INTRODUCTION

Christianity began as a renewal movement within Judaism that sought to encompass Judaism.Yet it
did not initially define itself over and against Judaism as it’s opposite. It did no seemingly reject
Judaism and its entire tenets. Christianity, as it would later become, was originally a positive
movement within Judaism1. This movement began with Jesus Christ. His followers remembered
much about that brief period and facts about him can be recovered by a close study of the gospels
and of the historical background. However, as a strong movement in the history of the world,
Christianity took off only after his (Jesus) death and then it had to survive great hostility.
According to the history, there were several sects in the Jewish religion. Some of them include:
Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots but also other less influential sects, including the Essenes. The
first century BC and first century AD saw a growing number of charismatic religious leaders
contributing to what would become the Mishnah of Rabbinic Judaism. A central concern in 1st
century Judaism was the covenant with God, and the status of the Jews as the chosen people of
God. Many Jews believed that this covenant would be renewed with the coming of the Messiah.

BRIEF LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST

Jesus Christ born in Bethlehem, according to Mathew and Luke, was a Galilean from Nazareth,
one of the two major cities of Galilee. He was born to Joseph and Mary sometime between 6 BC
and shortly before the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC. According to Matthew and Luke,
however, Joseph was only legally his father 2. They report that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was
conceived and that she “was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”( Matthew 1:18) (Luke
1:35). Joseph is said to have been a carpenter (Matthew 13:55) that is, a craftsman who worked
with his hands and, according to Mark 6:3, Jesus also became a carpenter. Jesus as a child was
precociously learned, but there is no other evidence of his childhood or early life. As the scripture
says “His parent used to go to every year to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,… As they were
retuning at the end of the feast, the child Jesus remained in the temple…”( Luke 2:41-52) As a
young adult, he went to be baptized by the prophet John the Baptist and shortly thereafter became
an itinerant preacher and healer in his mid-30s. Jesus had a short public career, lasting perhaps less

1
David L. E. (1997), Christianity the first Two Thousand Years (London, Cassell Wellington House)
Page1.
2
Sanders E.P.  et.al (1998) Jesus and Judaism and The Historical Figure of Jesus. (Duke University).
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus// retrieved 5/12/2020.
1
than one year, during which he attracted considerable attention. Sometime between AD 29 and AD
30, he went to observe Passover in Jerusalem, where his entrance, according to the Gospels, was
triumphant and infused with eschatological significance. While there he was arrested, tried, and
executed. The most certain and well attested fact about Jesus of Nazareth is that he was tried,
sentenced and executed by the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate on a charge of high treason. This
does not make him unique. Many thousands of Jewish rebels and revolutionaries were crucified by
the Roman rulers of Palestine during this era. The Jews on the whole were opposed to Roman rule,
and some of them, as we have seen, were intent upon overthrowing the Romans and restoring the
kingdom of Israel. Jesus was found guilty of being involved in some such conspiracy and,
moreover, of claiming to be the rightful king of the Jews, the heir to the throne, or what the Jews
would have called the Messiah.3 According to his disciples, he resurrected and they very much
convinced that he still lived and had appeared to them (Jn. 20:19-30). They converted others to
belief in him, which eventually led to a new religion, Christianity.
In fact, Jesus was capable as the advancement in the historical backdrop of humankind. He rose
above all that had ever been said also, done previously. He was all around a definitive, the last
word. He was on a standard with God. His statement was God’s assertion. His Soul was God’s
Spirit. His emotions were God’s sentiments. What he represented was actually equivalent to a big
motivator for God. No higher assessment was possible. To trust in Jesus today is to concur with
this evaluation of him.

THE EARLIEST JESUS’ MOVEMENTS

The term “Christian” itself was not really recognized until the first Century as recorded in the
scripture; “for the whole year they met in the church instructed greater number. It was in Antioch
that the disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). By way of secular history, Christianity
began among a small group about 120AD of Jews and Jewish Proselytes. This implies that the
earliest members of the Christian faith were Jews and thus stood firm on the Jewish faith and
tradition. It also means that they were monotheists, devoted to the God of Israel and on the
tradition inherited by Hebrew people in Israel and therefore the lands of the Diaspora. Even when
they claimed that Jesus was divine, they tried to do so in ways in which wouldn’t challenge

3
Albert N. (1976), Jesus before Christianity (South Africa, David Philip, Publisher (Pty) Ltd) Pg 113.
2
monotheism. Some of the passages in the Hebrew Bible quoted by the Christians depended on the
Septuagint, a translation into Greek which was to be replaced by a more accurate version. 4
Insofar as they began to separate or be separated from Judaism, which did not accept Jesus as the
Messiah, the earliest Christians expressed certain ideas about the one on whom their faith focused.
As with other religious people, they became involved in an exceedingly way looking for truth.
God, within the very nature of things, was necessarily the ultimate truth. In a reference preserved
within the Gospel consistent with John, however, Jesus refers to himself not only as “the way” and
“the life” but also as “the truth” (Jn 14: 16).This is exactly what he replied to Thomas when he
claimed of not knowing Christ. From the start there have been Christians who might not have seen
Jesus as being the truth or as a singular participant within the reality of God.

