similarities between judaism and christianity essay

This is surely Jesus' point of view too, for He said He came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfill them. From His point of view, Christianity is more Jewish than modern Judaism. Pre-Christian Judaism is like a virgin: post-Christian Judaism is like a spinster. In Christ, God consummates the marriage to His people and through them to the world.

What have Christians inherited from the Jews? Everything in the Old Testament. The knowledge of the true God. Comparing that with all the other religions of the ancient world, six crucial, distinctive teachings stand out: monotheism, creation, law, redemption, sin and faith.

Only rarely did a few gentiles like Socrates and Akenaton ever reach to the heights and simplicity of monotheism. A world of many forces seemed to most pagans to point to many gods. A world of good and evil seemed to indicate good and evil gods. Polytheism seems eminently reasonable; in fact, I wonder why it is not much more popular today.

There are only two possible explanations for the Jews' unique idea of a single, all-powerful and all-good God: Either they were the most brilliant philosophers in the world, or else they were "the Chosen People" — i.e., God told them. The latter explanation, which is their traditional claim, is just the opposite of arrogant. It is the humblest possible interpretation of the data.

With a unique idea of God came the unique idea of creation of the universe out of nothing. The so-called "creation myths" of other religions are really only formation myths, for their gods always fashion the world out of some pre-existing stuff, some primal glop the gods were stuck with and on which you can blame things: matter, fate, darkness, etc. But a Jew can't blame evil on matter, for God created it; nor on God, since He is all-good. The idea of human free will, therefore, as the only possible origin of evil, is correlative to the idea of creation.

The Hebrew word "to create" ( bara ) is used only three times in the Genesis account: for the creation of the universe (1:1), life (1:21) and man (1:27). Everything else was not "created" (out of nothing) but "formed" (out of something).

The consequences of the idea of creation are immense. A world created by God is real, not a dream either of God or of man. And that world is rational. Finally, it is good. Christianity is a realistic, rational and world-affirming religion, rather than a mythical, mystical, or world-denying religion because of its Jewish source.

The essence of Judaism, which is above all a practical religion, is the Law. The Law binds the human will to the divine will. For the God of the Jews is not just a Being or a Force, or even just a Mind, but a Will and a person. His will is that our will should conform to His: "Be holy, for I am holy" (Lev. 11:44).

The Law has levels of intimacy ranging from the multifarious external civil and ceremonial laws, through the Ten Commandments of the moral law, to the single heart of the Law. This is expressed in the central prayer of Judaism, the shma (from its first word, "hear"): "Hear O Israel: the Lord, the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" Deut. 6:4).

Thus, the essence of Judaism is the same as the essence of Christianity: the love of God. Only the way of fulfilling that essence — Christ — is different. Judaism knows the Truth and the Life, but not the Way. As the song says: "Two out of three ain't bad."

Even the Way is foreshadowed in Judaism, of course. The act brought dramatically before the Jews every time they worshiped in the temple was an act of sacrifice, the blood of bulls and goats and lambs foretelling forgiveness. To Christians, every detail of Old Testament Judaism was a line or a dot in the portrait of Christ. That is why it was so tragic and ironic that "He came to what was His own, but his own people did not accept Him" (John 1:11). Scripture is His picture, but most Jews preferred the picture to the person.

Thus the irony of His Saying:

You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf" (John 5:39-40).

No religion outside Judaism and Christianity ever knew of such an intimate relationship with God as "faith." Faith means not just belief but fidelity to the covenant, like a marriage covenant. Sin is the opposite of faith, for sin means not just vice but divorce, breaking the covenant.

In Judaism, as in Christianity, sin is not just moral and faith is not just intellectual; both are spiritual, i.e., from the heart. Rabbi Martin Buber's little classic "I and Thou" lays bare the essence of Judaism and of its essential oneness with Christianity.

Christians are often asked by Jews to agree not to "proselytize." They cannot comply, of course, since their Lord has commanded them otherwise (Matt. 28:18-20). But the request is understandable, for Judaism does not proselytize. Originally this was because Jews believed that only when the Messiah came was the Jewish revelation to spread to the gentiles. Orthodox Jews still believe this, but modern Judaism does not proselytize for other reasons, often relativistic ones.

Christianity and Judaism are both closer and farther apart than any two other religions. On the one hand, Christians are completed Jews; but on the other, while dialogue between any two other religions may always fall back on the idea that they do not really contradict each other because they are talking about different things, Jews and Christians both know who Jesus is, and fundamentally differ about who He is. He is the stumbling stone (Is. 8:14).

