I will take one answer in an online forum that a Christian answered from his faith’s perspective about the similarities between Christianity and Judaism and highlight some common mistakes that one can clear up by reading the Tanakh without using the NT concepts or claims about it. I'll quote the Christian, and then clear up the mistakes after the quote...I have edited a few of my answers with correcting typos and misspellings and clarifying for language since several people have called me to task for them.
"To my knowledge Christianity is the continuation of the Old Testament, as hundreds of prophecies were fulfilled in the New Testament by our Lord Jesus Christ."
Nope, Jews have NO "Old Testament". That is a rather insulting renaming of an adaptation/alteration of the Hebrew Bible that in fact violates God's commandments (made twice in Tanakh ) not to alter even the tiniest portion of it. Tertullian, the early church father who did this renamed their adaptation for the express purpose to designate that their doctrine had superceded what God declared eternal, their new covenant replace what he called an “old". The New Testament doctrine clearly does not "continue" the eternal covenant. Jesus fits absolutely none of the criteria to be the Davidic Messiah prophesied in the Tanakh as evidenced by this listing of the prophecies of the Davidic Messiah in the Hebrew bible found here:
http://thejewishhome.org/counter/Wanted.pdf
Jesus fits the Chritsian’ religion’s redefinitions and once it's notion of *messiah* changed from the Tanakh’s prophecy of a king of David’s lineage who would break the yolk of political and religious persecution for all and rule with humility, justice and mercy over Israel, to bring peace and universal knowledge of God..into a sacrificed savior deity and a kingdom focusing on the afterlife to meld the Hellenized and Romanized concepts, Christians became an extension of Rome. Read this for greater understanding of the purpose and development of Christianity as a tool to negate the Jews as a covenant nation people and make them a part of the Roman Empire. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101126171108AA4md2a edit to add the actual answer there since I was asked to put it here rather than make people copy paste a link
Christianity became a tool of the Roman Empire fairly early on in it's spread.
Religion and politics were inseparable in the ancient world, kings usually represented incarnate manifestations of their gods on earth. Polytheistic believers across the ancient Levant were accustomed to their political leaders telling them what gods were to be venerated during their rule and which deity their ruler was representative of in human form. Adding a new deity or giving a new name to an ancient deity whose belief was already established was how the conquering peoples assimilated their conquered. Tanakh recorded that any time such a practice of a Jewish king telling the Jews that they were to worship a foreign deity, the entire Jewish people suffered and did so at the very hands of the people whose deity they had left God to serve. That lesson is told right in our Jewish Bible in several dramatic narratives, the same one the Christians have as an adaptation of their Old Testament, yet they rarely see this in the story because their New Testament does not focus on the contextual meaning of the narrative, but imposes redefined meanings to support it’s dogma, often using topsy-turvy meaning to words and changes translations of phrases in a number of other places.
Early Christian leaders did not want their flock to know the Paschal lamb represented a false man-god of Egypt, so they changed it into a sacrifice for sin to justify human sacrifice (or deicide depending on whether or not they are calling Jesus God in human form). Sin sacrifices are explained in detail in many places, and having nothing to do with the Passover sacrifice. Exodus makes no reference to the use of the Paschal lamb’s blood for expiating sin. Rather, it describes the blood on the door as an act of defiance to false gods and allegiance to the God of Israel. The sacrifice to God showed the Egyptians that the life force (blood) representing their deity was spilled by the Hebrew slaves and their god was powerless over the God of Israel to do a thing about it. It was an act of rejection of the gods of Egypt and alliance to the God of Israel, and that’s in the Torah in Exodus in context. Rather than show that Isaiah was slamming a man for calling himself a man/god representing Venus, Christian dogma personifies and makes a proper name from their Latin translation's word for star and turns that story into something about a fall of angels (no where mentioned in that narrative at ALL) to create giving of the "name" Lucifer for a demon-god of their underworld hell. Every aspect of Jewish belief is given a new spin. Hellenized Jews already apostate to Judaism after four centuries of their occupation and Roman citizens of Judea and the Galilee, desired to entice other Jews to worship as the Greeks that they believed superior in philosophy and knowledge. Jews had laws forbidding these concepts outright so they created texts that tried syncretism, their efforts to claim ,see this is what it was supposed to have been all along. However, the reality remains that those beliefs of incarnate savior deities and human sacrifice are identical to the beliefs and practices that the Torah demonized.
Tammuz/Adonis (melded in Roman occupied lands along with and became Mithras) were incarnate sacrificed savior deities who had followers of apostate Jews in the North (Galilee) and areas of Paul's travels. Tammuz and the Romanized version of the Zoroastrian Mithras were both born of virgins (a concept having nothing to do with the Davidic Messiah and violating Tanakh) and their death was said to have brought their people reconciliation to their *sinful natures*. Being born with a burden of sin is a belief of the pagan peoples surrounding Judea and the Gallilee, and contradicts the Torah notion that humans may master evil inclination (from Genesis) Tammuz was said to die and be reborn each spring. Tammuz worship had become widespread even before the destruction of the First Temple, and had so many apostate Jews as followers, it was condemned in Tanakh in the book of Ezekiel. There is still even a Hebrew month named for this pagan man/god despite the condemnation of his worship in the Holy Scriptures. Sir James Frazier's book, The Golden Bough, is useful to learning about the widespread concept of Savior Kings that was not only found in the Middle east but in Europe and helped to aid the rapid spread of Christianity. Noted Oxford scholar and award winning Historian Richard Fletcher's
The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity also helps one to understand the development of many beliefs and rituals found in modern Christianity. The Christian concept of hell can be found in Plato's "Republic" in the myth of Er and in Gorgias referring to Tartarus.
