Jewish History

This paper discusses the several facts of the Jewish culture and history, including the role of God and prayer in Judaism, analysis of books, definition of Jewish community and proper Jews, and influence of Hellenism on Jewish life and culture.

Running head: JEWISH HISTORY
Jewish History
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1JEWISH HISTORY
Introduction
The purpose of the following paper is to discuss upon the several facts of the Jewish
culture and history. The Jewish history is considered as one of the oldest cultures in the world.
The books named 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees will be analyzed to find out several things in
the heart of Judaism. There are several facts that are ingrained within the history of Jewish
culture and religion. In this paper some of those facts will be analyzed like the role of the God
and prayer in the Judaism. The books are written in the original language of the Jews i.e.
Hebrew. The Bible was also written in Hebrew as well.1 The book 1 Maccabees was written after
an independent Jewish Kingdom was restored from the Hasmonean dynasty in the 2nd Century
B.C.
There are some important issues that would be discussed in this book like the relevance
of God and prayer in the life and culture of the Jewish people. The significance of the God and
prayer in the history of the Jews will be highlighted as well. The real self of the Jewish
community according to the books and the identity of the proper Jews will be described as well.
The influence of the culture and life of Hellenism in the Jewish history and culture should be
given a proper overview. I will also discuss about the kind of the movement being a religious
movement or a political movement. I will try to present an overall view on the nature of the
Jews.
Role of God and prayer in Judaism
Both the God and the prayer or worship of the God had been considered as an important
factor in the life and culture of the Jews. In the Judaism God has been seen in a variety of ways.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and national God of the Israelites have been considered as
1 Doran, Robert, and Harold W. Attridge. 2 Maccabees: A critical commentary. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2012.

2JEWISH HISTORY
very crucial personas in the religion of Judaism. The Gods had delivered the people of the Israel
from the slavery in Egypt. In the Torah, it has been recorded that the Law of Moses had been
given to them in the Mount Sinai as outlined in the Bible. According to some of the Jewish
theologians, God os perceived as an absolute one. He can neither be divided into other beings nor
can he be compared. Some of the people who believe in the traditions have said that God can be
shown as someone personal yet He is transcendent.2
However, some modern interpreters of theology believe that God is an ideal or a proper
force. The God of the Jews had changed as per the traditions. The theology of the Judaism
became dependent on monotheism only. However, the contemporary theologians have not
reached to any conclusion about the routes of the monotheism in the Jewish culture and religion.
One thing I would specifically like to point out that this evolving of the monotheism surely has
something related to belief about the prayers. The national God of Israel was Yahweh. Yahweh
came out of the world of the Gods as the chief god of the Israel. The worship of multiple Gods
cannot be considered in the Judaism like the concept of the Holy Trinity in the Christianity. I
would also like to mention that the idea of the duality and the trinity of the God in Judaism
cannot be considered as an important factor in the ideals of Jewish religion.
However, the significance of the prayer is also a very deeply critical factor as well.
According to the theologians of Judaism, the connection and bonding between the God and the
human beings is called the prayer. I believe when the Jews pray to the God they believe that they
are spending time with the God and serve the God with all their heart. I believe they will also
like to obey all the commandments of the God that will be highly important for them. The
service to God should be from all their heart and soul. I also believe that God will be pleased
2 Doran, Robert, and Harold W. Attridge. 2 Maccabees: A critical commentary. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2012.