Additional Info

• Author: Peter Kreeft

Kreeft, Peter. "Comparing Christianity & Judaism." National Catholic Register . (May, 1987).

Reprinted by permission of the author. To subscribe to the National Catholic Register call 1-800-421-3230.

• Publisher: National Catholic Register
• Alternate: http://catholiceducation.org/articles/apologetics/ap0007.html

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Christianity and Judaism

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Isabella D’Aquila

16 April 2019

It has long been asserted that Christianity arose from Judaism, which began with the covenant that God made with Abraham, promising him the gift of many offspring and the land of Israel. Moses was presented the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and the law of the Torah was born. When Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead, there were some that believed he was the messiah and some who did not, which created the modern-day distinction we see between Judaism and Christianity. However, there are some who dispute this connection. Marcion was one of those who rejected this connection, and he did not accept the Hebrew Bible and certain books of the New Testament for its distinct ties to the Jewish faith. While Marcion rejected the letter to the Hebrews for it being “too Jewish,” it can be seen that when compared to Luke-Acts and Galatians, texts revered by Marcion, the arguments made are the same, using the proof of Abraham’s faith, sin, and sacrifice, and the rejection of Moses is why the Jews should have faith in Jesus.

Both Hebrews and Galatians both use the evidence of Abraham having faith in God to show that having faith in Jesus will reap many benefits, and this use of the patriarch of Judaism is what allows Marcion to label Hebrews as “too Jewish.” Both of these letters were written to established communities that had some Jews for Jesus, but the basis of the letter shows that their faith in him, since he had not yet returned, was waning. The Galatians were continuing to circumcise, as this was part of the Jewish covenant with God, but Paul wanted them to understand that they could not have faith and law working together. They either needed to have faith in God and God’s son, or continue to follow the laws of the covenant, which would distinguish them as either Jews for Jesus or Jews not for Jesus. These letters, and the evidence of faith, are being used to show the Hebrews and the Galatians that they should continue to have faith in Jesus, because people before have had continued faith in God and were rewarded for it. In Galatians 3, Paul writes, “Just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,’ so, you see. . . the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.’ For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed” (Galatians 3:6-9). The argument that Paul is making here is that God justified Abraham on the basis of faith, so they do not need to circumcise themselves any longer. This argument is repeated in Hebrews, where it is written, “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going . . . By faith he received the power of procreation, even though he was too old -- and Sarah herself was barren -- because he considered himself faithful who had promised” (Hebrews 11: 8, 11). Galatians and Hebrews both contain the argument that the patriarch of Judaism did not have law to lean on, so he trusted in God and had faith, and he received many rewards. While faith in Jesus might have been waning at the time, Paul and the author of the letter to the Hebrews both want the Jews for Jesus to remember the message, as having faith in Jesus will benefit them greatly in the future, showing that both books contain the same message.

Both the letter to the Hebrews and the Gospel of Luke assert the fact that Jesus is the only one who can heal sins, as the animal sacrifices seen in Judaism made by the priests on a daily basis do not hold the power to save someone from his or her sins, as they need to be performed repeatedly. While Judaism does not have the same teachings of sin as Christianity, in biblical times sacrifices were a common way to ask God for forgiveness for any sinful behaviors. The sacrifice of Jesus’ life on the cross is considered the ultimate sacrifice. In Hebrews 10, the author writes, “But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10: 3-4). The author is referring to the animal sacrifices made in synagogues, specifically the Temple, regularly, arguing that if they need to be repeated then they are not truly taking away sin. When Jesus died on the cross, he made the final and ultimate sacrifice that saved humankind from their sins, which is something that sacrificial animals cannot do. This argument is repeated in the gospel of Luke, by Jesus himself. When Jesus encounters a paralytic and heals them, he says, “‘Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Stand up and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Luke 5: 23-24). Coming from the lips of Jesus himself, he tells the formerly paralytic man that he has the power to forgive sins, which is something only he can do. Both Hebrews and the Gospel of Luke repeat the idea that Jesus is the only being, human or animal, who has the power to save humankind from their sins, showing that a text labeled “too Jewish” by Marcion has the same lesson as another text.

