Talk:Israelites/Archive 7

Latest comment: 3 months ago by 2600:100C:B037:E65A:98DB:828:D2AF:B870 in topic Phrasing needs clarity
Archive 1 Archive 5 Archive 6 Archive 7

Semi-protected edit request on 13 July 2020

Request to modify section, "Judahite, Judaean, Jew": The Greek term "Ioudaios" does NOT refer to members of the Tribe of Judah, but to the the people from Kingdom of Judah, and later, the region of Judea. Literally, "Ioudaios" means "Judean" (i.e. from "Ioudaia", meaning "Judea" in Greek). There were, of course, several tribes in the Kingdom of Judah (Judah, Benjamin, Simeon, part of Levi, and numerous refugees from the northern tribes of Israel after the Assyrian destruction). In the Bible, members of Judah are referred to either as "Sons of Judah" or simply "Judah" ("Ἰούδα" in the Greek Septuagint"), not as "Yehudim"/"Judeans"/Ioudaioi". 62.0.34.134 (talk) 10:41, 13 July 2020 (UTC)Jacob D 62.0.34.134 (talk) 10:41, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

But still, that is where the word "Jews" comes from. Debresser (talk) 12:18, 13 July 2020 (UTC)
"But still, that is where the word "Jews" comes from."
The tribe of Judah (יהודה) is the Biblical origin of for the word "Jew" (יהודי). However, in the Hebrew Bible itself, the word יהודי was applied to those who were members of the Kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 16:6 and 25:25), and after the exile of the northern Israelite tribes, to any Israelite. See the dictionaries of Gesenius, Klein, and Jastrow. 62.0.34.134 (talk) 15:09, 14 July 2020 (UTC)Jacob D
  Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit semi-protected}} template. ~ Amkgp 💬 10:23, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
This subject is addressed in the article Ioudaios, citing references such as the highly respected Bauer Lexicon (of Biblical Greek) as well as a 2007 article by Steve Mason and other references, indicating that the translation "Judean" is widely regarded as the preferred one. 62.0.34.134 (talk) 15:09, 14 July 2020 (UTC)Jacob D
What you say is well known, and not relevant. As I said: 'But still, that is where the word "Jews" comes from.' Debresser (talk) 19:07, 14 July 2020 (UTC)
How is not relevant when I was specifically referring to this sentence in the article?
"The Greek term Ioudaioi (Jews) was an exonym originally referring to members of the Tribe of Judah, which formed the nucleus of the kingdom of Judah". Actually the references provided to this sentence in the article all support the original appoint I made, i.e. that the Greek term "Ioudaioi" essentially means "Judean".
Jacob D (talk) 09:04, 15 July 2020 (UTC)Jacob D
You keep repeating yourself. You already received an explanation. Nothing more I can do for you. I see no consensus for your proposed edit. Try asking editors at WT:JUDAISM perhaps. Debresser (talk) 10:48, 15 July 2020 (UTC)
It appears my modification has been accepted by the editors, with minor editing. It now reads:
"The Greek term Ioudaioi (Jews) was an exonym originally referring to members of the Tribe of Judah, and per extension the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah and the Judean region, and was later adopted as a self-designation by people in the diaspora who identified themselves as loyal to the God of Israel and the Temple in Jerusalem."
212.235.98.140 (talk) 12:26, 15 July 2020 (UTC)Jacob D
Yeah, that was me who edited your addition. Debresser (talk) 12:39, 15 July 2020 (UTC)

"largely shown"; "impossible"

I stumbled across this article today. The lead has the sentence

Modern archaeology has largely shown that determining the historicity of the religious narrative is impossible.

Consider rephrasing, as something which merely "largely shows" cannot imply impossibility. If, according to the relevant citations, modern archaeology does in fact demonstrate said impossibility, then remove the word largely from the sentence. If, on the other hand, we are in an unsure state, then opt for replacing impossible with a representation of the difficulty of the exercise. For example,

Modern archaeology has demonstrated difficulty in determining the historicity of the religious narrative.

I am not watching this article or talk page.TheJJJunk (say hello) 17:40, 5 January 2020 (UTC)

I agree with TheJJJunk that the paraphrasing here distorts the source. Furthermore, it is easy to overlook the phrase "determining the historicity of" and splice the rest of the sentence together to an entirely different assertion. An alternative wording might be: "Efforts to confirm the religious texts through archaeology, once widespread, have been abandoned as unproductive and misguided.[ref] Many scholars now consider …" 73.71.251.64 (talk) 17:18, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

I am not completely happy with the proposal, since the quotation talks about the forefathers, Moses and the Exodus, not "the religious texts" in general. I do agree with both editors that the present text must be changed, since it is even farther from the quoted text than the new proposal. Debresser (talk) 20:42, 18 August 2020 (UTC)
religious texts -> Israelites' biblical origins? 73.71.251.64 (talk) 21:32, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

 C I've declined the edit request for the moment, as it appears as though consensus hasn't yet been reached on how to edit this part of the article. Both Debresser and TheJJJunk are able to edit this page themselves once consensus has been reached. Seagull123 Φ 22:06, 18 August 2020 (UTC)

"Efforts to confirm the Israelites' biblical origins through archaeology, once widespread, have been abandoned as unproductive and misguided." is fine with me. @TheJJJunk:, what do you say? Debresser (talk) 20:17, 19 August 2020 (UTC)
@73.71.251.64 @Debresser: I would strip "and misguided" from your version. Also, with this new version, unless all "efforts" have ceased (with which I am unfamiliar and am not reviewing sources at this time), we can recover "largely": "Efforts to confirm the Israelites' biblical origins through archaeology, once widespread, have been largely abandoned as unproductive." For the purposes of consensus, I defer to the other editors' judgement. Like I said, I just stumbled onto this article and noticed the text in question. Thanks for the consideration. — TheJJJunk (say hello) 19:26, 21 August 2020 (UTC)
I agree with both your points and the version you proposed. Debresser (talk) 17:43, 22 August 2020 (UTC)

Babylonian exile in Galilee leading to an increased Jewish population

"After the destruction of the kingdom of Israel and kingdom of Judah in 720 and 586 BCE respectively,[95][96] the concepts of Jew and Samaritan gradually replaced Judahite and Israelite.[citation needed]"

I tried to find a source for this but the only ones I can find are Catholic related webpages. Would this still be acceptable to use as a citation or would it be seen as too biased? --MNML48 (talk) 17:23, 4 April 2021 (UTC)

Spelling error

It has been speculated by some scholars that the cult of Yahweh may have been brouth into Israel by a group of Caananite slaves fleeing from Egypt, who later merged with the Israelites


Should read

It has been speculated by some scholars that the cult of Yahweh may have been brought into Israel by a group of Caananite slaves fleeing from Egypt, who later merged with the Israelites

Fixed, thanks. Zerotalk 05:40, 15 May 2021 (UTC)

Language

There used to be a recently removed section, but that was suboptimal. The lead has a remnant that also now lacks supporting citations in the body. A better subsection should probably be rewritten, —PaleoNeonate – 22:05, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

Mandaeans

Mcvti thinks that Mandaeans should be referenced or linked as "See also" from this article. Here is a copy of what they wrote on my talk page:

The information in Mandaeans#Origin states "Scholars such as Kurt Rudolph, Rudolf Macúch, Ethel S. Drower and Jorunn J. Buckley connect the early Mandaeans with the Nasaraeans described by Epiphanius, a division of the Essenes according to Joseph Lightfoot." Also, in Mandaeism#Scholarship, "Scholars specializing in Mandaeism such as Kurt Rudolph, Mark Lidzbarski, Rudolf Macúch, Ethel S. Drower, James F. McGrath, Charles G. Häberl, Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, and Şinasi Gündüz argue for a Palestinian origin. The majority of these scholars believe that the Mandaeans likely have a historical connection with John the Baptist's inner circle of disciples. Charles Häberl, who is also a linguist specializing in Mandaic, finds Palestinian and Samaritan Aramaic influence on Mandaic and accepts Mandaeans having a "shared Palestinian history with Jews". In addition, scholars such as G. R. S. Mead, Andrew Phillip Smith, Samuel Zinner, Richard Thomas, J. C. Reeves, G. Quispel and K. Beyer also argue for a Judea/Palestine or Jordan Valley origin for the Mandaeans. James McGrath and Richard Thomas believe there is a direct connection between Mandaeism and pre-exilic traditional Israelite religion."

I dont know anything about the subject, but I did not see any mention of connection to Israelites in Mandaeans, so it seems to me that in order to include this connection here it must be justified on the other article. Opinions? WarKosign 19:39, 20 November 2021 (UTC)

I agree with you. If all this information above is reliably sourced, than all of it should be first added to the "Mandaeans" article. I don't understand why it was not added there to begin with? Thank you, warshy (¥¥) 21:21, 20 November 2021 (UTC)
Thank you both for pointing this out. I agree with you the information should also be in the Mandaeans article so I have copied it from the Mandaeism article since it pertains to both. Mcvti (talk) 16:07, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

Quotation needed for "for the rest of his life"

Regarding for the rest of his life &diff=1072673581&oldid=1072670399 is required a Bible narration quotation.

