Yes, when Shaye Cohen covers the true emergence of "Judaism" really starting post Babylon 550BC, this is what i've been saying all along. You might as well call what happens before the dark ages only lit up by the Egyptians Phonecians Myceaneans, Assyrians etc. I think the professor forgets to really percieve how important that Babylon experience was, the origin stories, literature, laws, justice & their temple rites...all those templates these primitive tribes (by comparison) would have assimilated and did from Babylonians.
Not from any 'god' whispering in their prophet's ears, but from cultural trasmission & assimilation.Here's his talk i find this conclusion weak & preachy though, the professor is partly right & partly dreaming again, i do not believe any major monarchy ever existed or civilization, they can't even find advanced pottery or metalurgical relics. Petty warring hill tribes maybe, Judaism takes its lessons from the Babylonians, Persians & the Greeks, they were clever in that way, monothesism is far far over rated.
He gets the first sentence right, but what 'old days' is he referring?
He is preaching here, not being an academic, which is always endemic to this whole tribal fantasy nonsense.
The experience of the Babylonian Exile is the mother of Judaism. It is during this period that the Judeans realize that they can be loyal to God even far away from their homeland. Without a temple, without the priesthood, without kings, without all the institutional trappings they had enjoyed in the old days
The emergence of Judaism
Is there consensus among biblical scholars that the Exile was a critical time in the formation of Jewish identity?The Exile from Judah to Babylon was a major moment in the emergence of the Jewish religion. On this point, there can be no doubt. There is a great deal of discussion about the details, but the larger point stands beyond any doubt.
The remarkable thing is that the Judeans return from the Exile. Not all of them. Most of them, in fact, didn't return. But some of them did. They rebuild their Temple. They try to recreate life as it had been before. We don't know of any other exiled people from this period who returned from exile to reestablish traditional institutions and modes of worship. But the Judeans did. So somehow, for 70 years or more, they managed to retain their identity, retain their religion and their values strongly enough to motivate them to return and try to start over.
So was this the period when Judaism as we know it was established? We see the emergence of something we might begin to call Judaism. How so? We have the creation of diaspora Jewish communities, communities living outside the land of Israel with a clear Jewish identity. We have not seen that before. We have the emergence of the Torah and the idea that all Israelites are united by a single public book that all Israelites are to study and whose commandments all Israelites are to observe. We find the emergence of the ideology that we Israelites are to remain distinct from our non-Israelite neighbors. We may not intermarry with them. Many scholars argue that we have the beginnings of public prayer during this period, the earliest versions of the synagogue. I'm not convinced that this is so, but if it is so, it's yet another sign that we have the beginnings of Judaism.
In exile, far from Jerusalem, the Israelites found ways to reinforce their beliefs and pass them down to future generations. Enlarge Photo credit: © WGBH Educational Foundation
The experience of the Babylonian Exile is the mother of Judaism. It is during this period that the Judeans realize that they can be loyal to God even far away from their homeland. Without a temple, without the priesthood, without kings, without all the institutional trappings they had enjoyed in the old days—without any of that—they are still able to worship God, be loyal to God and to follow God's commandments. This is the foundation of Judaism. |
