Part 1: Judaism Part 2: Christianity

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Part 1 JudaismPart 2 Christianity

• Lesson 14

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Part 1 JudaismTheme Religion and Conflict

• Lesson 14

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ID SIG

• Abraham, Canaan, covenant, diaspora, Joshua,
  Kingdom of David, Kingdom of Solomon, Moses,
  Passover, Talmud, Temple, Ten Commandments,
  Torah, Yahweh, Yom Kippur

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Abraham

• Originally from the Sumerian city of Ur (a
  polytheistic place)
• Migrated to Palestine around 1850 B.C. on Gods
  command (Genesis 121)
• God established a covenant with Abraham (Genesis
  177-8)
• I will establish my covenant as an everlasting
  covenant between me and you and your descendants
  after you for the generations to come, to be your
  God and the God of your descendants after you.
  The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an
  alien, I will give as an everlasting possession
  to you and your descendants after you and I will
  be their God.
• It is from this passage that modern Jews claim
  Israel belongs to them

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Moses

• Moses led the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt to
  Canaan, the land God had promised them (Exodus
  12 31)
• Along the way, God gave Moses the Ten
  Commandments (Exodus 20 1-17)

Statue of Moses by Michelangelo
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Ten Commandments

• I. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
• II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
  image.
• III. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord
  thy God in vain.
• IV. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

• V. Honor thy father and thy mother.
• VI. Thou shalt not kill.
• VII. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
• VIII. Thou shalt not steal.
• IX. Thou shalt not bear false witness against
  thy neighbor.
• X. Thou shalt not covet anything that is thy
  neighbor's.

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Yahweh

• The God of Abraham and Moses was Yahweh
• The only god all others were false imposters
  (monotheism)
• A personal god who expected the Israelites to
  worship him alone and to observe high moral and
  ethical standards

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Torah

• Between 1000 and 400 B.C., Israelite religious
  leaders compiled Yahwehs teachings into the
  Torah
• Part of what Christians call the Old Testament
• Yahweh would punish or reward both the
  individuals and the community based on how well
  they observed his commandments
• Many would see the exile imposed by the New
  Babylonian Empire in 586 B.C. as an example of
  Yahwehs punishment

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Rabbis

• Rabbi means teacher or master
• They are Jewish religious officials trained in
  Jewish law, ritual, and tradition
• The synagogue is the Jewish place of assembly for
  prayer and study
• It is not required for a synagogue to have a
  rabbi, but if it does, he is appointed by the lay
  leadership

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Talmud

• An authoritative record of rabbinic discussions
  on Jewish laws, Jewish ethics, customs, legends
  and stories
• Fundamental source of legislation, customs, case
  histories and moral exhortations
• For example, the Torah does not prohibit
  pronouncing the name of God, but the Talmud does
  (Talmud, Sanhedrin 90a)

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Joshua

• Joshua succeeded Moses as the one to lead the
  Israelites into the Promised Land
• A series of battles occurred between the invading
  Israelites and the native Canaanites
• Jericho (Joshua 513627)
• Ai and Bethel (Joshua 81-29)
• Against an alliance of southern cities (Joshua
  101-43)
• Against an alliance of northern cities (Joshua
  111-15)

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Conquest of Canaan

• Formative event in Israels history
• Now the Israelites could describe themselves as
  the inhabitants of the land God had promised to
  their forefathers.
• Israel is now a land, not just a people
• But this event will also set up continuing
  conflict between the Jews who claim the land is
  given them by God and the Palestinians who are
  displaced from it

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Kingdoms

• Kingdom of David (1000-970 B.C.)
• Extended the kingdom by war
• Made Jerusalem the political capital
• Drew up plans for the Temple

• Kingdom of Solomon (970-930 B.C.)
• Asserted federal power over tribal power
• Divided the country into 12 taxable units
• Centralization
• Preserved the kingdom by peace (David had
  extended it by war)

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Temple

• Under King Solomon, the Jews built an elaborate
  temple in their new capital of Jerusalem
• Housed the Ark of the Covenant and the Ten
  Commandments
• Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D.
• In 638 A.D., Muslim invaders captured Jerusalem
  and eventually built two mosques on the site of
  the old Jewish temple, including the Dome of the
  Rock

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Jerusalem A Divided City

• The Dome of the Rock is the holiest Islamic
  shrine in Jerusalem.
• It stands over the rock from which Muslims
  believe Muhammad rose to heaven.
• For Jews, the shrine stands on the traditional
  location of the Temple of Solomon.
• Jews believe the site to be where Abraham
  prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.

