When is Judaism (religion) named Judaism before Jesus Christ was born?

Question

In the Old testament. Judaism rejects Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. So, that would be an after Christ religion, right?

What religion did the Israelis call themself before Jesus Christ came?

Cathy, there are 12 tribes of Israel. And they split. Yahudah & Israel.

Alonyav, Judah wasn't even born yet in the time of Abraham. So? How could Judahism be then? Judah was the 4th child born of Israel (Jacob).

Answer 1

They were Temple religion established by Moses. They were recognized as the people of God by the Holy Spirit (called the Shekinah glory in Hebrew) dwelling in the Holy of Holies (Ark of the Covenant) in the inner chamber of the Temple. The Holy Spirit remained with the Temple worshipping Israelites until Christ wasCrucified. The Holy Spirit was then poured upon the Christian believers (the new Israel of God) on the day of Pentecost.
From that day on the Christian people became the true people of God--the Christian people

Answer 2

*Head explodes*

Sigh . . . here's your history lesson:
Around 900-1000 years before the birth of your Jesus Israel split into two kingdoms: the northern Kingdom of Israel, and the northern Kingdom of Judah.

When the 10 tribes (the northern kingdom) were defeated and lost to Assyria around 600 BCE, all that was left were the tribes of Benjamin and Judah (and some of Levi), who made up the long since independent kingdom of Judah. All of this is in your "Old Testament." So Judean, or Jew, became the generic term for an Israelite. Judaism, therefore, was the logical term for their religion (Judah . . . Juda-ism.) However, it's likely that they didn't create the name Judaism for themselves. For them, it was simply their religion, or the religion of the Israelites/Jewish people.

Edit: I didn't say there weren't 12 tribes. I said that 10 tribes (including most of Levi) became the Northern Kingdom, and 2 tribes (plus a smaller part of Levi) became the Southern Kingdom.

Edit: Allonyoav didn't say that the term "Judaism" was around at the time of Abraham. He's saying that the core of the religion was, that it's the same faith structure. As he says later in his post, Bnei Yisrael probably didn't even have a specific name for the religion.

Answer 3

Lets take this one step at a time:
1) The Tanach (Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim) is what you would call the Old Testament- and forms the written part of the halachah (Jewish law)- it dates back over 3500 years, predate Jesus by over 1500 years and has NOTHING to do with him. So Jews obey the laws of the Tanach. What we reject is the attempted modifications of that law by a bunch of people that decided a Jewish guy was messiah and tried to introduce scriptures (what you call the New Testament) to replace what we believe. The vast majority of the Jews of the time rejected that attempt and remained Jewish.
2) So Judaism stems back to Abraham, who was about 400 years before the receiving of the Torah- making Judaism close to 2000 years OLDER than Christianity.
3) Our name for ourselves is Bnei Yisrael (The children of Israel). Jew/Judaism etc are modern labels- though as far back as 2500 years ago we see the term Yehudi being used generically to identify somebody as Jewish rather than as a member of the tribe of Judah
4) What did Bnei Yisrael call their religion? Their is no specific term- though you could probably say something like "the followers of the Torah given to Moses" or "the nation freed from slavery by the Holy One to serve him", or the "followers of the covenant between Abraham and God" Sory, but no simple term is ever used.

Answer 4

You are a bit confused. The Old Testament started Judaism. When Jesus came, some people believed he was the Messiah - they started Christianity. Others did not - they stayed Jewish, and continue to wait for the Messiah to come. Later on, some people decided Mohammed was a prophet and started Islam. Others did not and still stayed Jewish.

The Old Testament does not reject Jesus Christ - it lays out the specifications for a Messiah. It has nothing to do specifically with Jesus of Nazareth. The New Testament picks up saying that Jesus has fulfilled these specifications of a Messiah. Because some people did not believe Jesus met those criteria, they continued to follow the original belief, Judaism, and await the Messiah.

Answer 5

Jews did not reject Christ in the old testament. It wasn`t until christ came that they rejected him, and crucified him. That is in the new testament. In the old testament, Jews looked towards the coming of the Messiah. When Christ came, they just didn`t believe he was the Messiah. The Name derives from the tribe and country of Judah (one of the 12 children of Jacob, whom God re-named Israel). The Religion dates back to when God made the original covenant with Abraham).

Answer 6

Judaism is named after Judah not Jesus

Answer 7

I dont think their is an exact date of when the term "Judaism" was invented.

Though we know the term Jews for Israelites was around over 2,500 years ago.

As for what the Israelites called themselves? Likely they called themselves Israelites (nation of Israel) and that they followed the traditions that God gave to their forefathers.

They did not have a name for it.

Oh and this might come as a shock to you but the life and death of your Jesus had no impact on Judaism or Jewish culture.
Jesus has as much relevance to Judaism as Mohammad dose to Christianity.

Answer 8

there was no jesus in the old testament. and they called themselves the people of Israel, still do. The term Judaism comes from a refers to the tribe of Judah which was the most populace tribe.

Answer 9

They were, and still are Jews. Hebrew if you prefer, but that was a more cultural name.

The Jews were looking for the Messiah to come to save them from oppression. Jesus' followers claimed he was that Messiah. The Jews who did not convert, did not think that Jesus was the Messiah. They changed nothing, and continue to wait for the comming of the Messiah.

Answer 10

Hebrews or Israelites.

Remember we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.