#and ancient israelite kingship very much resembles other near eastern kingships

[a-god-in-ruins-rises]

How would Jewish culture influence Christianity to adopt a caste system? Ancient Israelites didn't have a caste system.

fair question. let me elaborate.

i don't mean to suggest that christian europe adopted the caste system wholesale from jewish culture. that's why i said "influenced". i think the development is a bit more complex than that. i agree it ancient israelites didn't exactly have a caste system like medieval europe but i also think it's a bit more complicated. i'll get to that.

first, the caste system was a result of centuries of evolution. and my thesis is that it's the result of an amalgamation of native (indo-)european culture and jewish/semitic culture (from the bible and christianity).

so medieval europe is kinda defined by the tripartite "class" (caste) system; nobility at the top (royalty might be considered its own class or it could be considered as just the top of the noble hierarchy), the priests/clergy, and then the commoners. there is some variation between different cultures but this is the stereotypical arrangement of feudal society.

worth noting, israelite society didn't exactly have a warrior aristocracy (like we find throughout indo-european societies) but they definitely had a clearly defined priestly caste. and that priestly class had its own privileges (such as being entitled to receiving certain "gifts" or being exempt from certain taxes). and, this priestly caste was explicitly and pretty strictly hereditary. but that's not all, the bible is littered with emphasis on lineage and genealogy and inheritance. it's everywhere. and not even just with priests. but just in general. from the priests to the kings.

i'm sure you can see where i'm going with this.

it's not hard to imagine that these ideas influenced (christian) european society to adopt a more closed, hereditary aristocracy, as opposed to the pre-christian european aristocracies which were a lot more open and merit-based in comparison.

i just don't think it's a coincidence that these two things (the spready of christianity and the rigid closing of aristocracy) just happened at the same time. even kingship moved away from traditional elected monarchies to increasingly hereditary monarchies. they even started adopting the practice of recording extensive genealogies and king lists, something not common among indo-europeans but very common among semitic cultures. one exception is the persians, but i'd bet that this is because of semitic influence.

so yeah ancient israel had a kind of caste system. with the priests (whether kohanim or levites) essentially being a hereditary ruling caste. then, for europeans, the nobility was the hereditary ruling class. but it's also worth noting that most christian priests also came from the hereditary ruling caste as well (though the christian priesthood wasn't necessarily hereditary).