Compare And Contrast Christianity And Judaism
Religion has always been an ongoing disagreement in the world, between having wars because of discrimination, anti individuals ideologies, or entire communities prejudiced against others because they do not agree with their traditions. Everyone has different reasons as to why they follow one religion oppose to the other, there are many contributing factors that individuals take into consideration. In this paper I will compare and contrast, Christianity and Judaism's basic ideologies in order to exhibit ways that monotheism religions are dominant in modern day society depending on their beliefs. Christianity is the largest religion with about 2.8 billion religious believers, in addition, Christianity has hundreds of denominations, such as
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Anglican, Protestantism, and Orthodox, however the most prominent denomination in Catholicism. Those who follow the beliefs of Christianity typically believe in Jesus of Nazareth and follow the Bible, the Bible contains two main books, The New Testament and The Old Testament, whereas Jesus of Nazareth is introduced in the Old Testament, however he was not an author of any book that affects the religion. The Bible has multiple books written by chosen Apostles of Jesus of Nazareth, the stories explained parts of the life of Jesus, basically putting him on a pedestal and telling their “Savior's” prophecy. Originally, Jesus or “Yeshua” was born from a Hebrew family, and all we truly know about his life was by the gospels written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, however, many followers believe that the Bible is a historical document and everything in the Gospels are 100% accurate. This can happen because the Gospels were formed to appeal to certain groups such as the Gospel of Luke emphasised Jesus as a teacher, believing it would appeal to those who have a more virtuous point of view on life and live off of forgiveness and compassion. The book of Matthew was intended to target those who followed Jewish traditions, and eventually to convince people that the Messiah (Savior/God) is real! The book of Mark was very intense, and targeted individuals that had a harsher, more direct, and terse personality. Judaism on the other hand strictly depends on the Torah, also known as the “Pentateuch” meaning five books.
The five books included in the Torah are, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and numbers all serve for different purposes and all include different information.The Torah is equivalent to the Old Testament of the Bible. Judaism is solely dependent on structure from the Torah and take everything that is written as a teaching or an instruction. Judaism use to believe that the Torah was to be translated as law, meaning everything written in it had to be followed. The Torah’s primary work is to focus on “righteous living” for Jewish people, moreover there are texts that can vary depending on what sect you are in. Instead of discussing the life of Jesus, as well as Christianity, Judaism discusses the beginning of creation and eventually end the book with the Prophet Moses, taking this into consideration, it would be easy to infer that Moses is a type of “higher Godly figure” rather than just a prophet or follower. There was no concrete evidence of who the official author of the Torah was, however eventually until the 17th century it was confirmed and believed that Moses was the evidential author of the Torah. Somewhat time after there were beliefs of different authors that contributed, or groups of authors and helpers that were believed to have oral spread the message of the Torah, they were known as J – Yahwist, E- Elohist, D – Deuteronomistic, P – Priestly. J was Presented as a more personal God who speaks directly to humanity and morality is not presented as absolute. E is so named for its use of its preferred name for God: Elohim. D is so named because they are only credited with having contributed ‘Deuteronomy’ and little else. P is the hardest to categorize by genre and so was just generally attributed to ‘Priests’. Moses was known as a prophet, but is an essential person in Judaism and even Islam. Generally, Moses will sometime, and in this case
will definitely be known as the founder of monotheism ideology. His life is the one being told in the Torah, not like Jesus of Nazareth in the Bible. Christianity and Judaism have a lot differences that were previously mentioned and explained. Some similarities is that they both have sacred texts that they believe in and let it dictate their lives. Both religions also belief in a greater claim, such as a God or a ruler that cannot be seen, but “felt”. Besides having all of these differences and similarities, there is one very important similarity that most people do not take into consideration. They allow people to have certain belief and feel safe in a certain community when they can come together during certain religious holidays or during days of the week to celebrate their religious traditions. Religion allows individuals to feel a sense of closeness and closure in some part of their lives. Attending services, or seeing rabbi’s, priests, and etc, allows people to truly believe in someone or something that can be a metaphysical claim. Religion has always been a difficult topic to discuss, and no one truly knows what is true or what is false. One can only believe in their faith or what they have been told, there is never a 100% certainty that something does or does not exist. After studying both of these monotheistic religions it is unbelievable to see the differences that each religion has, moreover how similar they are in the way they affect people in modern days society and how they can truly reel people into believing in their faith.
