Please read some of the selections from the Tanakh (Old Testament) in the Novak anthology (pp. 176-212). In my opinion, Novak has done an excellent job in highlighting some of the most important passages in the three major sections of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah (law), Neviim (prophets), and Kituvim (writings). What do you see in these passages that helps explain why the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob eventually led, not to just one, but to three "world" religions?
To get a discussion going--
ReplyDeleteI think it is a simple answer here, though nothing is simple. We have the first Abrahamic child in Judaism. With its laws and poetry, a glorious human feast to their one God. Another prophet comes along in a Messianic age and very few of the establishment are able to see him as a new and profound interpreter of such well established dogma. Thus the second child is born, but that child goes into all the world to the West and creates a new fulfillment of the law. A few centuries later a part of these Semitic peoples (Esau’s progeny or was it Hagar and Ishmael’s? I need to learn this part for sure. ) which had been rejected, find a new interpretation of the word of God by a new prophet, and Abraham now has three children who do not play at all well with each other. At least that is what I think I learned in Sunday School.
As far as I know Judaism was the first monotheistic religion, there may have been others but they did not seem to survive. I found Judaism very believable, its heroes are human and flawed, they made mistakes, wandered away and did bad things, but they always found their back to their core beliefs. I find their survival amazing, the great empires of the past – Egyptian, Hittite, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman – conquered the land but not the people, and then those empires disappeared but the Jews persisted. Later, as the Christians and Moslems were converting people (sometimes at the point of a sword) and driving the old religions of the old world - Greek, Roman, Germanic, British, Nordic – into oblivion the Jews survived. After millennia of persecution Judaism still exists, I think it says a lot about the religion and the people.
ReplyDeleteI believe this faith led to three different religions because of there are stories of deliverance. There's the story of Noah and his family being saved because of his faith, but there's also Moses. God did not forget his people in Egypt and he came back for them and then continued to take care of them. I think that alone is different from other religions. And then when Moses saw God's goodness in the mountains, it really showed the difference. Other religions makes gods just as flawed as humans are so they can explain where evil comes from. God is just and good. I think this really underscores why the Judaism led to three different religions.
ReplyDeleteI think that Jerry's comment that the "heros" of Judaism are human probably played a part in its spread, people liked that they felt like they too could play a heroic role in this religion if God called them to. I also believe that a lot of it has to do with the belief that their God actually spoke to them unlike some other religions. Their belief was also, in their eyes, embedded in proof; so to say, there was an actual experience within the life of Abraham, and others that led to his conversion. This was not always present in other religions, we didn't read anything about the founders of Hinduism having a personal experience with their gods, but we do read about Abraham's experience. I think it was this experience and how he explained it to his kin, and their interpretation of it that led to the offshoot of Islam. Christianity was a different story though, because it was not formed from this tradition until after the time of the Tanakh. Jesus himself was a Jew and Christianity was formed from his reformation/continuation of the Jewish faith. I think that the fact that Jews and Christians both share the Tanakh is important to recognize for this discussion.
ReplyDeleteJerry's comments are so true. There is a God who excepts you with all of your flaws. Even when I try my hardest someone will misunderstand me. This God will forgive me the indiscretions. This is a comforting quality to have in a God. We are flawed and he still loves us.
ReplyDeleteLast night when I read the passages, nothing really came to mind as to why 3 world religions were born. But after class today, I agree with Jerry's comment, the fact that these weren't super-natural beings at the heart of this religion, these were flawed human beings (regular joes). I bet people could totally relate to this.
ReplyDeleteI also like Brianna's comment about this God being "just and good" as it was mentioned in class, the advantage of monotheism is that the followers will be able to tell what is the right thing to do, because there are no other gods to appease.
-John Vogel
Just a slightly different approach to my response, I'll do it backwards. I'll comment on why I think that Judaism has survived for 1000s of years with no place to call home, and then I'll reinforce that point with a passage. Its a concept call Shared Hardship. There are certain things in life that are so unique, rare, horrendous, traumatic, good and bad, that when they are experienced together with others you become bound together (funny I'm describing what some would call a religious experience and using the Latin translation for religion to define it, sorry) forever. I hate to speak in the Third person but I hold this to be such a universal truth that I assume it applies to everyone. As I listen to the stories of the suffering of the Jewish people, over and over again at the hands of different rulers/governments, I completely understand why they cling so hand to their own kind and their religion. I understand (agree or not is a different argument) completely why they are holding so tight to their promised land. If I were to walk 40 years in those shoes....
ReplyDelete“I have marked well the plight of My people in Egypt...Yes, I am mindful of their sufferings. I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a land of milk and honey”
Yes the jews were longsuffering and I believe that everybody has their own set of challenging circumstances. We all go through trials and tribulations but God is always there with a listening ear and will never leave us just as he never left them while they were in slavery in Egypt.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, it does one of the most fundamental things a religion must do. It explains how we came to be here. I don't want to quote the whole creation story so suffice it to say God creates the world and all life on it in seven days. It also says why we, humans, are on here: "Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth." (Genesis 1.26) We are here to rule over the earth and to watch over everything on it. Finally, it explains why there is suffering in the world. I won't quote the whole thing, but when Adam and Eve eat of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil they are cast out of the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden seems to me to have been a spot on Earth that had the benefits of being in Heaven without actually being there. The body didn't age and there is not a scarcity of food. When Adam and Eve disobey, God's punishment seems to be to send them into "real life." We, as mortal human beings, cannot know good and evil in a place where neither exist.
ReplyDeleteI struggled with this one because I have numerous choices such as, "8. God Identifies Himself" (pg184). However, there's nothing more powerful and inclusive of these 3 religions than, "10a. The Ten commandments...) (pg187). Specifically the first, "...You shall have no other gods beside Me."
ReplyDeleteThe books of the Old Testament are a great place to look at the three religions stemming from them. Their is something that is different from many other religions in these readings that allow them to form into three different religions. The start of the OT is very specific in activity and time and explain creation in way that is easy to understand. It also creates claim to specific people throughout history. The piece of the puzzle that makes the three religions possible is the start of Abraham and his familial. From here it easy to follow one of his two sons. At the same time the prophets make it easier for other sections to form. The link to specific human individuals makes the old testamate easy to follow and easy to understand. This in turn creates a foundation that different groups can stem from and allows Judaism, christianity, and the muslim faith to prosper from this one group of readings.
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