Jewish And The Christian Faiths example essay topic

"Judaism and Christianity are linked to each other with a kinship that transcends all their differences. Christianity arose in the Jewish household of faith, and its basic teachings clearly reflect the influence of its family origin. The Jewish heroes of faith from Abraham through the prophets, are also deemed as the pioneers of Christian faith; the basic teachings of Judaism concerning God and man were adopted by Christianity into its own doctrinal structure. [... ] Jews and Christians have forgotten their true relationship". 1 As we look at the Jewish and the Christian faiths, both of which trace their origins back past Abraham and Moses, to the original stories of Genesis and the Garden of Eden, we notice basic similarities and major differences between the two religions.

This paper will attempt to highlight those similarities and differences, illustrating major points in each religion and contrasting them, in order to come to a higher understanding of each religion and their relationship to each other. Judaism is the faith of a people, in a people and as such, does not qualify itself so much as a religion as a group of people who follow the same traditions, laws, and beliefs. "Judaism does not characterize itself as a religion. The subject of the Tanakh is the history of the Children of Israel, especially in terms of their relationship with God. Thus, Judaism has been categorized as a culture or as a civilization". 3 However, Christianity is a faith in faith, in an idea or ideal.

The purely theological aspect of Christianity is one of the many differences between the two religions, and also one of the most important. There is no concept of national identity in Christianity the way there is in Judaism, nor does Christianity permeate everyday life quite in the same way Judaism does. As we continue to look at both religions, we see that the tradition of the Old Testament (Christian) or Tanakh (Judaic) is respected, upheld and included in both sets of sacred texts. However, the value and meaning derived from this text is vastly different for each faith.

Judaism sees the Tanakh (Torah) as its primary and holiest scripture, basing its laws, traditions, and worships therein. The Judaic faith also takes into account the oral traditions as recorded in the Talmud. But the fact remains that "the church [... ] cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old Testament from the people with whom G-d in His ineffable mercy concluded the former covenant". 1 The stories of Adam and Eve, the Great Flood, Cain and Abel, Abraham, in fact all of the traditions with the sole exception of Jesus and his teachings, are Judaic in origin. With the development of Christianity, the New Testament came into being.

The different texts contained therein (Gospels, Acts, etc.) show us the life of Jesus and his teachings, the acts of the Apostles after his death, and letters from early Christian religious figures. The Christian faith also rejected the Torah and Jewish oral traditions as obsolete. The Christians believe that with the coming of Jesus, God entered into a new covenant with the people, hence the distinction between the Old Testament and New Testament. "It became accepted Christian doctrine that the "Old" Testament was a preparation for the New Testament, that the new faith was the completion of the old.

This led to a two fold development. Christians, though they admitted the Hebrew Bible into their canon of Scriptures, nevertheless felt constrained to contrast the two Testaments, always showing the higher spiritual reach of the New as compared with the Old". 1 Yet in the opening page of the New Testament, Jesus' genealogy is traced in detail back to Abraham, the timeline divided into periods of fourteen generations, blatantly connecting Jesus to his Jewish heritage, and hence the heritage of Christianity to Judaism. However, the Jewish faith rejects the idea of a new covenant, the title of Old Testament, and the entirety of the New Testament, which extols Jesus as the messiah. This brings us logically to the problem of the messiah, and to the main divide between Judaism and Christianity. In the Judaic tradition, the messiah will be be a moral man, descended from King David, who will rebuild and restore the nation of Israel and the Great Temple for all time.

"Judaism teaches a belief in the messiah, but what is primary in the messianic faith in Judaism is its historical content. The core of this belief is the vision of a new world order of justice, freedom, and peace to replace the present epoch of oppression of man and by man and nation by nation". 1 Jewish beliefs go on to say that "eventually war, hatred, and famine will end, and an era of peace and prosperity will come upon the Earth". 2 For the Jewish people, in order to know if the messiah has arrived or not, all one has to do is look and see if the world is at peace. According to Jewish Scripture, the messiah had not yet arrived. The idea that Jesus was the messiah is completely unacceptable to the Jewish traditions.

