# The summarized history of the Christian church 1: Judaism

Ancient Judaism was grounded in God's established law, which made it unusual compared to any other ancient society. This law depicted *many* [sins](theology-sins.md), and was the beginning of quite a few implementations of [justice](morality-justice.md) that has persisted [to this day](https://theologos.site/the-west/).

But, further than that, while the Jewish center of worship was a cultural center of society, in many capacities it wasn't as involved as other religions. Most temples also served as [date tracking](standards-datetime.md), [weather reports](science-earth-weather.md), and even as [banks](money-investing.md). Other cultures saw the Hebrews as a type of "atheist" because they didn't display any statues of God.

In 30 AD, the Jews were in a period of constant controversy from a crisis of national identity:

- They had been released from Babylon, but were thralls of the largest empire around, and Caesar could heavily define their permitted religious activities.
- They were besieged by a melting pot of conflicting values that were mixing into their culture, the most notable being intellectual echoes of Greek thought.
- They had a second Temple Herod built that wasn't as awesome as Solomon's (and had strings attached because Herod expanded on it).
- There were [power struggles](people-conflicts-war-why.md) between that Temple and the relatively newer synagogues over how to conduct services.

In this situation, the Jews attended synagogues ritually, with the approximate format:

1. The Greeting: a formalized, biblical greeting or salutation, with the congregation saying "Amen".
2. A Response: the attendees would respond, often with a chanted or recited Scripture.
3. Readings and Psalmody: read/chant several passages of Scriptures, interspersed with the congregation's responding with singing/chanting a Psalm.
4. Psalms: the Psalms were considered God's hymnal and were sung/chanted, most of the time without instruments.
5. Message: an elder/rabbi/teacher would interpret and explain the relevant meaning of the day's readings.
6. Prayer: offer prayers on behalf of the people. The Jews considered prayer an act of sacrifice that was pleasing to God. Various portions of Scripture were frequently woven into the prayers.
7. Benediction: a formal blessing from God by his Word upon His people, with the congregation saying "Amen".