Where did the word Judaism come from?

[pro4life]

According to historians, Moses never described himself or said he was part of "Judaism". Historians also add that the word Judaism came from the enemies of Jews. They said that this "religion" is the religion of Juda's son.

 

[Poisonshady313]

According to historians, Moses never described himself or said he was part of "Judaism". Historians also add that the word Judaism came from the enemies of Jews. They said that this "religion" is the religion of Juda's son.

Judaism (from the Latin: Iudaismus, derived from the GreekἸουδαϊσμός, and ultimately from the Hebrew יהודה, Yehudah, "Judah";
An example of an individual being regarded as Jewish exists in the book of Esther, which refers to Morechai as אִישׁ יְהוּדִ Ish Yehudi. Jewish man.
Esther 2:5 There was a Jewish man in Shushan the capital, whose name was Mordecai the son of Jair the son of Shimei the son of Kish, a Benjamite,

 

[pro4life]

Judaism (from the Latin: Iudaismus, derived from the GreekἸουδαϊσμός, and ultimately from the Hebrew יהודה, Yehudah, "Judah";
An example of an individual being regarded as Jewish exists in the book of Esther, which refers to Morechai as אִישׁ יְהוּדִ Ish Yehudi. Jewish man.
Esther 2:5 There was a Jewish man in Shushan the capital, whose name was Mordecai the son of Jair the son of Shimei the son of Kish, a Benjamite,

Was Esther a jew or a gentile?

 

[Poisonshady313]

Was Esther a jew or a gentile?

She was a Jew. She was Mordechai's cousin.

Also, in chapter 7, she refers to the Jews as "my people".

 

[ChristineES]

Didn't the word "Judaism" come from Judah, who was Jacobs 4th son?

 

[Poisonshady313]

Didn't the word "Judaism" come from Judah, who was Jacobs 4th son?

Yes

 

[rosends]

After the death of Solomon, the nation of Israel broke into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Israel (which had about 10 tribes) and the Kingdom of Judah, which had about 2 tribes (Judah and Benjamin, with Judah being substantially larger). The kingdom of Israel was lost and exiled. What remained were the people of the kingdom of Judah who were known by that collective name "Judah-ites" (Yehudim in Hebrew -- cf the scroll of Esther, chapter 2 in which Mordechai is listed as an "Ish yehudi" a man of Judah who was from the tribe of Benjamin).

Yehudi was appropriated by other languages and became Jude or the like (Juden etc). Juda-ism developed as the term for the belief system of those from this kingdom.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

According to historians, Moses never described himself or said he was part of "Judaism".

According to historians? Who, for example? And since when did the purported statements (or non-statements) of Moses become the purview of historians?

 

[pro4life]

After the death of Solomon, the nation of Israel broke into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Israel (which had about 10 tribes) and the Kingdom of Judah, which had about 2 tribes (Judah and Benjamin, with Judah being substantially larger). The kingdom of Israel was lost and exiled. What remained were the people of the kingdom of Judah who were known by that collective name "Judah-ites" (Yehudim in Hebrew -- cf the scroll of Esther, chapter 2 in which Mordechai is listed as an "Ish yehudi" a man of Judah who was from the tribe of Benjamin).

Yehudi was appropriated by other languages and became Jude or the like (Juden etc). Juda-ism developed as the term for the belief system of those from this kingdom.

Actually Judaism was coined by the people who despised the Jews. Moses never said his religion was Judaism.
But then later generations liked that term and adopted it.

 

[Vishvavajra]

Judah-ism means the cultural practices of the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah. Jews are the people of Judah, either literally or figuratively. (Yes, the original inhabitants of Judah believed they were descendants of a tribal ancestor by that name, but the term Judaism isn't referring to him, but rather the tribe itself.) The people of Judah believed themselves to be the true inheritors of Israelite culture, especially after the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians. I suppose the Samaritans would disagree, but there you go.

Moses is a mythic figure who is important in the culture of Judaism, but he is imagined to have lived in a time long before there were such things as a kingdom of Judah or Jews as such. Similarly, Aeneas was thought to be the ancestor of the Romans, but he was not a Roman himself. Sometimes people refer to all Hebrew peoples as Jews, even in the age of Moses, but that's a casual usage and not strictly correct, as there was yet no land of Judah for them to be named after.

The later antique name for the region was Judea, which more or less means "land of the people of Judah (i.e. Jews)."

 

[pro4life]

Judah-ism means the cultural practices of the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah. Jews are the people of Judah, either literally or figuratively. (Yes, the original inhabitants of Judah believed they were descendants of a tribal ancestor by that name, but the term Judaism isn't referring to him, but rather the tribe itself.) The people of Judah believed themselves to be the true inheritors of Israelite culture, especially after the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians. I suppose the Samaritans would disagree, but there you go.

Moses is a mythic figure who is important in the culture of Judaism, but he is imagined to have lived in a time long before there were such things as a kingdom of Judah or Jews as such. Similarly, Aeneas was thought to be the ancestor of the Romans, but he was not a Roman himself. Sometimes people refer to all Hebrew peoples as Jews, even in the age of Moses, but that's a casual usage and not strictly correct, as there was yet no land of Judah for them to be named after.

The later antique name for the region was Judea, which more or less means "land of the people of Judah (i.e. Jews)."

True to the first paragraph. The onlookers from the outside "gentile" coined the name Judaism to refer that religion upon the Kingdom of Judah. Thus thereafter, generations later the Jews themselves adopted that term to identify themselves.

"Moses is a mythic figure" - What makes you say this?

 

[Vishvavajra]

"Moses is a mythic figure" - What makes you say this?