"Most of the reservations which a Jew must feel concerning Christianity stems from the belief in the messiahship of Jesus and its various doctrinal elaborations. [... ] Christianity has invested his being with metaphysical significance. It has made his role as mediator between God and man an indispensable element in the scheme of human salvation".

1 The central argument about the messiah-ship of Jesus was truly was caused the schism between Judaism and Christianity. Although Judaic tradition does acknowledge the existence of Jesus, as historical figure, a normal human being who was perhaps a teacher and healer of sorts or a miracle worker, as was common enough in the day. according to the Jewish faith, he cannot redeem souls, only God can, nor did he rise from the dead. To the Jews there is no God but God and that idea is irrefutable according to Jewish laws. Another break is that Judaism still follows the Ten Commandments, something the teachings of Jesus replaced for the Christians. The new covenant "lived by faith in Christ, not by the Law"5 To the Christians, Jesus is seen as the Son of God, God incarnate, the link between the heavenly and the earthly. It is the Christian belief that he died a martyr's death on the cross so that the sins of those who believe in Jesus' divinity may be forgiven and their souls redeemed.

"In Jesus Christians see the messiah long anticipated in Judaism, whose ministry offers those who believe in him redemption from sin, and its consequences". 1 For Christians he is the savior of humanity and part of the holy Trinity. The idea of God as a trinity comprising the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is unique to Christianity. "Christianity posits that God is a trinity; in this view God exists as three distinct persons which share a single divine essence, or substance. In those three there is one, and in that one there are three; the one God is indivisible, while the three persons are distinct and unconfused". 3 In this tradition, the Father is the directly intervening God of the Old Testament, and the God who talks to and through Jesus in the New Testament, the God who protects and loves his followers and believers.

The Son is Jesus, God made flesh and brought to Earth to atone for humanity's sins. The Holy Spirit is seen as the essence of God that permeates all things. "Judaism sees God as a unity, and views trinitarianism as both incomprehensible and a violation of the Bible's teaching that God is one". 3 The idea of the Holy Trinity is seen by many in Judaism as something of a throw back to ancient poly theist religions, and in irreconcilable with how they perceive God, yet to Christians, .".. the doctrine of the Trinity is so central to the Christian faith, that to deny it is to reject the Christian faith entirely". 2 The Christians introduced another concept which is completely foreign to Judaic traditions, that of original sin. The idea of original sin, that we are all born bearing the taint of the first sin committed by Adam in the Garden of Eden, is completely contrary to the Jewish belief that all souls are born pure, with the capacity for both good and evil, or selfishness and selflessness.

"The Christian doctrine of original sin introduced into culture a morbid outlook towards all natural life. It introduced guilt feelings towards sex. It fostered a quietism and resignation concerning the real evils in man and society. It blunted the passion of the Hebrew prophets, who continually challenged their people toward moral activism, to abandon the lowly aspirations and pursuits, to strive to be better and do better. [... ] Judaism, as reflected in its authoritative writings, refused to follow this condemnation of human nature".

1 This also brought about different perspective on how a sin may be absolved. The Christians see sin as redeemable simply by the power of prayer and the acceptance of Jesus. The Christian creed could effectively be; Salvation lies in Jesus. "Christianity stressed faith, Judaism right action. Christianity preached a mystical communion through faith with a divine power by which the evils of life disappear without any effort of the personal will. Judaism insisted on the conscious individual consecration of each single human being by thought and will and act to the service of his God"1 The Jews see sin as something to be redeemed by good deeds and righteous actions, by correcting wrongs and righting injuries done to others, and by repentance and charity.

In Judaism, one must be godly in deed as well as in thought and prayer. "The belief that man's salvation can be effected only by God's "self-sacrifice", by the blood of the crucified Jesus, is for the Jew a reversion to the primitive, which he cannot reconcile with his conviction that "clean hands and a pure heart" (Psalms 24: 4) is all a man needs to come before his Maker". 1 Another key difference lies in the Christian idea that salvation of a soul, the redemption of sins, and the knowledge of God can only be obtained through the Church and its teachings. In order to be a good Christian, one must observe proper ritual, hold to the New Testament, be active in Church life, and accept Jesus as the Savior.

