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   XPost: alt.autos.toyota, rec.autos.driving, alt.society.liberalism   
   XPost: alt.fan.michael-moore   
   From: comandante.banana@yahoo.com   
      
   On Feb 8, 12:05 am, Bob Dubery  wrote:   
   > On Feb 7, 7:56 am, Bob Dubery  wrote:   
   > > No, but at some point laws got introduced that served to mark one as   
   > > Jewish and, of course, one can become Jewish even though one's   
   > > ancestors were not. But Noah predates anything like what came to be   
   > > recognised as Judaism.   
   >   
   > > One of the essentials of Judaism is monotheism, and Abraham seems to   
   > > have been the first proponent of monotheism. Indeed he seems to be the   
   > > root of all monotheistic religion, to the point that Judaism,   
   > > Christianity and Islam are collectively referred to as the Abrahmic   
   > > religions.   
   >   
   > So I dug out Paul Johnson's "A History of the Jews" last night.   
   > Johnson submits that Judaism really begins with Abraham because it was   
   > Abraham who first entered into an explicit covenant with God. This   
   > covenant came to be a key differentiator between Judaism and any other   
   > religion of that time and for several centuries after.   
      
   'About 4,000 years ago the ancestors of the Hebrews were wandering   
   nomads. Biblical tradition says that Abraham, the founder of the line,   
   came from Ur, but we cannot be sure that this was the Ur located in   
   Mesopotamia. There are no records of these people except for the   
   traditions laid down in the Bible many centuries later. The story says   
   that Abraham entered Canaan briefly, and God promised him that his   
   descendents would inherit the land. This is the earliest mention of a   
   claim which was to prove controversial right down to the present day.   
   It is the religious basis of the tradition that Israel belongs to the   
   Jewish people because it was promised to them by God. Of course a long   
   string of other inhabitants, from the Canaanites and Philistines to   
   the modern Arabs who call themselves "Palestinians," have disagreed.'   
      
   http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/wcsyllabus/answers/jews.html   
      
   ***   
      
   Oh well, God made the promise so it must be true. The other people who   
   lay claim to the land must be godless savages, just like they were   
   before Abraham.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)