Fundamental Difference between Judaism and Christianity Essay

Judaism and Christianity ar closely related organized religions that can trace their origins back to Abraham and are considered in the studies of comparative religion as Abrahamic religion or Judeo-Abrahamic Faith. objet dart there are those who argue that Christianity is a religion that began independently from Judaism, interpretations of biblical texts from the Old Testament reveal that it started bulge out as Jewish sect during the late Second Temple period of the 1st century. The origins of Judaism on the other hand are still unclear as there are debates postulateing the source of this religion.Most scholars however agree that the Genesis book of the Hebrew Bible is the canonical that bears on that question. Whatever the origins of these religions maybe, it is clear that they are currently considered as two (2) separate religions that differ on many unfathomed issues. The first fundamental issue upon which Christianity and Judaism differ is with regard to the humankind of paragon. Christianity believes that the existence of God is manifested in the Holy Trinity. God, according to the Christians, exists as three (3) distinct persons who share a single essence, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.God is indivisible exactly the persons who form the trinity are distinct from each other. This nonion of God existing as the Holy Trinity runs contrary to the tenets of Judaism as they believe that God exists solely as a single indivisible divine being. The idea of the Holy Trinity is incomprehensible to the followers of Judaism because of the rejection of the notion that messiah or any other object or living being could be God, that God could have a literal son in physical form or is divisible in any way, or that God could be joined to the material world in such fashion.While Judaism has two (2) different words used to label God (transcendence = Ein Sof and immanence = Shekhinah), these refer yet to ways of experiencing God and still ma intain the indivisibility of God. The other fundamental difference between Christianity and Judaism is with regard to the idea of Original Sin. The concept of Original Sin is found only in Christianity and it makes the assumption that all human beings are born with the original sin which is derived from the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.This basically theorizes that everyone is born a sinner and nobody is born a saint. The only exception to this rule however is savior Christ who is regarded as the only person born without original sin. The concept if Original Sin does not exist in Judaism. Instead, Judaism holds that people have free will and have the ability to affect the course of their lives even if they be born naturally with a good inclination or bad inclination. Judaism holds that humans are born with either yetzer hatov or good inclination, or yetzer hara or bad inclination but can change because of free will.According to the teachings in some sects of Judaism, t here can be no original sin because Adam and Eve cannot be blamed for eating the forbidden fruit because the notion of evil or of sin did not arise until after the fruit was eaten. Judaism and Christianity also differ with regard to the concept of love. According to certain scholars, love, as understood in the Christian sense, is equivalent to charity and that love in the Judaic context centre justice.This is seen in this bible passage Whereas Jews believe that law is the ultimate fulfillment of love, Christians believe that love is the fulfillment of the Law. An examination of the core commandments of Judaism reveals that love as justice means that God commands the love of his people or Israel but never professes his love for his people (Israel). The Christian concept of love is manifested by the numerous acts of charity that Jesus Christ was said to perform during his lifetime including the ultimate act of love which was sacrificing himself to atone for the sins of man.These fun damental differences between Judaism and Christianity have given rise to the existence of two (2) separate religions who may arguably be worshipping the same God. Whatever the justifications are for having such fundamental differences, there is one common ground that not only Judaism and Christianity but also other religions can agree upon, that is that one should always seek to do good for others and learn to respect the beliefs of others.