The furthering of this idea to say that all those who do not adhere to the Christian faith are damned is also a unique concept. "As a national religion, Judaism has no problem with the notion that others have their own paths to God or salvation". 3 Jewish tradition admits to there being more then one path to reach God, they simply believe theirs to be the best path. The two religions also diverge on the topics of heaven and hell. The Christian concept of eternal reward or eternal damnation is yet another idea foreign to Judaism. Judaism sees the after-life as God's tool to impose ultimate justice on the wicked of the earth, and that if punishment does exist in the after life, it would most probably not be eternal, and that paradise may be where we finally understand the truth of God.

In some interpretations of the Tanakh, it is even believed that there is a denial of the existence of any meaningful afterlife at all. "For it is not Sheol that praises You [... ] The living, only the living can give thanks to You". 4 However, the true Jewish teaching encourage a focus on the life lived on Earth, that one should do good and righteous things always, and not concern oneself with the afterlife. In the Judaic traditions, if you have lived a good life, God will reward you.

The Christian doctrine however holds to the idea of an elaborate system of punishment and rewards. With the ideas of eternal damnation, Purgatory, and Hell, Christianity relies more on scare tactics then Judaism does to ensure that its followers adhere to its principles and teachings. The trappings and institutions of both religions are similar yet they differ as well. The Christian Churches and the Jewish Synagogues serve the same purpose.

They are both houses of God, holy to their religions, place where one can worship and pray to God. Both the Church and the Synagogue are the centers of religious life in their respective religions. The Church does present some elements that will never be found in a Synagogue, such as the representation of Jesus and other mystical figures, something Judaism considers idolatry. The rites and rituals presented in Christianity also go against Jewish sensibilities, with the presentation of the Eucharist as the blood and body of Jesus, which is in direct conflict with Jewish dietary laws. The labels attached to religious leaders, as well as the Christian hierarchy (especially in Roman Catholicism) are also vastly different from the Jewish traditions.

The differences between the religions are also obvious in their holidays. The various Christian holidays commemorate events centered around Jesus, his life and death, resurrection and his ascension to Heaven. For instance, Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birth; Easter is the celebration of his resurrection. Everything the Christians celebrate is centered around the activities of one man and are for the most part, observed only in Church rituals and services, whereas the Jewish holidays commemorate different events in traditional Judaic history and many time involve not only religious services, but ritual meals, and forms of reenactment of the events. Passover is the celebration and commemoration of the liberation of the Jews from Egypt, observed by a ritual meal and accompanied by its own prayer book, the Haggadah. Chanukah commemorates the miracle during the siege of the Great Temple, when lamp oil that should have given only one night's worth of light gave instead eight nights, which Jew celebrate with lighting of the Menorah.

Here again we see how Judaism is more of a nationalistic religion with a cultural identity and Christianity a religion based solely on the faith in the teachings and existence of one man. Although Christianity may trace its origins to Judaism, and though they share the traditions of the Torah or Old Testament, that is really where the similarities end, since they even view that primary text in different lights. Major breaks in traditions and rituals contribute even further to the distinct differences between them. Jesus is the key point of difference, everything Christian stems from him. Although the religions are not incompatible, they have been at odds with one another for the majority of what is known as the Common Era, though progress has been made in the 20th century, with some of the declarations of inter-faith cooperation made by the Roman Catholic Church and other denominations. This paper is the property of Need Free Essays. com Copyright (c) 2003-2004

Bibliography

. o web Religions. Christianity and Judaism. o The Bible. "Old Testament" and "New Testament". o Judaism and the Christian Predicament. Ben Zion Bowser. o The Jewish-Christian Argument: A history of Theologies in Conflict. Hans Joachim Schleps. o web Encyclopedia. "Comparing and Contrasting Judaism and Christianity. o The World's Religions. Huston Smith. o The Judaeo-Christian Tradition. J.H. Hester. o A History of the World's Religions. David S. No ss.