Is modern day Judaism the same as Ancient Judaism?

[JohnB445]

I see a lot of strange stuff thats not in the Bible, Christians don't even practice this stuff like Kabbalah, Talmud, This 6 pointed Star, where this come from?

 

[Strathos]

No, it's not, but you can say the same about any long-lasting religion. Early Christians of the first few centuries had practices that would be unrecognizable to us today.

 

[tampasteve]

No, modern Judaism is not the same as "Ancient Judaism", much as modern Christianity is not the same as 1st century Christianity. Religions and people develop over the centuries, and Judaism has had much longer than Christianity. That said, many of the Traditions, prayers, and aspects of the faith remain the same. Loosing the Temple and the community being scattered caused the faith to change from a primarily temple based system to scripture and prayer. Scripture and prayer were always a huge part of the faith, but the destruction of the Temple caused them to be an even larger part. The Synagogue services of today are a shadow of the Temple services of the 1st century.

Kabbalah is it's own subject, not all Jews accept it, or it is believed in varying degrees. The Talmud is a text that dates later than the Tanakh, but is worthwhile none the less for the authors contributions to the belief system, but even the "Talmud" is not a single unit. There is the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds. While they may be newer than the written Law, they contain the Oral Law, much of which can be found in shadows of the faith in the written Law and passed down traditions, so the content (at least some of it) is actually ancient.

 

[Rubiks]

No. No religion is a carbon copy of itself over time. I'm not knowledgeable about the things OP posted, but I do know the celebration of Hanukkah comes from events that happened during the Maccabean revolt, not from the Torah.

No, it's not, but you can say the same about any long-lasting religion. Early Christians of the first few centuries had practices that would be unrecognizable to us today.

Blashemy! Everyone knows that the earliest Christians were reformed Baptists like John Piper!

</heavy sarcasm>

 

[Dave-W]

Blashemy! Everyone knows that the earliest Christians were reformed Baptists like John Piper!

Ah yes - John the Reform Baptist.

 

[Joy]

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[Hieronymus]

I find the "everything changes over time" argument a bit strange.
I think this is about the essence of Judaism, about the foundations.
I don't know when Judaism became Talmudic and / or Kabbalistic, but it's definitely not the same as Tenach based Judaism.
The hexagon is disturbing in particular i.m.o.
Apparently it has nothing to do with David.
It does have to do with Solomon, in his apostate days.
It's also called the seal of Solomon sometimes.
It's also referred to as the Merkaba.
It's apparently also a powerful symbol in witchcraft.
It seems to be the Star of Moloch too...

 

[Steve Petersen]

I see a lot of strange stuff thats not in the Bible, Christians don't even practice this stuff like Kabbalah, Talmud, This 6 pointed Star, where this come from?

Imagine every Christian commentary being put into the same book. That would be something like the Talmud.

 

[Robban]

I see a lot of strange stuff thats not in the Bible, Christians don't even practice this stuff like Kabbalah, Talmud, This 6 pointed Star, where this come from?

How ancient is ancient?

Torah is truth.

What is truth?

That which is permanent and unchangeable is truth.

Truth cannot die.

The oral Torah was never meant to be written down.

Jewish Kabbalah is the inner deeper dimension of Torah.

Not advisable to touch unless first having studied Torah for forty years, then only with a mentor.

There are those who have done so anyway,
and become completely insane.

 

[ToBeLoved]

No, it's not, but you can say the same about any long-lasting religion. Early Christians of the first few centuries had practices that would be unrecognizable to us today.

Like what?

 

[Strathos]

Like what?

For one thing, they didn't have a Bible. There were tons of scriptures they read that are considered non-canonical now, and many of them would reject the authenticity of some of the books we have in the Bible today. The whole thing wasn't formalized and standardized into a consistent text until somewhere around the fourth century A.D.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

For one thing, they didn't have a Bible.

They did have the Torah Scroll, the same thing that they use today in services.

 

[Strathos]

They did have the Torah Scroll, the same thing that they use today in services.

I was talking about early Christians, not Jews. Although the Torah is part of the Christian scriptures, but it's a relatively small part of the modern Bible.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

I was talking about early Christians, not Jews. Although the Torah is part of the Christian scriptures, but it's a relatively small part of the modern Bible.

Ah! I didn’t see that you replying to a previous quote you said, I was just going by the thread title.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Imagine every Christian commentary being put into the same book. That would be something like the Talmud.

It would be closer to something like collections of patristic writings. Commentary with recognized authority, as opposed to just any commentary.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ruthiesea]

I find the "everything changes over time" argument a bit strange.
I think this is about the essence of Judaism, about the foundations.
I don't know when Judaism became Talmudic and / or Kabbalistic, but it's definitely not the same as Tenach based Judaism.
The hexagon is disturbing in particular i.m.o.
Apparently it has nothing to do with David.
It does have to do with Solomon, in his apostate days.
It's also called the seal of Solomon sometimes.
It's also referred to as the Merkaba.
It's apparently also a powerful symbol in witchcraft.
It seems to be the Star of Moloch too...

There is no Torah versus Talmud Judaism. Talmud is a series or rabbinical discussions about the law (Torah). It is not a holy book but is to Torah as scholarly legal papers are to modern law.

 

[Radagast]

Is modern day Judaism the same as Ancient Judaism?

Of course not. There's no longer a Temple, for a start.

Kabbalah

Kabbalah is the Jewish version of Neo-Platonism. It derives from philosophers like Plotinus.

 

[Radagast]

For one thing, they didn't have a Bible.

Yes they did. Christians had the OT, and the bulk of the NT (the four gospels, Acts, the Pauline Epistles, and 1 John) was agreed on by everybody as well. There were only a few books that weren't widely accepted (probably because they weren't widely circulated). As to other books, like The Shepherd, I don't think anyone thought of them as canonical.

 

[Radagast]

.

 

[Jane_the_Bane]

Define "ancient". Rabbinical Judaism is about as old as (or slightly older than) Christianity, with roots in the Pharisaic tradition. Basically, the two were competing sects which persisted in the wake of the 2nd temple's destruction, with many other flavors of Judaism becoming extinct eventually.

With roughly two millennia under its belt and antiquity as its birthplace, I'd say that qualifies as "ancient".
Is it still the same as back then? No. No amount of conservatism and emphasis on doctrinal, orthodox "purity" can hinder gradual change. Christianity's many sects bear only a limited resemblance to its 1st century ancestors, and so do Judaism's.