The old text states: light emanates from the face of Moses for the rest of his life, causing him to wear a veil so he does not frighten people.

This addition for the rest of his life is only a deduction of someone that did not read the so called New Testament were the apostle comments Shemoth or Exodus 34:34: Now if the ministry (ministration) of death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at the face of Moses because of its fleeting glory, (quoted from NKJV)

A better narration would be: light emanates from the face of Moses, causing him to wear a veil so he does not frighten the children of Israel.

So, we do not force the reader to be against the apostle that was also a rabbi. --FlorinCB (talk) 00:02, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

The interpretation you refer to comes from the New Testament (2 Corinthians 3:7), so therefore is the Christian interpretation. I should note, though, that there is Jewish interpretation of the passage which sees it as continuing for all of Moses' life. (Off the top of my head, I know that at least ibn Ezra gives this interpretation in his commentary.) So this is a matter of different religious interpretations.
However, I suppose it may be a good idea to remove the phrase "for the rest of his life" from the sentence, if only to render this all a non-issue by evoking neither interpretation. Jamie Eilat (talk) 01:11, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

the Ten Commandments and the finger of God in the Bible narration

Moses descends from the mountain forty days later with the Sefer Torah he wrote, and with two rectangular lapis lazuli< ref>Shemoth; Exodus 24< /ref> tablets, into which Yahweh had carved the Ten Commandments. There is no literal mention when the second set of commandments were given of two things: 1). the Ten Commandments; 2). the finger of God;

The proposed addition to the narrative will allow the reader to see both of these two: Moses descends from the mountain forty days later with the Sefer Torah he wrote, and with two rectangular lapis lazuli< ref>Shemoth; Exodus 24< /ref> tablets, into which Yahweh had carved the Ten Commandments with the finger of God.< ref>Shemoth; Exodus, 31, 18< /ref> --FlorinCB (talk) 00:23, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

I'm having some trouble following what you're saying. Are you referring to Shemot (parashah)? The details you're trying to add definitely aren't in my Bible. We can't use primary religious sources to discuss the narrative of the Bible. We aren't even supposed to cite the Bible itself, see WP:RSPSCRIPTURE.--Ermenrich (talk) 00:40, 19 February 2022 (UTC)
I used the first translation that was in query after doing Google Search on BibleHub:
Deuteronomy chapter 9
9When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water. 10Then the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, inscribed by the finger of God with the exact words that the LORD spoke to you out of the fire on the mountain on the day of the assembly. 11And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.
Exodus chapter 31
18And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
For witch of these two You said "aren't in my Bible". ?
It's not about that we aren't supposed to cite the Bible itself but we should be able to contribute to the article, specially because has too few sources and the way is phrased is under the lowest grammar level. So, to have the finger of God there were can be added I have to add this here were people have trouble following what I'm saying. --FlorinCB (talk) 01:38, 19 February 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 October 2022

Modern archaeology and modern scholars seem to seek to poke holes in the Biblical account of anything and make this article bias. 174.240.67.249 (talk) 11:53, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

Not done. Please note that requests must be of the form "please change X to Y". But please also note that modern evidence and analysis not agreeing with ancient chronicles is nothing new, and empirical information poking holes in tall tales is not likely to be a trend that ends any time soon. Iskandar323 (talk) 12:13, 28 October 2022 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 21:55, 26 January 2023 (UTC)

Please revert unsourced edit

Could this edit please be reverted, the sources do not state anything about the scholars beliefs and comes across as trying to discount the info by trying to insinuate about them. 2001:8003:34A3:800:8860:9F35:24D0:A44C (talk) 22:31, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

  DoneTrilletrollet [ Talk | Contribs ] 22:46, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

summary suggestions for clarity

The term "Israelites" (/ˈɪzrəlaɪts, -riə-/; Hebrew: בני ישראל, Bnei Yisra'el, Sons of Israel; or עם ישראל, Am Yisra'el, Nation of Israel) generally refers to the confederation of Hebrew-speaking tribes who inhabited the area of Israel during tribal and monarchic phases in the late Bronze Age and Iron Age, who are the progenitors of Jews and Samaritans and are central to the narratives of Abrahamic religions. 67.80.53.15 (talk) 13:23, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

The terms Bnei Yisrael and Am Yisrael are still used by both Jews and Samaritans, only in English there's such "distinction" to my knowledge Kindofaveragejew (talk) 21:18, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
The article should be in the present tense. 2600:1017:B822:A9ED:0:4E:EDF8:D901 (talk) 20:45, 17 May 2023 (UTC)
Agreed and concur on the present tense usage by both active Israelite communities.Mistamystery (talk) 22:53, 15 September 2023 (UTC)

Some missing things from the DNA study .

