A Christian View of World Religions- Judaism

This will be the last essay in a series on world religions.  Subsequently, I will be submitting essays on different schools of theology in Christianity, dealing with the challenges and questions posed for us by each one.

For Christians to understand the theology of their own faith. they must first deal with Judaism, which is in reality, the parent faith of Christianity.   Many Christians make the mistake of interpreting Jewish theology in the light of Christian theology, when in actuality, it should be the other way around.  Christians are guilty of "Christianizing" the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) instead of using them as a foundation for understanding the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). 

A word of caution is necessary at this point.  We must distinguish between Judaism as defined in biblical religion from modern-day Jewry and the State of Israel.  Judaism in biblical religion refers to the religion practiced by the biological descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were the recipients of the promises made to them by Yahweh. The Hebrews (later on known as Jews) in Egypt, were part of this genealogical lineage.   They came to compose the nation of Israel.  Modern-day Israel is a political entity created by the Western powers of Great Britain and the United States in 1948, and has absolutely nothing to do with biblical Israel.  In a very real sense, modern-day Israel is part and parcel of the Euro-American white power structure that through economic and military power exerts its powers over the countries of the Third World, maintaining them in a state of economic and political subjugation.  Christians often make the mistake of blending and equating the two, and subsequently, end up supporting state-sponsored terrorism against the Arab nations of the world, especially the Palestinians who had been living in the land for centuries, and were uprooted by the actions of Euro-America.

In a very general sense, we can say that the religion known as Judaism began when Yahweh God spoke to Abraham and told him to leave the land and home of his ancestors in exchange for a land that God was going to be leading him too which would be "flowing with milk and honey."  Abraham received the promise that God would make a great nation out of him and of his descendants. The promise was passed on to his Isaac, and to his grandson Jacob, later on, to be known as Israel.

In a more restricted sense, Judaism began when Yahweh spoke to Moses, a Hebrew, living with his fellow compatriots in Egypt, the majority of whom were slaves.  God spoke to Moses and told him "I have heard the cry of my people, and have descended to deliver them from their agony, anguish, bondage, misery, oppression, and suffering."  Judaism and its subsequent theological reflections, emerged from the context of a people brutalized and enslaved.  Their experience in the house of bondage gave way to a theology (discourse about God) whose central motif came to be that of liberation and redemption.  It is considered by some scholars that all this took place around 1300 B.C.

The main Scriptures of Judaism are the Torah (Law), the Prophets, and the Writings, all compiled into a major volume known to Christians as the Old Testament.  These Scriptures contain, civil, ethical, legal, moral, and spiritual codes that define the relationship of the people to God and to one another.  The Scriptures, then, are the written foundation which reflect the historical liberating acts of God, and which in turn establish the foundation for Jewish theological reflection.  One may ask why the Christian version of the Old Testament has a larger number of books than the Jewish version?  The answer to that is that many books of the Old Testament in the Jewish tradition, have been condensed and combined into single volumes.  So though, all of the books of the Jewish collection are identical to the books in the Christian collection, we end up with a different number, i.e. 24 for the Jewish canon and 39 for the Christian canon.

In addition to their sacred Scriptures, Judaism also makes use of two large bodies of literature known as Talmud and Midrash (interpretation).  After the Babylonian Exile, the Jews, as a result of their exposure to another cultural environment, found it necessary to interpret their sacred scriptures in the light of their new situation.  Subsequently, they developed the Mishnah and the Gemara, which were two separate strands of commentary, and which later on were combined in one big volume known as the Talmud.  Jewish theology, to large extent, is built on the Talmudic interpretation of the Old Testament.  In some respects, the Talmud is considered to be on a par with Scripture relative to authoritative and normative guidelines for godly living.  In his time, Jesus, a Jew, had difficulties with some parties in Jewish leadership because of their tendency to interpret the Scriptures via the Talmud and in many respects, imposing Talmudic interpretations on the people, as if the Talmud had been written in heaven and thrown down to earth.

The central teachings of Judaism are found in the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) which spell out the relationship of the people to God and to one another.  In summary, the focus of the Law is on loving and serving God with all of one's heart, soul, and mind, and loving one's neighbor as oneself.

There are presently three major branches in Judaism.  They are:

1.  Orthodox Jews- Orthodox Judaism emphasizes the direct, verbatim revelation of the Torah to Moses.  In a sense, Orthodox Jews believe that God wrote the Torah and gave it to Moses.

2.  Conservative Jews- Conservative Jews belief in retaining the Orthodox emphasis on Scripture as normative, on the one hand, and on the other, they make allowances for adaptation to modern needs such as driving to the synagogue on the Sabbath.  They also allow for women to exercise roles of leadership by becoming rabbis, a practice prohibited in Orthodox Judaism.

3.  Reform Jews- John Renard informs us that Reform Judaism began as a result of many German Jews of the early 1800's beginning to feel that the tradition-bound approach of Orthodox Judaism was losing touch with life in rapidly changing societies.  Reform theology in Judaism considers the Scriptures to be divinely inspired rather than directly revealed verbatim, and that it is subject to the interpretation of each individual.

There is a school of thought in Judaism known as Reconstructionism.  Reconstructionist Jews tend to reorient Jewish belief from its generally other-worldly focus, and giving more attention to the"here and now."

One final point that I would like to make here, is that many Old Testament scholars (Christian and Jewish) find the element of possible borrowing from pre-existing religions.  For example, the Babylonian account of Creation and the Flood, which is said to have been written at least five hundred years before the book of Genesis, carries much similarity to the Genesis accounts of these two events.  Did the writer of Genesis possibly borrow from the Babylonian account? Scholars also point out that prior to the Babylonian Exile, the Hebrew/Jewish people did not have a doctrine of angels and demons in their theology, and that they probably picked up these beliefs when they were in Babylon under the rule of the Persians (modern-day Iran).  If Jewish theology is to a certain extent a "borrowed" theology, what does that say about Christian theology basing itself on Jewish theology?
Is it possible that Christian theology is not original and unique, and that itself is the product of previously transmitted religious ideology through Judaism and other religions?

Questions for reflection and comment:

1.  In your opinion, what similarities exist between Judaism and Christianity?

2.  Can those similarities be affirmed and embraced by Christians and incorporated into Christian theology?

3.  Is Christ present in Judaism?

Feel free to comment on this essay by either answering the above questions or by generating comments, ideas, and perspectives of your own. 

Grace and peace,

Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona