Judaism

node · earth · Levant, with diaspora across the Mediterranean, Near East and beyond

The monotheistic tradition of the Jewish people, centred historically on Jerusalem and the Temple, and after the Temple's destruction in 70 CE reorganised around text, law and rabbinic interpretation. Judaism is included in this Journey chiefly as a diffusion mechanism rather than a missionary one: diaspora Jewish communities along Mediterranean, Mesopotamian, Arabian and later Indian Ocean and Silk Road networks formed a pre-existing web of literate, mobile, mutually connected settlements. Early Christianity spread first through and alongside those communities. Judaism itself did not generally pursue conversion, which makes it an instructive control case: the same trade network carried very different diffusion outcomes depending on whether a tradition sought converts.