At best, Christianity is a little less than 1/3 based on Jewish precept, but primarily a mixture of the beliefs of the polytheistic peoples in and round Judea and the Galilee of the first century. Once one begins an in-depth study of the religious practices and beliefs of all the peoples surrounding the Jews in the centuries just preceding the beginning of Christianity, one can see it was an effort to do away with Israel as a distict people and replace Judaism.
A large percentage of the early church fathers who became martyrs did so at the hands of their co-religionists of competing sects when Christianity was not so clearly defined as a tool of the Roman empire.
Any group that would threaten Roman authority would be persecuted by the Romans. Hundreds of thousands of Jews had been crucified to quell rebellion against Roman authority.
This would likely have included any followers of any messiah hopeful (still speaking of the Jewish Bible concept) ; such a person could threaten Roman rule, since the prophetic vision of Judaism of "the messiah" is of a RULER, a king, who breaks the yolk of political oppression and persecution for all and brings about universal brotherhood, peace and knowledge of God. Therefore the early Christian groups (or followers of a living Jesus who hoped he could one day rule) who did not view Jesus as a divine incarnation or look to him as a sacrifice for sin, but perhaps hoped he would be reincarnated to do the job would most certainly have been a threat.
Yet Roman history and Jewish history both have documentary evidence to reveal that the early Christians separated themselves from the Jewish rebellion against Roman imposition of their pagan relgions into Jewish life and they refused to ally with the Jews in either first or second Jewish revolts instigated by Jews refusing to give Temple tithes to the upkeep of Roman pagan temples and refusing to set up pagan statues in the Temple of Jerusalem.
Since Jesus was never an anointed ruler, he did not fit the job description or definition of "mosiach" in the Hebrew language. However, once the doctrine of the New Testament that changed the Tanakh concept and prophecy of the Davidic messiah within their doctrine from meaning an anointed king who will do specific things promised by God, and use the title to mean an incarnate deity, a sacrifice for sin and a "kingdom" not of this world, this effectively changed the Christians from being enemies of Rome to tools of Rome! Those beliefs also clearly separated themselves from the Jewish people when they took on beliefs directly forbidden in the eternal covenant of Torah between God and Israel.
The Temple treasury was raided in 66CE by the Roman governor of Judea, Florius and thousands of Jews were massacred in Jerusalem.
The early Christians did not take part in the revolt incited by that massacre. They had separated from the customs, beliefs and from the Jewish people themselves by this time. Clearly, the Romans already regarded the Christians as a separate religion group, as objective historical evidence we know that the emperor Nerva (96‑98 C.E.) freed the Christians from paying the Fiscus Judaicus, the Jewish capitation tax decreed upon all Jews as a punishment for the revolt of 66‑73 C.E. The Christians had actually petitioned their Roman overlords to be considered a separate group from the Jews.
Yet today, many Christians, especially groups that wish to misappropriate Jewish identity while strangely displaying contempt for what makes the Jewish people the Jewish people, will insist that all the early Christians were Jews, or that it was Jewish persecution that ran them out of the Jewish community!
Overwhelming historical evidence refutes both those fallacies.
Emperor Hadrian later attempted to wipe out Judaism after they revolted against the previous Emperor, Trajan. He built a Roman temple to Jupiter on top of the ruins of the old Jewish temple in Jerusalem, which had been destroyed in 70 CE, and is said to have burnt the Torah on top of the Temple Mount in 135 CE .
He then renamed Judea, Palestina, a Latinized version of the name of the Philistines, to insult the Jews and eliminate the history of Jewish presence.
Christianity has never been a unified belief, from the earliest days of the Didache (instructions to the apostles on how to conduct church affairs) there were conflicts on how much Judaic influence should remain (was Jesus a god or not?) and it was often a very nasty affair. The Gnostics were largely killed off by their fellow Christians, but some Gnostic aspects do remain. A study of the Nag Hammadi library (translations from the Coptic are online) can help you discern this. Christianity really has little to do with Judaism other than an attempt to replace it with the beliefs of people who conquered the Jews.
A 2nd time Christians refused to ally themselves with the Jews was the 2nd Jewish revolt against Rome. They allied themselves to the Romans. This led to Davidic messiah hopeful, Simeon Bar Kochba,( briefly an actual anointed ruler) to view them as the enemies of Israel.
Simeon Bar Kochba was an actual, honest to goodness messiah. He was an anointed ruler of Israel. He is referred to as a failed messiah because he failed to do the job of the DAVIDIC ruler whose humble rule (he wasn't too humble) brings about universal brotherhood, justice, peace and knowledge of God. Unlike the failed Christian candidate, Jesus, Simeon bar Kochba's ancestry actually fit the hoped for lineage, that added to the hopes he was the man for the job.
After Bar Kochba's murder and defeat Christians were once again rewarded by Rome and not expelled along with the Jews. It is noteworthy that Jews who looked to Bar Kochba as *the* Messiah did not view him as an incarnate manifestation of god, never relied upon him as a medium of atonement, nor did they view his murder by Rome as a sacrifice for sin in violation of Torah. Once he died without completing the job of the messiah, he was also abandoned as being believed to be the Davidic messiah. He wasn't turned into a demigod human sacrifice rejecting all that God told Israel at Sinai.
After Constantine - First Christian Emperor of Rome (285-337 CE) the Roman empire was Christian and it was used as a tool of conquest and assimilation throughout Europe.
