So why is it called Judaism?
Christianity is obviously named for Christ.
Buddhism for Buddha.
Judaism, less obviously, is named after Judah, which raises the question – wait who?
Abraham is often called the first Jew, a misnomer as the term “Jew” is years away, but more
on that in a bit.
The Bible tells how his grandson Jacob had twelve sons.
One of them – not even the most famous one [ Go Go Joseph you know what they say] was
Judah, who became the namesake for the tribe, the region, and over time, the religion.
So why name a religion after this guy?
For that, you need a little bit of context.
The Bible is the main source we have for most of this, so we are not 100% sure what actually
happend 3,000 years ago.
According to the Bible, at the beginning of the Iron Age, so 10th century BCE, there were
12 tribes, each named after one of the these twelve brothers, each with their own swath
of land.
The tribes joined forces into one Kingdom – kind of like how in America we went from
the 13 Colonies with a lose central government to the United States with a strong federal
government.
Like America, the kingdom had a Civil War about a hundred years later.
Unlike America, the Civil War permanently split the area into two kingdoms, the Northern
Kingdom of Israel, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.
Around 721 BCE, the Assyrian, a giant world power at the time, conquered nearly all of
the Middle East, including the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
The people who lived in Israel are lost to history – often referred to as the ten lost
tribes.
With the Northern Kingdom gone, the Southern Kingdom of Judah stood alone, having survived
because it paid tribute to the Assyrians.
The Bible says they also defeated the Assyrians in battle.
Other documents say otherwise.
Either way, what’s important is they survived.
There’s a lot that’s historically unclear when so many of the facts come from 3,000
year old stone slabs.
Take the Merneptah Stele, it’s one of the only places from that time outside of the
Bible that mentions Israel.
Or does it?
It’s written in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, so no one’s 100% sure.
And when even the words are debated, how can anyone know what actually happened back then?
The fact that we know anything is remarkable.
Imagine someone in the year 5000 discovering the Stanley Cup, seeing a reference to the
Red Wings, and using that and basically that alone to prove that Michigan exists.
That’s pretty close to how this works.
So Judaism is named after the Kingdom of Judah, the kingdom that survived.
And not just through this one defeat by the Assyrians, but through an endless strain.
After the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed, the Judeans only lasted a century until the
Babylonians came through, exiled them, and destroyed the first temple.
Now, the temple was so central that is was unclear if the Judeans would continue now
that the temple was gone.
Babylonian side note: Just over 1,000 years old at this point, this was the height of
their power.
Assyrians had fallen to infighting and rebellion in the last 100 years, giving the Babylonians
the chance to take over.
But it was short lived.
Less than 50 years after the Babylonians took over, Persia took over the land.
The Persians were new to the world stage, and this conquest kicked off a long,
long reign.
The Persian king, Cyrus the Great, allowed the Judeans to return and to build the second
temple, and that temple stood for 600 years.
During those 600 years of the temple, the name “Judeans” stuck.
What started out as a label for people from a specific region, eventually turned into
a label for people living all over, with a set of beliefs and ritual practices.
By the time the Romans destroyed the second temple and exiled the Judeans again, 70 CE,
even though there was no longer a kingdom of Judea in one solid place, the name Judaism,
those formerly from the Kingdom of Judah, was there for good.
Through the ages, it went from the Biblical “yihudi” to the Greek, to the Latin, to
the old French, and finally to the term “Jew” and “Judaism” we have today.
So short answer: It’s named after Judah the brother, but more so, it’s named after
the Kingdom that survived and seeded the religion we have today.