The Mushkhanites (q. v.) maybe considered as a branch of this sect. For further details, see Fiirst, Geschichte d. Karcierthums, \x 26 scj. ; Griitz, Gesch. der Juden, v, 227 sq., 516sq. (J. H.W.)
Judah (or Juda), Leo, one of the Swiss reform- ers, was bom at Germar, in Alsace, in 1482. His father's name was John Jud, but whether of Jewish descent, Leo himself tells us he was unable to say. The name, however, exposed him to reproach, and perhajis for this reason we find him sometimes designating himself as Leo Kdler ; in Ziirich he was known as Meister I^Ow, and this name his descendants adopted. He was edu- cated for the medical profession, but through the in- fluence of Zwingle forsook this for the clerical. He succeeded the latter in the church of Notre Dame des Eremites, and finally became his associate at Zii- rich. Together they entered zealously on their work of reform, and Judah contributed no little to the sjiread- ing and propagating of Zwinglian ideas. With the great reformer he appeared at the second conference in Zurich (1523), and together they repUed to all who defended the worship of images and the celebration of the mass as a sacrifice. Judah died June 19, 1542. He made a translation of the greater part of the Old Testament from the Hebrew text, and also of the New from the Greek. It was completed by Bibliander and Peter Cholin, and reviewed by Pellicanus (Ziirich, 1543; reprinted at Paris, with the Vulgate, in 1545). See Gerjian Versions. Of his original productions, his Catechism (1534, Latin and German) is the most noted. He translated the writings of Zwingle and Luther. See Hook, Eccles. Biog. vi, 365 ; Kitto, Cyclop, s. v.
Judaism, the name by which we designate the re- ligions doctrines and rites of the people chosen bj' Je- hovah as his pecidiar people ; the descendants of Jacob, to whom the law was given by IMoses, and religious light and truth were revealed in the Old Testament; the most important branch of that family of nations conventionally comprised under the title of Shemites — a people of many fates and of many names, called by the Bible the people of God ; by Mohammed, the peo- ple of the Book ; by Hegel, " the peojile of the Geist," and now generally known as Hebrews, Israelites, or Jews.
Abi-ahamism. — To the Christian student especially, the early development of the doctrines of this people is interesting, as unfolded in the pages of the older half of the inspired writings that go to make up the basis of his own creed. Judaism is pre-eminentlj- a monothe- istic faith, originating with the patriarch Abraham when, in an a?ra of polytheism and flagrant vice, he be- came the founder of monotheism by a prompt recogni- tion and worship of the one living and true God ; and from that remote day to this, all the Jewish people pride themselves in being " children of Abraham." It is a fact striking to every student of comparative religion, and in no small degree a proof of the authenticity of the O.-T. Scriptures, that this monotheistic faith originated at a time when the religion of all other branches of the same family, which, with the Hebrew, make up the She- mitic, differed widely from it in everj' resjiect. The As- syrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians all possessed a nearly identical religion, but one that lacked the essential feature of Judaism. They all, it is true, be- lieved in a supreme god, called by the different names of Ilu, Bel, Set, Iladafi, Moloch, Chemosh,Jaoh, El. Adon, Asshnr, but they also all lielieved in subordinate and secondary beings, emanations from this supreme being, his manifestations to the world, rulers of the planets; and, like other pantheistic religions, the custom prevailed among these Shemitic nations of promoting first one and then another deity to be the supreme object of worship. Among the Assyrians, as among the Egyptians, the gods were often arranged in triads, as that of Anu, Bel, and Ao. Anu or Oannes wore the head of a fish ; Bel wore the horns of a bull ; Ao was represented by a serpent. These religions, iu short, represented the gods as the
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Spirit within and behind natural objects and forces- powers within the world, rather than, as among the He- brews, a Spirit above the world. The Hebrews' God was a God above nature, not simply in it. He stood alone, unaccompanied by secondary deities. His wor- ship required purity, not pollution ; its aim was holiness, and its spirit humane, not cruel. :Monotheistic from the first, it became an absolute monotheism in its develop- ment. In all the Shemitic nations, behind the numer- ous divine beings representing the pov/ers of nature there was. it is true, dimly visible one supreme Being, of whom all these were emanations; but there was also among all of them, except the Hebrew branch, a ten- dency to lose sight of ike fist f/reat Cause, the very re- verse" of the tendency of the faith of Abraham, whose soul rose to the contemplation of the perfect Being, above all and the source of all. With passionate love he adored this most high God, maker of heaven and earth. Sucli was his devotion to this almighty Being, that men said, " Abraham is the friend of the most high God." The difference, then, between the religion of Abraham and that of the polytheistic nations was, that while they descended from the idea of a supreme Being into that "of subordinate ones, he went back to that of the supreme, and clung to this with his whole soul (Clark, Ten yreat Religions, chap. x). See Abraiiaji.