The answer to the question of who founded Judaism may seem straightforward. However, there is more to discover than you would expect.
Who Founded Judaism?
Judaism began when God revealed himself to Abraham and made a covenant with him. However, there is more to discover about the origin of the term “Judaism.”
It is a system of thoughts and beliefs that developed over time, with the term itself only originating in the intertestamental period.
Who Are the Founding Figures in Judaism?
While Judaism had not been invented as a term yet, the religion began when God revealed himself to Abraham and made a covenant with him.
Abraham began many of the defining practices of the Jewish religion to this day, including circumcision. Abraham’s son Isaac and his descendants continued to follow YHWH. Abraham’s relationship with God differed from that of the Israelites Moses led out of exile. Abraham didn’t have the law as it was given to Moses.
Moses was the next important figure in Jewish history. He walked more closely with God than anyone else and was given a law for his people to follow. He led Israel out of Egypt and into the promised land after 40 years. Even during this time, the people struggled with idolatry.
What Did Judaism Become After Moses?
After Moses, Joshua established the boundaries of Israel. After Joshua, the Judges helped Israel as they continually backslid into idolatry. It only took one generation after Joshua for Israel to descend into civil war because everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Within one generation of being in the promised land, Israel was practicing sins similar to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Then God finished the period of the Judges when the Israelites wanted to be like the other nations and have a king. Saul was the first king of Israel, and after he died, his son Ish-bosheth ruled over the 10 tribes of Israel. So, there was already a sense of separateness between the Northern and Southern kingdoms even before the split that followed. David, the next king, followed God’s heart and walked closely with him. Solomon, his son, also walked with God, and Israel was a united 12 tribes.
After Solomon came his son Rehoboam, who drove the people too hard, so the northern 10 tribes of Israel rebelled and formed their own nation, the northern kingdom of Israel. Meanwhile, the southern kingdom took on the name Judah, after its patriarch and continued to be ruled by the Davidic dynasty. Few of these kings fully obeyed God, and because their sins became so bad, God gave them over to exile as he had promised.
Why Did Judaism Become a Term in the Intertestamental Period?
The term Judaism comes from the Greek word for “Judeans.” The tribe of Judah was prominent in the region and provided the name for the kingdom of Judah, which survived when the other tribes were dispersed and intermingled.
The tribes that were West of the Jordan and in the region of Galilee were deported and lost to history or assimilated into Assyrian culture. The kingdom of Judah survived and returned to the land after 70 years, so all followers of YHWH were seen as descendants of the tribe of Judah
Samaritans were the descendants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel who intermarried with other peoples the Assyrians had conquered. In Ezra and Nehemiah, the Samaritans opposed the Jewish temple rebuilding and formed a large part of the opposition. This is why they were looked down upon by the Judaean community in Jesus’ day.
Judaism, therefore, refers to those Israelites who returned from exile with a renewed vigor and desire to serve the Lord. The returned exiles exemplify this zeal when they listen to God’s commands about not marrying foreigners in the final two chapters of Ezra.
How Did Judaism Change After the Exile?
After the 70-year exile, the Jews had a renewed hunger for God and wanted to serve him afresh and avoid the sins their fathers committed. This renewed passion is exemplified in the final chapter of Ezra, when one of Israel’s most pervasive sins, intermarriage with Gentiles, is explicitly punished by the Israelites for the first time. During this time, Jews desired to follow the law because they hoped that if they could follow the law perfectly, then the Messiah would come. This zeal gave rise to the Pharisee movement.
After this, Judaism began to look more like its modern form because the people began moving throughout the Mediterranean and forming their own communities there. These were known as the Hellenistic (Greek-speaking) Jews. They attempted to bring Judaism into the Greek marketplace of ideas. One Hellenistic Philosopher, Philo of Alexandria, heavily used allegory to harmonize the Torah with the prevailing ideas of Greek philosophy of that day. Philo held to the literal validity of the Torah, but to make it more appealing to his Pagan Greek counterparts, he framed the Torah in their language.
How Did Judaism Reach Its Modern Form?
There is debate on who founded what we now know as Judaism. Judaism has evolved over time, and the modern form is distinct from the biblical one because believers had to adjust to life without a temple. The temple provided the foundation of Jewish worship from Solomon’s time to AD 70. Passion for the temple was a big deal to Jews of the intertestamental period. As Jews became more dispersed, they began emphasizing studying the Torah in gathering places known as synagogues. The synagogue refers to the gathering of Jews who want to study the Torah. These were led by a Rabbi who taught the people. The most prominent Rabbinic school was that of Hillel. He began the tradition of commentary on the Torah known as the Mishnah.
After the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, Jews needed to find a way to worship God without a temple. This was when the synagogue became the cornerstone of Jewish worship. The Torah was already the most important part of Jewish religious life, but it became central to all Jewish life after the temple was destroyed. The new model of Torah study and commentary became the basis for Judaism’s main components. Studying the Torah became the method of worship. Specifically, commentary on the Torah, known as Midrash, became a dominant form of Jewish exegesis and worship.
Jewish worship at the synagogue requires 10 men over 13 years old, known as a minyan, to begin. The word minyan comes from the Hebrew word for number. The idea originates in Genesis when Abraham bargains with God to not destroy Sodom and Gomorra if there are 10 righteous men.
The Talmud is a collection of Rabbinic Jewish teachings developed over several centuries. It primarily consists of commentaries on the Torah by famous rabbis and the Mishnah written out. The Mishnah contains 613 commandments that Orthodox Jews still follow to this day, including extensive regulations covering everything from Sabbath regulations to ritual cleansing rites practiced by orthodox Jews.
How Does Modern Judaism Compare to Its Roots?
Most scholars today agree that Abraham gave rise to Judaism as a religion and that Moses codified its laws and regulations through the Torah, which is the foundation of Judaism. The traditions have remained similar for the past thousand years. God’s promise to Abraham is the bedrock upon which the Jewish faith rests, so Abraham is rightly seen as the founder of Judaism.
God’s promises to Abraham remain true today, and we are a part of that reality because Jesus is a descendant of Abraham. If we believe that Jesus died on our behalf and rose again to show that he defeated sin and death, then we, too, are being blessed by God’s promise to Abraham. In Genesis, God says that all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through you. This promise is how we fit into the story. Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, blessed all nations by conquering death.
Why Should Christians Know Who Founded Judaism?
Understanding the origins of Judaism helps us understand how God’s plan of redemption and salvation applies to us today. Seeing how God revealed himself to the Jewish people helps us understand more of his love for us in sending Christ. This is because works were the main focus in the Old Covenant and Judaism, but now we have received grace and forgiveness in Christ, and our works flow out of that.
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Ben Reichert works with college students in New Zealand. He graduated from Iowa State in 2019 with degrees in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, and agronomy. He is passionate about church history, theology, and having people walk with Jesus. When not working or writing you can find him running or hiking in the beautiful New Zealand Bush.
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