So I have been attempting to understand the roots of Judaism. When were the first Jews and how did they see themselves?
I have been reading Shaye JD Cohen’s The Beginning of Jewishness, and he puts together an argument that the concept of a Jew was not distinguishable from the concept of a Judean. As a matter of fact the Greek term for both is exactly the same word. (I see as I write this I should investigate when is was first translated as two different concepts. Latin? German? English?).
This makes sense in an ancient world where most Judeans were either in Judea proper or in Asia Minor, Alexandria, or other large cities of the Hellenistic or early Roman times. There were many groups of people abroad. It was not unusual to see a Cappadocian or a Thracian in cities abroad either. The term referred to where they are from. For many of you this is something you came to realize a long time ago.
But that makes a the next question that much more interesting, I think.
From where do we get the concepts of a Judah, the southern kingdom? I am fairly sure there is no archeological evidence for Judah as a kingdom. We hear reference to a king of Jerusalem, but that does not in any way show that a Judah existed. There was a Iurusalem whose king wrote one of the Armana Letters asking for help from Egypt long before either Israel did exist or Judah is proposed to have existed. I am not sure of any evidence that points to a change in the relationship of the city to its neighbors (domination) or toward the regional powers (independence). Perhaps an single king here or there found no army within striking distance, like Josiah. Or a king decided not to provide assistance to one regional power in its attempts to dominate another regional power (Hezekiah, Babylonia, Egypt). But I do not think a Judah existed prior to the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem.
IT does seem that a Satrapy of Yehud was set up for the sake of easier administration. Actually it was a sub-Satrapy in that it seemed to report to the larger Satrapy of Ebir-Nari, which meant “beyond the river,” referring to the fact it was beyond the Euphrates. Either way, this may be the first unified government for the Arameans in the southern part of Palestine.
IT also coincides with the first time the word is purported to be used in the Bible, by Ezra. But modern scholarship makes Ezra a Hellenistic writing, long after the Yehud was established by Persia. And that, my friends, brings us back to a language that makes no distinction between a Judean or a Jew.
So what then, is the source for the term Judah