Steve Juanico

Dr. Martin Pine

ACE Social Science Seminar 015

19 December 1997

Compare and contrast the basic concepts of Judaism and Christianity.  

Refer as much as possible to specific Biblical texts in your answer.  

Be sure to include the following topics:

a) The nature of God

b) The nature of Faith

c)  The nature of the Good Life

d) The relationship of ritual and ethical laws

    Monotheism, the belief in only one God, is the primary characteristic of

Judaism and Christianity.  The first line of the Shema, the basic prayer that

every devout Jew recites day and night, "Hear O Israel: the Lord our God is one

Lord," affirms the oneness of God.  Jesus' declaration, "Now this is everlasting

life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and him whom thou has sent,

Jesus Christ," confirms this essential truth in the context of his own mission.  In

both Judaism and Christianity, God's existence is taken for granted and is a

basic belief that requires no further proof: "And God said unto Moses, I AM

THAT I AM."

    The God of Israel is the living God attributed with irresistible power: "But

the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: his wrath

the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his

indignation."  For Jews and Christians alike, God is recognized as the creator of

the universe: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."  He

brought with a mere word His creation into existence: "And God said, Let there

be light: and there was light."  He created the universe for the manifestation of

His glory.  He is the source of all life, including that of man: "And the Lord God

formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath

of life; and man became a living soul."  His names (Lord, King, God) imply power.

    There are no descriptions of God's beginning.  God is eternal.  He has neither

beginning nor end.  He is beyond the temporal confines of time and space.  There

is no past or future for God but only an eternal present: "Before Abraham was,

I AM."  Moreover, God is present everywhere in space as the inherent cause and

sustainer of all that exists, but, at the same time, is not subject to the limitations

of space and cannot be explained or measured by any spatial relation.  God

transcends time and space.  He is above the material universe.

    God is the source of all morality or ethical conduct.  He is the embodiment of

moral perfection.  God is merciful.  Even if man disobeys the will of God, he can

always return to Him.  An example of God's mercy is when Abraham asked Him if

He would still destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if He could find ten good men within:

"Wilt thou destroy the righteous with the wicked? . . . And the Lord said, If I

find in Sodom ten righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for

their sake."  Holiness is also a nature that is asserted of God: "For I am the

Lord  your God, ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy."

God's holiness separates Him from all that is profane and demands that

everything associated with Him be also holy: "Speak unto all the congregation of

the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your

God am holy."  God demands that His people be holy in their worship of Him and

in their daily lives.  Holiness, therefore, is an attribute that separates God from

all things.

    Paradoxically, in Judaism and Christianity, God is transcendent and yet has a

close relationship with man.  God takes an active participation in the history of

humankind.  In Judaism,  it is God Himself who is the active participant in events:

"and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt—not by an angel, and not by a

seraph, and not by a messenger. . . ."  It was within the history of the Jewish

people that God was encountered.  The people of Israel believed themselves,

through their history, to be standing in a unique relationship with God.  This

belief shaped their way of life according to the pattern and structure of

communal and individual living that God revealed to them.  He has chosen a

particular people—the Jews—in love to show His desire to create His Kingdom

here on earth: "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy

God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all the people

that are upon the face of the earth."  The life of the Jewish people is a concrete

expression of God's presence, sovereignty, and purpose here on earth—the

establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.  The Jews view the relationship

between themselves and God as a covenant (a covenant is the ancient way by

which two parties solemnly bind themselves together and is consummated by

rituals or ceremonies).  The covenant is reciprocal.  Since God is holy, merciful,

righteous, and just, the people of Israel are to mirror these qualities in their

obedience to God and among themselves.  Judaism, in essence, is a communal

religion and a way of life based on the existence of a community

carrying out God's will in the present.

    In Christianity, God's love toward the Jews is extended to all humankind: "God

so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that those who believe in

him may not perish, but may have life everlasting."  In Judaism, God's love was

never clearly universal in scope. God wanted the Israelites to love both Him and

neighbor, but the intent was more tribal than universal.  There is an aspect of

exclusiveness in Judaism.  What is new in Christianity, on the other hand, is the

special relationship of Jesus to God, which is expressed through Jesus'

designation of God as Father.  This father-son relationship became a model for

the relationship of Christians to God.  Jesus repeatedly reminded His listeners

that God was their Father, who is forgiving, eager to listen, full of mercy and

grace, tender, and loving.  In Judaism, in contrast, the term father was not in the

sense of God being the father to all men, but in the sense of a national God who

was father to Israel only.

