1. Were the people of monarchic era Israel and Judah and Persian period Yehud “Jews”? What about their Hellenistic period descendants? At what point in history did that term become appropriate? State your criteria for each term used to describe the people.
The land of Israel was the birthplace of Judaism. Before the Jewish people lived in Israel there was no organized religion, there were Jews but there was no real place to pray or to make sacrifices. In Israel and Judah the Jewish people gained independence, prayed to G-d freely, and developed Judaism as a culture and not just as a religion. A Yehud Jew became a way to describe a Jewish person that did not have political autonomy of the land in which they were residing. Being a Yehud Jew meant that the Jewish people “would have to find ways to preserve their indigenous traditions in political contexts ruled by other peoples,” (Efron 2009: 37).
Monarchic era Israel and Judah were the periods where Israel was ruled by Jewish kings, also known as the Davidic Dynasty. For a time all of Israel was united under the rule of King Saul his son-in-law, King David and then his son King Solomon. Israel under the Davidic Dynasty was The United Kingdom of Israel and during this period the land of Israel flourished and the Jewish people were united. It was not until after Solomon’s death that the United Kingdom of Israel split into the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. Soon after Israel and Judah split into two kingdoms, “Judah lost its independence, and the political destiny of its inhabitants would henceforth be shaped by foreign rule,” (Efron 2009: 33). As a result of Judah losing its independence the Kingdom of Israel eventually lost its independence as well. For the first time in the history of the Jewish people they turned to the bible to keep their religion and culture alive in a society in which they were under foreign rule and it was her...