JEWISH RELIGION AND TEACHINGS OF JUDAISM

According to Omoregbe, Judaism as a religion was founded by Moses (1300 B.C.E) at the foot of
Mount Sinai with the making of a solemn contractual agreement between the people of Israel and
their God, Yahweh. By so doing, the people of Israel bound themselves, as a nation, to Yahweh
their God in a solemn way, promising to serve no other god except Yahweh. Yahweh on his part
promised to take special care of the people of Israel as his own people and gave them
commandments (the Decalogue) which they must observe (Ex.20). 5 This was the foundation on
which Judaism was erected, and it became a reference point all their subsequent history. This
covenant is renewed and revised from time to time in Hebrew history, usually at some critical
juncture. Its form becomes more detailed and explicit, as in the book of Deuteronomy, and in point
of fact the religious conditions to which Israel has to conform are drastically changed, as when all
the local cults were suppressed and worship centralized in Jerusalem.
Furthermore, the ancient Israelites’ entire mode of existence was affected by their belief that
throughout history they stood in a unique relationship with the divine. The people of Israel
believed that their response to the divine presence in history was central not only for themselves
but for all humankind. For them, God as a being had been revealed in a particular encounter within
the pattern and structure of communal and individual life to this people. The various teachings of
Judaism have often been regarded as specifications of the central idea of monotheism. One God,
4
David L. E. (1997) Pg. 39.
5
Omoregbe, J. (1999), Comparative Religion: Christianity and other World Religions in Dialogue,
(Lagos: Joja Press Ltd) Pg 38.
3
the creator of the world, has freely elected the Jewish people for a unique covenantal relationship
with himself. This one and only God has been affirmed by virtually all professing Jews in a variety
of ways throughout the ages. Jewish monotheism has had both universalistic and particularistic
features. Along universal lines, it has affirmed “a God who created and rules the entire world and
who at the end of history will redeem all Israel (the classical name for the Jewish people), all
humankind, and indeed the whole world”.6 This means that the ultimate goal of all nature and
history is an unending reign of cosmic intimacy with God, entailing universal justice and peace.
Between creation and redemption lies the particularistic designation of the Jewish people as the
locus of God’s activity in the world, as the people chosen by God to be “a kingdom of priests and a
holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). This arrangement designates a covenant and is structured by an
elaborate and intricate law. Thus, the Jewish people are both entitled to special privileges and
burdened with special responsibilities from God. As the prophet Amos expressed it: “You alone
have I intimately known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your
iniquities” (Amos 3:2). The universal goal of the Jewish people has frequently expressed itself in
Messianism the idea of a universal, political realm of justice and peace. In one form or another,
messianism has permeated Jewish thinking and action throughout the ages, and it has strongly
influenced the outlook of many secular-minded Jews.
Another aspect of Jewish teaching is Law; law embraces practically all domains of Jewish life, and
it became the principal means by which Judaism was to bring about the reign of God on earth. For
him, it is a total guide to religious and ethical conduct, involving ritualistic observance as well as
individual and social ethics. It is a liturgical and ethical way constantly expatiated on by the
prophets and priests, by rabbinic sages, and by philosophers. Such conduct was to be performed in
the service of God, the transcendent and immanent ruler of the universe, the Creator and the
propelling force of nature, and the one giving divine guidance, and purpose to history. According
to Judaic belief, this divine guidance is manifested through, the history of the Jewish people, which
will culminate in the messianic age. Judaism, whether in its “normative” form or in its sectarian
deviations, never completely departed from this basic ethical and historical monotheism.
CHRISTIANITY AND MISION OF JESUS CHRIST

6
Ehrman, B.D (2012) Christianity in the 1st century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki// retrieved
11/12/2020.

