Religion of Ancient Israel

Religion of Moses and Israel (Hebrew: דת משה וישראל, Arabic: مُوسَوِيّ Musāwi) is an ancient religion originated in the Levant. Moseic religion is largely based on the Five Books of Moses, emphasising its rules and practicing the related traditions, evolved over some 3,500 years. It is the basis to several religious Monotheistic practises around the globe, mainly represented today by the Jews, who practice it in the form of Rabbinic Judaism, Karaite Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism. Moseic religion is also the basis to the Samaritan religeous practices of the Samaritan community in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The religion of Moses and Israel is largely an ethnoreligion, generally identified with Jews and Judaism. However, it is a mistake to identify all Jews to be religiously belonging to this definition, as Jewish ethnic group includes also atheists, Messianic Jews and adherents of other religions.

In addition to Israelites, several distinct ethnic groups have adopted the religion of Moses and Israel over the centuries, largely abandanong the practice later. In this regard, the Samaritan case is a disputed one, as Jews consider Samaritans to be of Cuthean ethnicity (an area in Mesopotamia) who have accepted an Israelite Moseic religion, upon migration to the Land of Israel. The Samaritans themselves, on the other hand, consider themselves to be pure Israelites from the tribes of Joseph and Levi, who have kept their religion of Moses and Israel, since the settlement of Israelites in the land of Canaan.

Ancient conversions to religion of Moses and Israel include the case of the forced conversions of Edomeans, Itureans and Nabataeans by the Hasmonean Kings of Judah during the 2nd century BCE. However, with the exception of Edomeans (who largely intermixed with the Jewish people), these ancient Levantine tribes have vanished into the history, converting to Christianity during the Byzantian period. The Royal house of Adiabene client Kingdom of Parthia has also adopted a form of Moseic religion during the 1st century CE. Even though, a Jewish community has resided in Adiabene, the Moseic converts of the kingdom are largely thought to become Christians over the 3-4th centuries CE, rather then mixing with Jews.

During the Middle Ages there were two major conversion cases of non-Israelite ethnic groups to adopt the religion of Moses. One of them is the case of Himyarite Arabs in Southern Arabia. The second case is the conversion of Khazar nobility, which had ruled north Caucasus and the steppes of southern Russia during the 7th-10th centuries CE. Little is known of Moseic converts' fate there, after the fall of Khazaria in the 11th century.

Modern conversion cases to Moseic religion include the several thousand Subbotniks - Russians, who have converted to a form of Moseic religion in the 19th century. Other, more recent, occurances include the Hebrew Israelites' adoption of the Laws of Moses, and sporadic cases of simplified conversions to Moseic religion, allowed within Reform Judaism in USA.