It is believed that Judaism in its proper sense began at a time period around 1029 BC. The followers of this religion are known as Jews; many believe that Judaism was the first religion in the history of mankind to ever preach the concept of one god. The religious history of Judaism or the Jews began when Abraham refuted idol worshipping because of his belief in the existence of one god. The exact time of Abraham’s arrival is a matter of controversy but this much is maintained that it was sometime in between 2000 – 1800 BC. It is believed that god said to Abraham “I will assign this land to your offspring”, and based on that word of god, Abraham moved to Canaan from Sumeria.
When the Israelites were suffering under the tyranny of the Egyptian Pharaoh under whom they were all slaves, Moses, the messiah arrived with the knowledge that he received from god on Mount Sinai. Moses was sent to Egypt to rescue the Israelites from the enslavement and a fantastic story with plagues and many miraculous divine interventions are believed to have occurred before Moses finally left with the entire clan of the slaves from Egypt and arrived in Israel. Moses is believed to have arrived sometime in 1300 BC, but it was not until the year 1029 BC, that the kingdom of Israel was brought into existence for the first time and thus is marked by many to be the day when Judaism began. The first holy temple of Jerusalem was completed in 950 BC but only to be destroyed by the ancient Babylonians. The second holy temple in Jerusalem too, was destroyed by the Romans, but the “Wailing Wall” or the western wall of the second holy temple can be seen even today.
A fact to be noted is that Abraham is considered by many to be the Father of the Jews originally, although it was not called Judaism at that time. “Judah”, which meant the land of the Hebrews, is the term from which “Judaism” was derived. Originally, Judaism is an English synonym of the Hebrew “Yahadut” and it was probably introduced by the Greek speaking “Yehudims” or Jews in the first century CE.