A Brief History Of Judaism

It has been estimated that about 80% of the world's populace believe in one religion or another (and there are lots of them), but about 70% of those are adherents to the big four. The four biggest religions are: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Judaism is the precursor of both Islam and Christianity.

The Hebrew Bible retells the history of the world and the story of the passage of the nation from creation, through the flood to the arrival in the Promised Land, or from Mesopotamia to Canaan, led by Abraham.

The descendants of Abraham and his people were enslaved by the Egyptians and did not manage to escape until Moses led them out of captivity. During this expedition, Moses was given the Ten Commandments from God and they went on to become the bedrock of Jewish law and custom although there is no doubt that the Jewish way of life has evolved from this era in the Tenth Century before Christ.

The sacred writings of the Hebrew Bible or Masorah are divided into twenty-four books. However, the same writings are divided up into thirty-nine books in the Chirtian Bible's Old Testament. The Torah or The Law was being composed at this time but it was altered and updated between the Tenth and Fifth Centuries before Christ.

In addition to the Hebrew scriptures, there is a bountiful tradition of ancient oral observations known as the Talmud, which is a colossal compilation of the Oral Law. The Talmud is the accepted authority for Orthodox Jews.

Judaism is the most ancient monotheistic religion known to the Developed world. Jews believed in one God while all of the known world believed in pantheism or many gods like the Ancient Greeks. The name of God in the Jewish language is Yahweh and they believe that Yahweh agreed a covenant with His people to take care of them for ever as long as they were loyal solely to him.

In the Jewish belief, sin is the unashamed disregard of God's will and that is liable to be punished by by God in a comparable fashion to the Buddhist belief in karma.. The objective of following God's Law is being accepted into His Kingdom.

Jews worship in synagogues in congregations led by Rabbis who are thought of as Teachers or Masters (as in the old style of calling teachers, 'masters') rather than as monks or vicars. The Jewish Sabbath is not the Sunday as in Christianity, but is observed from sunset Friday until sunset Saturday night.

The most important vacations or holy days in the Jewish calendar are: Rosh Hashanah (New Year); Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement); Hanukah (Festival of Lights) and Pesach (Passover). The Jewish nation does not celebrate Christmas because they believe that the Son of God is still yet to be born. They see Jesus as a prophet in the same manner as the Muslims do.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with native religious beliefs. If you would like to know more go to What is Religious Belief?