Christianity is a world religion based on the gospel and the life of Jesus Christ, the son of God. The life and teachings of Jesus are described in the New Testament; the book that forms the second part of the Christian Bible. The first part of the Bible is called the Old Testament by Christians, but is known in Judaism as the Tanakh. While Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah (Hebrew) or Christ (Latin) who was predicted and announced in the Old Testament, Jews believe that the Messiah has yet to come. Partly this difference in view and the fact that both groups of believers expressed their faith in a different way caused Christianity to split from Judaism.
Contents
- The background of Judaism
- Spread of Judaism
- Rise of Christianity
The background of Judaism
Christianity is a religion that split from Judaism in the mid-first century. In order to understand how the Christian movement emerged within Judaism, it is important to have some knowledge of Jewish history.
Israelites
According to the Torah (the first five books of the Tanakh), the Jews are descended from the Israelites. The Israelites were twelve nations, each of which descended from one of the twelve sons of the Israelite patriarch Jacob, who was also called Israel. The translation of the word Israelites is therefore ‘Sons of Israel’ or ‘Children of Israel’. The Israelites lived in Egypt where they were enslaved by the Egyptian pharaohs, but they were freed by the great prophet Moses who was sent by God.
The Sinai
Moses and the Israelites then wandered in the desert for 40 years until God revealed himself to them on Mount Sinai. On this mountain Moses received the Ten Commandments from God and made a covenant with the Israelites. If they promised to keep His law (Torah), He would give them the Promised Land of Canaan. Over the years, the Israelites conquered Canaan and divided the land among their twelve tribes.
United Kingdom Israel
Around the year 1000 BC, the Israelites decided to unite into a United Kingdom of Israel led by the Israelite King Saul. This monarchy lasted until King Solomon, but then the kingdom split into two parts: the Kingdom of Israel, with Samaria as its capital, and the Kingdom of Judah, with Jerusalem as its capital. The Kingdom of Israel managed to maintain itself until the eighth century BC and the Kingdom of Judah until the sixth century BC. Both the Israelites in Israel and Judah were exiled after the conquest, but – unlike the Jews from Israel – the Jews from Judah quickly managed to return to their native land.
Spread of Judaism
We take a small leap in time ending in the third century BC. The original Israelites from Israel have now been replaced by a people called the Samaritans, a mix of Israelites, Babylonians, Arabs and Syrians. In Judah (called Yehudah in Hebrew) there lives a people consisting of original Israelites who were given the name Yehudi (Hebrew) or Jews (Dutch).
Conflict
Both Judah and Samaria were located in an area known as the Levant; the part of Southwest Asia located immediately east of the Mediterranean Sea. And this area was conquered by Alexander the Great (356 – 323 BC) around the year 330 BC. While the Samaritans allowed themselves to be Hellenized quite easily, the (orthodox) Jews in Judah wanted nothing to do with it and therefore decided to revolt. Between the years 167 and 160 BC, the Jews fought Judah for independence, after which Judah continued as the Hasmonean Empire.
Different visions
In the year 63 BC, the Hasmonean Empire was conquered by general Pompey (106 BC – 48 BC) and over the years transformed into the Roman province of Judea. After the conquest by Pompey, the Jews had decided to leave Judea and had founded new Jewish communities in various places along the Mediterranean Sea. The spread of the Jews meant that the new Jewish communities were given the freedom to develop their own vision of Judaism.
Currents
Through the work of the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37 circa 100 AD), we know that four political-religious movements were active within Judaism in the last century BC. These movements were seen by the pagans (non-Jews) as sects of Judaism:
- The vast majority of Jews belonged to the Sadducees. The Sadducees were highly Hellenized and actively collaborated with the Romans.
- The conservative religious Jews who wanted a theocracy (a form of government in which the deity was regarded as the immediate authority) were called the Pharisees.
- The Essenes were Jews who led a very pious and strict way of life and lived in mystical communes.
- And the Jews who strove to gain Judea’s independence from the Romans were called the Zealots.
Messianism and apocalypticism
Under the leadership of the Romans, the Jews became increasingly dissatisfied and as the beginning of the common era approached, two more movements within Judaism emerged. The first movement was politically oriented Messianism and the second religiously oriented apocalypticism. The followers of messianism awaited the arrival of a new messiah (Hebrew) or Christ (Latin) who would restore the independence of Judea. The apocalyptic expected that God would soon intervene so that He could establish His rule on earth. Jesus, who was born around this period, would later join the apocalyptic movement.
Rise of Christianity
Christianity probably originated in the first half of the first century, but because there are no primary sources from this period that mention this, this cannot be verified. It was not until the second half of the first century that various writings mentioned a new movement within Judaism, called Christianity.
The New Testament
All the information we have about Christianity in the second half of the first century comes from the 27 writings that make up the New Testament. The New Testament is the second part of the Bible; the holy book of the Christians. The oldest writings that are considered part of the New Testament include the ‘Letters of Paul’ (written between ± 51 and ± 62 AD), followed by the ‘Gospel according to Mark’ (written around 60 AD). While the ‘Letters of Paul’ provide insight into the ideas and controversies of Christianity, the ‘Gospel according to Mark’ provides a biography of Jesus Christ. According to the Christians, Jesus was the messiah who was predicted and announced in the first part of the Jewish Tanakh – called the Old Testament by the Christians.
Canonization
Until the middle of the second century, it was common to write scriptures and gospels (biographies of Jesus) anonymously, making it difficult to determine the historical accuracy and/or authorship of the writings. It was therefore decided to separate the wheat from the chaff by canonizing (canonizing) (alleged) authentic writings. (Alleged) forged documents were labeled ‘apocryphal’. Ultimately, canonization of the writings was completed by the end of the fourth century, after which the collection of 27 writings was transformed into the New Testament.
Christianity vs. Judaism
In the first century AD, Christianity was seen by the pagans (non-Jews) as just another sect within Judaism. But both the Jewish Christians and the Jews thought completely differently about this. Both parties had their own views on observance of the laws of the Torah and, especially in the area of converts, the opinions of the Jews and the Jewish Christians differed widely. During the course of the first century it became clear that Jewish Christians could no longer identify with Judaism and they decided to split off.