The doctrines of their "New" Testament were even named for the express purpose of claimng to have done away with the eternal covenant of Israel, they renamed an "Old" covenant.
While all peoples have influenced one another, the groups of Jews who adopted the most Hellenized philosophies and practices, died out centuries ago, while the Pharisees, or separatists,whose purpose *as* a separate group originated to prevent syncretization of Hellenist beliefs into Judaism, survived. That's the Judaism we have today, the one that rejected the Greek texts being spread by Hellenized Jews and then the later Romans and finally, by the early church.
It was not until the 1400's that the last kindgom of Europe became officially Christian.
The core doctrine of the New Testament that we know today as Christianity began as an attempt to negate the Jewish people as a separate covenant nation and assimilate them in Roman occupied Judea and the Galilee, and for syncretism of beliefs of the Hellenized Jews and Romans living there. Its holy texts and precepts depend on turning the beliefs of Judaism topsy-turvy in many regards. It is so very different from the concept of the nature of God to the manner that humans relate to God and to each other. Christianity borrowed words, phrases, and many of the stories of the ancient Hebrews, but reassigned to them meanings that are MUCH closer to the Romanized and Hellenized concepts of Roman occupied Judea.
"1. They both acknowledge the existence of sin." < One of the three most egregious sins for the covenant of israel is idolatry/worship of a false god. Worship of a man as a god is such a sin; what New Testament doctrine obligates one to do, is directly forbidden by Commandments of God in the Torah, both prohibited for Jews and called an abomination. Human sacrifice is an abomination, incarnate deities are idolatry and separate the Jewish soul from his people and from God unless they repent.The NT changes Torah's concept of sin and also imposes an inherent burden of a sinful nature that Torah does not have. From Genesis forward, God teaches in Torah that humans are born pure, and have both an inclination to good and an inclination to do bad, and that we may master our evil nature and repent directly for sins. The very first time the word sin appears in the Torah, in Genesis God says we can master our evil inclination.
"2. "Both religions acknowledge the existence of God the Father."; Torah teaches that ALL humans are children of god, brethren, and all equal before God, (even messiahs are not above God's law) and as all children of one God, equal justice and judgment are also from God. New Testament doctrine claims only its adherents are children of God after they profess faith in Jesus as their god as evidenced by so much of the rest of his answer.
3. "They both acknowledge the existence of angels and Satan"
Religion and politics were inseparable in the ancient world, kings usually represented incarnate manifestations of their gods on earth. Polytheistic believers across the ancient Levant were accustomed to their political leaders telling them what gods were to be venerated during their rule and which deity their ruler was representative of in human form. Adding a new deity or giving a new name to an ancient deity whose belief was already established was how the conquering peoples assimilated their conquered. Tanakh recorded that any time such a practice of a Jewish king telling the Jews that they were to worship a foreign deity, the entire Jewish people suffered and did so at the very hands of the people whose deity they had left God to serve. That lesson is told right in our Jewish Bible in several dramatic narratives, the same one the Christians have as an adaptation of their Old Testament, yet they rarely see this in the story because their New Testament does not focus on the contextual meaning of the narrative, but imposes redefined meanings to support it’s dogma, often using topsy-turvy meaning to words and changes translations of phrases in a number of other places.
Early Christian leaders did not want their flock to know the Paschal lamb represented a false man-god of Egypt, so they changed it into a sacrifice for sin to justify human sacrifice (or deicide depending on whether or not they are calling Jesus God in human form). Sin sacrifices are explained in detail in many places, and having nothing to do with the Passover sacrifice. Exodus makes no reference to the use of the Paschal lamb’s blood for expiating sin. Rather, it describes the blood on the door as an act of defiance to false gods and allegiance to the God of Israel. The sacrifice to God showed the Egyptians that the life force (blood) representing their deity was spilled by the Hebrew slaves and their god was powerless over the God of Israel to do a thing about it. It was an act of rejection of the gods of Egypt and alliance to the God of Israel, and that’s in the Torah in Exodus in context. Rather than show that Isaiah was slamming a man for calling himself a man/god representing Venus, Christian dogma personifies and makes a proper name from their Latin translation's word for star and turns that story into something about a fall of angels (no where mentioned in that narrative at ALL) to create giving of the "name" Lucifer for a demon-god of their underworld hell. Every aspect of Jewish belief is given a new spin. Hellenized Jews already apostate to Judaism after four centuries of their occupation and Roman citizens of Judea and the Galilee, desired to entice other Jews to worship as the Greeks that they believed superior in philosophy and knowledge. Jews had laws forbidding these concepts outright so they created texts that tried syncretism, their efforts to claim ,see this is what it was supposed to have been all along. However, the reality remains that those beliefs of incarnate savior deities and human sacrifice are identical to the beliefs and practices that the Torah demonized.
Tammuz/Adonis (melded in Roman occupied lands along with and became Mithras) were incarnate sacrificed savior deities who had followers of apostate Jews in the North (Galilee) and areas of Paul's travels. Tammuz and the Romanized version of the Zoroastrian Mithras were both born of virgins (a concept having nothing to do with the Davidic Messiah and violating Tanakh) and their death was said to have brought their people reconciliation to their *sinful natures*. Being born with a burden of sin is a belief of the pagan peoples surrounding Judea and the Gallilee, and contradicts the Torah notion that humans may master evil inclination (from Genesis) Tammuz was said to die and be reborn each spring. Tammuz worship had become widespread even before the destruction of the First Temple, and had so many apostate Jews as followers, it was condemned in Tanakh in the book of Ezekiel. There is still even a Hebrew month named for this pagan man/god despite the condemnation of his worship in the Holy Scriptures. Sir James Frazier's book, The Golden Bough, is useful to learning about the widespread concept of Savior Kings that was not only found in the Middle east but in Europe and helped to aid the rapid spread of Christianity. Noted Oxford scholar and award winning Historian Richard Fletcher's
The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity also helps one to understand the development of many beliefs and rituals found in modern Christianity. The Christian concept of hell can be found in Plato's "Republic" in the myth of Er and in Gorgias referring to Tartarus.
