Christianity and Judaism are the largest and twelfth-largest religions in the world, with approximately 2.5 billion and 14 million adherents, respectively. Both are monotheistic Abrahamic religions that originated in the Middle East.
Christianity began as a movement within Second Temple Judaism, and the two religions gradually diverged over the first few centuries of the Christian era. Today, both religions have denominational differences, but the main distinction is that Christianity recognizes Jesus as the Messiah foretold in the Hebrew Bible, whereas Judaism maintains that the Messiah has not yet arrived and that the era of prophecy concluded early in the Second Temple period.
Early Christianity distinguished itself by determining that observance of Jewish law ()—at least in Pauline Christianity—was unnecessary for non-Jewish converts to Christianity. Another fundamental difference is the two religions' conceptions of God. Most Christian denominations believe in a triune God—its members being known as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—with the doctrine of the incarnation of the Son in Jesus being of special importance. In contrast, Judaism believes in and emphasizes the oneness of God and rejects the Christian concept of God in human form, let alone a divided one.
Christianity recognizes the Hebrew Bible (referred to as the Old Testament by Christians) as part of its scriptural canon while Judaism does not recognize the Christian New Testament as scripture. Judaism is also heavily informed by the Talmud, which, though not scripture, is still considered foundational to normative Judaism.
The relative importance of 'correct belief' (orthodoxy) versus 'correct practice' (orthopraxy) constitutes another important area of difference. Most forms of Christianity emphasize orthodoxy, focusing on the so-called New Covenant as mediated by Jesus, the Christ, as described in the New Testament. Judaism has traditionally been thought to emphasize orthopraxy, stressing the immutability of the covenants made between God and the Jewish people and the ongoing dialogue between Jews and God through the prophets.
In Christianity, good works would naturally follow from a person's correct belief, but do not contribute to a person's salvation. Some Catholic traditions, such as those of the Franciscans and liberation theology, explicitly value orthopraxy, and praxis is also of central importance in Eastern Christianity, with Maximus the Confessor going so far as to say that "theology without action is the theology of demons."Paul W. Chilcote, Wesley Speaks on Christian Vocation (Wipf and Stock 2001 ), p. 67
Christian conceptions of orthopraxy vary (e.g., Catholic social teaching and its preferential option for the poor; the Eastern Orthodox Church's practices of fasting, hesychasm, and asceticism; and the Protestant work ethic of Calvinists and others) but differ from Judaism in that they are not based on Halakha or interpretations of God's dialogue with the Jewish people.
While more liberal Jewish movements may not mandate observance of Halakha, Jewish life remains centered on individual and collective participation in an eternal dialogue with God through tradition, rituals, daily prayer, and ethical actions.
Jewish self-identification
Judaism's purpose, found primarily in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, is to carry out the Mosaic covenant made between God and the Jewish people and its proselytes (). The Torah ()—comprising the Written Torah () and Oral Torah ()—tells the story of this covenant and provides Jews with the terms of the covenant.
The Oral Torah contains the primary and maturing guide for Jews to live out the covenant, as expressed, for example, by Rabbi Yohanan in tractate Gittin 60b:6 in the Talmud.Rabbi Yohanan says: The Holy One, Blessed be He, made a covenant with the Jewish people only for the sake of the matters that were transmitted orally (be'al peh), as it is stated: "For on the basis of (al pi) these matters I have made a covenant with you and with Israel" (Exodus 34:27).Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits in the Forward to, Schimmel, H. Chaim, The Oral Law: A study of the rabbinic contribution to Torah she-be-al-peh, 2nd rev.ed., Feldheim Publishers, New York, 1996 Thus, the Oral Torah is intended to guide Jews toward living holy and godly lives, and to bring holiness, peace and love into the world and into every part of life, so that life may be elevated to a high level of kedusha, originally through study and practice of the Torah, and since the destruction of the Second Temple, through prayer as expressed in tractate Sotah 49a: "Since the destruction of the Temple, every day is more cursed than the preceding one; and the existence of the world is assured only by the kedusha...and the words spoken after the study of Torah."Jacobs, Louis, God, in Arthur A. Cohen, Paul Mendes-Flohr, 20th Century Jewish Religious Thought: Original Essays on Critical Concepts, Jewish Publication Society, 2009, p. 394 cited in Elie Munk. The World of Prayer 1 (1961), p. 182.
Since the adoption of the Amidah, the acknowledgement of God through the declaration from Isaiah 6:3: "Kadosh [holy], kadosh, kadosh, is HaShem, Master of Legions; the whole world is filled with His glory"Scherman Nosson & Zlotowitz, Meir, eds., TANACH: The Torah, Prophets, Writings, The Twenty-Four Books of the Bible Newly Translated and Annotated, Mesorah Publications, Ltd., Brooklyn, 1996, p. 963 as a replacement for the study of Torah, which is a daily obligation for Jews,Jacobs, Louis, God, in Arthur A. Cohen, Paul Mendes-Flohr, 20th Century Jewish Religious Thought: Original Essays on Critical Concepts, Jewish Publication Society, 2009, p. 394 and sanctifies God in itself. This allows the Jewish people as a community to strive and, over the course of history, fulfill the prophecy "I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand and keep you. And I will establish you as a covenant of the people, for a light unto the nations." It additionally allows them to fulfill a part of the divine intent of bringing about an age of peace and sanctity where ideally a faithful life and good deeds should be ends in themselves, not means (see also Jewish principles of faith).
