Jewish Geneology: A Fraud?

[Pat Mustard]

I've heard it said that Judaism did not exist until after the common era. I haven't found enough evidence to give credulity to this assertion, but if anyone here has evidence, please share it.

That could be the modern form of judaism where all jews are subject to the religious laws. Prior to the various revolts against Rome, the only jews fully subject to temple law were the priesthood and the nobility (both groups being virtually synonymous).

Judaism as a coherent religious grouping is probably no older than the return from Babylonian captivity (so c550BCE). It is at this period where you'll find the strongest evidence for the cult of yhwh becoming a monotheistic cult, rather than being part of a polytheistic or a henotheistic one. And most of the ideas on monotheism were probably developed from contact with Persian zoroastrians.