but when Israelite became followers of monotheism is debated
both archaeological evidence and even the Bible itself suggests most of the Israelites didn't worship god for most of their history
for most of their history they where polytheistic pagan Canaanites
it was a small minority that started to practice monotheism in judea... worshiping only the once polytheistic god, El, the god of the desert and the father of the Canaanite pantheon.
it's only during the rein Asa, king of Judah (913-910 BCE) evidence for monotheism was found
and infect the kingdom of Israel that was ruled by the famous Ahab and wife Jezebel where never monotheistic and infect they where worshiping the mainly god's ba'al and Dagon .
it's only after the people of Judea where exiled to Babylon in 586 they became Jews, being expose to monotheistic religions from Persia. in fact it isn't quit certain they where truly monotheistic before the Babylonian exile. it possible they did believe in the existence of other gods, but believed their god protected only them, and the same was true to the worshipers of other god, it was a common practice at the time in the near east to worship national deities, they believed their god protected the nation from the gods of other nations, it's only with the rising of the first empires, the Babylonians and the Persians empires, only then the concept of international religions was born, and of global gods, that had effect on the entire known world.
and as i started to give you some dates... Moses is supposed to have lived around 1390–1270 BCE
and is apparently a fictional characters, just as the entire story of exudes is fictional, that was most likely invented after 540 BCE
and just so we have it clear! understanding that the Bible is largely a fictional work doesn't diminish the greatness of god, or christ message to humanity.
Judaism is a label given to a set of beliefs and practices. You can call it what you like and the content of the label is the same.
Similarly, at different time periods, African Americans have had different labels in the USA.
But, one would not argue, "the word African American did not exist before the 1970's...so I guess the slaves before the civil war were some completely different people than African Americans."
between the egyptian and babylonian empires--in the hinterlands. That's why so many of the hebrew myths are remeniscient of the sumerian and egyptian myths--the people who were to become the hebrews heard these tales for thousands of years around their campfires.
Jacob (Israel) was a follower of Semitic monotheism, a prevalent religion of the region. His descendants are Israelites.
They practiced Semitic monotheism. Judaism is a specific branch of monotheism which began at Sinai.
Nope. they became Israelites later. They left Egypt, wandered around the desert with Moses and Aaron and God gave them the land after their punishment.
He also took the land away from them forever - something they deny to this very day despite the scriptures being clear on the subject.
Judaism is the name given to it but really it was the first organised monotheist religion akin to Islam where you believe in God and his prophets nothing else.
It takes the name from "Judea" and "Ism" as that was the name they gave to the land and declared it's religion as that.
In Egypt they were believers in a God and knew of the older prophets. They were waiting for the new prophet who it was prophesied would establish their faith and take them to their new land.