Scripture without the Talmud.
The Jewish movement that rejected rabbinic authority: the written Torah alone binds, read by each Jew with their own eyes. It flourished from Baghdad to Crimea in the Middle Ages and survives today, mostly in Israel.
DeitiesOne God
Founded760 CE · Baghdad
FounderAnan ben David (forerunner)
AfterlifeThe world to come
TextsTanakh
The map
Karaite Judaism’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →
c. 1000 BCE Judaism 760 CE Karaite Judaism
The written Torah alone is binding.
No oral law: the Talmud is commentary, not command.
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Search the scripture well — each reader is responsible.
Anan's charge: rely not on my opinion. Interpretation is every Jew's own duty.
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The calendar follows the visible moon.
Months begin at the sighted crescent, as the text — not the computed calendar — directs.
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Sabbath by the letter.
No fire kindled and none left burning — the Karaite Sabbath is famously dark and famously literal.
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