Marybeth Sutton
Major Religions of the West
Prof. Cockerham
10/17/2014
Judaism insists on the idea of one God they believe that God cannot consist of parts that unite mysteriously. The Christian’s idea of God is that God is made up of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. Judaism revolutionary idea is that God is one, and they see Christianity’s view of God as a negative idea of God’s oneness. Judaism has no set of beliefs in regards to the existence of God. All mainstream Judaism groups deny the idea of God’s having three parts
Christian’s ideas of religion is the belief that Jesus is a child of God and God’s revelation through flesh. Jesus is in Christian terms God incarnate. To Judaism, whoever wonderful Jesus is and may have been, they consider him just human and not the son of God (except in a metaphorical sense which defines all human as children of God). Judaism also does not believe that Jesus absorbed the sins of people, for the Jews, sins are removed by seeking forgiveness. Jesus according to Judaism is not a messiah, but a human being who will usher in a new era of peace. This is based on their argument that a messiah is someone who brings peace, and that was not evident while Jesus was here on earth.
Yahweh is represented in ancient Hebrew as a sky god- god of thunder and lightning. He is associated with mountains and was called a god of the hills (Karen 3). The manifestation of Yahweh was often as fire, as in the burning bush.
Both Jewish and Christian uses bread and wine for their ritual celebrations. Wine is used for joy in Judaism while Christians take wine and bread in the church as Holy Communion. Both Christians and Jewish people keep the Sabbath day. Jewish celebrates Sabbath with home routines including blessings for candle lighting, wine and eating challah, as well as wine For the Jewish, the Sabbath begins on Friday at sunsets ending in Saturday sunset. Most Christians observe the Sabbath on Sunday. Jewish and Christians all bring their children to church for baptismal and blessings after birth. Both religions baptize their children the same way.
The difference between Christians and Jews rituals is that Jewish holidays mark significant historical events and agricultural observances, whereas Christian rituals reflects important times in Jesus’ life (“Paula”). While wine is a symbol of joy in Judaism, Christians uses wine as part of