Why is it that Jews never produced the large and professional armies that Christians and Muslims had? Surely they had a similar ideology and would protect/spread their beliefs if they had an upstanding army.
Because G-d protects them.
As in before the dispersal from Israel by the Romans or after?
>>427136
Because jews, annoying as they are, don't typically proselytize
>>427136
>who is king david
>what is israel
>what is the IDF
Well, we have an army no hich makes every one butthurt so that's something
As odd as it might sound the closest equivalent is probably the modern one. Israel's Military today is, if nothing else, quite large and quite professional.
They seemed to have capable military units during the era where they ruled Israel in olden times as well, but getting scattered to the four winds fucked that up. And you know what host countries REALLY hate? Well armed minority groups with large militaries. Jews chose to collect taxes instead and be loved by most rulers (and hated by the people). It was a wise policy - by collecting the taxes and running the banks most rulers and territories were pretty happy to have them. The people hated them because nobody loves the tax man, but they were pretty indispensable.
The modern Israeli army shows they've always been as capable of it as anyone else. They just haven't had a land to call their own and properly defend. They've been mixed in with other people's militaries instead.
>>427136
Jews didn't seek converts. Jewishness was inherited, not earned. This mentality persists today and is represented in the attitudes of Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jews to out-marriage and spousal conversion and Jewish identity of offspring.
Additionally, Jews occupied a small and comparatively resource poor region compared to the huge swaths of territory controlled by Christians, which were gained entirely through conversion rather than conquest.
The Jews had no polity from which to build their army around after the 2nd century AD, because Hadrian beat them the fuck out and destroyed every Jewish institution. Something that they had also experienced 700 years earlier.
They'd tried twice since returning from Babylon to become fully independent and even expand. The first time they achieved self governance because the Seleucids were useless, and the second time they were, as mentioned, BTFO.
>>427200
After getting BTFO there was no polity, no Judea or Israel or whatever. They were a diaspora, and you can't make an army when scatted in tiny communities across 3 disparate Empires and continents.
>>427228
Good answer, thanks
Judaism isn't a missionary religion. Besides a few isolated cases back in the 2nd century BC, Jews don't usually seek converts. They're an ethnoreligious group, with some emphasis on the "ethno". Without converts to boost their numbers, and being a scattered people with no state to call their own, Jews have neither the means nor the incentive to raise armies.
Judaism is a religion for a certain people and for a certain place. Jews don't proselytize which makes converts rare, and their society and religion was centered around just one small patch of land in the Levant. Their growth as both a religion and a regional power was twice ended, first by the Babylonians and then by the Romans, with the latter resulting in a near-total destruction of Jewish society that resulted in the remnants scattering and becoming the diaspora that they remained until the modern country of Israel was founded.
By contrast, Islam and Christianity are missionary religions that have no basis in ethnicity. Anyone can convert, everyone is encouraged to do so. And in some cases historically for both religions, people were compelled to do so.
>>427200
The Jews (if you want to call the Hebrews of the Old Testament Jews, considering the religion and practices are as different from each other as they are) were able to field formidable forces that were able to successfully win an invasion of a land occupied by an expansionist and commercial empire that was protected by one fortressed city after another. To win such a war as an invading nomadic slave people required a clever combination of subterfuge and unorthodox siege tactics. Then, despite being a disorganized bunch of sheep-herding tribals, they were able to field large, effective armies for land combat in defensive wars. After all of this and a brief civil war, they were united by an aggressive warlord who was toppled by an even more aggressive warlord (mirroring the earliest Chinese imperial dynasties) and became a regional superpower that was able to project it's influence on all of its neighbors.
Later in the Middle Ages, the Jews were able to convert Khazaria to Judaism from the top down. The Khazar Empire was a regional power.
Modern Israel has been able to combine military power and diplomacy to assert its influence over its neighbors and replace the people who lived in their land before the Jews got there. In all the wars they have been in, as well as the covert operations they have engaged in, they have had overwhelming military success.
>>427200
>yet, Judaism is as much as a significant religion as Christianity and Islam.
How? It never had the population or political power either of the other two had.
>>427489
Old Testament is not history m8
>>427136
>Large and professional armies
like, wasnt the entire migratory population of Hebrews turned into a 'large and professional army' before they conquered Caanan..
> Surely they had a similar ideology and would protect/spread their beliefs
They don't need to 'spread' their beliefs. Judaism is a racial religion, technically you can convert to it if you are a non-jew but they do not encourage people to take this path. As for protecting it they used to do that with armies once they lost their nation they started protecting themself by having a very strong group identity to prevent their religion from being eroded away by living so much in other's countries.
>>427200
Most of the Army of the Ummayd Caliphate was staffed by Jewish aristrocrats.
>>427136
jews have powers because they make people think that they are the underdog
>>427136
Christianity and Islam aim to convert more people and to hold more lands.
Judaism doesn't want more members. You're either a Jew or a Gentile. They never needed an army.
Jews (or Hebrews, as the case might be) had no proffesional army since becoming a vassal state sometime in the bronze age. Persia (or was it Babylon?) kicked the shit out of them. Followed by mass exile and assimilation.
Whatever remained after was but a pale shadow - one measely "tribe of priests." The rest went native and began worshipping the local gods. Thus the end of their "Jewishness."
>>429853
Really, Christendom and Islam can't compare, encompassing vastly larger tracts of land and inclusive of a far larger number of converts.
Jews dont need an army. They are ruling the world behind the scences.o
>>427136
Because they got BTFO every time except against the Seleucids. Some people just weren't good at war.
>inb4 muh modern Israel
