Huntington questioned Jewish civilization; debate continues

Huntington questioned Jewish civilization; debate continues

In "The Clash of Civilizations," Samuel Huntington wrote that Judaism is not a significant civilization in numerical terms, noting Toynbee described it as an aborted civilization derived from earlier Syriac culture. With the creation of Israel, Jews would possess all objective elements of a civilization: religion, language, customs, literature, institutions, and territory. The author’s doubt is subjective: is that enough?

The discussion sparked by this paragraph in a Spanish-speaking history forum has accumulated 142 replies. It mixes archaeology, comparative theology, philology, and occasional outbursts. The result is a collective portrait of a question that remains unresolved.

The argument for originality: did the Hebrews invent anything?

One of the first objections raised concerns originality. Some argue the Hebrews created nothing genuinely unique and that their monotheism evolved from earlier cults. In this context, Akhenaten and Zoroaster are mentioned as possible precursors. One participant notes that the biblical narrative places Moses during Akhenaten’s reign, while Zoroaster lived between 628 and 551 BC, whereas the Babylonian captivity—when the canonical Bible was composed—occurred between 582 and 538 BC. The temporal coincidence is suggestive but not conclusive.

The response trinc quickly: Hebrew monotheism was a gradual process, moving from initial polytheism to henotheism and finally monotheism. The centuries separating the end of Aten worship from the origins of Judaism complicate any direct link. Others recall that Abraham himself worships Melchizedek, a priest of an earlier god, suggesting monotheism existed before Abraham.

Hellenistic influence on Kabbalah and Christianity

Another axis of the debate is the relationship between Jewish theology and Greek philosophy. A participant claims that Merkabah and the later Kabbalah are impossible without a Hellenistic substrate: the ten sefirot correspond to a sublunary world, seven celestial spheres, two luminaries (Sun and Moon), plus the zodiac sphere and the sphere of fixed stars, leading up to YHWH. Without Hellenistic cosmology, they argue, Kabbalah would not exist.

This influence extends to Christianity. It is argued that Christian theology derives from Greek metaphysics, constructed by theologians like Thomas Aquinas and Augustine. The response is nuanced: Christianity is not an evolution of Greek religion, but of Greek metaphysics, which allowed understanding Christ’s message. The New Testament was written in Greek, but in the Levant, not Europe, and the Old Testament in Hebrew and Aramaic. The debate over whether Jesus was Jewish or European leads to unsustainable claims, such as the Bible being written in Greek during the Middle Ages.

Matrilineality and the construction of Rabbinic Judaism

A recurring theme is the rule of matrilineality. It is argued that this is a decision of Talmudic Judaism, not the Bible. Biblical texts include examples of descendants of non-Jewish mothers considered Hebrews: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had children with Gentile women, and rabbinic tradition was forced to invent that these women were Jewish to maintain the norm. The case of Ruth, the Moabite who converted and from whom the Messiah descends, is frequently cited. The explanation offered is that matrilineality resulted from becoming an endogamous minority.

The unanswered question

The debate has not reached a consensus. Some defend that Jews are the only Mediterranean people from year zero who retain the same territory, language, and religion, and whose derived sects religiously conquered two-thirds of humanity. Others insist there is no Jewish civilization, but rather a Jewish variant of other civilizations. And some directly deny that the current Jewish people have continuity with the ancient one. Huntington’s question hangs in the air: are objective elements enough to speak of civilization, or is something more required?