At best, Christianity is a little less than 1/3 based on Jewish precept, but primarily a mixture of the beliefs of the polytheistic peoples in and round Judea and the Galilee of the first century. Once one begins an in-depth study of the religious practices and beliefs of all the peoples surrounding the Jews in the centuries just preceding the beginning of Christianity, one can see it was an effort to do away with Israel as a distict people and replace Judaism.
A large percentage of the early church fathers who became martyrs did so at the hands of their co-religionists of competing sects when Christianity was not so clearly defined as a tool of the Roman empire.
Any group that would threaten Roman authority would be persecuted by the Romans. Hundreds of thousands of Jews had been crucified to quell rebellion against Roman authority.
This would likely have included any followers of any messiah hopeful (still speaking of the Jewish Bible concept) ; such a person could threaten Roman rule, since the prophetic vision of Judaism of "the messiah" is of a RULER, a king, who breaks the yolk of political oppression and persecution for all and brings about universal brotherhood, peace and knowledge of God. Therefore the early Christian groups (or followers of a living Jesus who hoped he could one day rule) who did not view Jesus as a divine incarnation or look to him as a sacrifice for sin, but perhaps hoped he would be reincarnated to do the job would most certainly have been a threat.
Yet Roman history and Jewish history both have documentary evidence to reveal that the early Christians separated themselves from the Jewish rebellion against Roman imposition of their pagan relgions into Jewish life and they refused to ally with the Jews in either first or second Jewish revolts instigated by Jews refusing to give Temple tithes to the upkeep of Roman pagan temples and refusing to set up pagan statues in the Temple of Jerusalem.
Since Jesus was never an anointed ruler, he did not fit the job description or definition of "mosiach" in the Hebrew language. However, once the doctrine of the New Testament that changed the Tanakh concept and prophecy of the Davidic messiah within their doctrine from meaning an anointed king who will do specific things promised by God, and use the title to mean an incarnate deity, a sacrifice for sin and a "kingdom" not of this world, this effectively changed the Christians from being enemies of Rome to tools of Rome! Those beliefs also clearly separated themselves from the Jewish people when they took on beliefs directly forbidden in the eternal covenant of Torah between God and Israel.
The Temple treasury was raided in 66CE by the Roman governor of Judea, Florius and thousands of Jews were massacred in Jerusalem.
The early Christians did not take part in the revolt incited by that massacre. They had separated from the customs, beliefs and from the Jewish people themselves by this time. Clearly, the Romans already regarded the Christians as a separate religion group, as objective historical evidence we know that the emperor Nerva (96‑98 C.E.) freed the Christians from paying the Fiscus Judaicus, the Jewish capitation tax decreed upon all Jews as a punishment for the revolt of 66‑73 C.E. The Christians had actually petitioned their Roman overlords to be considered a separate group from the Jews.
Yet today, many Christians, especially groups that wish to misappropriate Jewish identity while strangely displaying contempt for what makes the Jewish people the Jewish people, will insist that all the early Christians were Jews, or that it was Jewish persecution that ran them out of the Jewish community!
Overwhelming historical evidence refutes both those fallacies.
Emperor Hadrian later attempted to wipe out Judaism after they revolted against the previous Emperor, Trajan. He built a Roman temple to Jupiter on top of the ruins of the old Jewish temple in Jerusalem, which had been destroyed in 70 CE, and is said to have burnt the Torah on top of the Temple Mount in 135 CE .
He then renamed Judea, Palestina, a Latinized version of the name of the Philistines, to insult the Jews and eliminate the history of Jewish presence.
Christianity has never been a unified belief, from the earliest days of the Didache (instructions to the apostles on how to conduct church affairs) there were conflicts on how much Judaic influence should remain (was Jesus a god or not?) and it was often a very nasty affair. The Gnostics were largely killed off by their fellow Christians, but some Gnostic aspects do remain. A study of the Nag Hammadi library (translations from the Coptic are online) can help you discern this. Christianity really has little to do with Judaism other than an attempt to replace it with the beliefs of people who conquered the Jews.
A 2nd time Christians refused to ally themselves with the Jews was the 2nd Jewish revolt against Rome. They allied themselves to the Romans. This led to Davidic messiah hopeful, Simeon Bar Kochba,( briefly an actual anointed ruler) to view them as the enemies of Israel.
Simeon Bar Kochba was an actual, honest to goodness messiah. He was an anointed ruler of Israel. He is referred to as a failed messiah because he failed to do the job of the DAVIDIC ruler whose humble rule (he wasn't too humble) brings about universal brotherhood, justice, peace and knowledge of God. Unlike the failed Christian candidate, Jesus, Simeon bar Kochba's ancestry actually fit the hoped for lineage, that added to the hopes he was the man for the job.
After Bar Kochba's murder and defeat Christians were once again rewarded by Rome and not expelled along with the Jews. It is noteworthy that Jews who looked to Bar Kochba as *the* Messiah did not view him as an incarnate manifestation of god, never relied upon him as a medium of atonement, nor did they view his murder by Rome as a sacrifice for sin in violation of Torah. Once he died without completing the job of the messiah, he was also abandoned as being believed to be the Davidic messiah. He wasn't turned into a demigod human sacrifice rejecting all that God told Israel at Sinai.
After Constantine - First Christian Emperor of Rome (285-337 CE) the Roman empire was Christian and it was used as a tool of conquest and assimilation throughout Europe.
The doctrines of their "New" Testament were even named for the express purpose of claimng to have done away with the eternal covenant of Israel, they renamed an "Old" covenant.
While all peoples have influenced one another, the groups of Jews who adopted the most Hellenized philosophies and practices, died out centuries ago, while the Pharisees, or separatists,whose purpose *as* a separate group originated to prevent syncretization of Hellenist beliefs into Judaism, survived. That's the Judaism we have today, the one that rejected the Greek texts being spread by Hellenized Jews and then the later Romans and finally, by the early church.
It was not until the 1400's that the last kindgom of Europe became officially Christian.
The core doctrine of the New Testament that we know today as Christianity began as an attempt to negate the Jewish people as a separate covenant nation and assimilate them in Roman occupied Judea and the Galilee, and for syncretism of beliefs of the Hellenized Jews and Romans living there. Its holy texts and precepts depend on turning the beliefs of Judaism topsy-turvy in many regards. It is so very different from the concept of the nature of God to the manner that humans relate to God and to each other. Christianity borrowed words, phrases, and many of the stories of the ancient Hebrews, but reassigned to them meanings that are MUCH closer to the Romanized and Hellenized concepts of Roman occupied Judea.
"1. They both acknowledge the existence of sin." < One of the three most egregious sins for the covenant of israel is idolatry/worship of a false god. Worship of a man as a god is such a sin; what New Testament doctrine obligates one to do, is directly forbidden by Commandments of God in the Torah, both prohibited for Jews and called an abomination. Human sacrifice is an abomination, incarnate deities are idolatry and separate the Jewish soul from his people and from God unless they repent.The NT changes Torah's concept of sin and also imposes an inherent burden of a sinful nature that Torah does not have. From Genesis forward, God teaches in Torah that humans are born pure, and have both an inclination to good and an inclination to do bad, and that we may master our evil nature and repent directly for sins. The very first time the word sin appears in the Torah, in Genesis God says we can master our evil inclination.
"2. "Both religions acknowledge the existence of God the Father."; Torah teaches that ALL humans are children of god, brethren, and all equal before God, (even messiahs are not above God's law) and as all children of one God, equal justice and judgment are also from God. New Testament doctrine claims only its adherents are children of God after they profess faith in Jesus as their god as evidenced by so much of the rest of his answer.
3. "They both acknowledge the existence of angels and Satan"
But their nature is very different. In the Torah, angels are without free will and HaSatan is an adversary to HUMANS, not an adversary to God. There is no fall of angels. In the Christian religion, both narratives their New Testament claims to teach about a fall of angels, were narratives that prophets were harshly condemning kings for calling themselves incarnate gods. The prophets condemn the very notion that a human could become an incarnate deity. (in both Isaiah and Ezekiel) In fact, there is no Lucifer in the Hebrew bible and Ezekiel doesn't even mention Satan or a devil. http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110112183329AA7PFsR
edit: Same request so here I'm posting corrected edits of my past answer there;
Isaiah was written in Hebrew and the word lucifer is not found within the text of the Hebrew book Isaiah. The word heylel that is translated into "Lucifer" in the Latin Vulgate, in Hebrew means star, or light bearing, contextually is clearly referring to the "morning star" or planet Venus. The Latin Vulgate translation appeared about a thousand years after Isaiah wrote his text in Hebrew that makes no mention of a demon deity of the underworld named Lucifer.
The word lucifer means star or light bearing in Latin. Isaiah wrote in the Hebrew language, the word lucifer is not in Isaiah’s writings. The Hebrew word heylel, meaning star was not a proper name in the text Isaiah wrote. In the English translation of the Christian Old Testament they make the Latin word lucifer into a proper name (Lucifer) and then personify that word referring to the planet Venus, known by the ancients in the Levant as the morning star. The NT doctrine ignores the contextual meaning of Isaiah's writing and turns this into a story about a fallen angel turned devil. This whole narrative is about Isaiah using his vision from God to condemn Nebuchadnezzar for styling himself a god/man. Isaiah as a prophet of God believed that God did not deceive all Israel at Sinai about His nature and did not lie that God does not become a man. God's incorporeal unchangeable nature means no man becomes a God. Nebuchadnezzar believed himself to be the representation of Venus, the morning star, on earth. Isaiah is condemning a human for calling himself a god; there is no reference made at all to HaSatan OR to any entity known as a devil there.
****There is no "fall" of any angels in the Hebrew Bible. I find it interesting that both passages of Tanakh that are linked to a fall of angels in Christian doctrine, in their context in the Hebrew Bible are condemning the notion that men can become gods.*****
The Christian concept of hell can also be better understood by reading the rendition of the ancient Myth of Er in Plato's book, the Republic. It and Plato's work Gorgias, he wrote that souls were judged after death and those who received punishment were sent to Tartarus. The Christian concept of hell did not come from the Torah, it came from the Hellenized Jews and Romans who wrote the New Testament replacement theology.
Many of the beliefs and concepts of Christianity borrowed terminology and outward appearance from Judaism, but reassigned different meanings to those words and concepts, sometimes at complete contradiction to the tenets of faith through Torah.