4
As earlier affirmed Christianity began as a movement within Judaism at a period when the Jews
had long been dominated culturally and politically by foreign powers and had found in their
religion (rather than in their politics or cultural achievements) the linchpin of their community.
Jesus did not found an organization; he inspired a movement. It was inevitable that the movement
would quite soon become an organization but in the beginning there were simply people, scattered
individuals and groups, who had been inspired by Jesus. There were the twelve, the women, his
family (Mary, James, Jude), many of the poor and the oppressed who had been put on their feet by
him; there were disciples in Galilee and disciples in Jericho (e.g., Zacchaeus) and Jerusalem (e.g.,
Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus) (Acts 6:7; 15:5). There were Greek speaking Jews like the
seven Hellenists who were inspired by what they had heard about him (Acts 6:1-6) there were even
Pharisees and priests who joined the community that had been formed in Jerusalem.
In Jesus’ earthly mission, he ministered to the spiritually and physically hurting people of Israel
(and nearby regions).He promoted a purist, personal faith based upon absolute love of God and
neighbor, and he challenged the corruption/oppression of the political and religious elite. Socially,
this led to controversy and conflict with the ruling powers in Jerusalem, Judea, and Roman
demesnes. Eventually, Jesus was arrested, tried, and convicted by the Sanhedrin under Caiaphas,
the Jewish High Priest, and for treason in the Roman courts under Pontius Pilate, the Roman
governor of Judea (although Jesus’ Jewish enemies wanted him convicted of blasphemy).
Jesus’ teaching began to manifest following his words as recorded in the gospel “Go therefore and
make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always,
even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19–20). Consequently, the followers of Jesus began
sharing the good news of the resurrected Messiah.

THE UNDENIAL ROOT OF CHRISTIAN TRADITION FROM JEWISH TRADITION

The liturgical life of the early Christian community expresses the inextricable tie Christianity has
with Judaism. Historically, Christian rituals depend upon Jewish rituals and to a lesser extent upon
other religious rituals of the Hellenistic era. A great deal of work has been done in this century to
demonstrate the Jewish origin of Christian rites. The Jewish rites themselves, however, are a
reinterpretation of and historicization of more general rituals forms.
Christian rites, then, did not appear fully developed upon the scene. They represent a new
valorization, or building upon rites that already existed in the first century A.D. They were infused
5
with new meanings that completely transformed their inner nature, but they have the rites and
symbols of natural religion and specific reinterpretation of those rites by Judaism as their
necessary foundation.7 However, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, for both Jews
and Christians, Sacred Scriptures is an essential part of their respective liturgies: in the
proclamation of the word of God, the response to this word, prayer of praise and intercession for
the living and for the dead, invocation of God’s mercy. In its characteristics, the structure of this
liturgy originates in Jewish prayer.8
Christian converts from Judaism would all be familiar with the pattern of public worship in the
temple and the synagogue and probably many continued to worship in the synagogue while also
celebrating the Eucharist “AT HOME”. The temple in the Jewish tradition was recognized as the
only place where sacrifice could be offered to God, and many thousands of Jews from elsewhere in
Roman Palestine and from the Diaspora made pilgrimages to Jerusalem for one or more great
festal occasions: Passover, First fruit, etc.

A COMPARISON OF JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY

As much as there are differences between the two religious groupings, there are also similarities
between them. This is because, Christianity emerged and protested from Judaism, but it is not a
continuation of Judaism as some people would suppose it to .There are various characteristics that
make the two different or similar. No one who examines Judaism and Christianity in a broad
religion and historical perspective can fail to impress by the profound likeness of the two
religions.9 It is worthy to note that the religion believe and affirm the living God. God who is
supreme above all, the Go of our father Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who is a king, judge
and redeemer. Abraham as it is written in the book of Genesis is the father of faith, both Jews and
Christians see Abraham’s coming out of the pagan world as a work of God and a divine call. For
them, God is true knowledge. Then the true knowledge of God is accessible only through his self
revelation in encounter with man and that scripture is in some sense both vehicle and record of
such record of such revelation.

7
Leonel L. M. (1977), The Meaning of Ritual, (Harissburg, Morehouse Publishing), Pg. 39.
8
Catechism of the Catholic Church (2013), The Revised Edition. (Ibadan, St. Paul Publication)
n.1096.
9
Will, H. (1953) Judaism and Christianity: Their Unity and Difference. Vol. 21, No. 2 (Apr., 1953),
(Published By: Oxford University Press) pp. 67-78
6
Furthermore, the two religions see man as a unitary, self transcending, dynamic, responsive, and
responsible creature, in contrast to both the mystical idealists and naturalist views of man.
Still based on the similarities and differences of the both religion, they see man as original in order
of creation ordained to God and therefore at one with world and himself. They both see this primal
harmony upset and all creation “spoiled” by man’s sin which essentially self-will in rebellion
against God, the idolatrous diversion of ultimate allegiance from God to something that is not God.
Christianity’s center of attention is found on “The Original Sin” which is the sin that was
committed by Adam and Eve while they were in the Garden of Eden and continues on from that
generation to this generation we are living today .While Judaism’s center of attention on “Sin”
connotes the continuous sins committed after a person is born, thus proving that at birth a person is
with no sin. This divergence of doctrine is seen in both religions’ interpretation of the fall.
According to the Christian perspective, when Adam and Eve sinned, the glory of God in them was
taken away, thus making the whole creation perverted (Gen 3:19.). While in Judaism, when Adam
and Eve sinned, God made them to suffer the consequences by only chasing them out of the
Garden of Eden but never meant that sin will follow their forthcoming generation (Gen 3: 23).
Christianity’s element of redemption that is meant to return the glory of God which was lost after
Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden is only through Jesus Christ who is claimed to be God
in the flesh and a part of the Holy trinity, cleanses the sins of the whole world for those who accept
this redemption. The Judaism element of redemption is done through prayer which cleanses the sin
impartially, and full cleansing is done after they ask for forgiveness from the people.
According to Jews, Jesus was just a good man and was not reincarnation of God into mankind. He
has no powers to save souls as Christians perceive and believe it to be. Again he never resurrected
from the dead. Judaism has never approved Jesus as the Prince of Peace and the Messiah. They
claim that the Prince of Peace shall rule the world later and peace shall dominate this whole world.
Christianity believes Jesus as the Prince of peace and the promised Messiah and all who accept this
divinity have peace in their minds and souls.10
Furthermore, Judaism continues to state that God is one. God cannot be made of three parts which
are termed as the Holy trinity as Christians profess. They claim that this can be compared to
pagans who worship many gods and that the capacity of claiming that God is in three parts
diminishes the preeminence of his power. Therefore, it has no room for Jesus ascribing a position