3JEWISH HISTORY
with the service they give to the God. The Jews believe that the hearts of the human beings can
reach out to the God through these prayers. The human beings pray just to express their beliefs
and exercise them for the betterment of their religious and personal lives. The prayers are done to
ensure that they can obey the commandments of the God.3 Likewise other religions, the Jews are
also of the opinion that there should be nothing else on the minds of the people at the time of the
prayers. The prayers should be done completely from the core of heart.
The Jews have to pray three times a day. These times are morning, evening and
afternoon. The name of the prayer book of the Jews is the ‘siddur’. As per the experts of
theology of Judaism, they believe that the regular prayer by the people will surely enable the
people to make a connection with the God. This will make the things much easier for the human
beings to connect with the God for better outcomes. The things will surely get better with the
practice. In Judaism, generally there are three kinds of prayers and the Jews use all of these
prayers. These different kinds of prayers are the prayers of praise, prayers for the thanksgiving
and the prayers by which the people ask for the things. Apart from these things, I would also like
to highlight that the public prayers are done by reciting the written hymns aloud in their
synagogues. When a person attends the worshipping ceremonies in the public it shows that they
are an active member of the community. The prayer book of the Jews is generally consisted of
the writings of the Jewish people over the ages. The prayers of the Jews contain the materials of
the great thinkers and it is indeed very significant for the history of the Jews indeed.4 This is
considered to be a mechanism that helps the human beings to create connection with the God.
3 Cohen, Shaye. From the Maccabees to the Mishnah. Westminster John Knox Press, 2014.
4 Frend, William Hugh Clifford. Martyrdom and persecution in the early church: A study of conflict from the
Maccabees to Donatus. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014.

4JEWISH HISTORY
The analysis of the books
The book named 1 Maccabees is deemed as a deuterocanonical book in the history of the
Jewish history and culture. The Jews have regarded this book as the one that has enough
trustable historical background but it has not been included in the Holy Scripture of the Bible.
This book was included in the Hebrew Bible and this has been one of the most important things
for the understanding of the theological impacts on the Jewish people. The meaning of the book
‘Maccabee’ is hammer and this was probably the nickname of the leader of the revolt, Judas. The
matters of Hellenism are quite significant in this context.5 Besides it can also have been derived
from the battle cry of the revolt. In the book the conquering of the region by the Greek legendary
king Alexander the Great has been discussed. The book is generally believed to be a narrative in
the prose text.6 The clash of the Christian catholic people and the pagans or non-Christians has
been depicted in this book as well. This book has been excluded from the Jewish Biblical canon.
After this conquest by Alexander, the territories had been divided among the generals after the
death of the king. The revolts came to existence in a striking manner.7
The name of the authors of the book 2 Maccabees is yet to be known. This book is not at
all the sequel of the first book nor is it a continuous narrative at all.8 There are several stories
written in this book but there are no chronological links in this book at all. In this book we could
experience the conflict of the high priesthood in Maccabean era. However, it has been portrayed
5 Peters, Francis E. The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Vol. 34. Princeton University Press,
2018
6 Rose, Gillian. Judaism and modernity: philosophical essays. Verso Books, 2017
7 Seeman, Chris. Rome and Judea in transition: Hasmonean relations with the Roman Republic and the
evolution of the high priesthood. Vol. 325. Peter Lang Pub Incorporated, 2013.
8 Sanders, Ed Parish. Judaism: Practice and belief, 63 BCE-66 CE. Fortress Press, 2016

5JEWISH HISTORY
in a better way than the 1 Maccabees. In this book the author has highlighted the role of the
temple in many ways.9 The Lord is always there to protect the treasury of temple from the hands
of the greedy Heliodorus. Judas Maccabeus gets the opportunity to recapture Jerusalem by the
revolt and then he purifies the entire temple. After this incident, it had been included in the
Holiday of Hanukkah. The book 2 Maccabees had finally ended with the victory of Judas over
Nicanor. Before this incident the Jews had to suffer the local persecution that had given the birth
to a new range of warfare.10
Apart from all these things, 2 Maccabees has shown the omnipotent power of God
in several difficult situations in the country of Israel and the common Israelites. The divine
confrontation of Heliodorus had been described in this book. In the book the incidents of
martyrdom have been shown since evil impacts of the foreign oppression had been deadly. I feel
that the book has also shown that it is more important to be obedient to God than to be obedient
to the human beings.11
Definition of the Jewish community and proper Jews
The Jewish community is one of the oldest communities in the world and their history
and culture is very rich than the other cultures. It is indeed very difficult to determine the identity
of the Jews. The Jews are mainly the community that hails from the Israel and they are called
mainly as the Israelites or the Hebrews. The Jews actually originated in the second millennium
BCE and the place of their origin was the Middle East. Some people are of the opinion that these
9 Rogerson, John William. An introduction to the Bible. Routledge, 2014.
10 Swidler, Leonard. "The Status of Women in Formative Judaism." Women in Judaism 8 (2012): 8
11 Boin, Douglas. "Hellenistic" Judaism" and the Social Origins of the" Pagan-Christian" Debate." Journal of Early
Christian Studies 22, no. 2 (2014): 167-196