According to Christian theologian Alister McGrath, the Jewish Christians affirmed every aspect of then-contemporary Second Temple Judaism with the addition of the belief that Jesus was the Messiah,McGrath, Alister E., Christianity: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishing (2006). . p. 174: "In effect, they [Jewish Christians] seemed to regard Christianity as an affirmation of every aspect of contemporary Judaism, with the addition of one extra belief—that Jesus is the Messiah. Unless males were circumcised, they could not be saved."; see also Paleo-orthodoxy with Isaiah 49:6, "an explicit parallel to 42:6" quoted by Paul the Apostle in Acts 13:47Beale, Gregory K., Other Religions in New Testament Theology, in David Weston Baker, ed., Biblical faith and other religions: an evangelical assessment, Kregel Academic, 2004, p. 85 and reinterpreted by Justin Martyr.McKeehan, James, An Overview of the Old Testament and How It Relates to the New Testament, iUniverse, 2002, p. 265Philippe Bobichon, "L'enseignement juif, païen, hérétique et chrétien dans l'œuvre de Justin Martyr", Revue des Études Augustiniennes 45/2 (1999), pp. 233–259 online According to Christian writers, most notably Paul, the Bible teaches that people are, in their current state, sinful, and the New Testament reveals that Jesus is both the Son of man and the Son of God, united in the hypostatic union, God the Son, God made incarnate;, , that Jesus' death by crucifixion was a sacrifice to atone for all of humanity's sins, and that acceptance of Jesus as Savior and Lord saves one from Divine Judgment, giving Eternal life. Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant. His Sermon on the Mount is considered by some Christian scholarsSee also Antithesis of the Law to be the proclamation of the New Covenant ethics, in contrast to the Mosaic Covenant of Moses from Mount Sinai.
Some scholars, like Margaret Barker, propose that early Christianity has roots in First Temple Israelite religion, which is dubbed the "Temple Theology".Collinwood, Dean W. & James W. McConkie. (2006). 'Temple Theology: An Introduction' by Margaret Barker. Provo, UT: BYU Studies 45:2 (May 2006). Barker's work has been criticized for engaging in parallelomania and failing to engage in the broader scholarly literature, but it has gained some religious and academic support.
Sacred texts
The Hebrew Bible is composed of three parts: the Torah ('instruction'; the Septuagint translated the Hebrew to nomos or Law), the Nevi'im (Prophets) and the Ketuvim (Writings). Collectively, these are known as the Tanakh. According to Rabbinic Judaism the Torah was revealed by God to Moses; within it, Jews find 613 mitzvot (commandments).
Rabbinic tradition asserts that God revealed two Torahs to Moses, one that was written down, and one that was transmitted orally. Whereas the written Torah has a fixed form, the Oral Torah is a living tradition that includes not only specific supplements to the written Torah (for instance, what is the proper manner of shechita and what is meant by "Frontlets" in the Shema), but also procedures for understanding and talking about the written Torah (thus, the Oral Torah revealed at Sinai includes debates among rabbis who lived long after Moses). The Oral Law elaborations of narratives in the Bible and stories about the rabbis are referred to as aggadah. It also includes elaboration of the 613 commandments in the form of laws referred to as halakha. Elements of the Oral Torah were committed to writing and edited by Judah HaNasi in the Mishnah in 200 CE; much more of the Oral Torah were committed to writing in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, which were edited around 600 CE and 450 CE, respectively. The Talmuds are notable for the way they combine law and lore, for their explication of the midrashic method of interpreting texts, and for their accounts of debates among rabbis, which preserve divergent and conflicting interpretations of the Bible and legal rulings.
Since the transcription of the Talmud, notable rabbis have compiled law codes that are generally held in high regard: the Mishneh Torah, the Tur, and the Shulchan Aruch. The latter, which was based on earlier codes and supplemented by the commentary by Moshe Isserles that notes other practices and customs practiced by Jews in different communities, especially among Ashkenazim, is generally held to be authoritative by Orthodox Jews. The Zohar, which was written in the 13th century, is generally held as the most important esoteric treatise of the Jews.
All contemporary Jewish movements consider the Tanakh, and the Oral Torah in the form of the Mishnah and Talmuds as sacred, although movements are divided as to claims concerning their divine revelation, and also their authority. For Jews, the Torah—written and oral—is the primary guide to the relationship between God and man, a living document that has unfolded and will continue to unfold whole new insights over the generations and millennia. A saying that captures this goes, "Turn it [the Torah's words] over and over again, for everything is in it."
Christians accept the Written Torah and other books of the Hebrew Bible (alternatively called Old Testament) as Scripture, although they generally give readings from the Koine Greek Septuagint translation instead of the Biblical Hebrew/Biblical Aramaic Masoretic Text. Two notable examples are: Isaiah 7:14 – "virgin" instead of "young woman" Psalm 22:16 – "they have pierced my hands and feet" instead of "like a lion, (they are at) my hands and feet"