The book of Exodus in the Bible is the second after Genesis. It is among the books of Torah. It mainly explains the salvation of Israelites from mistreatments by the Egyptians. It outlines the events that occurred as the Israelites were in the process of leaving Egypt for Canaan under strict protection of God. However, the views held by Islam and Judaism varies a lot with those embraced by Christianity (Hopfe & Woodward, 2012).
Jews treat Exodus as one of the most significant events in their lives. They link their nationhood to everything that happened on their journey from Egypt to the land of independence in Canaan. Exodus remains the foundation stone of their unity as a nation, which reminds them of their mistreatment and salvation from Egypt as they maintained togetherness. They also treat it as a symbol of God’s fulfillment of the promise He made to their father Abraham. Jews believe that God brought the passage to them in order to make them unique from the rest of the people in the world (Arnow et al., 2013).
Christianity, which mainly originated after the coming of Jesus Christ, views Exodus differently. During the celebration of Passover before the death of Jesus Christ, the disciples started looking at the event from a different perspective. This view of the disciples then spread down to the subsequent generations of Christianity (Arnow et al., 2013). Christians only celebrate the occasion to remember the death of Jesus Christ. They believe that the problems Jesus went through started on the day that people were celebrating Passover to mark the journey to Jews’ freedom during the era of Moses as their prophet. Christians then changed the definition of Passover from celebrating the freedom of Jews, to celebrating Jesus’ death and his comeback to life (All About Religion, 2002).
Islam also views Exodus differently. The occurrences in Exodus spread in most parts of the Quran, with the aim of warning leaders and individuals who are out to mistreat others. Unlike Judaism, which celebrates Exodus, Islam thinks that the experiences by the Israelites were mainly to teach people on the dangers of having excess powers and mistreating other people. They do not regard it as an event that deserves celebrations, as Judaism does. They also view Exodus as a teaching on patience. This is because Israelites remained patient when God promised that He would take them to a comfortable land in Canaan (Arnow et al., 2013).
When it comes to the characters in Exodus, Quran identifies the woman who picked Moses from the river differently from Christianity and Judaism. As Judaism and Christianity say that the daughter of Pharaoh took Moses from the river, Quran is of the opinion that the wife of Pharaoh took him from the river. There is a difference in the significance of the character in the three religions. Islam considers the wife to Pharaoh as significant in the rescue of Moses while Christianity and Judaism view the daughter of Pharaoh as the one who played the significant role of rescuing Moses (Jordan, 2003).
In conclusion, the ideas about Exodus are almost similar in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Differences arise in the significance of the occurrences to the respective religions. The Jews consider Exodus a symbol of their freedom as a nation. Christianity changed its meaning to mean the death of Jesus, while Islam views it as a normal teaching of how people should live with each other.
References
All About Religion. (2002). Judaism, Islam, Christianity comparison – Are there similarities?, 1-2. Web.
Arnow, D., Boys, M. C., & Shafiq, M. (2013). The Significance of Exodus/Passover in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Exodus in Bible and Qur’an , 1-7. Web.
Hopfe, L. M., & Woodward, M. R. (2012). Religions of the World. Upper Saddle: Pearson.
Jordan, A. (2003). Perspectives on Religious Issues. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes.