Judaism and Christianity: Encyclopedia II - Judaism and Christianity - The Messiah

Judaism and Christianity - The Messiah

Jews believe that a descendant of King David will one day appear to restore the Kingdom of Israel. Jews refer to this person as Moshiach, translated as messiah in English and Christos in Greek. The Hebrew word 'moshiach' (messiah) means 'anointed one,' and refers to a mortal human being. The moshiach is held to be a human being who will be a descendant of King David, and who will usher in an era of peace, prosperity, and spiritual understanding for Israel and all the nations of the world. The traditional Jewish understanding of the messiah is fully human, born of human parents, without any supernatural element, and is best elucidated by Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon), in his commentary on the Talmud. The messiah is expected to have a relationship with God similar to that of the prophets of the Tanakh. In brief, he holds that the job description, as such, is this:

He adds:

He also clarified the nature of the Messiah:

The Christian view of Jesus goes beyond such claims. Although Jews and Christians both refer to biblical prophecies concerning the coming of the messiah, they interpret them differently. For Christians, the messiah, Jesus Christ, is fully human and fully divine. In this view, Jesus offers salvation to all humans by his self-sacrifice. He is the divine Word of God who clothes himself in our humanity, so that human beings can be participants in divine life. Jesus sits in heaven at the right hand of God and will judge humanity by his very presence in the end of days. The liberation and peace brought by the messiah, in Christian terms, is primarily the result of his manifesting the truth of God in all spheres of life. Prophetic references to the future glory of Jerusalem are not interpreted in merely political or geographical terms, but as indications of the restoration of all creation that his unveiled presence will bring about.

Christian readings of the Hebrew Bible find hundreds of references to Jesus. This takes the form in some cases of specific prophesy, but in most cases of foreshadowing by types or forerunners. Traditionally, most Christian readings of the Bible maintained that almost every prophecy was actually about the coming of Jesus, if read corectly. In other words, Christianity traditionally has taught that the entire Old Testament of the Bible was a prophecy about the coming of Jesus.

To learn more about the differences between these two concepts, see messiah, Jewish messiah, and Jesus.

Judaism and Christianity - Catholic views

Catholicism traditionally taught that "there is no salvation outside the Church", which some, particularly Fr. Feeney in the 19th century, interpreted as saying only Catholics can be saved. However, the Catholic Church's position is a bit more nuanced than that. The Catholic Church teaches that God's intended way of saving the human race is through the Catholic Church, and there is no source of saving grace which is not already contained within the Church. It should be noted that in this sense, any church founded on Peter's rock, may properly be called a "Catholic" Church - Roman Catholic is but one of these though the largest. At the same time, it does not deny the possibility that those not visibly members of the Church may attain salvation as well. Jesus is the path of salvation, and whilst some know they are on that path others can travel the same Way without knowing the name of the street they are on. In recent times, this teaching has been most notably expressed in the encyclicals Singulari Quidem (1856), Quanto Conficiamur Moerore (1863) and Dominus Iesus (2000). The latter document has taken criticism for claiming that non-Christians are in a "gravely deficient situation" as compared to Catholics.

Pope John Paul II on October 2 of 2000 emphasized that this document did not say that non-Christians were actively denied salvation: "...this confession does not deny salvation to non-Christians, but points to its ultimate source in Christ, in whom man and God are united". The Pope then, on December 6, issued a statement to further emphasize that the Church continued to support its traditional stance that salvation was available to believers of other faiths: "The gospel teaches us that those who live in accordance with the Beatitudes--the poor in spirit, the pure of heart, those who bear lovingly the sufferings of life--will enter God's kingdom." He further added, "All who seek God with a sincere heart, including those who do not know Christ and his church, contribute under the influence of Grace to the building of this Kingdom." On August 13, 2002, American Catholic bishops issued a joint statement with leaders of Reform and Conservative Judaism, called "Reflections on Covenant and Mission", which affirmed that Christians should not target Jews for conversion. The document stated: "Jews already dwell in a saving covenant with God" and "Jews are also called by God to prepare the world for God's Kingdom." However, some U.S.-led Baptist and other fundamentalist denominations still believe it is their duty to engage in what they refer to as outreach to "unbelieving" Jews (see Jews for Jesus).

Judaism and Christianity - Eastern Orthodox views

Eastern Orthodox Christianity emphasizes a continuing life of repentance or metanoia, which includes an increasing improvement in thought, belief and action. Regarding the salvation of Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians, the Orthodox have traditionally taught the same as the Catholic Church: that there is no salvation outside the church. People of all genders, races, economic and social positions, and so forth are welcome in the church. People of any religion are welcome to convert. Orthodoxy recognizes that other religions may contain truth, to the extent that they are in agreement with Christianity. (Some of the early church fathers pointed to Socrates' belief in one God; a few more modern Orthodox Christian theologians have found traces of trinitarianism in the writings of Lao Tzu.)

Many Orthodox theologians believe that all people will have an opportunity to embrace union with God, including Jesus, after their death, and so become part of the Church at that time. God is thought to be good, just, and merciful; it would not seem just to condemn someone because they never heard the Gospel message, or were taught a distorted version of the Gospel by heretics. Therefore, the reasoning goes, they must at some point have an opportunity to make a genuine informed decision. Ultimately, those who persist in rejecting God condemn themselves, by cutting themselves off from the ultimate source of all Life, and from the God who is Love embodied. Jews, Muslims, and members of other faiths, then, are expected to convert to Christianity in the afterlife. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also holds this belief, and holds baptismal services in which righteous people are baptized in behalf of their ancestors who, it is believed, are given the opportunity to accept the ordinance.

Judaism and Christianity - Jewish views

Judaism holds that whatever salvation may exist is found only through good works and heartfelt prayer. The majority of Jewish works on this subject hold that one's faith or beliefs alone play a minimal role. However, for a contrary Jewish position see Maimonides's Guide for the Perplexed, which limits the afterlife only to people who attain a relatively high level of intellectual perfection, thereby allowing the active intellect to be made eternal through God.

Judaism teaches that all gentiles can receive a share in "the world to come". This is codified in the Mishna Avot 4:29, the Babylonian Talmud in tractates Avodah Zarah 10b, and Ketubot 111b, and in Maimonides's 12th century law code, the Mishneh Torah, in Hilkhot Melachim (Laws of Kings) 8.11.

Judaism has no strong tradition of offenses being punished by eternal damnation (the Hebrew Bible itself has very few references to any afterlife, and the word Sheol that is often translated as "Hell" is as often as not simply translated as "the grave"). Some violations (e.g. suicide) would be punished by separation from the community (e.g. not being buried in a Jewish cemetery).

Judaism's view is summed up by a biblical observation about the Torah: in the beginning God clothes the naked (Adam), and at the end God buries the dead (Moses). The Children of Israel mourned for 40 days - then got on with their lives. No reference is made in the Torah to anything beyond, and this is true even for Moses of whom it is said "nobody has arisen like him, who knew God face to face".

The Biblical conception of God is that his covenant is with the Jewish people, not individual Jews. In the context of this covenant, the death of individual Jews is inconsequential and various older Biblical passages suggest that individual death is final. It is the continued existence of the Jewish nation that is emphasized and the way that a human life should be led. With the rise of Hellenistic (Greco-Roman) thinking, and later the rise of Christianity, Jews became more concerned with the problem of individual death and an afterlife. The Pharisees, and then the Rabbis, made it an essential element of their faith that upon the arrival of the messiah the dead shall be resurrected. This is still a central belief in Orthodox Judaism and to a lesser extent in other branches of Judaism. Some Christian thinkers have opined that a crucial difference between Jewish and Christian beliefs is that Jews believe it is the body that is resurrected. The "soul" or "spirit" has no life or meaning independent of a living body. However, Jewish scholars and theologians point to the many aspects of Judaism that affect the "eternal soul" and "the world to come," indicating that the notion of an afterlife and the concept of post-death award and punishment is indeed deeply ingrained within the Jewish religion.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Messiah", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki