When was the term Judaism first used? When did Jew come to mean the religion of Abraham?
The words “Semite”, “Hebrew”, “Israelite”, and “Jew” oftentimes overlap in common vernacular, although they truly have different origins and refer at times to distinctly different peoples. The word “Semite” refers to Noah’s son, “Shem”; Shem’s son, Arpachshad, was understood to be Abraham’s direct ancestor (Noah’s other sons, Ham and Japheth, are understood to be the progenitors of the Hamites and Japhetites, respectively). Semites are thus understood to be descendents of Shem; the reason why Arabs are considered to be Semites is because Ishmael (Abraham’s son through Hagar) is understood to be the progenitor of the Arabs, a belief held by many Arabs and Jews. The Semites are the broadest of the four definitions I mentioned above.
Abraham is understood to be the first Hebrew. “Eber”, the great-grandson of Shem and thus ancestor of Abraham, is where the word “Hebrew” was formed; it was not used until much later to refer to Eber’s descendents (primarily Abraham). In this regard, although Abraham did go against idolatry in an idol-worshipping society (Abraham’s father, Terah, manufactured idols), and introduced monotheism to his people, he cannot be regarded as a Jew. The concept of “Jew” did not exist until much, much later.
The term “Israelite” is less broad than the term “Hebrew”. Abraham and Sarah produced Isaac, who produced with his wife, Rebecca, a son named Jacob. Jacob, before the birth of his son Benjamin, was renamed “Israel” by an angel; this explains why “Jacob” and “Israel” refer to the same person. It is popularly known that Jacob had twelve sons, who became the first heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. The descendents of these twelve sons (the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel) became known as the Israelites.
Finally, the word “Jew” itself comes from “Judean”, which refers to the descendents of the tribe of Judah (Judah being one of Jacob’s sons). Long after the Exodus, the Kingdom of Israel split following Solomon’s death due to a variety of political and economic disputes. After the dust had settled, the ten northern tribes formed the northern Kingdom of Israel, and the southern tribes formed the Kingdom of Judah. The descendents of the Kingdom of Judah later came to be known as “Jews”, although today we refer to all of the descendents of the Israelites (and even the descendents of the Hebrews) as Jews, even though it is not altogether appropriate to do so. To finish the story, the northern tribes became conquered by Assyrians, whereas the Judean’s eventually fell to the Babylonians. Ultimately, “Jew” did not come to mean the religion of Abraham until long after the fall of the Kingdom of Judah. To the unified Israelites, the people of the Exodus, and the legendary patriarchs, there was no such thing as a “Jew”; the term held no meaning.
The Pharisees, which you also mentioned, are a different story altogether. The Pharisees came into play at about 500-100 B.C., long after many of the important events in Jewish history had already occurred. They were essentially a faction and religious society amongst Jews (alongside the Sadducees and Essenes) under Hasmonean rule and produced a very important school of thought to Judaism which would later influence the creation of the Mishnah and the Talmud. The Pharisees believed the interpretations of the written law (Tanakh) by their rabbis to be divine and they claimed Mosaic authority (the authority of Moses), whereas the Sadducees believed the written law alone was divine and rabbinical commentary should have no place in influencing Jewish law or tradition. Jesus spent a great portion of his life strongly condemning the Pharisees and promising them Fire in the afterlife for their sins of changing God's law; as such, the Pharisees were heavily involved in the plot to kill Jesus. Interestingly enough, Saint Paul was a Pharisee himself (as was Nicodemus) at one point in time, although he later converted to Christianity and played a major role in the New Testament.
@Fraggle
So the OT was actually written down by Christians before the Jews wrote the Torah?
In terms of a timeline, the Torah was revealed in about 1300 B.C., although much of the written form of the Tanakh (including the Torah) was completed by about 500-400 B.C. The Old Testament varies in form (Protestant Old Testament, Catholic Old Testament, and Eastern Orthodox Old Testament). The various Old Testaments contain the books from the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), but also contain different books as well which do not belong to the Tanakh. This is what separates the Old Testament from the Tanakh; as such, the Old Testament cannot be said to predate the Torah and the Tanakh, especially when there are so many different forms which saw extended periods of time in development. The New Testament contains the books which Jesus and his apostles recognized from the Old Testament, and new books as well, written by Jesus’ apostles and later Christians (especially Paul the Apostle).
So apparently FR believes that in the days of Egypt when the children of Abraham were present, they were gastarbeiter and not slaves. But the distinction is somewhat elusive. Does FR have any other take on whether there was an 'exodus' as recounted in the Torah/Old Testament?
As I am sure you know, the Torah is the first of three parts of the the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh (the others being
The Prophets and
The Writings). The Torah contains five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Genesis contains most of the popular stories and narratives we are all familiar with, the most significant being the creation of the Universe. Exodus, as its name implies, deals with the escape of Moses’ people from the Egyptian pharaohs, and states how Moses was later given the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai and how God formed a Covenant with the Hebrews (the promise of the land of Canaan in exchange for rejecting idolatry and following the one true God, Yahweh).
Specifically, the Torah states of the Exodus that Egypt’s Pharaoh feared the Hebrews’ increasing numbers, and became paranoid of the harm they could cause if they were to revolt. As such, he ordered newborn Hebrew boys to be thrown into the Nile river, and spared newborn girls. God subsequently caused ten plagues in Egypt for the sins they had committed against Moses’ people, and commanded Moses to employ the Passover sacrifice (which Jews celebrate today). When Moses and Aaron (Moses’ older brother) lead the Exodus, they found themselves pursued by the pharaoh and his people, only to witness them be destroyed by the parting and closing of the Red Sea. This is where the Torah’s description of the Exodus in Egypt ends and where descriptions of God’s gift of manna and water for the weary desert travellers, the establishment of the Covenant and pronouncement of the Ten Commandments, and creation of the infamous golden calf begin. In short, the Tanakh, the Old and New Testaments, and even the Qur’an support the story of the Exodus, and they all share very similar narratives concerning the events which took place. What these scriptures offer is our best look into the historical happenings of this region of the world for this particular era in time. Although there are many authors with many opinions, a significant portion of which never lived to see the events they became famous for writing about, they offer the most credible viewpoint available to us today.
Besides, most of history is guesswork.