The Importance Of Identity In Judaism And Christianity

Judaism and Christianity are key religions in the history of our world, and are still around today. Both of these religions are monotheistic, believing in only YHWH, the God of Abraham. However, if we look deeper, there are many more similarities and differences in these two religions. Some things that are comparable are their political figures, their holy works, and social beliefs.

Judaism and Christianity each have their own beliefs and traditions, with Judaism being a religion that shaped Christianity as it is today. Both religions were shaped by the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament, which is considered by many to be the biblical law of God (Molloy, 2009). Christians however, consider that in the New Testament with the arrival of God in human form, that our sins were forgiven. In its earliest stages, Christianity was considered a sect of Judaism. Jesus and his apostles even considered themselves Jewish in the early years of Christianity. While followers of Judaism do believe in one God, they do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah or that God is the Holy Trinity.

As you can see even though Judaism and Christianity have the closest relationship there are many very important differences. Their different views on Jesus and God, Heaven and hell, and the notion of sin are what separate these two great but different

Since the dawn of man, millions of people around the world coming from all kinds of diverse cultures and different backgrounds have been born into a family where some sort of religion is practiced. Fortunately, in the modern day here in the United States, we are free to worship and practice any religion we please. Two of the main religions in the United States and North America in general is Judaism and Christianity. It goes without saying that these two religions do have a lot in common, which is mostly due to the fact that Judaism was the forefather of Christianity. The main base is the same for both religions, the Old Testament.

The origins of Christianity can be originated in Judaism and for that reason it is no surprise that both religions have many beliefs in common. During the earliest beginnings, Christianity was a part of Judaism, but currently they are two distinct communities. However, they are bound together by their belief in one God and to worship any other is to deny Him. The separation between both religions did not happen fast or easy. The entire division took some hundred years and the very complex separation didn’t happen all at once.

Judaism and Christianity is a monotheistic religion. "Judaism is a diverse tradition associated with the Jewish people", and Jesus is a Jew. Many people insist Judaism is the foundation of Christianity because Christianity originated from Judaism (when God showed himself to Abraham and Moses), but not an expansion of Judaism. This two religions, both refer to Jesus Christ, even though his role in each religion differs. The Jews refer to God as Yahweh (“I am who I am”) while the Christians refer to him as God. They have the same origin, believe that Abraham was the father of faith and Moses received the Ten Commandments. Both religions relate in faith and the scripture they share, but as much as they associate, they also have differences.

Judaism, the original religion of Abraham, is the oldest of the three religions. Their faith is that “The Messiah” is yet to come and hasn’t come yet. They do not believe in Jesus for being the messiah. For the past 2000 years the Jews have been rejecting Jesus as the messiah for just one reason, their faith in the messiah. They do not believe that the Jesus has done the things they were told their messiah would do. I have learned from the readings that I have done that up to this date the Jews are still waiting for their messiah. Jews still believe that their messiah is going to come and take them out of their misery and bring all the Jews together from all the other parts of the world. From my reading I have learned that the main reason Jews refuse to believe in Jesus as their messiah is that they say Jesus hasn’t done the things that were promised through the messiah, for example, bring all the Jews back together in the land of Israel from all over the world. Another belief they hold against Jesus is that, they believe messiah should have been from the family line of David on His father’s side, and Jesus was born through a virgin therefore has no father. These beliefs along with other belief are the difference between Judaism and Christianity. The main reason the two religions differ and are called by two different names today even though had emerged from the same root is Jesus, the disbelief of the Jews in

Judaism has been around for a long time. Many believers come together to form the Jewish community. Judaism believes in “the existence of one god and his choice of Jews as a [the] chosen people who will establish an example for all nations” (Donnin). Donnin who is a Jewish guide, lead the Jewish community despite persecutions of Jews (Ruggiero

While key differences about Christianity and Judaism seem similar by their historical circumstances, they are also different. Both religions started in the Middle east but in different places at different times. Christianity started in Bethlehem when Jesus was born in 4 B.C.E. However Judaism originated in Ancient Palestine around 1812 B.C.E. Though the religions were founded in the same place, they were founded at different times. Along with being founded at different places, both religions have different founders. Abraham founded Judaism by accepting the convent of God.

Judaism originated a very long time ago, it is a part of the Bronze Age Polytheistic Ancient Semitic religions. The Jewish calendar goes back more than 5000 years, most scholars date the beginning of the religion of the Israelites to the known founder, Abraham, whose life is generally dated around 2000 to 1800 B.C.E. Abraham came to believe that the universe was the works of a single creator, and taught this to other believers. Therefore, Judaism is the first recorded religion to advocate monotheism, meaning there is only one God. Both Christianity and Islam found some of their roots in Judaism, about 2,000 years after Abraham, Jesus was born into Judaism. Then after Jesus, Muhammad could trace his ancestry back to Abraham. Judaism has three essential parts the written Torah, the recognition of Israel, which are the descendants of Abraham, as uniquely holy people chosen by God, and also it is a requirement that Israel lives in accordance with God's laws as it’s said in the Torah.

Before the birth of Jesus Christ and Christianity, there was Judaism, the religion where Christianity originated from. In the years of 65 B.C. through 63 B.C., The Roman and the Jews had several complications with each other, especially with Pompey the Great interfering with Jerusalem and its people. Pompey the Great invaded Jerusalem due to their opposition of worshipping the Roman gods and the Jews’ belief in only one God. In addition, he did it to elevate his status as a more powerful figure in Roman society, since Julius Caesar, another Roman political figure was also competing for power and attention from the people. His conquering over the Jews and the ongoing brawls set the stage on how Christianity and the Roman Empire intertwined with each other and the tense relations that were formed,

Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world. Jewish people have suffered persecution through the holocaust, they were left with nothing. No leader or land to call their own as everything was taken from them.

One of the world’s largest religion begun with Jesus, a Jew, who was believed to be the Messiah and brought change to society. During the time he was alive he was hated by many and after being crucified his followers, most importantly Paul, had spread his teachings which had eventually created Christianity. Members worshiped in churches, they believed to live a life/love like Jesus and studied scriptures. As growth continued, Christian monasticism began to rise which brought a different way of living as a Christian; a life strongly devoted to God.

Christianity and Judaism are major world religions which, though they worship the same God, have marked differences which have caused two thousand years of strife and animosity between the two religions. In his book We Jews and Jesus, Samuel Sandmel likens the link between Judaism and Christianity to a type of parent-child relationship, saying, “Early Christianity was a Judaism; within a century after the death of Jesus it was a separate religion. It was critical of its parent, and hostile to it, and elicited from its parent reciprocal criticism and hostility.”1 Opposing views of Jesus Christ caused the initial rift between Judaism and Christianity and is the primary source of the tension between

Judaism, which is made up of a few separate groups, was very common at the originating of Christianity. The common ground (shared beliefs) for these sects was the belief in One God and that this One God had made a covenant with the people of Israel. The foundation of this covenant was called “The Torah.” The Pharisees and Sadducees were the two main groups the Bible focuses on around the time of Jesus, along with the Zealots, the Hellenists, the Lawyers, and the Essenes, who we only read about in sources outside of the New Testament.