I'll quote from the conclusion section :

"Nevertheless, the data in Tables 3 and 4 indicate that the Samaritan and Jewish Y-chromosomes have a much greater affinity than do those of the Samaritans and their longtime geographical neighbors, the Palestinians.

However, this is not the case for the mtDNA haplotypes. In fact, Table 4 shows that distances of Samaritans to Jews and Palestinians for mtDNA are about the same" .

The problem with the current text is it doesn't properly explain the results of the study , instead directly quoting from the abstract .

The study performed a PCA analysis on approximately 6 or so population samples . In terms of Y-Chromosomes (Patrilineal decent) : Jews and Samaritans are closest to each other . In terms of mtDNA (Matrilineal decent) : affinity of Sarmatians to Jews and Palestinians is of similar levels.

Such detail should ideally be included so readers be aware of some form of continuity in other Levantine non-Jewish/Samaritan populations . 2.88.119.229 (talk) 13:36, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Merger Proposal: Ancient Israelite Religion

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
The result of this discussion was to merge "Ancient Israelite religion" into "Yahwism", with it being argued that the subject and content of Ancient Israelite religion duplicates that of the already-existing Yahwism article. — Jamie Eilat (talk) 19:23, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

A page was recently created for Ancient Israelite Religion. Upon realizing that the Israelite page does not currently have a section covering either religion, or the religious evolution of the Israelites from earlier Canaanite systems to early modern and modern Jewish and Samaritan practice, it probably makes more sense to begin a section on this page. If there is an over-abundance, we can always revisit the kick off of a separate page down the line.Mistamystery (talk) 22:06, 14 September 2023 (UTC)

How is Ancient Israelite Religion distinct from Yahwism? Is it distinct? Hist9600 (talk) 23:30, 14 September 2023 (UTC)
Ancient Israelite Religion should probably just be redirected to Yahwism, given that there's not really any distinction. — Jamie Eilat (talk) 04:14, 15 September 2023 (UTC)
Yes, the latter. This article simply duplicates existing content. Iskandar323 (talk) 06:33, 15 September 2023 (UTC)
Yeah, I don't see any distinction, and Yahwism is already the much longer and more well-developed article. Hist9600 (talk) 01:26, 16 September 2023 (UTC)
I oppose the proposal. These are not the same thing. Andre🚐 23:49, 15 September 2023 (UTC)
I believe the article should actually be Canaanite religion. It seems that there is a conflation with Yahwism, which is more monolatristic, with the polytheistic religion that I think the other article is about. Andre🚐 01:34, 16 September 2023 (UTC)
Yeah, it depends on exactly what Ancient Israelite Religion is referring to. It seems to include some coverage of the polytheistic Canaanite religion, but also the more monolatristic Yahwism that developed out of that. But there is really so little content in the Ancient Israelite Religion article, that anything relevant probably already exists in one of those two articles, or could be copied over if it would be beneficial. Hist9600 (talk) 19:07, 16 September 2023 (UTC)
That's true, there's not much to salvage in the other article. Andre🚐 19:15, 16 September 2023 (UTC)
It should probably be merged with Yahwism instead as they cover the same subject. The monolatristic worship of Yahweh is what seperated "ancient Israelite religion" from Canaanite religion. I find the term "Yahwism" a bit unfortunate though as it suggests that the religion had already changed into a monotheistic one. "Ancient Israelite religion" would be less misleading and clearer. --Glennznl (talk) 06:25, 18 September 2023 (UTC)
Supporting merge (or redirect) to Yahwism. I'd made the redirect myself – somehow completely missing that there was an active merge discussion. Emolu (talk) 14:17, 19 September 2023 (UTC)
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Phrasing needs clarity

“through the development of Yahwism, a distinct monolatristic—and later monotheistic—religion centred on the national god Yahweh.”

It doesn’t seem like there’s an academic consensus that the religious beliefs were the primary driver of the branching off from the Canaanites (as “through the development of” implies). There are multiple theories.

See Frevel’s new SBL textbook for multiple views:

https://cart.sbl-site.org/books/061737C 2600:100C:B037:E65A:98DB:828:D2AF:B870 (talk) 13:27, 28 January 2024 (UTC)