Judaism

==Etymology==
{{see also|Ioudaios}}
[[File:Stattler-Machabeusze.jpg|thumb|''Maccabees'' by [[Wojciech Stattler]] (1842)]]
The term ''Judaism'' derives from ''Iudaismus'', a Latinized form of the Ancient Greek ''[[Ioudaismos]]'' (Ἰουδαϊσμός) (from the verb {{lang|grc|ἰουδαΐζειν}}, "to side with or imitate the [Judeans]").<ref name="LSJverb">{{LSJ|*)ioudai/zw|ἰουδαΐζειν|ref|mLSJ}}</ref> Its ultimate source was the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] יהודה, ''Yehudah'', "[[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]]",<ref name="bibleinterp_mason3" /><ref name="askoxford8" /> which is also the source of the Hebrew term for Judaism: יַהֲדוּת, ''Yahadut''. The term ''Ἰουδαϊσμός'' first appears in the [[Hellenistic Greek]] book of [[2 Maccabees]] in the 2nd century BCE (i.e. 2 Maccabees 2:21, 8:1 and 14:38) .<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Schwartz |first=Daniel R. |date=2021 |title=Judea versus Judaism: Between 1 and 2 Maccabees |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/judea-versus-judaism-between-1-and-2-maccabees |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240316100256/https://www.thetorah.com/article/judea-versus-judaism-between-1-and-2-maccabees |archive-date=March 16, 2024 |website=TheTorah.com}}</ref> In the context of the age and period it meant "seeking or forming part of a cultural entity"<ref name=influence /> and it resembled its antonym ''[[hellenismos]]'', a word that signified a people's submission to [[Hellenistic period|Hellenic]] ([[Ancient Greece|Greek]]) cultural norms. The conflict between ''iudaismos'' and ''hellenismos'' lay behind the [[Maccabean revolt]] and hence the invention of the term ''iudaismos''.<ref name=influence>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2q6qTb-A7GwC&pg=RA1-PA39 |first=Oskar |last=Skarsaune |author-link=Oskar Skarsaune | title=In the Shadow of the Temple: Jewish Influences on Early Christianity|publisher=InterVarsity Press|pages=39ff |access-date=22 August 2010|isbn=978-0-8308-2670-4|year=2002}}</ref>

[[Shaye J. D. Cohen]] writes in his book ''The Beginnings of Jewishness'':
{{blockquote|We are tempted, of course, to translate [''Ioudaïsmós''] as "Judaism," but this translation is too narrow, because in this first occurrence of the term, ''Ioudaïsmós'' has not yet been reduced to the designation of a religion. It means rather "the aggregate of all those characteristics that makes Judaeans Judaean (or Jews Jewish)." Among these characteristics, to be sure, are practices and beliefs that we would today call "religious," but these practices and beliefs are not the sole content of the term. Thus ''Ioudaïsmós'' should be translated not as "Judaism" but as Judaeanness.<ref>Shaye J.D. Cohen 1999 ''The Beginnings of Jewishness: Boundaries, Varieties, Uncertainties'' University of California Press. 105–106</ref>}}

Daniel R. Scwhartz, however, argues that "Judaism", especially in the context of the Book of Maccabees, refers to the religion, as opposed to the culture and politics of the Judean state. He believes it reflected the ideological divide between the [[Pharisees]] and [[Sadducees]] and implicitly, anti-Hasmonean and pro-Hasmonean factions in Judean society.<ref name=":0" />

According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' the earliest citation in English where the term was used to mean "the profession or practice of the Jewish religion; the religious system or polity of the Jews" is Robert Fabyan's ''The newe cronycles of Englande and of Fraunce'' (1516).<ref>"He anon renouncyd his Iudaisme or Moysen Lawe, And was cristenyd, and lyued after as a Cristen Man." (Robert Fabian, ''New Chronicles of England and France'', reprint London 1811, p. 334.)</ref> "Judaism" as a direct translation of the Latin ''Iudaismus'' first occurred in a 1611 English translation of the [[Biblical apocrypha|apocrypha]] ([[Deuterocanon]] in [[Catholic]] and [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodoxy]]), 2 Macc. ii. 21: "Those that behaved themselves manfully to their honour for Iudaisme."<ref name="dictionary" />