By Rabbi Rachel Esserman
Religions change and develop across time. That is certainly true of Judaism, although it can be difficult to understand its earliest manifestations since they greatly differ from the religion practiced today. In his fascinating and complex “Israelite Religion: From Tribal Beginnings to Scribal Legacy” (Yale University Press), Karel van der Toorn discusses the history of Judaism from its origins as an Israelite religion in 1200 B.C.E. through the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. Readers should note that, while the work is not filled with academic jargon, it does begin with eight pages of abbreviations used in the text and concludes with more than 100 pages of footnotes. However, van der Toorn does an excellent job exploring the development of Judaism in a way that general readers should be able to understand.
The author writes about the five stages that occurred between the ancient Israelite religion and the beginnings of rabbinic Judaism: tribal religion, royal religion and local religion (which, while two separate types of practices, occurred during the same time period), diaspora religion and scribal religion. He see the first period – tribal religion – as the most difficult for readers to comprehend because its beliefs are so different from those of contemporary times. Van der Toorn understands the ancient Israelite religion as simply a variation of all the ancient religions practiced at that time, which featured Gods (usually multiple Gods) and humans who existed in the same dimension, rather than different ones. However, the author notes that, for those living at the time, “the presence of gods seemed the most natural thing in the world. Within the general category of superhuman beings, there were gods and ancestors, both entitled to acts of worship and devotions, but also demons and ghosts, to be kept at bay by spells and incantations. All of them were superhuman, rather than supernatural, for at that time people did not make the distinction between the natural and the supernatural.”
According to van der Toorn, the universe was believed to be divided into three parts: humans lived on the second floor with the upper floor (the heavens) being the home of the Gods and the basement containing the underworld (which was filled with the dead and ancestors). During that tribal period, a great deal of what is now thought of as Jewish religion did not exist. For example, the idea that the day began at sunset and ended at sunset the next day, and the development of the seven-day week (rather than just following daily and monthly cycles) only began in the post exile period.
The clans and tribes of those who later came to be considered Israelites covered a wide geographical area and included a variety of ethnic groups, rather than being members of an extended family as noted in the biblical text. Van der Toorn writes that these “various ethnic groups... eventually called themselves by the name Israel. The name originally belonged to the inhabitants of the central hill country... but was extended to the population of the entire Palestinian hill country plus part of the Transjordan. The three principal groups that would, over time, constitute the nation of Israel were native Canaanites, Arameans from the north, and an assorted mix of pastoral nomads from the south.” While each of these groups may have originally had its own god, they all came to eventually adopt YHWH as the God they worshipped.
As the population of the area grew, the various clans and tribal groups combined or were conquered by other groups, which led to the period when the royal religion developed. One sign was that, in this era, God was no longer referred to as a warrior, but rather as a king. The royal religion was a formal one with the king believed to have a mandate from God to reign. The king had a responsibility for several aspects of his kingdom: a temple where God was to be worshipped in the appropriate way, the administration of justice to his subjects and the requirement to wage war in order to protect his subjects when necessary. There was a formal priesthood with tasks of its own: providing for God so God would continue to protect the kingdom, and giving instructions to the king and the people concerning the appropriate way to behave.
While the royal religion focused on protecting the entire kingdom, thereby creating a national unity, local religions still concentrated on protecting families and extended kinship groups. Worship was less formal and usually practiced in homes, local sanctuaries (rather than the king’s temple) or at gravesites. The emphasis of this more personal religion was on the families’ ancestors and the family’s gods. The author notes that, while there were prophets during this time period, they usually only prophesied to small groups. A few had their words included in the biblical text, but they were the exception, not the rule.
The religion changed again after the fall of the northern Kingdom of Israel, which was followed by the conquest of the Kingdom of Judah. Some families from the northern kingdom emigrated to Judah and brought with them their stories and religious customs, some of which were later incorporated into the biblical text. The exile to Babylon after the conquest of Judah changed the religion in a different way: those who were exiled looked to preserve the customs and stories of their past. At the same time, new religious practices developed to accommodate their new circumstances. As time passed, those who were born in Judah passed away. Their descendants, though, still focused on the loss of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the idea that someday they would return. The Judeans came to see themselves as having a common ethnic identity: this identity also included the idea that they all worshipped the same God.
During the period of ethnic religion, the religion practiced became more similar to the one practiced in later periods. While not everyone returned to Palestine, those who did organized a common calendar with standard dates for celebrating holidays at the same time across the empire. There was now only one main God; others, who were once thought to be additional gods, were now considered angels or other lesser beings. There is some question about whether the Judean exiles in Babylon celebrated a weekly Sabbath. The author notes that “it is highly questionable whether the average Judean in exile in Babylon actually observed the Sabbath. The available cuneiform documents contain no hint that people took a rest every seventh day... the doctrine of the seventh-day Sabbath was a priestly innovation with, at least initially, little popular appeal. To the priestly elite it was important, though.”
During this period, God gained characteristics similar to those of the Persian emperor, meaning a universal God who ruled the whole world. The Judeans who returned to Palestine had three identities: they were Persian subjects, they were members of the ethnic Judean community and they were adherents to the cult of YHWH whose temple was in Jerusalem. Those who lived in the Egyptian and Babylonian disaporas felt a connection to those whom the author call Judean, rather than Jewish, although he feels neither term is completely correct. What tied them together – no matter where they lived – were the ties of language, race and religion.
The final period discussed – the scribal one – took place under the influences of Hellenistic and Roman culture. This time period was characterized by increased literacy. For example, this was when the text of the Bible as we know it was compiled. The nation now worshipped God as the God of their ancestors and Judaism became a way of life with rules to be followed. The increased dependence on holy books became a major facet of the religion. This also meant religious connections were no longer solely based on family or ethnicity. Now anyone would convert to Judaism, as long as they accepted the Jewish God and followed the rules as outlined in the new writings.
This short review cannot do justice to the depth and complexity of “Israelite Religion.” While van der Toorn’s prose is easy to read, he includes so much material in each sentence that it takes a great deal of concentration in order to follow his line of thought, although the effort is worth it due to the challenging and stimulating ideas he offers. Anyone interested in the history and development of Judaism will want to read this book.