Similarities Between Judaism And Christianity

The religions of Christianity and Judaism have multiple similarities and multiple differences between them. The religions have similarities and differences in founders, religious texts, afterlife, salvation and gender practices. In fact Christianity arose out of the Jewish faith and as such there are many overlaps between the two. However the two religions despite multiple similarities are both distinct in their separate customs and beliefs. One of the biggest differences between Judaism and Christianity is their different scriptures and religious texts. Both Judaism and Christianity follow the bible as a key religious text but both religious groups’ bibles differ. In the Jewish religion, adherents follow the bible also referred to as

In terms of salvation both religions differ greatly. In Christianity they believe that salvation from all sins can be achieved through the acceptance of Jesus Christ as your savior. If you accept Jesus as your savior then provided you have led a good and relatively moral life you will ascend to heaven, or if you’ve led a wicked life you will descend to hell. Christians then believe that one day Jesus will return to Earth from heaven and judge the living and bring about the apocalypse or the end of days. (Lynch, 1992) In comparison with the Christian model, Jews believe quite differently. Christians accept Jesus as their lord and savior as they believe he is the messiah. Jewish people however do not recognize Jesus Christ as the messiah believing instead that he has yet to appear. In Judaism salvation is achieved through living a good life and living in accordance with gods commandments. Both religions agree on the concept of living a good life leading to a person’s salvation, but they differ on their views of an afterlife. Judaism originally had no concept of heaven or hell as in the Christian Religion (Krell, n.d.). The Jewish High Priest or Sadducees, believe that there is no afterlife as it is not mentioned in the torah at all. It is worth noting however that there is a mention of resurrection in the last book of the Hebrew bible (Krell, n.d.). Pharisees (predecessors to modern rabbis the Jewish equivalent to priests), believe that the soul doesn’t disappear as the Sadducees suggest but rather that they go to join god and await resurrection in Israel during the time of the messiah. (Krell,