In addition to the content from the web site from the textbook, I want you to familiarize yourself with these terms and concepts.   Printable MS Word Version of this page

Torah and its authorship, the primary issue of which is the postulation of four different voices: Yahwist, Elohist, Deuteromist, Priestly:  Yahweh & Elohim, Yahwist & Elohist  J & E, Deuteromist (D), and Priestly (P)--Martin Kilbridge's World Religions page on Genesis, Yahwist Narrative, Elohist Narrative, Combined J & E, Deuteromist, Priestly Document  (Barry L Bandstra provides an excellent resource page for studying the Old Testament)

Babylonian Captivity fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.) to the reconstruction in Palestine of a new Jewish state (after 538 B.C.).  Wealthy and educated Jews were more or less kidnapped and taken to what is now Iraq.  The books of Ezra and Nehimiah describe this period.  The Babylonian Talmud was put together in Babylonia, but after the Captivity.

The philosophy of Neo-Platonism: Revival of Plato in a more metaphysical-mystical form.  It was an important influence on the development of Gnosticism, and was characterized by the appearance of Hebrew scriptures in Greece, where the creation story of Plato's Timaeus was related to the story of Genesis.  It is an extreme monistic philosophy in which God creates the world by emanation.  Imperfection and evil are defined in terms of absence of or distance from God/Goodness.  There is no evil principle.  There was considerable conflict, confusion, blurring of ideas between the strongly monistic Neo-Platonist and the strongly dualistic Gnostics and Manicheans.  St. Augustine studied with both, eventually coming to Plotinus' Neo-Platonism, and then Christianity, to which he brought a heavy emphasis on Neo-Platonist monism.  It is useful to look at the Late Classical and Early Medieval period (from roughly 100 BC to roughly 500 AD) in terms of an ambiguous and violent interaction between these two perspectives.  

The concept of the Logos was essential to Neo-Platonism.  Besides being an important formative philosophy for St. Augustine, it also was integral in the thought of...

Philo Judaeus of Alexandria (15/10 BC - 45/50) Greek speaking Egyptian Jew who harmonized Jewish theology with Greek Neo-Platonism, which then had a profound influence on Christian doctrine--especially the Gospel of John.  He believed that the Greeks took their ideas from Moses.  (Most scholars attribute the influence to Egypt, which does not necessarily conflict with the idea that Moses was the source)  According to him, He believed that the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament 3rd C BCE) was divinely inspired.  Philo foregrounded Heraclitus' notion of the Logos, a sort of rational blueprint for creation which was adopted Plato.  He described it as the "first-begotten Son of God" - below and distinct from God.  Events in the Old Testament were appearances of the Logos, and the Bible can be interpreted allegorically.  He taught the use of ecstatic states to achieve mystical experience or "gnosis" of God.  Consequently, his ideas were very important for the formation of both Kabbalistic and Christian thought.  All of this influenced the German philosopher Hegel, which then influenced Karl Marx.  Here are some quotes from Philo

Neo-Platonism defined early Medieval thought until around the 6th Century, when Plato's philosophy was suppressed.  The period from then to the 12-13th Centuries showed much less philosophical innovation.  The ideas of Aristotle grew in influence, as did the practice of Scholasticism.  From the 12t-13th Centuries to the Enlightenment (early 17th Century), Aristotelean philosophy dominated Jewish and Christian thought.  By the mid 1400's, Ficino and della Mirandola revived Platonism in the Humanist movement.

Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) important Jewish philosopher of the Middle Ages, who influenced St. Thomas Aquinas.  Both philosophers integrated the teachings of Aristotle into the Judeo-Christian philosophy of the Middle Ages:  Some excerpts from his Guide for the Perplexed

Kabbalah  Jewish mystical tradition, This page gives an excellent brief description of its historical development

Mysticism of Communion or Ontological union, vs Devekuth or "cleaving" (The debate among mystics over how the mystic connects to deity: Does the mystic experience a complete union with God, or a face-to-face meeting/Bhakti-like "cleaving unto" God.  It has been traditionally thought that Jewish theology rejected Ontological union, however the contemporary scholar Mosheh Idel has argued convincingly for a parallel tradition of more radical mysticism.

Sephardic & Ashkenazic Jews The Sephardic Jews are or were located in Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East.  The Ashkenazic Jews are or were in Germany and Eastern Europe.  Because they were more devout and culturally separatist, they encountered more resistance and conflict with non-Jews  The Sephardic Jews tended to blend in more with the locals, and their practices weren't so visible. The dialect of Hebrew spoken by the Middle Eastern sephardic Jews is the commonly accepted one in the state of Israel. Yiddish is the Germanic-Hebrew Creole of the Ashkenazi and Ladino or Judeo-Spanish is the Spanish-Hebrew Creole of the Sephardim.  

Hassidism, Hassidic Jews:  A Jewish mystical movement born in the Eastern Europe and Russia during Middle Ages, but reaching its full form in the 1600's during the violent persecutions of that time.   It is closely connected to the Kabbalah, and as such depends heavily on a Bakhti-like devotion to God, emotions seen as superior to intellect (a simpler approach to the religion with popular appeal), joy and ecstatic practices were taught--which helped the persecuted Jews deal with their situation.

Protocols of the Elders of Zion--Fabricated text describing sinister practices used by anti-Semites to justify persecution of Jews.  More info on the Protocols