What were the Israelites known for?

Answer 1

The Israelites are known for using the Ten commandments or being the first to use them and follow them they were given to by Moses who was given them by God, Moses is the man who led the Israelites out of Egypt because of slavery and plague.

Answer 2

A:

At one level, the Hebrew people were no different to their neighbours. Scholars no longer accept the biblical story of the emergence of the Hebrew people, their Exodus from Egypt and their military conquest of Canaanite cities. They were actually Canaanites who migrated peacefully form the region of the rich coastal towns into the Canaanite interior. Carol A. Redmount (The Oxford History of the Biblical World, Bitter lives) says that intensive archaeological research since the 1970s has demonstrated a gradual proliferation of small rural settlements concentrated in the hill country of southern Canaan from around 1200 BCE, the beginning of Iron Age I. Scholars such as Mark S. Smith (The Early History of God) say that the early Israelites shared polytheism with their neighbours, worshipping the same gods, but also a new God, Yahweh (YHWH), who gradually became the national God.

It was the worship of Yahweh that made the Israelites different. The best evidence is that he originated as the Midianite storm god, YHW. What eventually made the people of Judah different was the adoption of monotheism. At the time of the Babylonian Exile, the Persians were the only other significant monotheistic nation in the Near East. In addition, the Jews had abandoned the practice of human sacrifice and the display of any images of God.

Answer 3

Monotheism.The religion of the Israelites (Judaism) distinguished them from other ancient peoples and religions in the following ways: 1) It was the only religion in which God spoke to the entire assembled nation (Exodus ch.19) of over two million people. 2) It made a complete break from the surrounding idolatry. Their monotheism (belief in One God) set the Jews apart because other ancient nations did not share it. We've heard (for example) of the Greek mythology and Roman mythology. What not everyone is aware of is that idolatry 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. Compare that to God, who reveals His attributes in the Torah as wise, kind, holy, and pure. God is One, so the command to imitate His attributes (Deuteronomy 8:6) was (and is) a straightforward matter once one is even minimally familiar with the Torah. Accordingly, Judaism was: 3) The only ancient religion in which a large percentage of its adherents were literate and scholars. 4) It was the only religion in which the people were ruled by God, with no need for a king, for several centuries (see Judges 8:23 and 1 Samuel 8:4-7). 5) The concept of morality was also the work of the Hebrews' religion, including the dignity and value of a person. It is the responsibility of the community to support the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger passing through. 6) Under the law of Judaism, everyone had recourse to the courts. A child, widow, wife, etc., could initiate legal action against any citizen to redress perpetrated harm. Compare this to those societies in which (at most) only mature, land-owning males had rights. 7) 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). 8) A robber repays double to his victim, or works it off. Unlike in many 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. It is important to note that every one of the above existed in Judaism thousands of years earlier than in other nations. Here's just one example: Aristotle, who was among the greatest of the Greeks, and Seneca, the famous Roman, both write that killing one's young babies is perfectly acceptable.

Answer 4

They were known for their belief in One God.