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Book of Exodus (1275-1250 BCE)

• Written by Moses
• God talks to Moses when he flees Egypt and climbs Mt. Sinai
• Names have power, and by God not telling Moses his name he reinforced God’s superiority over his people
• God tasks Moses with persuading the Israelites to flee Israel and promises to save them
• Differs from other polytheistic religions that knew the names of their Gods
• God keeps his promise to save his people and continues to save them
• This highlights the non-cyclic nature of Judaism and allowed them to distinguish themselves from other polytheistic religions

Amos (760-755 BCE)

• Prophet of social justice that urged the Israelites to change and created three innovations to the israelite prophecy during a time of diversion from God’s way
• Social justice: the courts were favoring the wealthy and religious leaders were turning a blind eye
• Eschatology: (concept of end of time) day of judgment and the Israelites would be judged harder than others because they knew the word of God better
• Importance of repentance (shuv): people were free to change because of the covenant of the relationship with God, so bad things would happen if they did not change
• Social justice was given a lot of importance at this time, and Amos urged the Israelites to turn back to God and his covenant

Sep

• Greek translation of the hebrew bible (Torah) under rule of king Ptolemy II produced at Alexandria
• Allowed Jews to defend their beliefs in terms of Greek ideals during Hellenization, rise of diaspora Judaism, and the syncretism of the two cultures and philosophies
• Ex: the divine mind of Greek belief is Yawhe
• This allowed Jews to define themselves and set boundaries against Greek beliefs and allowed the Torah to become accessible to the Western world