This book is intended for students of religion and others who seek an introduction to Judaism.

Excerpt from The Religion of the Hebrews, Vol. 5 A knowledge of the religion of the Hebrews is of prime importance not only to the professed believer in religion but also to the student of civilization, for religion plays a large part in the history of civilization. Indeed, generally speaking, religion and economics are the two great elements of civilization. In the broader sense of religion, the religion of the Hebrews was partner with the religions of Greece, Italy, and the Teutons in the creation of the religious-cultural-humane element of our civilization. In the narrower sense of religion, the religion discussed in this volume is the parent of the dominant religion of our civilization. The religion of the Hebrews produced two great world religions, Christianity and Islam, the most vitally aggressive and the most universal of all religions, and a third, national, religion, Judaism, circumscribed in size though not in space by its racial character, but playing a part quite out of proportion to the number of its adherents. Of these the first and the last are direct descendants of the religion of the Hebrews; Islam belongs to a side line. Philosophically none of the three is thoroughly intelligible without a knowledge of the religion of the Hebrews; practically that knowledge is of great value both to the actual adherents of all and also to their spiritual descendants, who comprise, if not absolutely the greater, at least the overwhelmingly dominant part of the human race. Considered critically, merely as a phenomenon, the religion of the Hebrews is of peculiar interest, because we are able to trace its development from the rudest beginnings to the completed form with an accuracy and precision possible in the case of no other religion. Hence it becomes practically the norm for the study of other religions, throwing light on their origins and the methods of their growth to a degree greater than they do on it or on one another. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

A classic study of the history and beliefs of the Hebrew people, this book covers everything from the nature of God to the role of the priesthood to the significance of the Sabbath. Peters draws on his deep knowledge of ancient Near Eastern cultures as well as Jewish texts to shed light on a fascinating and complex subject. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

According to a commonplace narrative, the rise of modern political thought in the West resulted from secularization—the exclusion of religious arguments from political discourse. But in this pathbreaking work, Eric Nelson argues that this familiar story is wrong. Instead, he contends, political thought in early-modern Europe became less, not more, secular with time, and it was the Christian encounter with Hebrew sources that provoked this radical transformation. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Christian scholars began to regard the Hebrew Bible as a political constitution designed by God for the children of Israel. Newly available rabbinic materials became authoritative guides to the institutions and practices of the perfect republic. This thinking resulted in a sweeping reorientation of political commitments. In the book’s central chapters, Nelson identifies three transformative claims introduced into European political theory by the Hebrew revival: the argument that republics are the only legitimate regimes; the idea that the state should coercively maintain an egalitarian distribution of property; and the belief that a godly republic would tolerate religious diversity. One major consequence of Nelson’s work is that the revolutionary politics of John Milton, James Harrington, and Thomas Hobbes appear in a brand-new light. Nelson demonstrates that central features of modern political thought emerged from an attempt to emulate a constitution designed by God. This paradox, a reminder that while we may live in a secular age, we owe our politics to an age of religious fervor, in turn illuminates fault lines in contemporary political discourse.