Judaism and Christianity: historical origins and theological traditions

Judaism and Christianity

Judaism is all about the religion and the culture of the Jews, or the Jewish people all over the world, whose religion is one of the earliest recorded monotheistic faiths of the world, which in other words means that the Jews believe in one single and universal deity, and it exists in several different ways, like for example, theism, monastic theism, and in deism. It must be noted that the basic tenets of Judaism have contributed to the creation of the historic foundations of quite a few other religions of the world, including Christianity and Islam. The Rabbinical view of Judaism is composed of the following beliefs, according to religious Jews, and the belief was that the Biblical Patriarch, Abraham was the very first Jew to have existed. According to Rabbinic Literature, which in other words means the entire gamut of rabbinic writing throughout History, and which begins with the classic rabbinic literature of the Talmudic era or the 'Sifrut Hazal' and then adds on more writings from the following periods. (Dictionary, Labor law talk. Com)

Therefore, according to rabbinic literature, Abraham, one of the foremost Biblical Patriarchs, was one of the very first to take on the world and state that idolatry was indeed a folly, wherein idolatry means the worship of a false deity, or a physical idol, a term that is used by many religions all over the world. It can be taken as a virtual affront to the basic understanding and the very comprehension of the concept of divinity. When God heard this proclamation made by Abraham, He is stated to have promised that he would have children, beginning with Isaac, who would be capable of carrying on the good work started by Abraham, and then inherit the Land of Israel, which was also known as Canaan, at that time. However, he would be exiled and thereafter redeemed when he would be considered fit enough to inherit the land. The bible states that God gave the son of Isaac the name Jacob, or Israel, which means 'he who struggles with God', and deemed all his descendants to be his nation. God sent Jacob to Egypt, and after hey became enslaved, He sent Moses to redeem them form slavery, and after the Exodus, He sent them to Mount Sinai, gave them the Torah, and finally brought them to the Land of Israel.

According to Historians, Judaism had two main characteristics that separated it form other religions; at the start of its development, and these were the concepts of monotheism, and, secondly, the specification of the number of Laws that would have to be followed by the children of Israel, according to the Torah. (Dictionary, Labor law talk. Com) Another fundamental belief of rabbinic Judaism is that it cannot exist without an oral law or tradition, and this despite the well-known fact that all the legal and covenantal material that had been revealed by God was subsequently put into writing, a phenomenon that was known as the Torah she-bik-tav, and it embraces the belief that Moses not only received the Written Torah, but also received the written explanations for the Written Torah, and this was what came to be known as the oral Torahs, or also the Torah she-be-al pey. In fact, the Pirke Avot starts with the statement that "Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the Elders, the Elders to..." (Messianic Judaism vs. Rabbinical Judaism)

Therefore, it is seen that the Torah can be defined like this: Torah includes the Written Torah as well as the Oral Torah, and both were given to Moses on Mount Sinai. It was, however, only in the year 200 CE that the Oral Torah was put into writing, and this came to be known as the Mishnah. The Mishnah was in fact one of the first of several subsequent Rabbinic documents that happened to be written between the 2nd and the 7th centuries, which contained the Oral Law, like for example, the Tosefta, which also means 'supplement', the Pirke Avot, the Gemara, which when combined with the Mishnah, formed the Talmud. All this literature formed the pivot of rabbinic Judaism and of rabbinic traditions. (Messianic Judaism vs. Rabbinical Judaism)

Therefore, it can be said that Rabbinic Judaism actually has grown from its past heritage, and also form the Law of Moses and from the Messianic Hope for the Future. The religion was however formed by a group of Rabbis, who trusted in the concept and believed that when God gave Moses the Law at Mount Sinai, He also gave Moses an oral form of knowledge, in which there were more details about the written form of the Hebrew Bible, and also about he various methods by which it could be adapted. These first writings of the rabbis were also called the Mishnah, and these were the records of that oral tradition handed down to Moses, which was meant to teach Jews the various ways and means in which to prepare themselves for the Coming of the Messiah, (Rabbinic Judaism) or the 'anointed one', or, in other words, Christ, who was the Savior sent by God, and who had the Duties of initially establishing himself as a King, then gaining a measure of Independence for the People, and then establishing peace and justice brotherhood for the entire world. (The Messiah)

Rabbinical Judaism has been important in Jewish history through the years. In the review of the book 'Jewish History, Jewish religion: The Weight of three thousand years', written by Israel Shihak, and reviewed by Morris Halle, the author talks about the views of non-Jews that the proponents of Judaism adhere to, and also about the attitudes that the traditional and orthodox Jews hold about non-Jews, which is that of hostility and enmity. The author also states that classical rabbinical Judaism was the most important and dominating force on all aspects of Jewish life, right from the time of the Middle Ages, up until the time of the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries, and although it is a fact that rabbinical Judaism no longer dominates Jewism to the extent that it once did, it must be remembered that it, even today, exerts a huge influence on the modern lives of Jews. For example, according to the author, the Talmud has actually instructed Jews to 'burn' any copy of the New Testament that they may happen to come by, and this was actually carried out, in the year 1980, in Jerusalem, when hundreds of copies of the New Testament were burned down by the Ministry of Religions in Israel. (Book review, review by Morris Halle)

