World Religions, Sixth EditionWarren Matthews

Chapter Eight:

JudaismThis multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:

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Abraham

Father of Jewish people

Known for his faith

Accepting promise of Canaan as a future gift

Trusting God for his promised son

The Hebrew Book of Abraham

Jewish Scripture

The Tanakh

Torah – five books of Moses

Prophets (Nevi´im) – kings, early and later prophets

Writings (Kethuvi´im) – poetry, exile prophets

The Jewish Bible (Tanakh)

Also known to Christians as the Old Testament

Foundation of the Jewish self-understanding as a chosen and

covenanted people

Modern scholarship is divided on its interpretation into traditional and

liberal camps

The Tanakh

Traditional scholars’ view:

The Tanakh is unerring Word of God

All its theological teachings are direct truth

Contains no lies or mistakes

Historical details are accurate

The Tanakh

Liberal scholars’ view:

The Tanakh is a book written by people at God's direction

Intended religious teachings are accurate

Was put together by human beings

Must have human errors

Must be interpreted by secular history

Formation of the Tanakh

Traditional view:

Moses wrote the five initial books

Jeremiah collected and edited the Nevi´im and initial part of the

Kethuvi´im

Ezra also edited and added rest of Kethuvi´im

Transcribed the Tanakh from Hebrew to Aramaic

Established the canon ~ 400 BCE

Formation of the Tanakh

Liberal view:

Oral history and some psalms until about 200 BCE

200 BCE Series of rewrites combines various editions to form

present text

Three sources for Genesis, labeled:

J = Jehovah

E = Elohim

P = Priestly

Canon first established ~ 90 CE

Locations of Biblical and First-Century CE Judaism

Important Dates in Judaism

Traditional Scholarship 4000 BCE Creation of the world

~2350 BCE Worldwide Flood~1900 BCE Abraham leaves Ur~1700 BCE Alternate Abraham leaves Ur~1450 BCE Exodus from Egypt~1000 BCE Israelite Monarchy established 722 BCE Northern Kingdom destroyed 586 BCE Southern Kingdom in exile 538 BCE Return to Palestine~ 420 BCE Ezra (last books of Tanakh) written 175 BCE Hellenization program~ 165 BCE Maccabee independence~ 60 BCE Romans take over~ 90 CE Tanakh formalized

Important Dates in Judaism

Liberal Scholarship ~6 billion BCE Creation of the world

~2350 BCE Local Mesopotamian flood

~1400 BCE Abraham leaves Ur

~1200 BCE Exodus from Egypt

~1000 BCE Israelite monarchy established

722 BCE Northern Kingdom destroyed

586 BCE Southern Kingdom in exile

538 BCE Return to Palestine

~ 200 BCE Tanakh written

175 BCE Hellenization program

~ 165 BCE Maccabee independence

~ 60 BCE Romans take over

~ 90 CE Tanakh formalized

Early History of the Jews

Abraham

Child of Ur, in Mesopotamia

Left Mesopotamia as directed by God

Traveled to Canaan (Palestine)

Had two sons

Isaac by wife Sarah

Son of promise

Abraham age 100, Sarah age 90

Ishmael by concubine Hagar

Early History of the Jews

Abraham's grandson Jacob

Had twelve sons

Became source of twelve tribes of Israel

Acquired name Israel from God

Moved family to Egypt during a famine

Son Joseph Prime Minister of Egypt

Early History of the Jews

Israelites in Egypt

New royal family enslaved

Moses leads rescue

Adopted by Egyptian princess

Exiled for saving a fellow Israelite from murder

Called by God in a burning bush

Ten plagues cause eviction of Israelites

Passover is the remembrance of that departure

Early History of the Jews

Israelite covenant with God

At Mount Sinai

Suzerainty covenant (chosen by God)

Israelites to be subject to God

Obey God’s rules (Ten Commandments)

God to provide/protect them

Particular sign

Circumcision

Observance of Sabbath

Jewish Life in Palestine

Conquered ~1400 BCE traditional / ~1200 BCE Liberal

Established as kingdom ~ 1000 BCD

David – poet, warrior, ideal follower of God

Solomon – wise, largest kingdom

Jerusalem as center of worship, split into two sister kingdoms:

Northern destroyed by Assyrians ~722 BCE

Southern destroyed / exiled by Babylonians 586 BCE

Jewish Life in Palestine

Reestablished in Palestine ~ 538 BCE

Under Persian rule

Extended Jewish presence in neighboring countries

Tanakh completed

Traditional ~400 BCE / liberal ~200 BCE:

