In pre-Roman Judaism,...?

Question

did Jews expect other peoples to "believe" in their God? Was there a special punishment reserved for "others?" Did Jews living outside of Israel expect Egyptians, Moabites, Assyrians, etc. to accept, or to "believe in," the God of Israel?

How were "others" living within Israel treated? Were they required to sacrifice to the God of Israel? Were they punished in any way for not paying homage to the God of Israel? Were "others" required to pay special taxes? Was there punishment for those who didn't keep the commandments? Was excommunication practiced? Would that mean that all non-Jews were expelled from Israel?

I understand that the Romans were tolerant of religious beliefs, but were iron fisted in the political arena. (Jesus would have known very well that he was treading on thin ice by claiming to be "king of the Jews.")

Allonyoav comes through again!!! I hope others have enough Jewish background to understand your answer.
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Answer 1

Non-Jews living inside of Israel were expected to adhere to the seven Noahide laws and no more. During the time of Jewish Kings ruling, open idol worship would have been forbidden- but aside from that anything was allowed. There was no forced conversion- on the contrary, during the time of David and Solomon converts were NOT accepted since it was suspected that they were converting to be part of what was the biggest power of the time, rather than out of any desire to be Jewish.

There are no special taxes mandated for non-Jews living in the country, in fact, they would only have to pay taxes to the secular authority since Terumah, Maaser rishon, maaser sheni and maaser ani are only mandated for Jews and not non-Jews. Where they would have been disadvantaged (as was anyone not from the 12 tribes), was in the area of land ownership since the land was divided between the 12 tribes and could not be permanently sold. In essence- land sold to someone outside the tribe was only on a 49 year lease as every Jubilee year the land would return to its original owners. In the Talmud is discusses how the land is costed out and how the value of the land differs (reducing in value) as the Jubilee year approaches.

Cherem is only applied against Jews- and then only for very specific offenses or for ignoring the decrees of the Beis Din. Exile is NOT part of cherem, the closest to exile was the seven cities of refugees to which accidental murderers fled until a Beis Din confirmed that the murder was accidental (they were encouraged to go there, they did not have to, but inside those cities they were safe, outside- there was the possibility of a relative hunting them down for revenge).

As for the Romans- they were not that tolerant religiously. So much so that they forbade three main things hoping thereby to destroy Judaism: Study of Torah, bris milah and shabbat. This is where the custom of going on a picnic and having a bonfire on Lag B'Omer comes from- the students would pretend to be going hunting and would go into the wild areas in which their teachers were hiding in order to learn Torah. If you read in in the Yom Kippur Machzor (at least in an Orthodox One, I don't know if Conservative and Reform have this section in them), you will find the tale of the 12 Martyrs- amongst them such greats as Rabban Gamliel and Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria and Rabbi Akivah, who were tortured and killed by the omans. The Roman's excuse- these 12 greats were the reincarnations of the sons of Jacob, and had to be put to death for the selling of Joseph into slavery (don;t ask how he gets to twelve needed for that- since only 11 brothers were guilty of the crime- Joseph could hardly be held responsible for his own sale into slavery!) On this excuse- 12 of the greatest scholars in Judaism were killed- most likely because the Romans were trying to destroy all Torah learning.

Answer 2

Actually, I would not call the Romans as being tolerant. That is a grave misnomer that is often touted today to show just how awful the Jewish, Christian etc people where.

The Romans were not tolerant of any new religion. Anything that popped up that was new was harshly dealt with. Many relgious people did not and were not able to publically practice their faith. And there was a great amount of supression of what and what was not acceptable.

The Romans also only tolerated religions so far - any religion they felt was hostile to the government was supressed. It didn't matter if it was Pagan or Jewish or Christians. As much as the Christians cry out persecution under the Roman government, they were only sought after for three years out of the three hundred before Constantine. Pagans, they cult and mytical groups, suffered more then the Christians, along with the Jews. A great book to read on this subject is "Why the Jews Rejected Jesus." It talks about the historic attributes of the Roman rule.