Hebrews and the gospel of Luke assert that the new covenant made through the life and death of Jesus Christ is superior to the covenant made between God and Abraham, which establishes a superiority of Christianity over Judaism. This is first seen in Hebrews 8, where the author writes, “But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one” (Hebrews 8: 6-7). This establishes that the author believes the new covenant created through Jesus is superior to the covenant created between Abraham and God. Where the similarity between Hebrews and Luke is created is in what the sign of the new covenant is. In Hebrews 9, it is written, “But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come. . . not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9: 11-12). The sacrifice of Jesus’ life and his blood is the sign of the new covenant, which is superior to the sacrificial blood of goats and calves. In the Gospel of Luke, Luke writes, “And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’” (Luke 22:20). These words are coming from Jesus’ lips, telling his disciples at the final supper that his blood, the sacrifice of his life, is the sign of the new covenant created with God and will allow all those who believe in him to receive eternal redemption. The idea that there has been a new, superior covenant created between God and his people and the sign of that covenant is the blood of Jesus Christ is paralleled in the gospel of Luke and in Hebrews.

The letter to the Hebrews and Stephen’s sermon in Acts use the initial rejection of Moses as proof to show that Jesus should not be rejected. At this time there was still a distinct separation between Jews for Jesus and Jews not for Jesus, so using the proof of a common figure known by both parties was a way to urge those who did not yet have faith in Jesus to have faith. In Acts, Stephen says, “It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’. . . He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. . . Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him . . . But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven” (Acts 7: 35-36, 39, 42). Moses performed many miracles in helping the Jews escape Egypt, just as Jesus performed numerous miracles. However, Moses was rejected just as some are continuing to reject Jesus. Stephen parallels Jesus to Moses to show those who have not yet accepted him that they should, because God turned away from those who did not accept Moses. This is seen again in Hebrews 12, where the author says, “See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking, for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven!” (Hebrews 12:25). The author of Hebrews is telling the people those who did not accept Moses were unable to escape divine punishment, and those who did not accept Jesus will likely experience the same fate. The same argument is used in both Hebrews and Acts, that those who do not accept Jesus will be punished by God, just as those who did not accept Moses.

Now, while Marcion believed that the letter written to the Hebrews is “too Jewish,” it can be seen that the author of Hebrews uses many of the same arguments as the authors of Galatians and Luke-Acts. There is use of Old Testament figures, such as Abraham and Moses, to show Jews for Jesus that having faith in the Son of God will prove to be beneficial. Marcion’s rejection of texts that used Judaism or Jewish figures to support the idea that Jesus was the messiah does not get rid of the history of Christianity and Judaism. Marcion might not like the use of the Jewish patriarchs in the New Testament, but it cannot be said that Hebrews is “too Jewish” because the same arguments are made in the Gospel of Luke and Galatians, which are texts that Marcion revered.

The Church of Trump: How He’s Infusing Christianity Into His Movement

Ending many of his rallies with a churchlike ritual and casting his prosecutions as persecution, the former president is demanding — and receiving — new levels of devotion from Republicans.

A rally for former President Donald J. Trump in July in Erie, Pa. At many of his recent rallies, Mr. Trump delivers a roughly 15-minute finale that evokes an evangelical altar call. Credit... Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

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By Michael C. Bender

Reporting from Conway, S.C., and Washington

• April 1, 2024

Long known for his improvised and volatile stage performances, former President Donald J. Trump now tends to finish his rallies on a solemn note.

Soft, reflective music fills the venue as a hush falls over the crowd. Mr. Trump’s tone turns reverent and somber, prompting some supporters to bow their heads or close their eyes. Others raise open palms in the air or murmur as if in prayer.

In this moment, Mr. Trump’s audience is his congregation, and the former president their pastor as he delivers a roughly 15-minute finale that evokes an evangelical altar call, the emotional tradition that concludes some Christian services in which attendees come forward to commit to their savior.

“The great silent majority is rising like never before and under our leadership,” he recites from a teleprompter in a typical version of the script. “We will pray to God for our strength and for our liberty. We will pray for God and we will pray with God. We are one movement, one people, one family and one glorious nation under God.”

The meditative ritual might appear incongruent with the raucous epicenter of the nation’s conservative movement, but Mr. Trump’s political creed stands as one of the starkest examples of his effort to transform the Republican Party into a kind of Church of Trump. His insistence on absolute devotion and fealty can be seen at every level of the party , from Congress to the Republican National Committee to rank-and-file voters .

