What Judaism Offered, What Judaism Lacked
Judaism, however, offered an extremely firm morality: "the one
God, the care for the
sick and the
poor, the stern
law to do
good and shun
evil, the strict rules of
sexual conduct, the
God who
cares, and
cares not only in this
life" (Chadwick 14). "Its clarity cut through the
chaos of the
religion in the Greek and Roman world" (Chadwick 36). And yet while these codes were tempting,
Judaism probably didn't win over many full fledged converts because of some of its stricter, less congenial rules:
circumcision,
dietary restriction, and the like.
Greeks who were interested in this sort of thing and yet didn't have the desire to completely convert, so-called "God-fearers," would sit in the back of the
synagogues and hear the prayers of the
Jews (Chadwick 14).
And yet
Judaism of that era lacked the extremely personal component possessed by
Greek Religion. It was a more communal sort of affair with a less personal
God. Certainly
He offered a firm
morality, was
all-powerful, and was beyond such trivial things as
fate, but
He wasn't approachable in the same manner. At the very most,
He might occasionally speak to a single
prophet in a single age who would go on to tell
His will. Beyond
Moses, He never actually starkly appeared to anyone. Ten people – a
minyan – were required, by
Talmudic thought, for a congregation before
God; nothing less would do (I reccolect an old
Jewish proverb along the lines of "
God will hear ten
thieves, but not nine
rabbis").
It was, in many regards, the opposite extreme.
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