It's not a controversial statement. All it means is that he's not a historical figure, in that there's no evidence for him that would count as historical data in an academic sense. Instead he's a figure whose existence is based entirely on the traditional stories within a culture (in this case Judaism and its offshoots). He's no different from Aeneas or Cadmus or Samson in that regard.

 

[pro4life]

It's not a controversial statement. All it means is that he's not a historical figure, in that there's no evidence for him that would count as historical data in an academic sense. Instead he's a figure whose existence is based entirely on the traditional stories within a culture (in this case Judaism and its offshoots). He's no different from Aeneas or Cadmus or Samson in that regard.

Any academic scholar of history will use any source of historical knowledge. The Bible, Torah, and also the Quran speaks about Moses. We can agree upon that those texts are historical in context. Therefore we can conclude that the person Moses those texts speak about are of the same man.
Now how can you prove that George Washington really existed? Which academic evidence will you use?

 

[Vishvavajra]

Any academic scholar of history will use any source of historical knowledge. The Bible, Torah, and also the Quran speaks about Moses. We can agree upon that those texts are historical in context. Therefore we can conclude that the person Moses those texts speak about are of the same man.
Now how can you prove that George Washington really existed? Which academic evidence will you use?

Go to your nearest university and ask a professor of history about this. You will find that the Bible and the Quran are not regarded as historical texts or primary sources. They are evidence of a mythic tradition, not of the contents of that tradition. Put another way, they are evidence that people at the time of writing had stories about Moses, not evidence of any details of Moses's life. As for the Bible and the Torah, those are the same thing in this context, not two different works. And the Quran was written after, using the Bible as a source. That's not evidence of anything in particular.

There are plenty of primary source documents about the life and career of George Washington. We don't have to rely on later stories about him that come from oral tradition. We can also visit his house, look at his possessions, see portraits that were painted of him while he lived, read things he himself wrote in his own hand. It would take a conspiracy of supernatural proportions to fake the life of George Washington. Moses, on the other hand, is a character in an oral tradition that later was written down, the same as Aeneas, Cadmus, Heracles, et al. There are plenty of pieces of literature detailing the lives and accomplishments of those characters too.

Do you therefore accept that Aeneas was the son of the goddess Venus and that Jupiter, the king of gods and men, sent him to found a colony in Italy that would one day give birth to Rome? Do you accept that Cadmus traveled from Tyre to Boeotia in search of his sister Europa, whom the god Zeus had abducted, and there founded the city of Thebes after slaying a dragon? Do you accept the many feats of Heracles, son of Zeus, and recognize as legitimate the claims of many ancient Greek kings, that they were descended from him? In fact Heracles is much better attested than Moses, all things considered. But he's still a mythic figure. History is all about standards of evidence, and none of these guys meets them.

 

[JacobEzra.]

Any academic scholar of history will use any source of historical knowledge. The Bible, Torah, and also the Quran speaks about Moses. We can agree upon that those texts are historical in context. Therefore we can conclude that the person Moses those texts speak about are of the same man.
Now how can you prove that George Washington really existed? Which academic evidence will you use?

The bible isn't great on historical facts. I mean, I can't believe Adam and Eve were real and that's how the world came to be.

 

[Levite]

Actually Judaism was coined by the people who despised the Jews. Moses never said his religion was Judaism.
But then later generations liked that term and adopted it.

First of all, what Moses did or did not say does not solely define who we are and what we call ourselves, whether we are going by the name Jews/Yehudim or Hebrews/'Ivrim or the People Israel/Am Yisrael, all of which are valid ways of referring to the same group of people.

Second of all, is there a reason why you have received accurate answers to your post from several knowledgeable and well-educated Jews (and at least one knowledgeable non-Jew also, I believe), and have chosen to summarily reject those answers in favor of something completely historically inaccurate and incorrect?

 

[Sees]

First of all, what Moses did or did not say does not solely define who we are and what we call ourselves, whether we are going by the name Jews/Yehudim or Hebrews/'Ivrim or the People Israel/Am Yisrael, all of which are valid ways of referring to the same group of people.

Second of all, is there a reason why you have received accurate answers to your post from several knowledgeable and well-educated Jews (and at least one knowledgeable non-Jew also, I believe), and have chosen to summarily reject those answers in favor of something completely historically inaccurate and incorrect?

Have a gut feeling "Moses' religion was Islam" is primary motivation for the OP.

 

[Levite]

Have a gut feeling "Moses' religion was Islam" is primary motivation for the OP.

Let's hope not. We really don't need another one of those types of threads.....

 

[rosends]

Actually Judaism was coined by the people who despised the Jews. Moses never said his religion was Judaism.
But then later generations liked that term and adopted it.

Of course Moses never said his religion was Judaism. Why would he label his religion by the name of one of the 12 tribes? Why would he even call it a religion when it was, for him, simply an exhaustive social code centered around an omnipresent deity whom he encountered day to day?

Can you show me a use of the word (in English or Hebrew) Jew/Judaism from before the Scroll of Esther (approx 350 BCE)?

 

[Monk Of Reason]

According to historians, Moses never described himself or said he was part of "Judaism". Historians also add that the word Judaism came from the enemies of Jews. They said that this "religion" is the religion of Juda's son.

Judaism or the first covenant of god and man is understood to have started with Abraham not Mosses. But that is scriptural belief.

According to most archaeological evidences it seems that there were several competing religions in this area of the ancient world and Judaism has some roots in polytheism that developed into monotheism through philosophical searches and conclusions that there could be only one ultimate god and that would be the creator god. Angels for example in Judaism have had often demi-god or lower god level power such as the Angel of death rather than the god of death. Many angels had specific duties or powers based upon what they were created for but only one creator god. Thus is creates a monotheistic polytheism as only one god is regarded as god and the other gods are refereed to as angels rather than lesser gods.