As for others outside the Jewish faith. The Jews only attacked those that provoked them first. Those that lived inside Jewish territory were still allowed to practice their faith, but they were not to try and convert Jewish people, to openly blasphem G-d etc. A lot of this can be found in the Jewish Law books. Someone who knows Jewish Law can help you more with the fine points. I am not aware of special taxes etc that were levied against those of other faiths.

Answer 3

It depended, you can read that in different time periods sometimes the Jews were sincere to God and other times they would rebel against God and get judged, the whole story is throughout the Old testament. You are right about the Romans in the sense of the political arena and in the religious arena it depended when it was because some rulers wanted to be worshipped as God and actually they were not very tolerant of other religions as long as they did not cause any trouble or stir anyone up.

Answer 4

To be honest, I know that you are much more well versed in this area than I am, so I will defer to you on this subject. My current understanding is that there were times when outsiders were both accepted AND rejected, as well as times when neighboring non-believers were forced to pay tribute to keep the Israelites from destroying their towns and villages. But my knowledge of such comes from the OT, which is known to be problematic to say the least.

Historically though, from what I know of Judaism those things are not part of the culture, as Jews don't prosyletize and believe that outsiders have a different set of rules than Jews are subject to. There's no need for them to make others believe in their god, their god will do that himself when the time comes (through The Messiah, who will rebuild the 3rd Temple and establish world peace, among other things). God will write knowledge of himself on everyones hearts, so there will be no need to preach, no need for church, and no arguments about what god is and what it wants.

Again, this is just my understanding from what I've learned over the last few months from studying what I've learned from you and other Jews.

Answer 5

In preroman and preChrist times God was doing His best to garner a people to Himself !!! It was not an evangelistic faith as christianity is!!!

Tolerant, but would not be tolerant of anything or anyone who claimed to be King !!! Hence the declaration on the cross was to get a message to the Jews that the Jews had no king to be worshipped but Caesar !!! Sometimes the wrath of man declares God's truth !!! An ironc happening !!!

Strangers were treated with utmost respect without strings attached, some of that still goes on today in the middle east countries !!!

The God of tjhe universe was not going to leave the gentile out of His ultimate plans, hence the christian evangelical message !!! The Alpha and Omega part of the story !!!

Answer 6

Jew is the wrong term to be applied to Israelites because it represents only one tribe of Juda whereas Tribe of levi is also found in the present Judaism.

The remaining 10 tribes well known as Lost sheeps of Jesus were never traced or found by Jesus or his Apostles?

These Lost sheeps followed the prophecy of " Charriot of Camel" and recognised "The Price of Peace" so they accepted Islam in the 8th Century AD.

Pre-Roman history of Israel was depend on only Judea - the south west of Pelastine and the northern part (Israel) was under the Greek domination.

Kingdom of God was never a threat to Romans nor it was so taken as you quoted!

Romans were not involved in the death or crucifixion of Jesus. It was the Jew leadership who insisted on the killing of Jesus. You cannot change the history!!

Judaism is a family religion and has been reserved for the 12 sons of Yakov - The Israelites.

During the life of Yakov his sons did not accept the family of Sikam although they were living on their land. They attacked them when they accepted the terms of judaism.

Judaism did not accept the tribes of Euso - the elder brother of Yakov?

Judaism did not accept the tribes of Ishmael - the cousins (Arabs)?

Judaism did not accept the other Semetic Groups living in neighbourhood? This is the reason that some call them as Anti-semetic!

However Others living in Israel were converted in Judaism due to political reasons but the treatment was different.

Islam is the only religion with international brotherhood, peace and harmony.

Answer 7

I don't believe the jews took very many converts nor tried to convert them. This is why when Jesus and his Helanized view of Judaism was so revolutionary. He encouraged conversion of non-jews as well as giving converted gentiles equal status in the religion.

Answer 8

THe Jews didn't allow non-jewish. (gentiles) into their house. It was considered unholy, and they didn't go to theirs.