Judaism and Christianity - similarities and differences

JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY
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Judaism and Christianity
A Christian can be defined as a person who has a professing belief in Jesus Christ and follows the religion that has teachings on the life of Jesus. Judaism on the other hand was a religion that was developed by the ancient Hebrews who believed in a transcendent God who is one and the God revealed himself to Moses, Hebrew prophets and Abraham. They also live a life that is in accordance to rabbinic traditions and scriptures (Day, 2000). The differences and similarities are as follows:
Differences
The practice of the Christian is that they pray, worship as well offer sacraments in the church. They read the holy bible for spiritual guidance and they take the Holy Communion as blood and body of Jesus Christ where they use bread and wine. On the other hand, the Jews of the Orthodox recite prayers three times in day and there is a fourth prayer on holidays and Shabbat. In the morning there is Shacarit, afternoon they recite the Mincha and finally the Arvit in the night. During the holidays and Shabbat service there is Musaf prayers. Geographical location, the Christians are all over the world in all the six continents of the world (Day, 2000). They are there in North, South and Central America as well as Australia and New Zealand as well. The Judaism is located in predominantly in Europe, Israel and North America. The religion varies over time due to the persecution that led to massive migration. The founder of the Christianity is believed to be Jesus Christ while the Judaism was founded by Abraham and Moses. The composition of the clergy is the Christian faith is composed of monks, nuns, priests, Deacons and bishops and in the modern times there are the church elders. In Judaism, traditionally there was no clergy. The functionaries who thereby assist in the running of church are the Cantors, Rabbis, Mohels and Scribes. Otherwise, any person who is a believer of the faith can lead the prayers or perform the services as well. The Christians are doing believe in the Trinity. There is God who is the father, Son who is the Jesus and the spirit who is filled in the Christian so as to assist them. All three persons are in Godhead. On the other hand, Judaism believe in only one living God and the faith is enhanced by the traditional teachings and rabbis and profits assist too. The Holy Bible has the scriptures which are available into two parts that is, the new and the old and they follow the scriptures for the religious teachings. The Judaism has the Jewish Bible known as Tanakh and there is Torah. Some of the Christians use statutes for instance the orthodox and Catholics. Most of the Protestants denominations however do not. In Judaism, they do not use the statutes as they perceive that as idolatry (Virkler, 2007).
Similarities
The two religious have the same basic belief of the existence of one supreme God. They worship and pray the God. The second similarity is that they have a common belief of the same spiritual beings as angels and demons. They believe in the existence of those spiritual beings where angels are believed to agents of God. Satan. The two also believe that Jesus died through crucifixion. They therefore believe the fact that Jesus was crucified on the cross. The two religions also concur with the common belief of messiah who will come to fulfill prophesies that were prophesied earlier (Virkler, 2007). The Christians and Judaism also happen to respect and adhere to the basic Ten Commandments. These were laid down by God to be followed and observed by the believers. The other common aspect is the religious rituals where each of the religion performs rituals in order to glorify the living God. This is despite the fact that the rituals are performed differently. They pray to God, fast among others. Adam was the first man to be created in both religions. The attributed is obtained from the Old Testament book that is the reason that the two religions share that in common as they share some of the books of the old testaments though not all. The prophets from the two religions had the same call or message to the respective worshippers. They communicated to the believers that they should offer full submission to the God. Abraham is a common figure in the two religions and they believe that they are his descendants of Abraham (Virkler, 2007). The religions also acknowledge the existence of the Jerusalem as a holy city. The Jewish used Jerusalem as the capital city while the Christians believe that Jesus was born there. This serves to show that they believe that Jerusalem was really an important city in the past. Christians and Judaism also have specific holidays according to the specific religions to mark historical religion occurrence that happened in that particular day. Moses is also another common being prophet to the religions. They share in common the acts that Moses did with God as the guider and as the one who spoke to people though Moses. The common origin of the religions is the Middle East where they read as the location from the religious teachings and Holy Scriptures. The genesis of the two religions can be therefore be assumed to the Middle East. Worshipping in the two religions does not take place everywhere all the time. They have a place of wor...