What could be simpler than a single people worshipping a single God for 3,000 years? But Judaism is far from simple, and as a religion, culture, and civilization, it has evolved in surprising ways during its long and remarkable history. Consider the following:
Although Judaism is defined by its worship of one God, it was not always a pure monotheism. In I Kings 8, King Solomon addresses the Lord by saying, "there is no God like You," suggesting that the Israelites recognized the existence of other gods.
The practice of Judaism was focused on animal sacrifice until the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in the first century, which forced a radically new approach to worship.
The political emancipation of the Jews in 18th-century Europe transformed a thousand-year-old style of Jewish life. "You can’t find an expression of Judaism today that is just like Jews lived 300 years ago," says Professor Shai Cherry.
Yet for all it has changed, Judaism has maintained unbroken ties to a foundation text, an ethnicity, a set of rituals and holidays, and a land.