10
UK Essays (2018). Similarities Between Judaism And Christianity Religion Essay.
https://www.ukessays.com// retrieved from 28/11/20.
7
of being God the Son. This is opposed by Christianity since according to the Bible which claims
that “In the beginning there was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. The
word became flesh and dwelt among us in this world” (John 1:1, 14). As much as there are
differences and similarities, only time can tell since Christianity is based on faith. There is no
religion that can be placed above the other.

EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION

To understand the earliest Jesus movements in genuinely historical terms requires some serious
rethinking of standard assumptions and approaches in conventional New Testament studies, which
developed as a foundation for Christian theology. Standard interpretation of the Gospels in
particular focuses on Jesus as an individual figure or on the Christology of one of the Gospels. It is
simply assumed that the Gospels and other scriptural books are religious and that Jesus and the
Gospels were pivotal in the origin of the new, universal, and truly spiritual religion, “Christianity”,
from the old, parochial, and overly political religion, “Judaism”. In the ancient world in which the
Gospels originated, however, religion was not separated from political economic life. In fact, at the
time of Jesus there was no such thing yet as a religion called Judaism, judging from our sources
such as the Gospels, the Dead Sea Scrolls, or the contemporary Judean historian Josephus.
Similarly, something that could intelligibly be called Christianity had not developed until late
antiquity, well after the time when the books that were later included in the New Testament and
related literature were composed by leaders associated with the movements focused on Jesus.11
It is evident from the foregoing that strictly speaking, the career and ministry of Jesus, and his
relations with his disciples, do not come under the heading “Christianity.” They are rather part of
the history of Jewish sectarian movements toward the end of the Second Temple period. As a
matter of fact, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to reconstruct with any degree of certainty
the career and teachings of Jesus, and many scholars have given up the quest for the “historical
Jesus” as hopeless. As a result of “telescoping back” the consciousness and beliefs of the early
church to the life and ministry of the founder, the use of the New Testament as a historical source
requires much philological care and critical prudence.

11
Richard A.H. (2009) Early Christian movements: Jesus movements and the renewal of Israel, (USA;
University of Massachusetts, Boston) n. 3

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Finally, it very difficult to say that, the very existence of similarities merely exacerbated the
conflict. For the Christians, the similarities were further proof that they were the fulfillment of
everything that was valid in the “Old Covenant,” and that the Jews preserved nothing but an empty
shell, a degenerate and corrupt form of a misunderstood reality. For the Jews it became impossible
to see the Christians as merely a strange and completely alien religion, since they appeared as
claimants to the Israelite heritage, bent on dispossessing the Jewish people of the validity and
authenticity of its religious existence. In due course the Jewish Christians were included in the
category of those sectarians whom the Jewish community rejected and anathematized. Hence, the
New Testament describes Jesus as engaged in violent polemics against the “Scribes and
Pharisees,” and especially against the interpretation of Torah and Judaism which they represented.

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Ehrman, B.D. (2012) Christianity in the 1st century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki// retrieved
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Leonel L. M. (1977), The Meaning of Ritual, Harissburg, Morehouse Publishing.
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Richard A.H. (2009) Early Christian movements: Jesus movements and the renewal of Israel, on
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The New Community Bible, (2015), Second Edition for Africa. Ibadan, St. Paul Publication.
UK Essays (2018). Similarities Between Judaism And Christianity Religion Essay.
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Will, H. (1953) Judaism and Christianity: Their Unity and Difference. Vol. 21, No. 2 (Apr., 1953),
Published By: Oxford University Press

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