Once the doctrine of the New Testament appeared that changed the Tanakh concept of messiah meaning an anointed king, to mean a god incarnate as human as a sacrifice for sin and a "kingdom" not of this world, thus appealing to Hellenized Jews and Romans, this effectively changed the Christians from being enemies of Rome to tools of Rome. After Constantine , the First Christian Emperor of Rome (285-337 CE) the entire Roman empire was Christian.
I have recently seen some Christians try to point to a passage in Ezekiel as a place referring to the fall of Satan. However, HaSatan is also not found at all in the entire passage. In Ezekiel 28,it is the King of Tyre that is the subject of the narrative. A paraphrasing and explanation of the section is as follows: Verses 11-19 tell that a lamentation shall be raised over the king of Tyre: the personification of wisdom and beauty. Your covering is studded with the most precious stones as if you were in God's Garden of Eden. Your craftsmanship in wind instruments is as if it were preserved for the day you were born. Like the outspread cherub, so saintly were you, actually walking amidst stones of fire. You were perfect from the day you were born until iniquity set in with you. (*additional note: this affirms that original sin wasn't a concept of Jewish belief either, but being born pure and having abilities to choose between “good and evil” was) Due to your great business dealings you were filled with violence; you have sinned, and thus, cherub, have you perished from amidst the stones of fire. Your pride of heart has corrupted your wisdom and your brightness, and like a fire from within you has it burned you up in full view of kings and all spectators. Whosoever knew you among the nations was shocked; like a wraith were you which is no more forever. ( Read starting with chapter 26 and it's really clear what is talked about here) Like the passage of Isaiah, his story is all about *condemning the notion of men as gods*; the King of Tyre being punished by God for setting himself up as a man/god. Later Christian dogma tries to take portions out of context to imply they refer to the Christian concept of the Devil as a “fallen" angel. Ezekiel has taken the titles and stories the king of Tyre has styled for himself and insulted and debased him for thinking himself a god.
Judaism is strictly monotheistic so there can be no entity that rules the underworld in opposition or contradiction to God or battles God. If an entity can threaten God‘s omnipotence, that would give that entity the attributes of a deity
4. "Both believe that God created the heavens, the earth and everything in it, including man." < That’s about the ONLY thing I see common yet our religion’s doctrines present antithetical concepts of thenature of the Creator and the human relationship to our Creator. A defining radical difference of Judaism to all other ancient religions was that God in the Torah is an incorporeal entity..God is an indivisible ONE, declares that God does not become a man, nor do men become a god.
5." Both believe in the Old Testament".
****There is no "fall" of any angels in the Hebrew Bible. I find it interesting that both passages of Tanakh that are linked to a fall of angels in Christian doctrine, in their context in the Hebrew Bible are condemning the notion that men can become gods.*****
The Christian concept of hell can also be better understood by reading the rendition of the ancient Myth of Er in Plato's book, the Republic. It and Plato's work Gorgias, he wrote that souls were judged after death and those who received punishment were sent to Tartarus. The Christian concept of hell did not come from the Torah, it came from the Hellenized Jews and Romans who wrote the New Testament replacement theology.
Many of the beliefs and concepts of Christianity borrowed terminology and outward appearance from Judaism, but reassigned different meanings to those words and concepts, sometimes at complete contradiction to the tenets of faith through Torah.
Once the doctrine of the New Testament appeared that changed the Tanakh concept of messiah meaning an anointed king, to mean a god incarnate as human as a sacrifice for sin and a "kingdom" not of this world, thus appealing to Hellenized Jews and Romans, this effectively changed the Christians from being enemies of Rome to tools of Rome. After Constantine , the First Christian Emperor of Rome (285-337 CE) the entire Roman empire was Christian.
I have recently seen some Christians try to point to a passage in Ezekiel as a place referring to the fall of Satan. However, HaSatan is also not found at all in the entire passage. In Ezekiel 28,it is the King of Tyre that is the subject of the narrative. A paraphrasing and explanation of the section is as follows: Verses 11-19 tell that a lamentation shall be raised over the king of Tyre: the personification of wisdom and beauty. Your covering is studded with the most precious stones as if you were in God's Garden of Eden. Your craftsmanship in wind instruments is as if it were preserved for the day you were born. Like the outspread cherub, so saintly were you, actually walking amidst stones of fire. You were perfect from the day you were born until iniquity set in with you. (*additional note: this affirms that original sin wasn't a concept of Jewish belief either, but being born pure and having abilities to choose between “good and evil” was) Due to your great business dealings you were filled with violence; you have sinned, and thus, cherub, have you perished from amidst the stones of fire. Your pride of heart has corrupted your wisdom and your brightness, and like a fire from within you has it burned you up in full view of kings and all spectators. Whosoever knew you among the nations was shocked; like a wraith were you which is no more forever. ( Read starting with chapter 26 and it's really clear what is talked about here) Like the passage of Isaiah, his story is all about *condemning the notion of men as gods*; the King of Tyre being punished by God for setting himself up as a man/god. Later Christian dogma tries to take portions out of context to imply they refer to the Christian concept of the Devil as a “fallen" angel. Ezekiel has taken the titles and stories the king of Tyre has styled for himself and insulted and debased him for thinking himself a god.
Judaism is strictly monotheistic so there can be no entity that rules the underworld in opposition or contradiction to God or battles God. If an entity can threaten God‘s omnipotence, that would give that entity the attributes of a deity
4. "Both believe that God created the heavens, the earth and everything in it, including man." < That’s about the ONLY thing I see common yet our religion’s doctrines present antithetical concepts of thenature of the Creator and the human relationship to our Creator. A defining radical difference of Judaism to all other ancient religions was that God in the Torah is an incorporeal entity..God is an indivisible ONE, declares that God does not become a man, nor do men become a god.
