In the world today, there are different types of world religions which include Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism, just to mention but a few (Lewis, p.87). Each religion has its own history or source of origin and individuals have the free will to choose which religion will best suit their belief or faith (Ibid, p. 88). This paper will concentrate on one of the major religions in the world, Judaism.
Judaism is a religion which is embraced by individuals who believe Abraham to be Patriarch, and is also known as Abrahamic religion (Feiler, p. 258). In this religion, individuals believe that God’s chosen people are the Israelites, who are required to be a light to the rest of the nations (Ariel, p. 28).
Judaism was founded in the Middle East by the Jews and is over 3,500 years old (Alen, p. 57). Abraham is believed to be the fore founder of Judaism. He is discussed in the book of Genesis in the Bible as having talked with God and God talking back to him (The Holy Bible 54). As a result, Abraham came to believe in God and left his old ways and traditions of worshiping idols (Ibid, p. 55). He also observed all the Jewish rules which included circumcision, Sabbath and the Jewish festivals (Feiler, p.269).
Abraham’s descendants then took up from whence he had left and continued to impart this new belief. According to the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, Moses successfully led the Jewish people from the cruel hands of Pharaoh and was to lead them to the Promised Land (The Holy Bible, p. 125). It took them forty years for them to enter the Land and unfortunately Moses was not among the people who entered it (Ibid, p. 126). Once in the Land, the Assyrians raided the northern side of the Hebrew state in 722BC and in the following years, Israel was being ruled by the Greeks, Persians, Syrians, Romans as well as Macedonians (Alen, p. 62).
During the reign by the Syrian King, Antiochus IV Epiphane over the Jewish people, there rose an attempt to suppress the Jewish religion (Ariel, p. 32). In 167BC, a man by the name of Judas Maccabaeus started a rebellion which led to the independence of the Jewish society (Alen, p. 65). As a result, a festival known as Hanukkah has been celebrated ever since that time, up to the present day (Ariel, p. 38).
Under the Roman rule, another rebellion was attempted in 70CE but proved to be unsuccessful, forcing the Jews to disperse throughout the world (Lewis, p. 92). But the Jews realized that even though they were far from home, they could still worship and be loyal to God as well as follow His commandments. They did not, after all, need to have priests, kings or temples for them to worship God (Ibid 93). Many nations persecuted them but the religion was successfully maintained (Ariel, p. 45). That was the beginning of Judaism.
Judaism teaches individuals to maintain ethics and holiness and that the two, when separated, can cause serious damage to each other (Alen, p. 72). They are taught of not only how to think but also how to behave. Righteous thinking results in right and appropriate behavior (Ariel, p. 42). Love and faith were the most taught subjects or virtues by Moses. He taught the power of passion and due to the immense love he had for God and his people, he created a bridge that led to making of a covenant between God and the Israelites (Lewis, p. 98).
There are many comparisons and contrasts between Judaism and other world religions. For instance, there exist various differences between Judaism and Christianity. In Judaism, emphasis is laid on obeying God’s laws and His will while in Christianity the emphasis is on loving God rather than obeying His will (Ariel, p. 43). Both Judaism and Christianity believe that children are a gift from God but in Judaism, it is believed that abortion can be performed as long as it is done before the first 40 days where the foetus is considered to be nothing but mere water (Lewis, p. 91). Christianity on the other hand believes that a foetus is already a human being and aborting it would be committing murder (Ibid, p. 94). No one apart from God Himself has a right to take another life.
Judaism is a non-evangelistic religion. The belief is that inorder for one to become a Jew, he has to work hard and perform good deeds for several years and there is no conversion leading to salvation (Ariel, p. 39). Christianity is an evangelistic religion and believes in spreading the word of God and faith in Christ to all nations (Feiler, p. 272). Initiation into Christianity is through Baptism by water.
All world religions believe that there is only one Supreme God who is to be worshipped above all. Christianity believes in a Triune God, that is, God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit (Lewis, p. 97). God the Son, who is Jesus Christ is believed to have the power to save souls and He also rose from the dead (Ibid, p. 97). Judaism, on the other hand, does not believe in a Triune God but that there is only but one God. Jesus was just but a mere human being hence does not have the power to save souls (Ariel, p. 50). Only God can.
In conclusion, despite being seen as a religion worshipping only one God, Judaism was not always purely monotheistic. The Israelites worshipped other smaller gods as depicted in Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament in the Bible.
Having undergone different challenges as well as persecutions throughout history, Judaism has successfully stood its ground and has managed to maintain unbroken ties to ethnicity, traditional rituals as well as celebration of holidays such as Hanukkah.
Work Cited
- Alen, Gedaliah. Jews in their Land in the Talmudic Age. Harvard University Press. 1989. pp. 57 – 90.
- Ariel, Davis S. What do Jews Believe: The Spiritual Foundations of Judaism. New York: Schocken Book. 1995. pp. 25 – 50.
- Feiler, Bruce. Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths. 2005. Harper Perennial Publishers. pp. 257 -272.
- Lewis, Bernard. Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims and Jews in the Age of Discovery. New York: Oxford University Press. 1995. pp. 87-100.
- The Holy Bible. Exodus 12 & 13. New International Version. International Bible Society. 2005. pp. 125-135.
- The Holy Bible. Genesis 15: 1 – 21. New International Version. International Bible Society. 2005. pp. 53 – 54.