them closer to Judaism. Judaism, it was declared, had always been a developmental religion that conformed to the demands of the times. The second day in the Hebrew tradition concerns the creation of the sky, while the Egyptian second day concerns creation of air. It is history that provides the key to an understanding of Judaism, for its primal affirmations appear in early historical narratives. Men gathered together usually to discuss about details of operating the camps. [15] Proselytes (converts) to Judaism, though not constituting a class, became increasingly numerous in Palestine and especially in the Diaspora (the Jews living beyond Palestine). The lightning conquests in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula by the armies of Islam (7th-8th century) created a political framework for the basically uniform (i.e., Babylonian) character of medieval Judaism. Back 2,000 years ago, when our book starts, the occupational structure of the Jews was not peculiar at all: almost all Jews were illiterate farmers, exactly like the rest of the population in the locations in which the Jewish communities dwelled Eretz Israel, Mesopotamia, North Africa, Syria, the Balkans and southern Europe. What's the Difference Between Polytheism and Monotheism? [24], This fact immediately raises a question: when and where did this occupational transition happen? [3] PLAY. [3] After the overthrow in of the Kingdom of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon and the subsequent deportation of a considerable portion of its inhabitants to Mesopotamia beginning in 588 B.C.E., the Jews had two principal cultural centers: Babylonia and the Judea. [2] Its beginnings are pretty unclear but some evidence points to around 3000 BCE. (source: Nielsen Book Data) 9780813367170 20160528 From Mesopotamia to Modernity is a one volume introduction to both Jewish history and literature from its earliest times up to the present. Conservative Judaism, which developed in the mid-18th century, holds the Talmud to be authoritative and follows most traditional practices, yet tries to make Judaism relevant for each generation, believing that change and tradition can complement each other. © copyright 2003-2021 Study.com. [2] Similarly to what had happened centuries earlier, a proportion of Jews in the Middle East and North Africa converted out of Judaism (this time to Islam), which partly explains the Jewish population decline and the smaller size of the Jewish communities in these regions in the two-and-a-half centuries after the Mongol invasions.Those who remained Jews continued to be engaged in crafts, trade, moneylending, and medicine. [5] It is only natural that anthropologists, historians and those who study religion to look for parallels between the earliest docoments of the Old Testament and the Sumerian/Babylonian/Akkadian religions in Mesopotamia. | Reform Judaism Magazine, Jewish Literacy as the Road to Riches: The Chosen Path of the 'Chosen Few' | PBS NewsHour, Why is it that people say the ancient Sumerian tablets are similar to the book of Genesis? [3] In fact and this is the third novel argument of our book the Jews remained mostly farmers for seven or eight centuries after the transformation of Judaism into a literate religion. The work is designed to serve undergraduate and graduate courses in Judaism as well as Church and Synagogue adult study courses. Between 750 and 900, almost all the Jews in Mesopotamia and Persia--nearly 75 percent of world Jewry--left agriculture and moved to the cities and towns of the newly established Abbasid Empire to engage in myriad skilled occupations. [4], According to this theory the religions of the Near East were rooted in Babylonian astral science- including the Hebrew Bible and Judaism. With the height of power for the Judean and Israelite kingdoms in the 8th century BCE, Jerusalem became the site of the central temple for Judean and Israelite religion and, consequently, politics. She was later identified with the Babylonian goddess Ishtar and the Phoenician goddess Astarte, and was worshiped throughout western Asia for over 2,000 years. [7] [3] Jewish identity was originally constructed out of an ongoing interaction with the cultures of the ancient near east—including Canaanite, Hittite, Babylonian, Hellenistic, and ultimately Christian. 'S Holy writings reveal How God has been present with them throughout their history traditional was... Not just a figment of the king of Adiabene to Judaism i. e. roughly between 3rd till. 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