History of Judaism From Biblical Origins to the Modern Period

¶ … History of Judaism: From biblical origins to the modern period." It discusses Genesis 1-11 and what these texts tell us about the origins of Israelite religion? What do the major episodes in these 11 chapters of the Torah tell us about the differences between classical Mesopotamian paganism and the origins of Israelite thought and religion?

History of Judaism: From biblical origins to the modern period

Genesis is the book of beginnings. That is what the word itself means, and it takes us back into the very dawn of human history. It opens with an awareness of the greatest material fact in all human life; a fact that we are all subconsciously aware of almost every waking moment, that is, that we are living in a universe. Then this galaxy itself is moving at incredible speed through the vastness of space in conjunction with millions of other galaxies like ours. It is precisely at that point that the Bible opens in a majestic recognition that man is part of a universe." In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 1:1).(Langer, Ruth, Jewish understandings of the religious other., Theological Studies, 06-01-2003, pp 255)

Genesis 1 comes from the source that scholars call "the Priestly Tradition." Although it is first in the Bible, it was in fact written very late, probably something around the fourth or third century BCE. It is placed first in the Bible certainly because it deals with ultimate beginnings, but also because it offers the culmination of almost a thousand years of theological reflection. It is written as a polemic against the prevailing religious sensibilities of the time, which is known as "ancient Near Eastern nature religions."

The second passage is Genesis 1:27 which describes the creation of the first man and the first woman. This passage can only be understood in terms of Hebrew parallelism, wherein what is said in the first line is reflected or paralleled by its restatement in the next line. In this cases "Adam"[humankind] in the first line parallels "male and female" in the third, and soothe image of God is reflected in both male and female. The Israelite God, according to the priestly writer, is neither a male god nor a female god, but is rather both male and female. This is a response to ancient Near Eastern nature religion, which would claim that gods were either male or female.

In strong contrast to the very abstract and remote God of the priestly writer, the Yahwist portrays God as very human-like, a concept we called" anthropomorphism." God comes down at the pleasant time of the day to commune with the humans. He is angry, insecure, and a bit petulant. I am increasingly astounded by how negatively Yahweh is portrayed in this story.(Clifford, Richard, A History of Israelite Religion in the Old Testament Period, vol. 1: From the Beginnings to the End of the Monarchy.(book reviews). Vol. 56, Theological Studies, 09-01-1995, pp 566(2).)

Regarding the serpent, I insist that this figure not be confused with Satanor the devil. He is described as the cleverest animal, which Yahweh God has made. He is carefully portrayed as not divine, but a part of the creaturely world. He makes two assertions about Yahweh 1) that Adam and Eve will not die if they ate the fruit; 2) that the reason Yahweh did not want them to eat the fruit is because he was jealously guarding the divine prerogatives, keeping the humans from realizing their full potential. As the story continues, we find that the Serpent was correct on both of these issues. This is a profoundly disturbing story. Our focus on the other major mythic stories in Genesis, the Flood and the Tower of Babel confirm the Yahwistic observations of the Garden of Edenstory. First Yahweh regretted having made the humans because they were so sinful. Then, after he had destroyed them in a flood, he was sorry that he had been so impulsive. And he promised never to do it again. And in order to be sure that he wouldn't forget, Yahweh put a sign up in the sky, a rainbow, as a sort of divine mnemonic device.

Finally, in the Tower of Babel story, humans try to establish themselves and make a name for themselves. Yahweh is disturbed by this activity and seeks to confound their efforts so that they will not threaten him. In this heist successful.

The "piety of early Israelite families projected on to the patriarchs is not yet the real beginning of the history of Israelite religion." In the turmoil of the exodus a unique bond was formed between Yahweh and a large group. Other religions knew of such a bond only between the god and an individual or a small group. When the group under Joshua entered Canaan, the land was already seething with social change and liberation: "The religious traditions of liberation which they brought with them made an essential contribution toward stimulating and channeling it and creating a social order which for more than a century secured a life for the population of the hill- country in the greatest possible freedom." (Clifford, Richard, A History of Israelite Religion in the Old Testament Period, vol. 1: From the Beginnings to the End of the Monarchy.(book reviews). Vol. 56, Theological Studies, 09-01-1995, pp 566(2).)

Under the monarchy, the national consensus over the form and values of society, which had developed in the wake of the exodus, collapsed. The religion of the larger groups went into different and sometimes conflicting positions that could no longer be held by society as a whole but only by groups within it, e.g. The official theology of king and temple, the theology of resistance groups, and in between various accommodations to traditional Yahwism and court/temple religion. With the downfall of the kingdom in 587, the official theology ended and the resistance theology was adopted as a new "official" theology. The religion of the Deuteronomy reform is interpreted by summarizing the whole religious tradition under a single concept, which ensured the survival of Israel when there was no longer a unified state to hold things together. In place of king and cult there now was the Torah accompanied by a pervasive legal stamp. (Nahum Sarna, "Understanding Creation in Genesis" in Frye, Is God a Creationist?, pp 155-173.)