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Diaspora

• After King Solomon, tribal tensions led to a
  division of the larger kingdom into Israel in the
  north and Judah in the south
• Eventually both Israel and Judah came under
  foreign domination
• As a result of these various conquests, the
  Jewish people were displaced from their homeland
• Babylonian, Archaemenid, Alexandrian, Seleucid,
  and Roman regimes all ruled over the Jewish
  Diaspora

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Diaspora

• All these regimes embraced many different ethnic
  and religious groups and mostly tolerated the
  cultural preferences of their subjects so long as
  the communities paid their taxes and refrained
  from rebellion
• However they sometimes created state cults which
  honored their emperors as gods
• This created a problem for the monotheistic Jews

18th Century icon of Shadraeh, Meshaeh, and
Abed-nego in the furnace (Daniel 38-12) and
Daniel in the lions den (Daniel 610-13)
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Jewish Rebellions

• Relations between the Jews and Romans were
  especially tense as the Romans expanded their
  empire into the eastern Mediterranean
• Between the 3rd Century B.C. and the 1st Century
  A.D., the Jews mounted several rebellions, but
  were decisively defeated in the Jewish War of 66
  to 70 A.D.

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Conquered Jerusalem

• 324 Byzantine rule
• The Roman Empire, including Jerusalem, became
  Christian under Emperor Constantine and
  Theodosius
• 614 - 638 Jerusalem fell to the Persians (614),
  Byzantines (629) and Arab Muslims (638)
• 688 - 691 Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa built 
• 1099 First Crusaders captured Jerusalem (Well
  discuss the Crusades in Lesson 22)

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The UN Partition Plan, 1947

• Some 6 million Jews were killed during the
  Holocaust
• Led to demands for a Jewish homeland
• On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted
  to partition western Palestine into a Jewish and
  an Arab state

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Israeli War of Independence, 1948

• On the day Israel declared its independence,
  combined Arab forces attacked
• Israel defeated the attacks

22
PLO

• The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was
  established in 1964 as a political and
  paramilitary organization of Palestinians
  dedicated to the establishment of an independent
  Palestinian state
• Palestinians fought intifada against Israeli
  forces into the early 1990s

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The Six Day War, 1967

• Israel launched a preemptive strike against Arab
  armies and ended up occupying the Sinai, the Gaza
  Strip, the Golan Heights and the West Bank

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Terrorism

• At the 1972 Munich Olympics, five Arab terrorists
  killed 11 Israeli athletes
• Arab terrorists repeatedly used suicide attacks
  against Israeli civilian targets
• Israel responded with air strikes against Syria
  which it accuses of supporting Islamic Jihad and
  Hamas terrorists

Black September terrorist at Munich
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Yom Kippur War, 1973

• Egypt and Syria attacked on the Jewish holy day
  other Arab states joined in
• Israel militarily recovered from the initial
  surprise, but diplomatically it was an Arab
  victory because Israel agreed to give up
  territory it had previously seized

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Camp David Accords, 1979

• Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai
• Represented the controversial Israeli philosophy
  of land for peace
• The Multinational Force and Observers was
  established to supervise the implementation of
  the security provisions of the peace treaty

Egyptian President Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister
Begin, and US President Carter celebrate the
peace agreement
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Attempts at Peace and More Fighting

• In 2005, Israel completed a unilateral withdrawal
  of civilian settlements and military personnel
  from the Gaza strip and the northern West Bank
• In 2006, Israel attacked Hezbollah forces in
  Lebanon in response to the kidnapping of two
  Israeli soldiers

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Major Jewish Holy Days

• Passover
• Celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish people
  from slavery in Egypt
• Chanukah
• Commemorates the successful revolt against the
  Seleucids and rededication of the Temple in
  Jerusalem
• Rosh Hashanah
• First of the year
• Begins the Days of Awe which are a time of
  introspection culminating in Yom Kippur
• Yom Kippur
• Day of Atonement for sins man commits against
  God

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Major World ReligionsSource About, Inc
http//christianity.about.com/library/weekly/blrel
igiontop.htm

• Religion Members
• Christianity 2 Billion
• Islam 1.2 Billion 
• Hinduism 785 Million 
• Buddhism 360 Million 
• Judaism 17 Million 
• Sikhism 16 Million
• Bahai 5 Million
• Confucianism 5 Million
• Jainism 4 Million
• Shintoism 3 Million
• Wicca .7 Million
• Zoroastrianism .2 Million

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Divisions of Judaism Today

• Orthodox
• Jewish law comes from God and cannot be changed
• Torah is the fundamental text and study of the
  Talmud is stressed
• Conservative
• Accept the binding nature of Jewish law but
  believe that the law can change
• Use the Talmud along with the Torah, but are more
  flexible about the texts than Orthodox Jews are
• Reformed
• Most liberal (i. e., open to change)
• The process of reinterpretation of the Torah to
  the language of today is ongoing, and that every
  Jew has a stake and a role in that restatement
  and extension.

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Ideas Unifying Judaism

• One people (Abraham is their forefather)
• The Chosen People (holy people)
• Covenant relationship (Promised Land)
• Temple/synagogue
• Torah and Talmud

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Jewish Concept of the Messiah

• Hebrew word is moshiach (annointed)
• The moshiach will be chosen by God to put an end
  to all evil in the world, rebuild the Temple,
  bring the exiles back to Israel, and usher in the
  world to come.
• I believe with perfect faith in the coming of
  the moshiach, and though he may tarry, still I
  await him every day. (Principle 12 of Rambams
  13 Principles of Faith)
• Rambam is Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, one of the
  greatest medieval Jewish scholars

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Afterlife

• Olam Ha-Ba is Hebrew for the World to Come and
  also the term used to refer to the spiritual
  afterlife.
• When the moshiach comes to initiate the perfect
  world of peace and prosperity, the righteous dead
  will be brought back to life and given the
  opportunity to experience the perfected world
  that their righteousness helped to create.
• The wicked dead will not be resurrected.
• Jews prepare for the Olam Ha-Ba through study of
  the Torah and good deeds

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Part 2 ChristianityTheme How religions grow
and spread

• Lesson 14

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ID SIG

• Calvin, epistles, Gentiles, Hermensen (Arminius),
  Jesus, Luther, New Testament, Paul (Saul),
  Pharisees, Reformation, salvation by faith,
  spread of early Christianity, St. Augustine

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Jesus

• Born sometime before 4 B.C. in Bethlehem
• Virgin birth as the Son of God (Luke 134-35)
• John the Baptist began preaching before Jesus and
  Jesus began his ministry with a message of
  repentance similar to Johns
• Called Twelve Apostles to assist him

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Jesus Ministry

• Met resistance from Jewish authorities who
  considered his claims to be the Messiah blasphemy
  and Roman authorities who considered his call for
  the kingdom of God to be a political threat
• Jews brought Jesus before the Roman authorities
  who acquiesced to the Jews demands to crucify
  Jesus

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Resurrection

• Jesus followers proclaimed he had risen from the
  dead and that his death and resurrection served
  as a sacrifice to offset their sins
• Now they too can survive death and live eternally
  in heaven
• Jesus followers called him Christ which means
  the anointed one and they became known as
  Christians (Acts 1126)

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New Testament

• Christians compiled a body of writings including
  accounts of Jesus life, reports of his
  followers works, and letters outlining Christian
  teachings
• Becomes known as the New Testament and
  Christians refer to the Jews Hebrew scriptures
  as the Old Testament

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Saul

• The Christians were subjected to persecutions
  from Jews who disagreed with the new faith
• One of the chief persecutors was Saul
• Zealous Pharisee
• Held the peoples coats while Stephen was being
  stoned (Acts 458)
• Was on his way to Damascus to see whether there
  is any Christian influence in the synagogue there
  when God encountered him
• Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? (Acts 94)

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Paul

• God made Saul a chosen vessel unto me, to bear
  my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the
  children of Israel (Acts 915)
• Came to be known as Paul
• Greatest theologian of the early Church
• Apostle to the greatest sphere of Christian
  missionary expansion to the Gentile world to the
  west

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Pauls Mission Trips
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Epistles
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Pauls Method

• The cities in which Paul established churches
  were politically, culturally, and economically
  important
• They were also located on the main thoroughfares
  of the Roman Empire, ensuring mobility of the
  message
• Christianity would radiate from these major
  cities to others and eventually to the
  countryside

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Factors Aiding the Spread of Christianity

• Paul wrote in Greek
• The conquests of Alexander had introduced Greek
  as the common language from Italy to India (Well
  study Alexander in Lesson 18)
• Roman system of good roads and the lack of piracy
  or serious crime (Pax Romana)
• Allowed Paul to travel and preach throughout Asia
  Minor, Thrace, Greece, and Italy

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Factors Aiding the Spread of Christianity

• Presence of the synagogue
• Gave Paul a forum to preach, dispute with the
  Jews, and attract converts
• Roman toleration of religion
• Paul and the other missionaries were able to
  freely debate the cause of Christianity, provided
  they said nothing subversive to Romes political
  authority

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Factors Aiding the Spread of Christianity

• Degenerate nature of Roman society
• Romes idle, lascivious aristocracy amused itself
  with such pursuits as mortal combat for
  entertainment and created a spiritual void that
  needed to be filled
• Broad Appeal
• Open to lower classes, urban populations, and
  women
• Accorded honor and dignity to individuals who did
  not enjoy high standing in Roman society