Mr. Trump’s ability to turn his supporters’ passion into piety is crucial to understanding how he remains the undisputed Republican leader despite guiding his party to repeated political failures and while facing dozens of felony charges in four criminal cases. His success at portraying those prosecutions as persecutions — and warning, without merit, that his followers could be targeted next — has fueled enthusiasm for his candidacy and placed him, once again, in a position to capture the White House.

‘He’s definitely been chosen by God’

Mr. Trump has long defied conventional wisdom as an unlikely but irrefutable evangelical hero.

He has been married three times, has been repeatedly accused of sexual assault, has been convicted of business fraud and has never showed much interest in church services. Last week, days before Easter, he posted on his social media platform an infomercial-style video hawking a $60 Bible that comes with copies of some of the nation’s founding documents and the lyrics to Lee Greenwood’s song “God Bless the U.S.A.”

But while Mr. Trump is eager to maintain the support of evangelical voters and portray his presidential campaign as a battle for the nation’s soul, he has mostly been careful not to speak directly in messianic terms.

“This country has a savior, and it’s not me — that’s someone much higher up than me,” Mr. Trump said in 2021 from the pulpit at First Baptist Church in Dallas, whose congregation exceeds 14,000 people.

Still, he and his allies have inched closer to the Christ comparison.

Last year, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and a close Trump ally, said both the former president and Jesus had been arrested by “radical, corrupt governments.” On Saturday, Mr. Trump shared an article on social media with the headline “The Crucifixion of Donald Trump.”

He is also the latest in a long line of Republican presidents and presidential candidates who have prioritized evangelical voters. But many conservative Christian voters believe Mr. Trump outstripped his predecessors in delivering for them, pointing especially to the conservative majority he installed on the Supreme Court that overturned federal abortion rights.

Mr. Trump won an overwhelming majority of evangelical voters in his first two presidential races, but few — even among his rally crowds — explicitly compare him to Jesus.

Instead, the Trumpian flock is more likely to describe him as a modern version of Old Testament heroes like Cyrus or David, morally flawed figures handpicked by God to lead profound missions aimed at achieving overdue justice or resisting existential evil.

“He’s definitely been chosen by God,” said Marie Zere, a commercial real estate broker from Long Island who attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in February outside Washington, D.C. “He’s still surviving even though all these people are coming after him, and I don’t know how else to explain that other than divine intervention.”

For some of Mr. Trump’s supporters, the political attacks and legal peril he faces are nothing short of biblical.

“They’ve crucified him worse than Jesus,” said Andriana Howard, 67, who works as a restaurant food runner in Conway, S.C.

A political weapon and vulnerability

Mr. Trump’s solid and devoted core of voters has formed one of the most durable forces in American politics, giving him a clear advantage over President Biden when it comes to inspiring supporters.

Forty-eight percent of Republican primary voters are enthusiastic about Mr. Trump becoming the Republican nominee, and 32 percent are satisfied but not enthusiastic with that outcome, according to a recent New York Times/Siena College poll . Just 23 percent of Democrats said they were enthusiastic about Mr. Biden as their nominee, and 43 percent were satisfied but not enthusiastic.

The intensity of the most committed Trump backers has also factored into the former president’s campaign decisions, according to two people familiar with internal deliberations. His team’s ability to bank on voters who will cast a ballot with little additional prompting means that some of the cash that would otherwise be spent on turnout operations can be invested in field staff, television ads or other ways to help Mr. Trump.

But Democrats see an advantage, too. Much of Mr. Biden’s support comes from voters deeply opposed to Mr. Trump, and the president’s advisers see an opportunity to spook moderate swing voters into supporting Mr. Biden by casting Mr. Trump’s movement as a cultlike creation bent on restricting abortion rights and undermining democracy.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a top Democratic ally of Mr. Biden, pointed to an increasingly aggressive online presence from the president’s re-election campaign, which has sought to portray Mr. Trump as prone to religious extremism .

“There’s a huge opportunity here,” Mr. Newsom said in an interview. “Trump is so easily defined, and he reinforces that definition over and over and over again. And Biden has a campaign that can weaponize that now.”

‘Does he really care about evangelicals? I don’t know.’

Mr. Trump’s braiding of politics and religion is hardly a new phenomenon. Christianity has long exerted a strong influence on American government, with most voters identifying as Christians even as the country grows more secular. According to Gallup , 68 percent of adults said they were Christian in 2022, down from 91 percent in 1948.