5." Both believe in the Old Testament".
NO. Christianity appropriated the Hebrew Bible and it's characters to insert itself and impose foreign and forbidden beliefs upon it. I already explained that the alterations through key words mistranslated, and the rearrangement of books to remove specific conextual reference/meaning of the Christian Old Testament is sinful and not something Jews use.
"However the differences between the two are the following"
"However the differences between the two are the following"
Did you count how many vast differences he was unaware of that I've already detailed?
1. "They don't both acknowledge Satan/Lucifer as God's adversary. (Christianity does)." < He is only partially correct as noted, Judaism has NO Lucifer, it doesn't appear in our Bible, and HaSatan is an adversary to HUMANS and can only do what God orders or permits. The Christian Bible gives their fallen angel/demon the capacity to battle and thwart the will of an omnipotent God thus giving him attributes of a deity and making Christianity not true monotheism.
2. "They don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah (Christianity does). "
1. "They don't both acknowledge Satan/Lucifer as God's adversary. (Christianity does)." < He is only partially correct as noted, Judaism has NO Lucifer, it doesn't appear in our Bible, and HaSatan is an adversary to HUMANS and can only do what God orders or permits. The Christian Bible gives their fallen angel/demon the capacity to battle and thwart the will of an omnipotent God thus giving him attributes of a deity and making Christianity not true monotheism.
2. "They don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah (Christianity does). "
Finally got one. But he failed to recognize that the new Testament completely redefines the nature and purpose of the Davidic messiah and claims that the prophecies of the Davidic messiah in the Hebrew Bible will be fulfilled at a 'second coming" nowhere prophesied in the Tanakh. And despite the fact they also claim he had already come back with a resurrection he still never did ONE thing prophesied. I would say this should technically force them to refer to another appearance of Jesus as a hoped for "third try".
In fact when his worship began, instead of bringing peace, brotherhood and justice for all Israel and then the rest of the world, more than a million Jews were murdered and Israel was exiled. The world today remains in chaos strife and war. That is the antithesis of a post-messianic world. Missionaries, people worshipping a failed messiah as a god incarnate and the world are the clear and objective physical evidence that God’s prophecies of the Davidic Messiah and Messianic age have not happened.
Jesus fits their doctrine's redefined notion of a messiah as an incarnate god and sacrifice to atone for all sins past present and future and their self-perceived inherent sinful nature..all notions antithetical to Torah. He fits absolutely nothing of the Davidic Messianic prophecy.
3. "I don't think they both believe in the existence of demons (Christianity does)."
Jesus fits their doctrine's redefined notion of a messiah as an incarnate god and sacrifice to atone for all sins past present and future and their self-perceived inherent sinful nature..all notions antithetical to Torah. He fits absolutely nothing of the Davidic Messianic prophecy.
3. "I don't think they both believe in the existence of demons (Christianity does)."
Judaism has traditionally held belief in demons, but humans are more powerful and can master their influence. Judaism appears to refer to some pagan false gods to be demons. This reference to pagan deities as demon like in existence, if they existed at all, is where Christianity even obtained yet other names for their devil. Beelzebub= the Lord of the Flies of the Phillistines for example, whose influence was believed by their ancient adherents was to bring pestilence to their enemies, became for Christians,another name for their Devil.
4. "Judaism does not believe that the New Testament is the continuation of the Old Testament (Otherwise they would accept Jesus as their Messiah and the Son of God)."
Finally another one right even though he's using the insulting misnomer about our Bible. Judaism does not accept that God would lie about His nature before the presence of all Israel at Sinai, would not lie about the purpose of our eternal covenant or about the Davidic messianic prophecies in our Tanakh, thus, the replacement theology of the New Testament that demonizes Jews in some very bizarre ways remains irrelevant to our faith. Their doctrine is antithetical to our covenant/Torah.
5. "Judaism does not believe that we become God's children by receiving the Holy Spirit."
5. "Judaism does not believe that we become God's children by receiving the Holy Spirit."
This is correct. All humans are *already* God's children. I found this statement a bit odd since earlier he appeared to recognize that Jews recognized all are children of God. A reading of Genesis would show that we are all God's children whether or not you know it or want to strive to live in brotherhood with all the rest of God's children. A foundational precept of Judaism is that all humans are equal before God.
6." Judaism believes that you must be circumcised to be a part of God's people,"
6." Judaism believes that you must be circumcised to be a part of God's people,"
Israel is a people who are obligated by our choice to live a separate role in serving God, humanity and all life. All humans are God’s whether they know it or not. Circumcision is God’s requirement as an eternal ( for all generations) outward symbol of being dedicated to the eternal covenant between God and Yisrael.
“where Christianity teaches that it is part of the Old Covenant “< Note, he’s calling what God says is eternal more than a dozen times in the Holy Scriptures, “Old”. Their New Covenant remains irrelevant to the eternal covenant and circumcision is only *mandatory for the Jews* according to the commandment from God in our Torah. NO where in the Jewish Bible does God teach that he is only for one people. God obligates the Jews to be exclusive in worship to God. That's an important difference.
"whereas the New Covenant by God teaches that we are to be baptized, confess our sins to God and repent, and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior to become a child of God :)" < see they reject God's teaching in Torah that all are already children of God and equal before God and available to connect to and know God directly. That all humans are directly accountable to one another to repent of wrong doing after trying to make amends before we seek pardon from God directly. Repentance in the Torah is directly available.