Anglican, Protestantism, and Orthodox, however the most prominent denomination in Catholicism. Those who follow the beliefs of Christianity typically believe in Jesus of Nazareth and follow the Bible, the Bible contains two main books, The New Testament and The Old Testament, whereas Jesus of Nazareth is introduced in the Old Testament, however he was not an author of any book that affects the religion. The Bible has multiple books written by chosen Apostles of Jesus of Nazareth, the stories explained parts of the life of Jesus, basically putting him on a pedestal and telling their “Savior's” prophecy. Originally, Jesus or “Yeshua” was born from a Hebrew family, and all we truly know about his life was by the gospels written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, however, many followers believe that the Bible is a historical document and everything in the Gospels are 100% accurate. This can happen because the Gospels were formed to appeal to certain groups such as the Gospel of Luke emphasised Jesus as a teacher, believing it would appeal to those who have a more virtuous point of view on life and live off of forgiveness and compassion. The book of Matthew was intended to target those who followed Jewish traditions, and eventually to convince people that the Messiah (Savior/God) is real! The book of Mark was very intense, and targeted individuals that had a harsher, more direct, and terse personality. Judaism on the other hand strictly depends on the Torah, also known as the “Pentateuch” meaning five books.
The five books included in the Torah are, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and numbers all serve for different purposes and all include different information.The Torah is equivalent to the Old Testament of the Bible. Judaism is solely dependent on structure from the Torah and take everything that is written as a teaching or an instruction. Judaism use to believe that the Torah was to be translated as law, meaning everything written in it had to be followed. The Torah’s primary work is to focus on “righteous living” for Jewish people, moreover there are texts that can vary depending on what sect you are in. Instead of discussing the life of Jesus, as well as Christianity, Judaism discusses the beginning of creation and eventually end the book with the Prophet Moses, taking this into consideration, it would be easy to infer that Moses is a type of “higher Godly figure” rather than just a prophet or follower. There was no concrete evidence of who the official author of the Torah was, however eventually until the 17th century it was confirmed and believed that Moses was the evidential author of the Torah. Somewhat time after there were beliefs of different authors that contributed, or groups of authors and helpers that were believed to have oral spread the message of the Torah, they were known as J – Yahwist, E- Elohist, D – Deuteronomistic, P – Priestly. J was Presented as a more personal God who speaks directly to humanity and morality is not presented as absolute. E is so named for its use of its preferred name for God: Elohim. D is so named because they are only credited with having contributed ‘Deuteronomy’ and little else. P is the hardest to categorize by genre and so was just generally attributed to ‘Priests’. Moses was known as a prophet, but is an essential person in Judaism and even Islam. Generally, Moses will sometime, and in this case
will definitely be known as the founder of monotheism ideology. His life is the one being told in the Torah, not like Jesus of Nazareth in the Bible. Christianity and Judaism have a lot differences that were previously mentioned and explained. Some similarities is that they both have sacred texts that they believe in and let it dictate their lives. Both religions also belief in a greater claim, such as a God or a ruler that cannot be seen, but “felt”. Besides having all of these differences and similarities, there is one very important similarity that most people do not take into consideration. They allow people to have certain belief and feel safe in a certain community when they can come together during certain religious holidays or during days of the week to celebrate their religious traditions. Religion allows individuals to feel a sense of closeness and closure in some part of their lives. Attending services, or seeing rabbi’s, priests, and etc, allows people to truly believe in someone or something that can be a metaphysical claim. Religion has always been a difficult topic to discuss, and no one truly knows what is true or what is false. One can only believe in their faith or what they have been told, there is never a 100% certainty that something does or does not exist. After studying both of these monotheistic religions it is unbelievable to see the differences that each religion has, moreover how similar they are in the way they affect people in modern days society and how they can truly reel people into believing in their faith.