The Origin of Judaism

• The 12 tribes of Israel are said to have appeared in the region of Canaan in early 3 millennia BC.
  • As per the Hebrew Bible, they reached there after Moses led them out of Egypt
  • Canaan is the grandson of Noah. He was cursed to perpetual slavery because his father Ham "looked upon" the drunk and naked Noah
  • The Bible separates Israelites from Canaanites, but archaeology points that Israelites are a subset of Canaanites
  • The Twelve sons of Jacob fled to Egypt after a drought in Canaan. Jacob was also known as Israel.
  • The Twelve were led out of Egypt by Moses to Canaan, and they formed the Twelve tribes of Israel
  • The laws given to them by Moses was the Torah.
  • They formed kingdoms
  • Originally, they practiced Yahwism, with other secondary gods such as Baal, Shamash, Yarikh, Mor, Astarte, etc. each of whom had their own prophets.
  • The original god of Israel was not Yahweh, but El. Israel means "El strives".
  • Beth-el also means "House of El"
  • El Shaddai means God Almighty, but he was also called Adonai. Yahweh apparently came later.
  • The kingdoms later separated into the kingdoms of Judah and Israel
  • They built the Temple of Solomon during their time.
  • The kingdom of Israel was captured by Neo-Assyrian empire
  • The kingdom of Judah was captured by Neo-Babylonian empire
  • When the Neo-Babylonian empire was captured by the Achaemenid Persian empire, they built the Second Temple.