6JEWISH HISTORY
Jewish people were the outgrowth of the Canaanite population in the Middle East Asia.
However, the nomadic groups came in to the region and they were called the Hebrews. The
historians are of the opinion that these people had become united with the Canaanite people to
form the Israelite groups. The reform of the Judaism had become very much important for the
betterment of the faiths and beliefs of the people.12
Influence of Hellenism on Jewish life and culture
The Jewish life and culture has been one of the most significant facts on the proper
development of the community. In this section, I will discuss about the various issues related to
Hellenism and its impacts on the Jewish community and culture.13 There is indeed a very deep
connection between the Judaism and Hellenism in the best ways. The Hellenissm is a cultural
phenomenon that indeed had a deep impact on the growth of the Judaism and the people who
follow it. As described in the 1 Maccabees book, Alexander the Great had attacked the Asian
region and conquered many of the states. The contemporary Israel was one of them as well. This
is why many of the things related to the Greek culture also came with him. Thus the Hellenistic
culture deriving from Greece and Macedonia had been mixed with the cultures of the Jews.14
The Macedonian culture had several similarities with that of the true Hellens and they
were the community that spread the Greek culture along the lines of the Middle East. The
12 Jordaan, Pierre J. "The temple in 2 Maccabees: Dynamics and episodes." (2015).
13 Endelman, Todd. Leaving the Jewish Fold: Conversion and Radical Assimilation in Modern Jewish History.
Princeton University Press, 2015
14 Wheaton, Gerry. "The Festival of Hanukkah in 2 Maccabees: Its Meaning and Function." The Catholic Biblical
Quarterly 74, no. 2 (2012): 247-262.

7JEWISH HISTORY
conquest of Alexander had worked as the bridge between the East and the West.15 I found out
from the researches that the native Eastern cultures had been on their way to the declination
during that time.16 The people from the Eastern side had been influenced by the Hellenic culture
a lot and they became acquainted with the arts, science, culture and philosophy of those people.
The Greek people preferred the physical culture and on the beauty. This emphasis had also been
followed in the Eastern culture as well.17 The religious beliefs of the Greeks had been mixed with
that of the Greek people in a number of ways. The local cults had been fused with this matter as
well. All these things had been taken care by the polis and the local cults associated with them.
The Greeks and the native city cults had always been on the constant hunt for the intermixing.
The indigenous people of the region were not ready to absorb with the Hellenistic culture but
they went on to redefine their culture in the modern ways. However this process had led to
several variations in the Hellenistic Judaism.18
The nature of Jewish revolt
The revolt against the Romans for the sake of the Temple had been a mistake by the
Jewish people. The revolt might have begun on the basis of the religion but the impacts were
purely political from the several angles. Israel was left with nothing but a barren country because
the Romans were far more powerful than the Israelites.19 The entire matter began with the
political aspects because Rome had conquered Israel under the leadership of Pompey. They
15 Fishman, Sylvia Barack. "History Lessons: The Creation of American Jewish Heritage. By Beth S.
Wenger." Jewish History 27, no. 1 (2013): 141-143.
16 Maston, Jason. Judaism and Hellenism: Rethinking Ben Sira’s “Opponents”. na, 2012
17 Watts, James. "The Political and Legal Uses of Scripture." (2013).
18 Botticini, Maristella, and Zvi Eckstein. The chosen few: How education shaped Jewish history, 70-1492. Vol. 42.
Princeton University Press, 2012.
19 Levine, Lee I. Visual Judaism in late antiquity: historical contexts of Jewish art. New Haven, CT, and London:
Yale University Press, 2012

