Why were the Israelites different than most others in the ancient world?

Answer 1

The Israelites were distinctive in several ways compared to many other ancient civilizations:

Monotheism: While polytheism was widespread in the ancient world, with each civilization often worshipping multiple gods, the Israelites were among the first to adhere to strict monotheism, believing in one God, Yahweh.

Covenant Relationship: The Israelites believed they had a special covenant relationship with their God, Yahweh. This covenant formed the basis of their religious and social identity, emphasizing loyalty and obedience to God's laws.

Ethical Monotheism: Unlike many other ancient religions that focused primarily on rituals and appeasing gods, Israelite religion emphasized ethical behavior and moral conduct. The Hebrew Bible contains numerous ethical teachings and laws aimed at guiding individuals and communities toward righteous living.

Written Scriptures: The Israelites were among the earliest civilizations to develop a comprehensive written religious scripture, which became the basis for the Jewish Bible (the Tanakh) and later the Christian Old Testament. This scripture played a central role in preserving their religious beliefs, history, and cultural identity.

Diaspora: The Israelites experienced multiple exiles and dispersals throughout their history, leading to the formation of Jewish communities (diaspora) in various parts of the world. This dispersion contributed to the preservation and spread of Jewish culture, religion, and identity.

These factors set the Israelites apart from many other ancient civilizations and have had a profound influence on Western religious and ethical thought.

Answer 2

Dictionaries define "Judaism" as The monotheistic religion of the Jews, since the founding principle of Judaism was and is the belief in One ethical God. This was the teaching which was spread by Abraham, and has continued since then. From Judaism, belief in One God has spread through the Western world. This 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:
"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 3

At the time of Abraham the Hebrew, the world was full of pagan cults; they were polytheistic, worshiping multiple deities and lacking moral character; with their rites 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.

Link: How Abraham founded Judaism

• 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.

• 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).

Link: The prophets

It is important to note that 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