Termpaper of Last Semester:“God is one” from Judaism to Christianity
Wednesday, March 21, 2007 by Eva.Usermaatre
1, IntroductionJudaism and Christianity, two of the world’s most famous religions sometimes are misunderstood by outsiders that they consider these two separately and simply ignore the internal relationship between these two religions. In fact, Christianity did not gain its name at its birth and was regarded as one sect from Judaism during the late Second Temple Period of the 1st century. What really separated Christianity from Judaism was the worship of Jesus which at that time was unacceptable for most devout Jews. But I should leave this characteristic phenomenon to the later discussion.
In the early years of Christianity, it had a lot of in common with Judaism. Maybe a more precise expression should be that Christianity inherited some very fundamental concepts from Judaism. And in this article, my aim is to focus on one heritage which is both for Christianity and Judaism important—monotheism. It is the fact that these two religions are well known for their monotheism throughout the history, but how the Jewish monotheism influenced the Christian monotheism, what are the similarities and variations between two. These are the main questions involved in this article. To explain those, I will divided this article into two parts. In the first part, the focus will be the shared monotheistic characters, and the second part will be the variations of the monotheism in Christianity.
2, Shared monotheism in Judaism and Christianity
Judaism is the oldest monotheistic religion known to the world, long before the birth of Christianity. It was famous for its unique way of worship and also the concept of the chosen people and the expectation of the Messiah. According to the Hebrew Bible, the origin can be traced back to the forefather of the Jews—Abraham. Then he was followed by his offspring Isaac, Jacob and also a series of historical events occurred which played important role in Judaism: the Exodus, the Jewish moral law delivered by Moses and also the great settlement.
To connect Judaism and Christianity together, I simply pick out the time period of the Second Temple Period (576BC—70AD). For Christianity, this time period was crucial, for it was the context of the Christian origin. The characters and moral traditions of Judaism greatly influenced the birth of Christianity.
Although I deliberately choose the Second Temple Period, the core characteristics of Judaism changed a little. Still, it is important to clarify the main characters.
At the time of Second Temple Period, Judaism had already gained its reputation of strange worship. From the eyes of outsiders, Jews held an entirely different worldview. Here is a quotation from a letter of a Roman official, he wrote: the Jews acknowledged one God only, and conceived of Him by the mind alone. (Larry W. Hurtado 2005:118) The character of the religion in Roman domination was quite cosmopolitan, Rome embraced various deities from the civilized world, and people sometimes worship more than one god. Differ from the Roman religion, Judaism was indeed a strict monotheism. And Jews were as well self—consciously monotheists. They had already drawn the clear distinction between God and other creatures; what’s more, their daily worship functioned as a reminder which repeated the oneness of the God. (cf. Richard Bauckham 1998:25) To detail the features of Jewish monotheism, I would state three points which serve strong evidence :
1, the Jews knew who their God was.
For Jews, they knew that the name of God was YHWH and also the actions of God he once did.
The God of Israel once released himself to Moses:” YHWH, YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…” (Richard Bauckham 1998:9)YHWH was recognized by Jews as the one God who was the creator of the universe and the sole ruler of all things. According to the Hebrew Bible of Genesis, God single-handed brought the world into being:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the water. (Dan Cohn. Sherbok1994:35)
It is clear that in this record that God alone, without help from any other assistant, any other advisor, created the heaven and earth. Everything came from him. He was the first.
Jews held the idea that they were the chosen people of God, and God would help his people when they were in trouble. God brought them out of Egypt, and sent them moral principles—Ten Commands and also fulfilled the promise of the land.
In short, the one God is called YHWH, he was the creator of the universe and the ruler of all things. He was the God of Israelites who gave them freedom and principles.
2, Worshipping the one God.
The unique and sovereignty position of God certainly required a exclusive worship. It was forbidden worshipping deities other than YHWH. In everyday life of Jews, the oneness of God was reminded during their worship. One of the most famous practices was the Shema in which it reads:” Hear, O Israel, YHWH our God, YHWH is one.” (Richard Bauckham 1998:6) It continues with the reading: You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. (Richard Bauckham 1998:6) Shema was recited twice a day, morning and evening. From the readings it is easy to get the conclusion that due to the greatness and oneness of God, people of Israel worship him. So it means that the worship of God is a kind of recognition of the uniqueness of God. On other deities and creatures deserve worship. If people have some other gods, they are making idols. Generally, in the Jewish religion, people should have no other gods before the One. Making idols is blasphemy. Only the One who is the first one and the last one deserve the worship.
3, The distinction of God and other semi—divines.