    Faith, in the Jewish religion, is the belief in a historical God and His Laws.

The Jewish concept of faith denotes the special relationship existing between

God and Israel, especially the bond of the covenant between them.  The faith of

Israel is a particular form of life of a people chosen by God and standing in

active relationship with Him.  God is the creator of the covenant relationship,

and the terms of the covenant are His Commandments.  Hence, faith means the

acknowledgment of God's commands and obedience on the part of man.  God makes

Himself and His purposes known through revelation.  This revelation is found in

the law of Judaism, the Torah.  Life is to be lived according to the ethics of the

Torah.  The Ten Commandments found in the book of Exodus of the Torah are the

fundamental guidelines for Jewish behavior.  It applies both to individual and

community relationships.  Jews have a duty to lead a life in accordance with

God's will.  By obeying God's will, they bear witness to God and His Kingdom in

this world.

    In Christianity,  faith is intimately connected with man's salvation.  Faith for a

Christian means the acceptance and acknowledgment of Christ's existence in the

present as well as the submission of man's mind and will to Him as the cause of

salvation.  Christianity refers to a plan of salvation or redemption.  Christians

think of themselves as in a plight from which they need rescue.  Because of

original sin, the hereditary sin that stained all men because of Adam's

disobedience, they are separated from God and need to be saved.  The agent of

their salvation is Jesus Christ.  Because man is by nature sinful, he needs the

grace (grace is an undeserved gift from God that allows a person to believe) of

God if he is to be saved.  Faith, therefore, is a free gift from God: "For by

grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of

God."  Christians believe that Jesus Christ is both Son of God and Son of

Man—both divine and human and without the stigma of original sin.  Jesus took

responsibility for the sins of humankind, reconciling man with God, and God with

man.  This is the atonement achieved through His death.  But He died only to rise

again to new life.  This is resurrection.  Those who believe in Jesus are not only

saved from their sins, but they will be raised to new life when they die.  In

contrast, Judaism has no notion of original sin.  Sin, for the Jew, is disobedience

to God's Law; no matter how sinful a man is, he can always return to God if he

chooses without the help of a mediator.  The fundamental message of Jesus

Christ was that the Kingdom of God was about to enter history: "The time is

fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe in the gospel."

But Christ revealed the His Kingdom was an interior and spiritual one.  Judaism,

on the other hand, expressed the Kingdom of God in the corporate life of the

community through the obedience of His Law.  In order to become a member of

God's Kingdom, a Christian must undergo an inner conversion.  She must have a

change of heart, repent her sins, and determined to begin a new life.  This inner

conversion requires faith in Jesus Christ: "I am the Way, the Truth, and the

Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."  Faith in Jesus will result in

the transformation of the self.  Thus, faith becomes personal and noncommunal.

The exclusiveness of Judaism is negated in Christianity.  Faith demands that the

Christian must make his conduct conform with the teachings of Jesus as written

in the New Testament: "Love God with all thy heart, with all thy strength,

with all thy mind; and love thy neighbor as thou love thyself."  The key elements

of Jesus' teachings are purity of motives: the intent must be good even before

the action is done, passivity in the face of evil, emphatic love for others

including enemies, and absolute faith because all things can be achieved if a

person believes in God.

    There is no separation in Judaism of ritual and ethical laws.  Ritual law is the

visible sign of the covenant between God and His chosen people, and the ethical

law is the stipulation that the people must accept and obey God's will to fulfill

the covenant.  The ritual law shows the agreement between God and His people,

and the ethical law gives meaning and legitimacy to their agreement.  This

relationship encouraged a tendency in Judaism toward excessive legalism and

formalism, and the conception of sin as chiefly ceremonial, not ethical.  In

Christianity, ethical law is more important than ritual law.  According to Jesus,

the good life was not a matter of blindly obeying a multitude of rules; it was a

matter of understanding the true essence of the Law and ordering one's life

accordingly.  Jesus rebuked "the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,"

for their hypocrisy, their elaborate system of rituals, mistaking the means for

the end.  Judaism has a tendency to place great emphasis on compliance with the

letter of the Law.  Christianity, on the other hand, emphasizes the spirit rather

than the letter of the Law.  This spirit is characterized as one of love for God

and for one's neighbors.  It is by faith, and not by the works of the Law, that

man becomes just and holy in the sight of God: "For therein is the righteousness

of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

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