Why were the 'Chosen People' chosen?
God's covenant would forge a 'Jewish consciousness' (and require severing the foreskin of every Jewish man)
This is Who made our minds?, my Thursday essay probing the greatest, cruellest and most beautiful minds of the past 5,000 years, inspired by my book, The Soul: A History of the Human Mind (Penguin 2024).
Next week: ‘Thou Shalt Not!’ (5th of 7 essays on Judaism)
EVER SINCE THEIR Babylonian captivity (597–538 BCE), a series of prophecies of unparalleled power has shaped the consciousness of the Jews, persuading the least attentive Jew that he or she belongs to a people set aside by God to fulfil some great purpose, a people chosen by God to realise his will on Earth.
Yahweh (God) had chosen the Jewish people, Moses explained, because God loved them. They were a ‘holy people’ unto God, ‘a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth’, not because they were great in number – they were few – but because ‘the Lord loved you’.
In return, the Jews were to obey the Lor…