In the Second Temple Period literatures, Hebrew were concerning and, at some level showed respect to a number of exalted figures, like the angelic figures. But those actions did not mean that they worship them and denied the uniqueness of God. In Jewish culture, angels were considered the chief agent of God and the other two group—prophets and God’s Word and Wisdom were also included. It was the fact that those groups held important position, they were portrayed as sharing in the creation and sitting besides God in heaven( Wisdom),as endowed with the divine name( the angel Yohoel), as the one for whom the world was created(Moses), or as the caption set over all God’s other angles(Michael). (Larry W. Hurtado 2005:47) But on matter how exalted the positions were, they were only the servants of God, and creatures created by God too.
For angels, they were creatures created by God and served Him. They stood with the gestures of servants, waiting for the commands of God and carrying them out. However, God sat on his throne in the heaven spoke out the words. Obviously, angels were never parallel with God.
According to the Genesis, God’s Wisdom participated in the creation as his adviser, but the fact was that the Wisdom should not be considered as an individual but part of the identity of God. That means that the nature of Wisdom is intrinsic to God. (cf. Richard Bauckham 1998:21)
To sum up this part, I would like to quote a remark from the book “How on the earth did Jesus became God” by author Larry W. Hurtado: God is variously represented as one and unique, as creator, ruler and king, residing in heaven, all-power, all-seeing, omniscient, as father of Israel, as savior, as judge, as righteous, terrible, merciful, benevolent and forbearing. (Larry W. Hurtado 2005:118)
Under this strict atmosphere, came a young man called Jesus. He was born a Jew and lived a Jew. Many Christians forget the fact that Jesus was a Jew, but considered him as a figure that was out of and even against Jewish traditions. However Jesus himself never had the idea that he was a non-Jew: think not that I have come to abolish the Law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but fulfill them.① From his remark, we can come to the conclusion that Jesus never hated of being a Jew. He was certainly taught by Jewish traditions, and “he certainly would have known of the temple in Jerusalem…would have gone up the Jerusalem for the major pilgrimages festivals. He would have known of the rituals of Temple. He would have celebrated the Passover,” ② he would maturely bear in mind that the God is one. Although his ideas were very rebellious, were totally within the framework of Judaism. As a result, his teaching, at some standards was not so wired in Jewish communities. It would not be so heretic for Jews and as well as his followers. So at first, there was no saying that a new religion was forming within the Jewish communities but just a movement led by Jesus and his follower who were all Jews, who all followed Jewish traditions. But the death and resurrection of Jesus marked the separation of Judaism and Christianity. Since the preaching of Peter to the Gentiles, the number of non-Jewish Christian grew rapidly. At the last several decades of the 1st century, the number of non-Jewish Christians overcame the number of Jewish Christians. In the early Christian communities, believers, like Jesus himself, believed in one God whose name is YHWH, the creator of the universe, ruler of all things. They believed that God was the first one and would be the last one. The earliest resources to exam these concepts were the letters from Paul to his fellow churches. According to historical examination, those letters were compiled during the 40s and 60s of the 1st century.( Larry W. Hurtado 2005:33). In his letters to the Gentiles, he felt happy for their convert and getting rid of the worship of idols. And he blamed those who still denied the living God but chose to sacrifice to idols. He wrote: to God from idols, to serve a living God and true God…” (Larry W. Hurtado 2005:43) From this quotation, Paul considered Roman religion as idol worship, was no good for people’s spiritual life. In other letters, Paul fiercely attacked the Roman deities and even the veneration to the emperor. He regarded the worship and sacrifices to emperor or to deities were worships to demon and idols. (cf. Larry W. Hurtado 2005:44) But Christianity was the true religion whose God was the only god in the universe. And he even encouraged them to totally quit engaging into the sacrifice. Therefore, Paul’s ideas totally reflected the characteristics of monotheism. He declared that: but for us there is one God, the Father, from who are all things and we for him.” (Richard Bauckham 1998:37) What’s more, when we read this statement, we will have a feeling of similarity with the Jewish literature Shema which was used to worship the One. Paul made usage of these resources into his own. Generally speaking, Paul, the most influential early Christian leader, strongly rejected the Roman polytheism, which in his eyes was a religion of making idols, and he preached Christianity into the Gentile world which he regarded as the only true religion and in which the only God of Israel had revealed himself. All in his teachings, monotheism was the basement of his theology. Even in the later development, like the writing of New Testament, authors who maybe greatly influenced by Judaism in the Second Temple Period, took for granted that the God in the New Testament was the God in Hebrew Bible. They believed in Yahweh, the Lord of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whom Jews regarded as the only God in the universe. Like the Hebrew Bible, Christian Bible also taught that “there is none other God but one”,” but for us there is but one God, the Father”. Therefore, it is needless to say that the central belief of Christianity is always the term: I believe in one Go.”③ Also example was the Nicene Creed. It reads: “we should believe in single deity…” It was clear that both Jews and Christians held the same ideas, they were both monotheists. No matter he was Jewish Christian or non-Jewish Christian, he believed God is one.