"whereas the New Covenant by God teaches that we are to be baptized, confess our sins to God and repent, and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior to become a child of God :)" < see they reject God's teaching in Torah that all are already children of God and equal before God and available to connect to and know God directly. That all humans are directly accountable to one another to repent of wrong doing after trying to make amends before we seek pardon from God directly. Repentance in the Torah is directly available.
explains Torah's concept of repentance. God teaches in the Torah that the righteous of all nations merit blessing. The prophets echo this understanding of Torah. No one *has* to be a Jew to know God or have blessing or atonement.
Christianity takes many terms and words from Judaism but assigns foreign meanings to them. Some of the meanings are even directly forbidden by commandment in the Torah. THIS is the core irreconcilable differences in the two faiths, the nature of God and how humans connect to God and our fellow man! In the Torah we are taught that all humans are equal before God. Judaism, through Torah has always taught that the righteous of all nations are blessed of God and also can know God directly. Because most Christians have no clue as to the history and development of their religion and it’s New Testament and because their view of Judaism is entirely through the lens of their replacement theology, they have no idea that it’s precepts and narratives give a view of our Judaism that is entirely foreign TO it.
Torah never teaches that God is exclusive to the Jews, but Torah demands that the Jews are exclusive to the incorporeal omnipotent and indivisible God of Israel.
The religion of Judaism as we understand the teachings of Torah, is a world-affirming, not world-denying faith. We use the gifts and blessings we have in this world to make it better for ourselves, for our families and for the rest of the world.
Judaim stresses a path called Tikkun Olam or repair of the world. Jews believe that we have an obligation to strive to be a light unto the nations in fulfilling our role to do this.
Tikkun Olam is about "repairing the world" through human actions. Humanity is empowered in the responsibility to change and improve the world. Each person has a hand in working towards the betterment of his or her own existence as well as the lives of future generations.
It is humans, not God, who are given the task to bring the world back to its original state of holiness. God obligates Yisrael to strive to make way for the Davidic messiah and Messianic Age when all humans know each other as children of God, all equal before God. More simply, it is important for Jews to participate in repairing the world by participating in tzedakah (justice and righteousness) and g'milut hasadim (acts of loving kindness). Without our stake in the improvement of our world, injustice and evil will continue to exist. The Davidic Messiah will be ruling a world that lives in this direct connection and understanding of God. No one would need to be taught or convinced the Messianic age had arrived. All will know.
To the Christian who believes that his New covenant of faith replaced the eternal covenant of faith and that Jews are blinded by God to our very purpose and our own Holy Scriptures, this can come off as exceedingly “blind” of them not to be capable of seeing that God’s Torah remains intact, unaltered, despite the exiles of ancient empires, crusade, inquisition, pogrom , Holocaust , Jihad and missionary endeavors, and our world is still without universal knowledge of God as our Father and one another as brethren before God in equal footing.
Believing Jews will never worship a man as God. Jews aren't waiting for anyone like Jesus to "return", we are busy striving to learn and live what we learn about how to fulfill our obligation as a light unto the nations, and have faith that one day, injustice, bigotry and war will be no more when all humans know God and know one another as children of God.
Christianity takes many terms and words from Judaism but assigns foreign meanings to them. Some of the meanings are even directly forbidden by commandment in the Torah. THIS is the core irreconcilable differences in the two faiths, the nature of God and how humans connect to God and our fellow man! In the Torah we are taught that all humans are equal before God. Judaism, through Torah has always taught that the righteous of all nations are blessed of God and also can know God directly. Because most Christians have no clue as to the history and development of their religion and it’s New Testament and because their view of Judaism is entirely through the lens of their replacement theology, they have no idea that it’s precepts and narratives give a view of our Judaism that is entirely foreign TO it.
Torah never teaches that God is exclusive to the Jews, but Torah demands that the Jews are exclusive to the incorporeal omnipotent and indivisible God of Israel.
The religion of Judaism as we understand the teachings of Torah, is a world-affirming, not world-denying faith. We use the gifts and blessings we have in this world to make it better for ourselves, for our families and for the rest of the world.
Judaim stresses a path called Tikkun Olam or repair of the world. Jews believe that we have an obligation to strive to be a light unto the nations in fulfilling our role to do this.
Tikkun Olam is about "repairing the world" through human actions. Humanity is empowered in the responsibility to change and improve the world. Each person has a hand in working towards the betterment of his or her own existence as well as the lives of future generations.
It is humans, not God, who are given the task to bring the world back to its original state of holiness. God obligates Yisrael to strive to make way for the Davidic messiah and Messianic Age when all humans know each other as children of God, all equal before God. More simply, it is important for Jews to participate in repairing the world by participating in tzedakah (justice and righteousness) and g'milut hasadim (acts of loving kindness). Without our stake in the improvement of our world, injustice and evil will continue to exist. The Davidic Messiah will be ruling a world that lives in this direct connection and understanding of God. No one would need to be taught or convinced the Messianic age had arrived. All will know.
To the Christian who believes that his New covenant of faith replaced the eternal covenant of faith and that Jews are blinded by God to our very purpose and our own Holy Scriptures, this can come off as exceedingly “blind” of them not to be capable of seeing that God’s Torah remains intact, unaltered, despite the exiles of ancient empires, crusade, inquisition, pogrom , Holocaust , Jihad and missionary endeavors, and our world is still without universal knowledge of God as our Father and one another as brethren before God in equal footing.
Believing Jews will never worship a man as God. Jews aren't waiting for anyone like Jesus to "return", we are busy striving to learn and live what we learn about how to fulfill our obligation as a light unto the nations, and have faith that one day, injustice, bigotry and war will be no more when all humans know God and know one another as children of God.
