Theology of Judaism

Despite its intesely nationalist spirit, Judaism attracted larte numbers of Gentile proselytes, who were full converts, and God-fearers, who were Gentiles willing to practice Judaism in part but unwilling to undergo circumcision and observe the stricter Jewish taboos. These Gentiles found Jewish theology superior to pagan polytheism and supersition, for the Jews emphasized their monotheistic belief in one God and opposed idolatry even in their own temple. Unconverted pagans, on the other hand, could not comprehend a temple without an idol. Why build a temple if not to house an idol? The Jewish emphasis on moral behavior also appealed to the conscience of Gentiles offended by the immprality of the pantheon as described in pagan mythology and of the devotees of those gods and goddesses.

Jewish beliefs sprang from the acts of God in history as recorded in a collection of sacred books (the Old Testament) and not, as in paganism, from mythology, mysticism, or philosophic speculation. The Old Testament emphasized the fate of Israel the nation; hence, the doctrine of individual and therefore on the doctrine of individual resurrection. Nationalism and the awareness of being God's chosen people had by no means died out, however.

Jews were looking for the Messiah to come. Indeed, some of them awaited a variety of messianic figures - prophetic, priestly, and royal. But they did not expect the Messiah to be a divine as well as human being, or to suffer, die, and rise from the dead for their salvation from sin. Instead, they looked for God to use a purely human figure on bringing military delieverance from Roman domination. Or God himself would deliver his people, they thought, and then introduce the Messiah as ruler. "This present age," evil in character, was to be followed by the utopian "days of the Messiah" or "day of the Lord," indeterminate or variously calculated as to length. Afterwards, "the coming age," or eternity, would begin. Occasionally in Jewish thinking, the messianic kingdom merged with the eternal age to come.