[Judaism AH] - Butterflies from No Israel or Judaism?

Both the prompt and the replies so far assume two things: first, that Jewish religious history is a good guide to the history of the Hebrew people (it is most definitely not) and second, that for an interesting "no Judaism" TL you need to prevent Hebrew/Jewish culture from ever existing at all. Both put the PoD date way further back than in needs to be, and plenty of cultures - Egyptian, Phoenician, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, etc etc etc - could screw with Israel in a way that would wipe out what we know as "Judaism", while still remaining well within the historical period we're comfortable with.

Heck, you can screw with Judaism just having Ahab's dynasty survive longer and dominate its region, transforming the worship of Yahweh in a way that would be barely recognizable as Judaism.
 
No Judaism means no real monotheistic faith arises anywhere else, nor a lot of repentance and absolution (Yom Kippur specifically). The butterflies from that would be absolutely massive and change pretty much everything about the Western world.

as others touched on ... the "no Judaism = no monotheism in western world" is a bit to overly simplistic ... as mentioned, then Egypt did dabble a bit with monotheism under Akhenaten and his Atenism, and the records are simply so spotty that we can't really definitively say that no other monotheistic religions existed.

If accepting that Roman Empire is anywhere near recognizable, I'm not entirely sold on the idea that "No Judaism" equals that none of the Roman Mystery-Religions would have been Monotheistic either (Sol Invictus, Mithraism, a semi-Syncretized Isis/Astrate)
 
as others touched on ... the "no Judaism = no monotheism in western world" is a bit to overly simplistic ... as mentioned, then Egypt did dabble a bit with monotheism under Akhenaten and his Atenism, and the records are simply so spotty that we can't really definitively say that no other monotheistic religions existed.

If accepting that Roman Empire is anywhere near recognizable, I'm not entirely sold on the idea that "No Judaism" equals that none of the Roman Mystery-Religions would have been Monotheistic either (Sol Invictus, Mithraism, a semi-Syncretized Isis/Astrate)

The issue with Egypt that not only did it not take root, but the Ancient Egyptians about destroyed and demolished everything to Akhenaten and Atenism they hated it so much.

There is the Roman Mystery-Religions, so that is something, and the Isis Cult. (Which I myself am a fan of.)

Going back to the Levant, the Phoenicians could set up a naval empire and rule what's OTL Israel. The Philistines might hold onto the Israeli coast, but they can't last long against the Phoenicians. The Edomites will expanding into OTL Israel and be coming into conflict with the Philistines and Phoenicians. Moab might get absorbed into Edom.
 
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No Judaism means no real monotheistic faith arises anywhere else, nor a lot of repentance and absolution (Yom Kippur specifically). The butterflies from that would be absolutely massive and change pretty much everything about the Western world.

Not just the West but majority of Asia due to Islam. Indian culture would be more expansive around the globe, and unless the Germanic tribes Romanize, Northern and Southern Europe would be culturally alien to each other.
 
No Judaism means no real monotheistic faith arises anywhere else, nor a lot of repentance and absolution (Yom Kippur specifically). The butterflies from that would be absolutely massive and change pretty much everything about the Western world.

Seeing as Christianity and Islam derive pretty directly from Judaism I'd say the whole world would be changed not just the western world.
 
To keep this managable, let's take a POD of no Maccabean revolt, or a revolt that is quickly and ignominously defeated. So there is no Maccabean attempt at forcible conversions of Samaritans and Moabites. *Herod the Great, if he does come to power, has no reason to rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, and Messianism is right out of favour.

Judaism survives, but evolves into a different form.
 
I remember someone once saying something about the Assyrians having the possibility of monotheism with their patron god Ashur.

Also, I remember someone once experimenting with the early Romans developing monotheism independently.
 
There is also the possibility of Pythagorean cults further developing a veneration of the number 1 as the ultimate symbol of perfection into a divine ideal. A symbol of logic, seeking to reverse its own calculation in order to reproduce its own perfection by creation, as any good logical being would seek test its result to achieve the same value. A numerical Buddhism were everyone seeks to escape reincarnation, being free of their mortal bodies and becoming part of The One. Neopythagoreans like the well travelled Apollonius of Tyana could get more influence among the people. The Pythagorean idea that all souls are equal as the bodies are irrelevant could give Pythagorean cults the appeal of the common folk, women and slaves that helped the cult of Isis and early Christianity find worshippers.

Other henotheistic (or monotheistic depending on the book) groups like the Dacians veneration of Zalmoxis show there were other societies flirting with the idea of monotheism. Zalmoxis is also linked with Pythagoras himself, being stated that he was either a slave or a student of the man. Perhaps with no Abrahamic, we could have Pythagorean faiths.

If the Zoroastrians would be still around there could be an interesting dynamic of a purely logical faith of Pythagoras against a very idealistic religion and both shared the concepts of good and evil. Zoroaster was supposedly from around the eastern regions of Iran so we could easily have him out of the way of the collapse of Judea. Zoroastrism has interesting concepts such as Amesha Spentas (sort of Arch Angels) of Zoroastrianism that each symbolise ideals of humanity.

I would not like to imagine a monotheistic Ashurism. The idea is far too blood curdling to comprehend, unless he seriously mellows out after the whole Neo-Assyrian Empire gets annihilated.
 
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