How did judaism differ from most other religions during the roman era?

Answer 1

It was the first to believe in only one God, and that God isn't a physical figure like a statue or picture. It instead focuses on the spiritual aspect of religion, and ethics, in addition to the ceremonial aspects of worship.

Dictionaries define "Judaism" as The monotheistic religion of the Jews, since the founding principle of Judaism was the unique belief in One ethical God. At the time of Abraham the Hebrew, the world was full of pagan cults; they were polytheistic, worshiping multiple deities and lacking moral character. Their gods were described as adulterers and killers, and their rites were accompanied by things such as human sacrifice, "sacred" prostitution, and animal worship. Abraham was the first to advance the idea of ethical monotheism: the worship of One God, and the appropriate ethical code of conduct.

• The concept of morality was founded by the Hebrew religion, including the dignity and value of every person. It is the responsibility of the community to support the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger passing through. Compare this to other ancient societies in which only mature, land-owning male citizens had rights.
• Agriculture in the Holy Land included tithes to be given to the Levites and Kohens, thus providing for a scholarly class of people. One of the tithes was given to the poor, thus obviating the existence of starvation.
  

• Government is accountable to a higher authority. In other ancient societies, the monarch was all-powerful. Among the Israelites, however, the king was under the constant scrutiny of the Divinely-informed prophets, who didn't hesitate to castigate him publicly for any misstep in the sight of God. And, other than for the crime of rebellion, the king couldn't punish any citizen by his own decision. He was obligated by the Torah-procedures like everyone else (Talmud, Sanhedrin 19a).

• Under the law of Judaism, everyone had recourse to the courts. A child, widow, wife, poor person, etc., could initiate legal action against any citizen to redress perpetrated harm.

• A robber repays double to his victim, or works it off. Unlike other ancient societies, in Judaism debtors are not imprisoned or harmed. They are made to sell property and/or work to repay what they owe. Compare this to the Roman practice by which anyone could accuse a man of owing them money and the debtor could be killed (Roman Twelve Tables of Law, 3:10).

Quote:
"I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation ... fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations" (John Adams, 2nd President of the United States).
"Certainly, the world without the Jews would have been a radically different place. Humanity might have eventually stumbled upon all the Jewish insights, but we cannot be sure. All the great conceptual discoveries of the human intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they had been revealed, but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time. The Jews had this gift. To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both Divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of human person; of the individual conscience and of collective conscience, and social responsibility" (Paul Johnson, Christian historian, author of A History of the Jews and A History of Christianity).

Answer 2

The main difference between the roman beliefs and the Jewish beliefs were that the Romans always worshiped many Gods and Godesses as well. They had a god ora goddess for everything, King of Gods, beauty, war, sun, messanger of gods and so on. While the Jews did not like it at all. As they worshiped only one God the creator.

Answer 3

Dictionaries define "Judaism" as The monotheistic religion of the Jews, since the founding principle of Judaism was the unique belief in One ethical God. This was the teaching which was spread by Abraham, and has continued since then.

• Link: How Abraham founded Judaism
  

From Judaism, belief in One God has spread through the Western world. It was unlike idolatry, which had tended to go hand in hand with cruel, licentious and excessive behavior, since the caprices which were narrated concerning the idols were adopted as an excuse to imitate those types of behavior.
Quote:
"Certainly, the world without the Jews would have been a radically different place. To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both Divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of human person; of the individual conscience and of collective conscience, and social responsibility" (Paul Johnson, Christian historian, author of A History of the Jews and A History of Christianity).

All of the above existed in Judaism thousands of years earlier than in other nations. Here's just one example: Infanticide was practiced in classical European nations until Judaism and its daughter-religions put a stop to it.

Link: European infanticide

Link: Israelite culture

Answer 4

One of the reasons that the Greeks and Romans hated the Jews was the stark difference of the Jewish practices (and not just the beliefs), as compared to those of the Greeks and Romans. The Jews, by and large, adhered to the practices of the Torah, which calls for kindness, charity, scholarliness, the value of human life, and the abhorrence of promiscuity.
Just a very few examples:
1) Aristotle, who was among the greatest of the Greeks, and Seneca, the famous Roman, both write that killing one's unwanted young babies is perfectly acceptable.
2) In Europe, the Druids practiced human sacrifice throughout Roman Gaul and the British isles. Virgins were sacrificed by casting them into wells.
3) In the Roman cities, the Bacchanalian feasts became so wild that a royal decree was promulgated that they be held outside city limits.
4) Prostitution was a fixed part of temple worship.
5) Children had no rights. In Carthage, babies were sacrificed in fire. Roman law (Patrias Potestas) permitted a man to kill his male descendants of any age and for any reason. Professor and former President of the American Historical Association, William L. Langer (in The History of Childhood), writes: "Children, being physically unable to resist aggression, were the victims of forces over which they had no control, and they were abused in almost unimaginable ways."
6) Under Israelite law, "an eye for an eye" has always meant the monetary value placed upon it by the court (Talmud, Bava Kama 83b). Roman law, however, included literal retaliation (Twelve Tables of Roman Law, 7:9).
7) Romans were killed for the crime of slander (Twelve Tables, 7:8).
8) A Roman could be killed for assembling a noisy crowd at night and disturbing the town (Twelve Tables, 9:6).

Given the vast difference between the two peoples, the Romans found it hard to stomach the kindliness and temperance of the Jews, and they lashed out with physical cruelty as well as slander.

Answer 5

The Romans were polytheistic meaning they worshipped many gods. Judaism was and is monotheistic meaning we worship one G-d, The Creator.