To what extent is Judaism descended from earlier religions?
The Bible contains many references to earlier and contemporary religions, but did Judaism come about through evolution, becoming a syncretistic form of nearby religions, or through revolution, breaking from earlier religious beliefs and practices? A: That’s a tricky question because so much is conjecture — we simply don’t have enough crucial data — but I’d have to say it’s both. Championing monotheism was a thoroughly radical act, but even that was less than the startling revolution of Judaism’s abstraction of the divine. Idol worship was very literal in that world. To think of ‘G-d’ as something that can’t be carved in stone was utterly and profoundly mind-blowing. Enough so that abstract monotheism didn’t catch on with the people immediately. It was a long, slow process. We can see its impact throughout the texts, even if we don’t know the specifics. However long that may have taken, however slow and twisting and arduous the acceptance, at some point there was a revolution in what
