Religious Speciation by Ina Wunn & Davina Grojnowski

Author:Ina Wunn & Davina Grojnowski
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030044350
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

8.4 Judaism and Its Changing Environments

Towards the end of the Bronze Ages , the spare villages in Juda’s mountain regions, inhabited by horticulturalists and pastoralists, formed the social, political, and economic environment of a set of beliefs, rules, and behaviours from which Judaism would eventually emerge. Local deities were venerated and sacrifices offered on hilltops. Perhaps these deities were considered to be invisible, living in the skies and simultaneously amongst the people, powerful and able to influence fate – this is all suggested by investigations into the religions of comparable pastoral tribes (Evans-Pritchard 1956, p. 5). It is highly likely that these deities each had their own responsibilities: they were the deities of the respective family or clan on whose territory they were venerated (Wunn et al. 2015, pp. 240–243; Finkelstein and Silberman 2002, pp. 110–113). Different myths and narratives about ancestral figures were in circulation and belonged to the religious heritage.

The environment of these early religions, Bellah’s primitive religion, changed with the rise of King Omri (876–869 BCE), who founded a territorial state in Northern Israel and made Samaria his capital. The Omrides initially had sufficient power to expand into the surrounding regions including the small kingdom of Juda, which they also tied to their house by marriage. Eventually Israel’s power waned and Juda was able to profit from the changing power structures. The Assyrian Empire made Israel its vassal (from 738 BCE) but stripped the land after a revolt in the northern regions (Galilee, 733 BCE), and finally subdued Samaria and displaced its people (722 BCE). The destruction of its northern neighbor meant that Juda, which had placed itself under Assyrian protection, became an important political center and also a part of the great Assyrian economic system. The economic boost and trade brought with it the introduction of script for this formerly remote capital of a rather barren mountain region. The royal narratives including those concerning both mythical and historical kings and their human interactions which had previously been transmitted orally could now be set down in writing. A stream of refugees from the regions conquered by the Assyrians settled in Juda and in turn introduced their traditions into the general history. In order to strengthen this heterogeneous population, also and especially from an ideological perspective, the central authority was strengthened, to the detriment of the more rural, clan-focused power structures, including the prohibition of local cults. The deities previously venerated on hilltops were now to be interpreted as the same god who demanded that he be worshipped only in the Jerusalem Temple. As a result, the many invisible deities of the individual local sanctuaries became the one god of Juda-Israel, albeit not the only god to exist. That means: the social environment of Juda and Israel in the Bronze Ages had changed. A pastoral and farming society not previously stratified had changed into first two, then one oriental kingdom with a stratified society. Such a change in social structure entailed more than a new image of the divine.

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