Major beliefs of Judaism

Whatever else is true about the history of Judaism is that it achieves resonance not only with individuals who identify with its religious content but also with those who recognize its importance as one of the principal strands of thought that run throughout the history of western civilization. As Johnson explains, the codification or record of early Indo-European development was accomplished in large measure by literate Jewish priests. This suggests that Jewish identity implies a nexus with the earliest civilizing forces: "All the great conceptual discoveries of the intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they have been revealed, but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time. The Jews had this gift" (Johnson 585).

Campbell points out that various "renditions of the holy text were miraculously identical," although he adds that "not all the [Hebrew] People were of one mind; nor were all, by any means, in Palestine. There were c

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no knowledge of God" (Hos. 4.1). By the first century BC, monotheism becomes firmly entrenched in Jewish identity, but Israel has been eclipsed by Great Rome. In 2 Maccabees, the Jerusalem Jews have some degree of autonomy but are being besieged by (polytheistic) Syria. The text makes clear that the choice is also between a pagan or an observant Jewish culture, and that to the degree the Jews abdicate their religious law, they are bound to suffer. The figure of Judas Maccabeus surfaces as a guerrilla leader with an unshakable commitment to the demands of Jewish law. Military failure is interpreted spiritually (e.g., 2 Mac. 13:40). Over the course of the Jewish scriptures, examples of leadership gradually assume moral instead of military or political weight, and the promise of God is articulated less in terms of land and riches than in terms of the promise of the messiah (e.g., Zech. 14:10-21). Christians accepted Jesus as Messiah; the Jews did not and do not. Until the 20th century, indeed, a fundamental Jewish trait was community experience as a Diaspora. White cites the biblical figure of Esther, who makes a success of life as a Jew in Persia, as symbolic "because the book is attempting to teach its audience to lead a successf
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2750
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)