Sheldon W. Liebman - The Evolution of Love : Theology and Morality in Ancient Judaism

What I have found has been in many ways surprising to me, and though not surprising
to experts in the field, may be surprising to readers of [my] book.

Robert N. Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution

T his book is an examination of Judaism as it evolved over a period of approximately , years, from the middle of the second millennium BC to the early first millennium AD. It is not a history of the Jews from the time of Abraham onward. Rather, it is an analysis of the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Jewish writings, with special emphasis on the two most important concepts in the study of religion: theology and morality.

My objective is to show how the faith of the Israelites developed from a fairly typical primitive religion into something entirely new: a religion that was in many ways significantly different from most of the established faiths of the ancient world. As Alan F. Segal says, Judaism underwent radical religious changes in response to important historical crises. And these beliefs developed, eventually, into a religion that embraced many of the main features that characterized the major religions of the Axial Age: Taoism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Platonism.

As different from each other as these religions may be, they share the common assumption that the universe is not ruled by amoral and impersonal gods that must be appeased by sacrifice or controlled by magic. Unlike the Egyptians and many other residents of the Near East, who worshiped many gods and understood them to be morally imperfect, they collectively affirmed the idea that the relationship between humanity and the Otherwhether it is called God or Nature or Spiritis not based on fear and sustained by the performance of rituals. On the contrary, it is honored and supported by human beings who conduct their lives according to such principles as virtue, compassion, and justice. To be sure, according to two of the religions that emerged in the first millennium BCJudaism and Zoroastrianismthe universe is ruled by a force whose capacity to inflict pain and provide pleasure far surpasses the offensive and defensive capabilities of mankind. Instead of being cowed and controlled by the kind of superior power that a mighty king might use against his subjects, however, members of both of these faiths, as well as Taoists, Buddhists, and Platonists are invited to participate freely in a world order that requires moral probity, not abject submission and blind obedience.

According to Segal, Dislocation, war, and foreign rule forced every variety of Jewish community to rebuild its ancient national culture into something almost unprecedented, a religion of personal and communal piety. Speaking of the book in which this spiritual metamorphosis appears most clearly, Robin Lane Fox says that Deuteronomy is a text of commands and warnings which struck a new and alarming note in the entire history of Hebrew texts. Focused on Gods orders for human behavior, the book is not so much a code of ceremony and ritual as a book of conduct and commandments.

On the one hand, Fox continues, Deuteronomy covers a broad range of subjects, describing as it does the proper attitudes of the Israelites in worship, their justified aggression toward their heathen neighbors, their respect for the poor and the defenceless, their festivals, some of their rules of law and the right behavior of their kings. On the other hand, however, it is the theological and moral formulation of a single, jealous God who required total love from his chosen people and thereby distinguished Israel from her Gentile neighbors. Indeed, even in its discussion of some of the great festivals and ceremonies, Fox adds, the book emphasizes the scope for inner piety and charity on these occasions.

What is different about the faith of the Jews, howeverthat is, what separates it from the four religions mentioned aboveis that Judaism did not suddenly break away from existing religious traditions, at least in the same way that Taoism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Platonism turned their backs on the ancient religions of China, India, Persia, and Greece. Nor was Judaism founded by one man (or the followers of one man), as were the religions established by Lao-Tse, the Buddha, Zoroaster, and Plato. This means that Judaism is not represented by the ideas of a single person and is not understandable by reading a single brief booksuch as the Tao-te-Ching , the Gathas , the Sayings of the Compassionate Buddha , or the Phaedo composed by either the religious founder or his disciples. Rather, Judaism developed over a very long period of time, its principles are expressed in a very large book written by many different writers, and its dominant ideas and practices are often inconsistent and contradictory. For these reasons, the Hebrew Bibleand, consequently, ancient Judaism itselfhas long been regarded as extremely difficult to explainwhich is, again, the main objective of this book. There are several obstacles.