Chris Johnson Johnson 1
Professor Stathes
HUM 101
24 April 2013
Judaism and Christianity are two religious groups and of which Christianity is deprived out of Judaism to begin with. The details of their beliefs comprise the difference between them. Some of the differences are obvious and significant of nearly any examination of the two groups. Other differences may seem to take only a second to most examinations and may be insignificant to the members of the two groups as well. Now lets discuss a little bit on the basics on Judaism so we can all have a better understanding of how it works. Judaism is one of the world’s oldest religions, dating back up to 2000 years BC from the time when God first called Abraham to leave his home and follow him. At that time, God made a covenant (or agreement) with Abraham in which he promised to make Abraham the father of a great nation and that one day his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan if Abraham followed him. Now through Moses, God gave the law of the people of Israel and the fulfillment of the promises became conditional on abiding by the law. To Jews, the law is called the Torah and comprises the written law (basically the Old Testament) and the oral law which the Jews believe is handed down from Moses. Since we know the basics of Judaism, lets go into the similarities and differences between Judaism and Christianity. When it comes to similarities Christianity and Judaism both believe in one God who is almighty, omniscient, \ Johnson 2 omnipresent, eternal and infinite. Both religions believe in a God who is holy, righteous, and just, while at the same time loving, forgiving, and merciful. Christianity and Judaism share the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament) as the authoritative word of God, although Christianity includes the New Testament as well. Both Christianity and Judaism believe in the existence of heaven, the eternal dwelling place of the righteous, hell, the eternal dwelling place of the wicked (although not all Christians and Jews believe in the eternality of hell). Christianity and Judaism have basically the same ethical code, commonly known today as Judeo-Christian. They also believe and teach that God has a special plan for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. Christians and Jews share lots of common heritage – after all Jesus himself was Jewish too. Though there are a lot of differences when it comes to both religions in this world, and most of the differences between Christianity and Judaism are mostly- about Jesus Christ. Now Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament of a coming Messiah / Savior (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6-7; Micah 5:2). Though Judaism only recognizes Jesus Christ as a good teacher, and perhaps even a prophet of God. Judaism does not believe that Jesus Christ was the Messiah or some may say the Son of God. Taking it a step further, Christianity teaches that Jesus was God in the flesh (John 1:1,14: Hebrew 1:8). Christianity also teaches that God became a human being in the person of Jesus Christ so he could lay down his life to pay the price for our sins (Romans 5:8; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Judaism strongly denies that Jesus was God or that such Johnson 3 a sacrifice was necessary. When it comes to down to it, Jesus plays an all important role distinction
