Deity Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ====Judaism==== [[File:Tetragrammaton scripts.svg|thumb|The tetragrammaton in [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] (12th century BCE to 150 BCE), [[Paleo-Hebrew alphabet|Paleo-Hebrew]] (10th century BCE to 135 CE), and square [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]] (3rd century BCE to present) scripts]] {{Main|God in Judaism|Yahweh|Tetragrammaton|Elohim|Names of God in Judaism}} Judaism affirms the existence of one God (Yahweh, or YHWH), who is not abstract, but He who revealed himself throughout Jewish history particularly during the Exodus and the Exile.<ref name="Owen"/>{{rp|4}} Judaism reflects a monotheism that gradually arose, was affirmed with certainty in the sixth century "Second Isaiah", and has ever since been the axiomatic basis of its theology.<ref name="Owen"/>{{rp|4}} The classical presentation of Judaism has been as a monotheistic faith that rejected deities and related idolatry.<ref name="Terry">{{cite book|last1=Terry|first1=Michael|title=Reader's Guide to Judaism|date=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-94150-5|pages=287β288|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=Aw5EAgAAQBAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}</ref> However, states Breslauer, modern scholarship suggests that idolatry was not absent in biblical faith, and it resurfaced multiple times in Jewish religious life.<ref name="Terry"/> The rabbinic texts and other secondary Jewish literature suggest worship of material objects and natural phenomena through the medieval era, while the core teachings of Judaism maintained monotheism.<ref name="Terry"/><ref>{{cite book|last1=Kochan|first1=Lionel|title=Jews, Idols, and Messiahs: The Challenge from History|date=1990|publisher=B. Blackwell|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-631-15477-8|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=fWVsQgAACAAJ}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=June 2017}} According to Aryeh Kaplan, God is always referred to as "He" in Judaism, "not to imply that the concept of sex or gender applies to God", but because "there is no neuter in the Hebrew language, and the Hebrew word for God is a masculine noun" as he "is an active rather than a passive creative force".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kaplan|first1=Aryeh|title=The Aryeh Kaplan Reader: The Gift He Left Behind : Collected Essays on Jewish Themes from the Noted Writer and Thinker|date=1983|publisher=Mesorah Publications|location=Brooklyn, NY|isbn=978-0-89906-173-3|pages=144β145|edition=1st|url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=bv5lmlmRmbwC}}|access-date=28 June 2017|language=en}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page