Generally speaking, Judaism at the time of Second Temple Period was very strict monotheism. Jews regarded God the most and the only supreme power in the universe. As for Christianity, theology developed based on the teachings of Jesus and his followers whose ideas were within the theology of Judaism. With the preaching of Paul and later disciples, Christianity developed stronger with the belief of one God of YHWH.
3, Variation of monotheism in Christianity
Christians, the reason why believers are called Christians marked the unique difference between Judaism and Christianity. And because of this distinctive character, Christianity for most of devout Jews and Muslims is unacceptable, even is blasphemy. For Jews and Muslims they totally deny the divinity of Jesus, they see him as a figure of prophet, but the concept is totally different in Christianity, the exalted position of Jesus is, at some standards, central to the Christian belief system.
In early Christian communities, they believed that God has sent a massager and prophet—Jesus to them. But, he in fact was more than a prophet. Through him, God had personally visited his people. (John McManners 1990:21) And after the crucifixion of Jesus, God had raised him from the dead. Therefore, Christianity held that Jesus was somehow divine and was worshipped frequently. However, people began to doubt the nature of Christianity also because of the nature of Jesus. They suspected that Christianity was actually polytheism although its followers claimed that: I believe in one God. And the nature of Jesus remained the central argument.
From the early Christian communities to the later development of Trinity, the nature of Jesus in fact indeed has changed a lot. But no matter a greatly the change has been made, Christianity has never denied their monotheism: the sovereignty position of the One. Instead, Christianity invented a new way of understanding of the uniqueness of God and Jesus without breaking the monotheism. So in this new theology, Jesus had a very exalted position and extremely close relationship with God, but still Jesus was subordinate to the God.
As I stated earlier in this article that among the early Christians, Jesus was not treated simply as a human being but the promised Messiah, through him the God’s kingdom was at hand. The authors of the New Testament always quote the saying from the Jewish resource Psalm110:1: the Lord said to my lord,’ sit at my right hand until I made your enemies your footstool” (Richard Bauckham 1998:30) and also in Psalm8:6: you made him ruler over the works of your hands and place all things under his feet. (Richard Bauckham 1998:30) Ephesiam1:21—22: [Lord] raised [Jesus] from dead and seated him at his right hand in the heaven place, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet. (Richard Bauckham 1998:32) Although those expressions are almost the same, they all clarified one fact that Jesus’ high position was unsurpassable in the heaven except the One. Previously, I have already stated the unique and sovereignty position of God in the heaven. He sits on the throne in the highest heaven where his angels were ready to serve. But what was unique in Christianity was that Jesus sat at the right hand of the God. It was clearly indicated that Jesus’ position was so high that he even participated in the sovereignty ruler of God and was served by God’s angels. Jesus was never considered as parallel as angels and prophets who formed the principle agent of God, but even higher than these figures. He was more supreme than all rule and all figures created by God, and he was devoted as the only exception who can take part in the rule of God.
The matter of fact that the exalted position of Jesus is presented not only the participation of the rule of God, but also other fields:
1, He was named the holy name. YHWH was the divine name of the God of Israel, the name that Jews daily recited:” Hear, O Israel, YHWH our God, YHWH is one.” After the death of Jesus, he was raised by God from the dead to a high position, and what’s more, in the Philippians, he was given the name above every name Kyrios Iesous Christos’ (Jesus Christ).
2, Jesus participated in the creation activity. It is well known that it will be Jesus who at the end of the world come to carry out the last judgment. But it is also quite surprising and remarkable to find that Jesus even was in the creation. The writers of the New Testament deliberately wanted to prove the divinity of Jesus, and it was necessary to involve Jesus into the creation which according to Hebrew Bible was the activity done by God alone. Although the source of this idea can be merely find in the literatures of Corinthians, Colossians, Hebrews, Revelation and the Gospel of John. (cf.Richard Bauckham 1998:36) For example, in the earliest test of Corinthians8:6: hence, as to the eating of food offered to the idols, we know that there is no idol in the world and that there is no God except one, indeed, even though there maybe so—called gods in heaven or on earth, as in fact there are many gods and many lords, but for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we for him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through him. (Richard Bauckham 1998:37) This was written by Saint Paul. From his saying, Jesus did participate in the creation, and through him all things came into being. This was very convincing evidence that in early Christianity Jesus was so highly exalted that it was quite understandable that Jew felt confused about the nature of Christianity. For Jews, only God deserved the expression above used to describe Jesus, in their eyes, Jesus was made by Christians a second god.
