Page "Judaism" Paragraph 63

The term Judaism derives from the Latin Iudaismus, derived from the Greek Ιουδαϊσμός Ioudaïsmos, and ultimately from the Hebrew יהודה, Yehudah, " Judah "; in Hebrew: י ַ ה ֲ דו ּ ת, Yahadut.

It first appears as the Hellenistic Greek iudaismos in 2nd Maccabees in the 2nd century BCE.

In the context of the age and period it held the meaning of seeking or forming part of a cultural entity, that of iudea, the Greek derivative of Persian Yehud, and can be compared with hellenismos, meaning acceptance of Hellenic cultural norms ( the conflict between iudaismos and hellenismos lay behind the Maccabeean revolt and hence the invention of the term iudaismos ).

The earliest instance of the term in English, used to mean " the profession or practice of the Jewish religion ; the religious system or polity of the Jews ", is Robert Fabyan's The newe cronycles of Englande and of Fraunce a 1513.

As an English translation of the Latin, the first instance in English is a 1611 translation of the Apocrypha ( Deuterocanon in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity ), 2 Macc.

ii.

21 " Those that behaved themselues manfully to their honour for Iudaisme.