8JEWISH HISTORY
began to imply the taxes on the Jewish people without any mercy. This had left a negative impact
on the condition of the Israel.20 The tensions begun to rise as the Greeks sacrificed the birds in
front of a synagogue. This had led to a huge amount of protest from the end of the Israelites. The
religious issues were also there since the facts of monotheism and polytheism could be attributed
to this matter. Thus it can be said that the revolt was neither fully religious nor political. This
revolt can be considered as a mix between the two.21
Conclusion
As per the above discussion, the paper can be concluded by saying that the Jewish people
are one of the oldest communities in the world. They have a very rich culture and heritage in
which take pride. However, they had faced several challenges in order to achieve this. The two
books 1 Maccabess and 2 Maccabess have been analyzed in this context to get a better idea about
the matter. The two books have very little connection with each other and thus they describe
different things. The political and cultural issues have been described in this paper along with the
descriptions on the proper identities of the Jewish community. Apart from that the connection of
the Judaism with that of the Hellenistic culture has been established. There is a very strong
connection between the Hellenism and the Jewish culture after many cultural factors had been
absorbed by the Jewish people for the development of their identity. This had been done after the
conquest of Alexander the Great. The role of the God and prayer in the Jewish life and culture
has also been discussed as well.
20 Tobin, Thomas H. "The importance of Hellenistic Judaism for the study of Paul’s ethics’." Early Christian ethics
in interaction with Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts (2013): 147-165
21 Sachar, Howard M. The course of modern Jewish history. Vintage, 2013.

9JEWISH HISTORY
References
Boin, Douglas. "Hellenistic" Judaism" and the Social Origins of the" Pagan-Christian"
Debate." Journal of Early Christian Studies 22, no. 2 (2014): 167-196.
Botticini, Maristella, and Zvi Eckstein. The chosen few: How education shaped Jewish history,
70-1492. Vol. 42. Princeton University Press, 2012.
Cohen, Shaye. From the Maccabees to the Mishnah. Westminster John Knox Press, 2014.
Doran, Robert, and Harold W. Attridge. 2 Maccabees: A critical commentary. Augsburg Fortress
Publishers, 2012.

10JEWISH HISTORY
Endelman, Todd. Leaving the Jewish Fold: Conversion and Radical Assimilation in Modern
Jewish History. Princeton University Press, 2015.
Fishman, Sylvia Barack. "History Lessons: The Creation of American Jewish Heritage. By Beth
S. Wenger." Jewish History 27, no. 1 (2013): 141-143.
Frend, William Hugh Clifford. Martyrdom and persecution in the early church: A study of
conflict from the Maccabees to Donatus. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2014.
Jordaan, Pierre J. "The temple in 2 Maccabees: Dynamics and episodes." (2015).
Levine, Lee I. Visual Judaism in late antiquity: historical contexts of Jewish art. New Haven,
CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2012.
Maston, Jason. Judaism and Hellenism: Rethinking Ben Sira’s “Opponents”. na, 2012.
Peters, Francis E. The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Vol. 34. Princeton
University Press, 2018.
Rogerson, John William. An introduction to the Bible. Routledge, 2014.
Rose, Gillian. Judaism and modernity: philosophical essays. Verso Books, 2017.
Sachar, Howard M. The course of modern Jewish history. Vintage, 2013.
Sanders, Ed Parish. Judaism: Practice and belief, 63 BCE-66 CE. Fortress Press, 2016.
Seeman, Chris. Rome and Judea in transition: Hasmonean relations with the Roman Republic
and the evolution of the high priesthood. Vol. 325. Peter Lang Pub Incorporated, 2013.
Swidler, Leonard. "The Status of Women in Formative Judaism." Women in Judaism 8 (2012): 8.

11JEWISH HISTORY
Tobin, Thomas H. "The importance of Hellenistic Judaism for the study of Paul’s ethics’." Early
Christian ethics in interaction with Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts (2013): 147-165.
Watts, James. "The Political and Legal Uses of Scripture." (2013).
Wheaton, Gerry. "The Festival of Hanukkah in 2 Maccabees: Its Meaning and Function." The
Catholic Biblical Quarterly 74, no. 2 (2012): 247-262.
References