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Result

• Less than 300 years after the crucifixion,
  Christianity became the most dynamic and
  influential religion in the Mediterranean basin
• Sometime shortly before 337 A.D., Constantine
  became the first Christian emperor
• In 380 A.D., Theodosius proclaimed Christianity
  the official religion of the Roman Empire

The baptism of Constantine
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Institutional Church

• In the absence of organized leadership, the
  earliest Christians had generated a wide range of
  sometimes conflicting doctrines
• To standardize the faith, Christian leaders
  instituted a hierarchy of church officials
• The bishop in Rome and patriarchs in Jerusalem,
  Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople
• As Roman imperial authority crumbled, the bishop
  of Rome (known as the pope) emerged as the
  spiritual leader of Christian communities in the
  western part of the empire

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Evolving Doctrine

• In 325 A.D., Constantine called the Council of
  Nicea which brought together Christian leaders to
  consider the views of the Arians
• Arians taught that Jesus was a mortal man rather
  than God Himself
• Arianism was condemned as heresy
• (We talked about this in Lesson 6)

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Nicean Creed

• We believe in one God      the Father, the
  Almighty,      maker of heaven and earth,     
  of all that is, seen and unseen.
• We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,      the
  only Son of God,      eternally begotten of the
  Father,      God from God, Light from
  Light,      true God from true God,     
  begotten, not made,      of one Being with the
  Father      through him all things were
  made.      For us and for our salvation         
  he came down from heaven,          was
  incarnate of the Holy Spirit          and the
  Virgin Mary          and became truly
  human.          For our sake he was
  crucified          under Pontius Pilate he
  suffered death and was buried.
• On the third day he rose
  again          in accordance with the
• Scriptures  

                          he ascended into
heaven          and is seated at the right
hand          of the Father.          He will
come again in glory          to judge the living
and the dead,          and his kingdom will 
have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord,          and the giver of life,     
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,     
who with the Father and the Son          is
worshiped and glorified,      who has spoken
through the prophets.      We believe in the one
holy catholic           (Christian) and
apostolic church.      We acknowledge one
baptism          for the forgiveness of
sins.      We look for the resurrection of the
dead,          and the life of the world to
come. Amen.
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Added Philosophical Sophistication

• The earliest Christians had come from the ranks
  of ordinary people
• Their doctrine seemed unsophisticated to
  intellectual elites
• Until the 3rd Century Christianity grew as a
  popular religion of salvation favored by the
  masses
• During the 4th Century, intellectual elites began
  to give it a reasoned doctrine of intellectual
  substance

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St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

• Well educated and conversant with all the leading
  intellectual currents of his day
• Converted to Christianity in 387
• Worked to reconcile Christianity with Greek and
  Roman philosophical traditions, especially
  Platonism
• Tried to articulate Christianity in terms that
  were familiar to educated classes
• Wrote Confessions and The City of God

54
Martin Luther

• In 1517, Martin Luther distributed his Ninety
  Five Thesis which was a public challenge to
  debate the Church practice of selling indulgences
• Indulgences were a type of pardon that excused
  individuals from doing penance for their sins and
  facilitated entry into heaven
• Church officials thought indulgences were great
  encouraged believers to reflect piously on their
  behavior and served as a large source of income

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Reformation

• In 1520, Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther
• Though expelled from the Church, Luther still
  considered himself a Christian and he began to
  attract followers
• The movement spread from Wittenberg, throughout
  Germany, to Switzerland, and throughout western
  Europe
• The printing press was instrumental in spreading
  the word
• The dissidents became known as Protestants
  because they were protesting against the
  established order

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Other Reformers

• John Calvin
• Converted to Protestantism in the 1530s and left
  France for Switzerland to escape persecution
• Founded a model Protestant community in Geneva
  which also served as a missionary center
• Advanced the doctrine of predestination
• Great influence on Presbyterianism

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Other Reformers

• Jacob Hermensen (Latinized Arminius)
• Revolted against strict Calvinism in favor of
  free will
• Argued that people must make an active choice to
  be saved
• Profoundly influenced John Wesley and Methodism

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Major World ReligionsSource About, Inc
http//christianity.about.com/library/weekly/blrel
igiontop.htm

• Religion Members
• Christianity 2 Billion
• Islam 1.2 Billion 
• Hinduism 785 Million 
• Buddhism 360 Million 
• Judaism 17 Million 
• Sikhism 16 Million
• Bahai 5 Million
• Confucianism 5 Million
• Jainism 4 Million
• Shintoism 3 Million
• Wicca .7 Million
• Zoroastrianism .2 Million

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Next

• Islam