Clivedurdle

We in the west have a very warped idea of history that is being blown up currently by the academicians.

Judaism has very suspicious roots and clear interactions with the Persian, Greek and Roman Empires. Bible Unearthed and further work has completely undermined the Bible view of History.

Judaism never has been unitary - it has always had factions - a major one never mentioned are the Samaritans.

Within classic Judaism the temple sacrificing circumcising lot were only one faction - Judaism has always been spread thoughout the Empires.

Herod - a Roman Jew - built the largest temple on the planet. Arguably its obviously Persian and Greek sacrificial rituals were not anything unique but typical behaviours. He also built a very important port and library at Caesarea.

Since the time of Plato and Zarathustra the idea of one god had been around. Judaism can be seen as a typical response to the thinking of the times.

Xianity can be seen as a further offshoot - reemphasising human sacrifice and imaginary cannibalism - as practised in your local catholic church today.

A sublimation of real sacrifices with the move to fetishising books?

sugarhitman

seeing that Judasim or the Law of Moses existed before any contact with the greeks and Persians how can you say Judasim originated from them?

Clivedurdle

Prove that! The earliest we have is Ezra - fifty years after Cyrus. He may have written it!

This is approximately the time of the Battle of Marathon. Both the Greek and Persian empires were very important players then, as were the Egyptians.

Toto

Judaism is based on a different language, and all Jews seems to have relied on circumcision as a marker. This sets them off from the Greeks and the Persians. They might be closer to the Egyptians.

If you take a broad enough view, all religions and societies look about the same, since they are addressing similar problems. If you look closely enough, they are all different.

I'm not sure what the point of this exercise is.

You realize that pagan sacrifices lasted well beyond the destruction of the Jewish Temple, until the Christians ended them, officially at least.

Clivedurdle

The end of sacrifices in the biggest temple laid down a line - sacrifice could be abolished. Actually xianity didn't abolish sacrifice - they ritualised it and made it a human one.

And so what about circumcision? Making eunuchs was also very common and far nastier with a 95% death rate!

And so what about languages? Anyone in contact with outsiders would have been multi lingual. There were gymnasiums in Jerusalem from Alexanders time!

Maybe the destruction of the temple with the move to books was the actual tipping point from a god filled sacrificial world to a modern book filled world.

sugarhitman

Daniel, and Isaiah are said to be written by atleast three writers both mention Judasim. You say Ezra wrote the Law of Moses making him the author of Judasim. So did he write the prophets too? (whom he mentions in his writing)

storytime

Biblical Jewish roots are seen in Judah, son of Jacob and Leah. These roots Syrian through Isaac via Abra(m)-Ham, land of the Chaldeans, and his brother Haran, who both had Sari as wife. Lot was son of Haran and Sari and nephew of Abram, because Sari was Abram's sister, daughter of Tera(father of Abram) but not of Abrams mother. Tradition in those days held to family ties and Abram therefore became responsible for his dead brothers wife and ended up with Sari whether he wanted her or not. Lot of course, was part of the deal. None of these were Jews nor Hebrews. Hebrews lived in the land beside the oaks of the Amorites before Abraham moved into the area. The people of Lot lived to the east of Jerusalem and were captured by two tribal groups raiding villages. One of the Hebrews came and told Abram that Lot and his people had been captured. Abram then took his armed men and rescued his nephew Lot and family tribesmen of Lot.

So what is the origin of Hebrew people? Biblically, they seem to be a mixed ethnic group who lived in land of Canaan among the nations[nationalities] of intermixed peoples.

As to the"Jews" who they are by which they came,.. God talks to Ezekiel and says: "Ezekiel my good man, just take a look at what those Jews are doing in their pious make-believe; thinking themselves as better than their brothers in Israel. Now, go tell those upturned noses in Jerusalem - Thus saith the Lord.. "Thy birth and thy nativity are of the land of Canaan, Thy father was an Amorite and thy mother an Hittite"... in the day that thou wast created. (Ez.16:3)

Ezekiel reminds me of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright - "God DAMN America!"

Herod built the largest temple on the planet??

Petergdi

The presence of Greek loan words in Daniel is often used as an argument for giving a late date to Daniel. The flip side of this is that the absence of Greek loan words in the rest of the Hebrew Bible tends to indicate that most of the rest was written by people with little or no contact with the Greek language.

Peter.