preview

Origin of Judaism

Decent Essays

Question 1: Explain the beginning of Judaism.

Judaism originated with three men, known as the patriarchs. These men were Abraham, his son Isaac, and his grandson Jacob. Abraham was born in the city state of Ur by the name Abram. Abram’s father was Terach. In Terach’s time, people worshiped idols and a monotheistic religion did not exist. They worshiped idols. When Abram was a little boy, he took a hammer and broke all of the idols with a hammer except for the largest one, and told his father, Terach, that the largest idol became angry and broke all the other idols. The silliness of this statement caused Terach to realize that worshiping statues was wrong. According to Judaic history, God spoke to Abram offering the rise of a new …show more content…

They believed that God came down to Moses and gave him the entire Torah. He also instructed him to lead the Jewish slaves out of Israel. He also gave Moses great powers. Moses was able to split the sea in half to allow his followers to pass through to the holy land. When the journey away from Egypt was over, Moses and the slaves had arrived to Israel. Israel was to be turned into a kingdom. This kingdom would be the Kingdom of Israel. This Kingdom in the Promised land was ruled completely by religion, unlike any other kingdom. This was how Judaism started. Today, we don’t have as many Jews because many of them were finished off during the Holocaust of WWII. However, because of Judaism, we have America’s most popular religion, which is Christianity. In fact, the first five books of the bible can be found in the Torah as well.

Question 2: How was Judaism different from other religions?

Judaism was very different from other religions at the time because it was the only religion that supported morals and behavior. In other words, Judaism was a very “good willed” religion. Because of this, the Jews were able to build one of the most powerful and prosperous empires in the history of man.

Every religion had a purpose. Judaism’s purpose was basically to keep people from doing bad things, or “sins”. To do this, Judaism has the Ten Commandments, which are basic rules of morality for people to

Get Access