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Judaism and Christianity

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In a tree of monotheistic religions, Judaism and Christianity, despite sharing common roots and spiritual tradition associated with Abraham, for many centuries diverged and developed in their own distinct ways. The partition, based on different theological doctrines, evolves around the idea of the nature of human relationships with God, which in case of Judaism are based on the Law of Torah, and in Christianity stem from the belief in Jesus Christ and its cornerstone – the doctrine of Trinity. Beyond a doubt, the best illustration to the character of religious beliefs in Judaism, is “The Covenant at Sinai”, which despite being a part of Holy Scriptures in Christianity, draws a clear boundary between two religions. Not only it …show more content…

Such doctrine appears to be in contrast with Hellenistic tradition of syncretism which perceived different local and national gods as manifestations of one deity (Dunn 27). As noted by Dunn, “the widespread belief among cultured Hellenists in the Graeco-Roman world that Jews (and subsequently Christians) were atheists – not because they were monotheists as such, but because they were exclusive monotheists, whereas the cultured Hellenists were typically syncretistic monotheists” (Dunn 28). On the other hand, it clearly confronts with the Christian doctrine of Trinity.
Among the laws given to Jewish people, a special role is attributed to the one about the Sabbath – “Remember the sabbath and keep it holy”. Based on the idea of creation of world, the seventh day had to be observed as a constant reminder of the Covenant with the Creator. Futhermore, act of creation of a man in the God’s image, which, however, does not imply biological image, since God has no physical substance, leads to the idea of creative powers given to a human being, and making him, consequently God’s “partner” in the process of creation. Thus, the next commandment places filial love and relationship with parents as parallel to the relationship with God, and makes a kind of a bridge between the moral

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