The Religious Development of the Jews

(Originally written July 16, 2006 in Book 5)

The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell

Chapter I - The Religious Development of the Jews

"The Christian religion, as it was handed over by the late Roman Empire to the Barbarians consisted of three elements: first, certain philosophical beliefs, derived mainly from Plato and the Neoplatonists, but also in part from the Stoics; second, a conception of morals and history derived from the Jews; and thirdly, certain theories, more especially as to salvation, were on the whole new in Christianity though in part traceable to Orphism, and to kindred cults of the Near East" (Russell, 308).

Russell believes these six things are the most important Jewish elements in Christianity:
1) A sacred history: from Creation to an end in the future, with it a way of justifying God's ways to man.
2) The Existence a small section of mankind who God specially loves.
3) A new conception of righteousness
4) The Law
5) The Messiah
6) The Kingdom of Heaven

Linehan - if the Messiah is the fifth most important thing Christianity got from Jewish tradition than Christianity is merely a philosophical theory and not a very consistent one. Actually, Russell is just way off. Without Christ (the Messiah) there would be no Christianity. The most important thing Christianity took from Judaism is obviously Christ himself.

Jewish religion undertook a drastic change when they were in captivity.

The 1st commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me' was a new innovation in religion. Monotheism in a strict sense was very new.

"Jeremiah and Ezekiel seem to invented the idea that all religions except one are false, and that the Lord punished idolatry" (Russell, 310).

The Jewish religion became exclusive and fiercely nationalistic. The Jews distinguished themselves from other ancient peoples through fierce national pride. Unlike all other ancient peoples, the Jews never conformed when they were conquered.

Sidenote: It's hard to take Russell's words seriously because he is misrepresenting when the Books of the Old Testament were written. Russell claims that the Law was written post-exile, in order to preserve national unity. He claims the Book of Isaiah is written by two prophets - one pre-exile and one post-exile. The second prophet, 'Deuteron-Isaiah' is what is used in Messianic prophecies by Christians. Sidenote done.

The Jewish kingdom remained a small theocracy state after Ezra and Nehemiah. The theocracy existed around Jerusalem and was a disputed territory between the Ptolemies and Seleucids.

The Jews lived under their own rule for a while until the Seleucid king, King Antiochus IV was determined to hellenize his whole kingdom. The Jews rebelled against Antiochus IV in 170 B.C. when the Seleucids fought against Egypt. Then, Antiochus identified Yahweh with Zeus and the Jews everywhere outside of Jerusalem rebelled. This caused the Maccabean revolution. This is also (Russell contends) when Jews began to fully adhere to their strict morality.

Russell attacks religion by belittling the Jews belief and pointing out 'trivial' things they fought for. "The Jews of this time showed immense heroism, although in defense of things that do not strike us as important, such as circumcision and the wickedness of eating pork" (Russell, 316).

King Herod replaced the Maccabees through Marc Antony's help. The Jews didn't like him but suffered him well. The Zealots wanted to overthrow him and Roman rule entirely however.

In A.D. 66 the Zealots got the revolt they were looking for but were defeated and the Jewish Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70.

Philo, a Jewish philosopher who lived around the time of Christ is the best illustration of how a Jew can be influenced by Greek thought. Phil was orthodox in religion, but Platonic in philosophy. He was used by the Church Fathers to reconcile the Scriptures with Greek thought.