Abrahamic Religion Comparing and Contrasting

Abrahamic Religion

Comparing and Contrasting Interpretations of the Sacred (God) within Three Abrahamic Religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Although the Abrahamic faiths of Western Asia began with the same monotheistic concept of the sacred (that is, of one God, as opposed to the multiple gods of, say, the Greeks, the Romans, or ancient Nordic civilizations), they eventually developed very different, respective, beliefs about how, exactly, to worship and have a relationship with the God they all believed in. I shall explore, analyze, compare and contrast some of these key differences.

Within the Jewish holy book, the Old Testament, the first of five books is Genesis. Genesis 1-9 describes God's creation of the Earth in seven days; the Garden of Eden; Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden; the births of Adam and Eve's sons Cain and Abel; Cain's killing of Abel; and God's punishment of Cain, representing God's direct intervention into human affairs, by God's placing of a mark on his head: to both stigmatize Cain in life, and keep him from death. Genesis describes how by day seven, the earth is created. For example:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (Genesis 1:1-1:3, the Old Testament, p. 56)

Tone and content of the Old Testament imply an all-powerful male God who hopes for (but often does not receive) unconditional human love, loyalty, faith, and obedience. Jews of ancient times created a temple of worship in Jerusalem. When that temple was destroyed by the Holy Roman Empire, other temples were built elsewhere, eventually worldwide. However, prayer practices, rituals, and relationships of Jews to God remain similar to ancient times. Jews today, like then, may pray to God either in a temple (synagogue) or privately. In Orthodox Judaism (though not Conservative or Reform Judaism) the sexes are segregated for prayer, as they were in ancient times. It is unclear if this practice helps or hinders worship, but perhaps (both now and in ancient times) such segregation aided/aids concentration). Jewish services are led by a Rabbi (Hebrew for "teacher"), a spiritual leader of a Jewish congregation. During services on Friday nights and Saturday mornings (Saturday is the Jewish holy day; Sunday is the Christian one) the Torah (Hebrew for the Old Testament) is removed from the ark where it is otherwise kept, unrolled, and a portion of it read aloud by the Rabbi. Before the Torah is replaced near the end of the service, it is carried throughout the assembled congregation. Worshippers may reach out and touch the Torah with prayer books (hands are not supposed to be used), then kiss the object that touched the Torah, a gesture of affection, respect, and loyalty to God. This ritual is (arguably) symbolically equivalent to Catholic Communion, where believers symbolically ingest the blood and the body of Christ (a sip of wine and a Communion wafer) thereby taking the Lord into themselves. Both practices reaffirm personal relationships to God. Such contemporary (and past) ceremonies and liturgical practices may or may not actually aid worshippers in understanding God (or on the other hand, provide roadblocks for interpretation of the sacred). However, both are powerful signs of a personal relationship between congregants and God.

Many sections of the Old Testament reaffirm monotheism. In Exodus 31-33, Moses leaves Mount Sinai with tablets containing the Ten Commandments, to find that in his absence, Aaron has allowed creation of a molten (golden) calf, a pagan idol. In response, Moses smites those who do not worship only God (only the sons of Levi are left), then returns to Mount Sinai to ask God's forgiveness of his people's sins. On Mount Sinai, God forgives all but those who have gone against Him (Exodus 32). Here, the individual worshipper (Moses) asks for personal forgiveness from God, and a chance to atone personally, and on behalf of his people, for past sins, just as Jews still do today once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).