{"id":926,"date":"2026-10-30T07:31:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/?p=926"},"modified":"2026-10-30T07:31:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T07:31:31","slug":"who-were-the-founders-of-judaism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/religions\/judaism\/who-were-the-founders-of-judaism\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Were the Founders of Judaism?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, there was a question in the Hebrew part of <b>&#8220;Quora&#8221;<\/b> about the origins and the founders of Judaism. This was the translation of <a href=\"https:\/\/he.quora.com\/%D7%9E%D7%99-%D7%94%D7%99%D7%95-%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%93%D7%99-%D7%94%D7%99%D7%94%D7%93%D7%95%D7%AA\/answers\/1477743698471010\" target=\"_blank\">my answer<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>The historical information at our disposal &#8211; based on a wealth of evidence, including ancient texts, archaeological findings, linguistic analyses, and more &#8211; provides a good picture of the gradual development of what is known today as &#8220;Judaism&#8221;. It points to several key stages and milestones that shaped Judaism into what it is today:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Approximately 200,000 years ago: The emergence of Homo sapiens (modern humans) from Homo erectus or its close relatives.<\/li>\n<li>Approximately 60,000 years ago: The gradual migration of human tribes from Africa toward the Middle East.<\/li>\n<li>Approximately 10,000 years ago: The gradual end of the last Ice Age and the development of the Agricultural Revolution, leading to the creation of agricultural festivals and associated rituals.<\/li>\n<li>Approximately 3,000 years ago: A cultural divergence among Canaanite tribes, occurring alongside the migration of tribes from the south (the Arabian Desert) and\/or the north (Assyria). This period saw the crystallization of various cultic centers in locations such as the City of David, Beit El, and Shilo.<\/li>\n<li>About 2,650 years ago: A religious reform during the reign of King Josiah, which reshaped many rituals and established numerous commandments &#8211; including the initial committing to writing of extensive texts that would eventually become the Old Testament.<\/li>\n<li>About 2,450 years ago: Significant influence of Babylonian culture on the content of Judaism, followed by another religious reform during the time of Ezra, which involved the rewriting of many of the aforementioned texts.<\/li>\n<li>About 2,100 years ago: The gradual consolidation of the idea of the &#8220;Pharisees&#8221; and the concept of the &#8220;Oral Torah.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>About 1,600-1,900 years ago: The gradual formation of the bulk of the Jewish Talmud (&#8220;Mishnah&#8221; and &#8220;Gemara&#8221;), which effectively serves as the ritualistic foundation for contemporary Orthodox Judaism.<\/li>\n<li>About 800 years ago: The consolidation, elaboration, and dissemination of Talmudic laws by Maimonides (&#8220;Rambam&#8221;).<\/li>\n<li>About 500 years ago: The consolidation, elaboration, and further dissemination of Talmudic law through the &#8220;Shulchan Aruch&#8221; (&#8220;Set Table&#8221; by Joseph Karo).<\/li>\n<li>Over the last few centuries: A significant influence of European cultures on Jewish cultural elements, such as holidays, attire, language, and more.<\/li>\n<li>About 150 years ago: The gradual emergence of secular and other streams within Judaism, and subsequently, what might be termed &#8220;Abraham Isaac Kook&#8217;s followers&#8221; or &#8220;Knitted Kippah&#8221; (a.k.a. Religious Zionists) Judaism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is merely a brief overview, omitting important topics such as the Samaritans, the ancient Egyptians, Christianity, and much more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, there was a question in the Hebrew part of &#8220;Quora&#8221; about the origins and the founders of Judaism. This was the translation of my answer: The historical information at our disposal &#8211; based on a wealth of evidence, including ancient texts, archaeological findings, linguistic analyses, and more &#8211; provides a good [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,34,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archeology-and-history","category-bible","category-judaism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":927,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions\/927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetruthiswrong.com\/indeed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}