Bobzammel

There appear to be three basic theories on where Judaism came from:


Babylonian/Sumerian influence: The stories of the creation, the flood, the Babel story and Job have extremely close parrarels in Sumerian literature. The Mosaic law also has similarities to the Law of Hammurabi. It is possible that perhaps Babylonian influence was picked up while the Jewish people were in Babylon and they used this to sketch up a primevial history. Some views about an apocalypse-"The Day of The Lord"-also have similarities to Babylonian concepts.

Egyptian-It is possible that the Israelites also got some concepts from the Egyptians, such as monotheism. The story of Joseph and the Exodus also has an uncanny similarity to a brief Asiatic conquest and expulsion of a group called the Hykos. The name "Yahweh" also seems to have some Egyptian origin. Also some aspects of Monarchy and poetry are also very similar to Egypt.

Caananite: The Caananites belived in a god called "El" who ruled over Caananite with his wife Asherah and ruled over a pantheon of Gods. This eventually seemed to evolve into some descriptions of God(El-o-heem or El Shaddai). Some traces of polytheism still exist in the bible, although in the Deuturocanonical stuff this is almost edited out.

Plus we have the Persian influence for later Judaism, but then again that it is not really the subject of this essay- I'm looking for early origins.


In addition there was nothing unique about animal sacrifice...it was practiced pretty much everywhere. Judaism has more in common with ancient middle Eastern religions as Jewish people and Christians would like to admit.

Bobzammel

I meant "Then they would like to admit" not "as".

Sorry to throw the thread out of wack...

Bobzammel

There are some dissimilarities. The Egyptians had a heavy emphasis on the dead, for one; Judaism seemed to believe only in a semi-afterlife(Sheol). Egyptian religion was mainly polytheistic; Judaism aknowledged the existence of other Gods but centered it's belief on one. Substantial Jewish belief in the afterlife did not occur until Zoroastarian influence crept in, which was further evolved in Christian belief and Gnosticism.
One extra thing I should add, as the Moab stele shows, is that Israel's neibhors also involved their Gods in their history. It was assumed if something bad happened to their land, then the God was angry. The Stele states that Israel's "humbling" of Moab was mainly due to Chemosh's anger being kindled against Moab, and the Israelites were the tools of this anger. Kind of sounds like a lot of biblical passages, does it not?

Bobzammel

Sources include:

New Oxford Annotated Bible(The notes)
The Bible Handbook
The Bible Unearthed
The Mythic Past
Hymns of Zarathrusta
Egyptian Book Of The Dead
Many Peoples, Many faiths,

and a few others...

Bobzammel

umm...can we get back to the main topic of this rather than have a flame war?

Greg2003

What about the Persian religion, Zoroastrianism? I happen to think that this tradition contributed the most to Judaism and christianity. I have heard strong arguments for the last couple of redactions of the old testament being done by Persian priests dressed in Jewish clothing. All the purity codes seem to come from Zoroastrianism and all the afterlife stuff and the stuff about god being in heaven above and his counterpart the evil Satan being in hell below. All the angel and demonology comes from Zoroastrianism. While all of those traditions contributed to the old testament stories, it seems to me that Zoroastrianism was the last and greatest contributor to the text. Of course, the greeks had a contemporaneous influence. But they had more of an influence on the moral teachings, like Ecclesiastes and the new testament.

Peter Kirby

I have deleted the posts that consisted of flaming so that this thread can get back on track. Please understand that this is a moderated forum where insults against a person or group are prohibited and where posts should advance rational discussion in some way. Please contact the moderators and/or administrators if you have questions about this.

thanks,
Peter Kirby

Bobzammel

I think it's certainly possible that Zoroastaranism had a role to play, especially in some of the editing of the OT(See Angels: A redaction?). I wonder if we'll ever find a "source document" without such influence(Although Ugaratic stuff is pretty close)

Infidelettante

For the second time in a very short while, thank you Peter. I will restrain myself.

JT

Peter Kirby

Thank you, JT! If you find something that reads like flamebait, save wear and tear on your flamethrower: just report it to the mods.

best,
Peter Kirby