But as the former president tries to establish himself as the one, true Republican leader, religious overtones have pervaded his third presidential campaign.

Benevolently phrased fund-raising emails in his name promise unconditional love amid solicitations for contributions of as little as $5.

Even more than in his past campaigns, he is framing his 2024 bid as a fight for Christianity, telling a convention of Christian broadcasters that “just like in the battles of the past, we still need the hand of our Lord.”

On his social media platform in recent months, Mr. Trump has shared a courtroom-style sketch of himself sitting next to Jesus and a video that repeatedly proclaims, “God gave us Trump” to lead the country.

The apparent effectiveness of such tactics has made Mr. Trump the nation’s first major politician to successfully separate character from policy for religious voters, said John Fea, a history professor at Messiah University, an evangelical school in Pennsylvania.

“Trump has split the atom between character and policy,” Mr. Fea said. “He did it because he’s really the first one to listen to their grievances and take them seriously. Does he really care about evangelicals? I don’t know. But he’s built a message to appeal directly to them.”

Support from local pastors

Trump rallies have always been something of a cross between a rock concert and a tent revival. When Mr. Trump first started winding down his rallies with the ambient strains, many connected them to similar theme music from the QAnon conspiracy movement, but the campaign distanced itself from that notion.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, said in a statement: “President Trump has used the end of his speeches to draw a clear contrast to the last four years of Joe Biden’s disastrous presidency and lay out his vision to get America back on track.”

But the shift has helped turn Mr. Trump’s rallies into a more aesthetically churchlike experience.

A Trump rally in Las Vegas in January opened with a prayer from Jesus Marquez, an elder at a local church, who cited Scripture to declare that God wanted Mr. Trump to return to the White House.

“God is on our side — he’s on the side of this movement,” said Mr. Marquez, who founded the American Christian Caucus, a grass-roots group.

And at a rally in South Carolina in February, Greg Rodermond, a pastor at Crossroads Community Church, prayed for God to intervene against Mr. Trump’s political opponents, arguing that they were “trying to steal, kill and destroy our America.”

“Father, we have gathered here today in unity for our nation to see it restored back to its greatness,” Mr. Rodermond continued, “and, God, we believe that you have chosen Donald Trump as an instrument in your hands for this purpose.”

But some Christian conservatives are loath to join their brethren in clearing a direct path from the ornate doors of Mar-a-Lago to the pearly gates of Heaven.

Russell Moore, the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public-policy arm, said Mr. Trump’s rallies had veered into “dangerous territory” with the altar-call closing and opening prayers from preachers describing Mr. Trump as heaven-sent.

“Claiming godlike authority or an endorsement from God for a political candidate means that person cannot be questioned or opposed without also opposing God,” Mr. Moore said. “That’s a violation of the commandment to not take the Lord’s name in vain.”

Michael C. Bender is a Times political correspondent covering Donald J. Trump, the Make America Great Again movement and other federal and state elections. More about Michael C. Bender

Our Coverage of the 2024 Presidential Election

News and Analysis

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has emerged as a wild card in the 2024 election , attracting a motley mix of ideologically diverse supporters, raising piles of cash and drawing legal attacks from Democrats and verbal barrages from former President Donald Trump.

Melania Trump, who has been mostly absent from public view while her husband campaigns for president, will appear at a fund-raiser at Mar-a-Lago , marking a return of sorts to the political arena.

The centrist group No Labels has abandoned its plans to run a presidential ticket in the 2024 election, having failed to recruit a candidate. The group had suffered a string of rejections recently  as prominent Republicans and Democrats declined to run on its ticket.

Florida court rulings on abortion have all but guaranteed that voters will have the issue on their minds in November, bringing potential risks for two anti-abortion Republicans  in the state whose districts aren’t solidly red.

Trump’s falsehoods about mail voting have created a strategic disadvantage for Republicans, who must rely on Election Day turnout . The group Turning Point Action has a $100 million plan to change voters’ habits to encourage early voting.

The focus of Trump’s hotel business is shifting from big cities to his golf resorts,  after a deal to host tournaments for LIV Golf , the upstart league sponsored by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, another example of the ties between the Saudis and the Trump family.

Biden and Trump are the oldest people ever to seek the presidency , challenging norms about what the public should know about candidates’ health.

Simon Rosenberg, a Democratic strategist and consultant, has spent the past two years telling Democrats they need to calm down. His Biden-will-win prediction is his next big test .

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