Synagogue worship begins

Rabbinical leadership begins

Ruin of Fourth-Century Synagogue in Capernaum, Israel

Jewish Life in Palestine

Persecution by the Greeks

Attempted to eradicate Hebrew culture

Religion is resistance

Desire for savior (messiah) becomes strong

Successful resistance results in independence

Roman conquest

Destruction of temple 67-70 CE

Exile from Palestine 140 CE

Historical Development

Destroyed kingdoms, exiled leaders

Editing the scriptures

Creating congregations

Postexilic Judaism

The Greeks

Wisdom literature

The Maccabean Revolt

The Romans

Rabbinic Judaism

Historical Development

Medieval Judaism

Maimonides

The Kabbalah

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Spain

Judaism in the Modern Age

Rabbinic Judaism

Without a central temple for covenantal sacrifice and without

permanent homes, religious life re-centered on something portable –

Jewish law

Religious specialists struggled to formulate orthodox versions of law

and its interpretation

Source of this law derives from the stipulations of the covenant

between God and the Jewish nation

Occurred in stages over many centuries of living in diaspora

Rabbinic Judaism

The Mishnah – the earliest collection of attempts to record and

formulate Jewish law

The Gemarah – further commentaries and elaborations built on the

Mishnah

Mishnah + Gemarah = Talmud

Talmud was legal and narrative material

Does not directly address questions of legal decision making, but

supports such jurisprudence

Medieval Jewish Life

In the diaspora that continued after the fall of the Roman Empire,

Jews lived in Christian or Muslim territory

Jews who relocated in Christian central Europe became known as

Ashkenazim

Jews living in Christian and Muslim southern Spain became known

as Sephardim

Major Centers of Judaism in Europe

Medieval Judaism

Maimonides (1135-1204 CE)

Known as medical doctor

Served Muslim leaders as physician

Wrote extensively on medicine

Practiced faith in both Hebrew and Arabic

Kabbalah

Esoteric, occult tradition within Judaism

Mystical interpretations of Jewish ideas

Moses de Leon (1250-1305 CE) author of the Zohar

Divine reality is in need of rescue by Jews from within the

corrupting influence of the material world

Isaac Luria (1534-1572 CE)

Jews need to redeem divine reality by extracting it from the

material world, reforming it into an original lost integrity

Relations with Christians and Muslims

Jews, living in diaspora without a state of their own, relegated to a

second-class status in Christian and Muslim lands and subjected to

ongoing harassment

Jews forced out of some countries

France in 1394

Spain in 1492

Modern Jewish Thought

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

Was excommunicated from his Dutch Jewish community for

controversial rationalist philosophic views regarding immortality,

the providence of God, and the composition of the Bible

Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786)

Argued for a common humanity between Jews and Gentiles,

petitioned for the release of Jews

Abraham Geiger (1810-1874)

Argued that Judaism does not stand on revelation, sought to

reform Judaism and place new emphasis on ethics

Modern Jewish Thought

Zacharias Frankel (1801-1875)

Sought to make Judaism more compatible with the modern world,

but wanted to retain ritual

Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888)

Wanted to retain all of traditional elements of Jewish life

Hermann Cohen (1842-1918)

Influenced by Kant, argued that Judaism gave monotheism to the

world, and upheld reason and the value of learning

Branches of Jewish Life

Reform Judaism

Inspired by David Einhorn and Isaac Mayer Wise in 1885

Holds that only the moral strictures of Jewish law were binding

Conservative Judaism

Led by Solomon Schechter, who was influenced by Frankel

Holds that Mitzvoth, responses to God, must be followed as

interpreted by congregations

Included Zionism, a movement to establish a Jewish homeland

Reconstructionism

Led by Mordecai Kaplan in 1955

Stresses science and ethics, rejected the supernatural

Branches of Jewish Life

Orthodox Judaism

Retains as much as possible from the Torah and Talmud

Stresses Jewish law and ritual

Has supported a Jewish homeland since 1948, is considered

standard in Israel

Hasidism

Organized around a Zaddik, a holy man with connection to God

Later promoted by Martin Buber, a Jewish philosopher

Is strongly traditional

Branches of Jewish Life

Zionism

Movement of the late nineteenth century that intended to establish

a Jewish homeland

Since 135 CE, the Jews had lost control of life in Jerusalem, living

in many different countries with no land of their own (diaspora)

220,000 Jews lived in Palestine by the early 1930s as Hitler rose

into power in Germany

Arab protests led British to place a quota on Jewish immigrants to

Palestine

The Holocaust confirmed this vulnerability in the minds of many

The Holocaust

Since the rise of Adolph Hitler and throughout World War II, German

Nazis carried out a program of Jewish persecution and extermination

The Holocaust (1933-1945) represented the Nazis’ extermination

of six million Jews in Europe

Nazi officers enacted a “final solution” to the Jewish “problem”

Records of the Nuremberg trials show widespread cooperation by

the European population

Today, the extent of anti-Semitism shocks most people

The Holocaust has had an indescribable impact on every Jew

Older and younger Jews stress different aspects of the Holocaust

Death Camp at Belsen

State of Israel

Following WWII, the United Nations established Israel in Palestine

(1948), despite objections by Arabs living in the area and elsewhere

Establishment of Israel has resulted in a long-standing Arab-Israeli

conflict

It has led to conflict among Jews regarding who is, or is not, a

legitimate Jew, the question that determines who may be eligible for

emigration to Israel

Jewish Worldview

God is sovereign and personal, and has entered into a special

contract with the Jews

The world and especially humans are regarded as separate and

different from God, but dependent upon God for creation and

sustenance

Creation affirmed as good

Covenantal obligations with God include ethical mandates and laws

sustaining rituals such as those regarding food preparation

Little emphasis on questions of afterlife, though some authorities

have asserted that resurrection will occur in the future