In the same way, Maimonides, an authority on religion has said in his Book of Knowledge that it is one's duty that one must 'exterminate' such 'Jewish infidels' as Jesus of Nazareth, his pupils, and also Tzadoq and Baitos, who were the founders of a Jewish sect. This type of racist attitude was found in other writings as well, like for example, in the work 'Tanya' by Shneur Zalman, wherein it is described that all 'non-Jews are totally Satanic', and the very existence of a non-Jew was considered to be completely inessential. (Book review, review by Morris Halle) Rabbinic Judaism is seen as accepting the belief that there would be a Messiah one day, who would gather the exiles and also sit on a throne of a Davidic monarchy. With the coming of the Messiah, the Temple would be rebuilt, and all the sacrifices that had been prescribed Biblically would be carried out by an accepted Priesthood, meaning that the Synagogue has in fact permanently replaced the Temple.

The equal status of men and women within the Synagogue would be maintained, as always, and this was demonstrated perfectly in the Liberal Jewish Movement. Another important factor is that the rabbinical Judaism stresses on the fact that the children are not to be held responsible for the actions of their parents, under any circumstances, and this also means that the laws of the 'bastards' would not be accepted by the faith. Therefore, if Rabbinical Law were to be harmonized and combined with the social realities of the modern world, then it would have a great impact on the Jews, and because of the respect that rabbinical Judaism has for other faiths such as Christianity and Islam, it would be easier to promote harmony and friendship and peace within all the religions, so that the world would be a better place. (The Affirmations of Liberal Judaism)

Christian' is the term generally used by individuals, to describe a person of the Christian Faith, and it was initially used, perhaps in a derogatory manner, by Greeks and Romans, at Antioch, to describe the followers of Jesus Christ. Christianity is believed to have arisen form the Jewish faith, in the Palestine of the first century, from where it spread rapidly and quickly to the Mediterranean world, after which, during the fourth century, became accepted as the official religion of the Roman Empire. Today, Christianity is the belief of more than a billion people in the world, who believe in the teachings and in the life of Jesus Christ. Therefore, to a Christian, 'Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Messiah or Christ promised by God in the prophecies of the Old Testament', and he, through his life, then his death, and finally his resurrection, 'freed those who believe in Him from their sinful state and made them recipients of God's saving Grace'. (Christian General Information)

There are many people, even today, who eagerly await the Second Coming of Christ, with which they feel that the entire plans for Salvation of man made by God, would be finally completed. The Christian faith believes in the word of the Christian Bible, or the Holy Scripture, which describes Jesus Christ as being the Lord and also the Savior of man. The basic tenets of the Scriptures, as interpreted by the Fathers of the Church, and also by the first four ecumenical councils, are generally accepted by the major traditions of the Christian faith, that is, the Lutheran, Reformed Calvinist, Anglican, and sectarian branches of Christianity. Herein, it is stated that the first human beings happened to rebel against God, and this resulted in the world being consumed with Sin. (Christian General Information)

This was the state of affairs until the Coming of Christ, during which time the Hope of a final reconciliation with God was kept alive in the minds of the people with a God's 'Covenant' with the Jews of the time, because of the fact that it was from Jews that Jesus Christ happened to spring forth. The savior, Jesus Christ therefore vanquished, albeit partially, both sin and Satan, but the sad fact is that although Jesus Christ preached the coming of God's Kingdom, he happened to be completely rejected by the Jewish leaders of the time, and these were the people who finally delivered him to the Romans to be sacrificed and killed, or in other words, crucified. However, on the Third day after his death, God managed to raise him up again, and Jesus Christ was resurrected. He then appeared to all his disciples, to command them to spread the ideals of salvation form sin and form death to all the people. This then is the basic belief of the Christian Faith.

Christians are basically monotheists, although during the early times, the concept of the Trinity was very strong, and this comprised of the Creator or the Father, the Redeemer or the Son, and the Sustainer or the Holy Spirit. What Christianity in essence created was a modification of the Jewish belief that the entire world would be transformed and changed with the coming of the Reign of God. They also held the belief that the bodies of all those who had died would rise again, and this would mean that all the righteous would triumph, and that the evil would be punished. This idea, along with that of 'eternal life', created a belief in eternal rewards, in Heaven, and eternal Punishment, in Hell. (Christian General Information) However, if one were to analyze the exact date in which Christianity became a Gentile religion form when it was a mere off shoot of Judaism, it may be found that it would probably be in the middle part of the second century, CE. (From Jewish Movement to gentile Church)