Judaism might not be as old as previously thought, research finds

A historical review finds no evidence that the Torah laws were commonly observed before the second century BCE.

Most researchers have long dismissed the Exodus and the revelation at Mt. Sinai as foundation myths.

They also agree the religion the ancient Israelites practiced in the First Temple Period, up until the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple in 586 BCE, was very far removed from Judaism as we know it today.

Yes, the Israelites worshipped the chief deity known in the Bible as YHWH, but they also honoured other gods, made  human-shaped figurines, and seemingly ignored the biblically sanctioned centralisation of cult at the Temple in Jerusalem.

But it has been generally believed that Judaism as we know it was well established by the end of the Babylonian exile in the late sixth century BCE.

A new book, The Origins of Judaism, argues Judaism did not become the religion we would recognise until much later: the period when Judea was ruled by the Hasmonean dynasty, less than two centuries before the birth of Jesus.

Author Yonatan Adler, a professor of archaeology at Ariel University, scoured ancient texts and the archaeological record for signposts of Judaism in the Persian and Hellenistic periods, from the end of the Babylonian exile onwards.

He found none of the key markers: monotheism, rejection of figural art, respect for dietary and purity rules, and observance of festivals like Sabbath or Passover.

“It is possible that the principles of Judaism were much older, that the texts that became scripture were much older, but I am asking here what were people doing,” Adler says. “Maybe the Torah was sitting on a shelf somewhere for centuries, but most people didn’t know it existed. People were not observing it until a very late time.”