I thought I would post this authors interesting views for consideration.
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"These pages (3 MB) explain how Judaism was created by the Persians in the fifth century. Colonists were deported into Yehud. Their reward was to have control of a temple state which collected taxes for Persia. Only priests of the temple state were Jews—a nation of priests. The history of the Jews was invented from Assyrian records and imagination, to show the native people as apostates who had to obey God diligently to atone for their past failings."
http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/index.html