3, The worship of Jesus made Jews even angry about Christians’ blasphemy of God. As I mentioned in the first part, in Jewish tradition, only God deserved the worship, no other creatures both in heaven and on earth allowed to have the same treatment. They worship God because he was the creator the ruler of the universe; they recognized his supremacy by worship. But Christians offered Jesus worship like Jesus himself worshipped God. This action at that time was astonishing, for it indicated the nature of Jesus was divinity and he had very close relationship with God.
I have mentioned three points all which indicated the highly exalted position of Jesus in the early Christianity. From these points, it will not be hard for me the draw the conclusion that Jesus was somehow divine.
With the development of this theology, different opinions about the nature of Jesus appeared. Each of these ideas has its own way of interpreting of the nature of Jesus, some of them regarded Jesus as a prophet, but some of them treated him as a semi—divine but also some saw him as the manifestation of God. As a result, the problem remained the central of conflictions. Until the invention of the concept of Holy Trinity: Holy Father, Holy Spirit and Holy Son. This concept at some level helped the unity of the nature of Jesus.
It has no doubt that from the early Christianity to the later Trinity, Jesus indeed held a position as co-ruler and was eternal. But, no matter how exalted position he had, he was always considered subordinate to the God.
Paul, as an early Christian, he did firmly believe in the divine nature of Jesus. In his letters, he frequently used the terms like Messiah, Lord, God’s son to indicate the nature of Jesus. He wrote: to God from idols, to serve a living God and true God, and to wait for his son from heaven, who he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.”(Larry W. Hurtado 2005:43). He believed that the son of God, Jesus would come to rescue them from the suffering. But, although the position of Jesus was heavenly, Jesus after all was subordinated to God. There was a clear distinction between the words used to describe God and Jesus. Jesus was son and subjected to his father, God was above him, and there was no one above God. God, in Paul’s mind was the one in Israel and the creator of the universe,” from whom are all things and we for him.” Also, he declared that: but for us there is one God, the Father, from who are all things and we for him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through him. (Richard Bauckham 1998:37) He had already drawn the line between the One and Jesus, he used “for” which means belong to describe God but used “through” to describe Jesus. Even in the later wirings like the New Testament, authors carefully chose the words to avoid the expression of polytheism. What they wanted to expression was the message that God is the only one whose name is YHWH, Jesus with his high position in the heaven was Lord who takes subordinate position. For instance, in the Gospel of John, it states: in the beginning was the world, and the world with God, and the Word with God. (Larry W. Hurtado 2005:51) Here the divine Word indicated the existence of Jesus and his close relationship with God. But he was just “with” God, God was the central focus of the creation. And the prays made by Jesus before he was arrested and during his crucifixion are more clear examples. Before he was arrested, he was praying in the garden, in his pray he felt helpless and called his father for help; also in his crucifixion the same pray.
To sum up, from the examples of Paul and New Testament, we can draw a conclusion that Christianity is monotheism. But what Christianity did was to involve Jesus into the identity of God. Jesus was the only exception which held an important position in the heaven. He sat at the right hand of God and served by angels. Document stated that he participated in the creation and was made the Lord who will rule over all things. The things he did were indicating his relationship with God. To involve Jesus into the identity of God made monotheism of Christianity a binitarian monotheism: two in one. Even the later Nicene Creed stated a new development of this monotheism, the so—called Holy Trinity: three in one. Jesus can be view as the manifestation of the God and the son of God, but no matter how many entities were included into the identity of God, God is always one.
4, Conclusion
In this article, I divided my idea into two main parts. What I want to express is that Christianity has a lot of in common with Judaism and was inspired by Judaism in history. From the monotheism which I focus to argue to the moral principles, heritages from Judaism can be found. Christianity laid its foundation of monotheism in Judaism of the Second Temple Period. Both in Christianity and Judaism God is one and whose name was YHWH and is the only creator and ruler. They worship him because his oneness. However in Christianity, monotheism was interpreted by a new way: Jesus was involved into the identity of God and God can be manifested by different forms.
“God is one” for both Christianity and Judaism is unassailable. Each one holds the same but also at some level, different concept of “God is one”.
Quotation:
①,Lewis Loflin, Jesus, http://www.sullivan-county.com/news/mine/jesus.htm online 23 Nov 2006.
②, Harold W. Attridge:, What was the dominant religious influence on [Jesus]?,http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/jesus/bornliveddied.html, online 24 Nov 2006.
③,Chapter1.CHRISTIANMONOTHEISM,http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pentecostal/One-Ch1.htm, online 24 Nov 2006
References:
1, Richard Bauckham (1999): God Crucified monotheism and christology in the New Testament. United States: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
2, Larry W. Hurtado (2005): How on earth did Jesus became a God? United States: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
3, Dan Cohn. Sherbok (1994): The Jewish faith. Great Britain: Mackays of Chatham plc, Chatham, Kent
4, John McManners(1990): The Oxford illustrated history of Christianity, United States: Oxford University Press.
