We are told that modern Western civilisation is built on something called the Judeo-Christian worldview. What is Judeo-Christian? Besides an oxymoron the hyphenated word is formed by juxtaposing two completely different religions, Judaism and Christianity. And when you look below the surface they turn out to be precisely mutually exclusive, as I have previously shown. Read The Chasm Between the Christian and Jewish Faiths.
I obtained an AI definition scraped from the internet which reads as follows:
The term Judeo-Christian refers to the grouping of Judaism and Christianity based on their shared history, scriptures (the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament), and ethical values. It is primarily a cultural and sociological concept rather than a theological one, used to describe the religious consensus that critics argue forms the basis of Western civilization and American political identity.
So let’s examine that.
What shared history do adherents of Judaism have with Christians?
In the first century those who held to the legalism of the Mosaic law were those who persecuted and condemned Jesus Christ and His followers. They were leaders of the Sanhedrin, Scribes and Pharisees who had the Roman government execute the Son of God on the cross. The Son of God is one with the Father in the Godhead whom Christians worship.
There were those of the religion of the Jews (Judaism) who persecuted Christians during the period after Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection (~33AD) but before the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple (70AD). The Apostle Saul/Paul was one of those before his conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).
1 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Acts 9:1-2 AKJV
13 For you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion [Judaism], how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: 14 And profited in the Jews’ religion [Judaism] above many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers [Rabbinic Talmud].
Galatians 1:13-14 AKJV
If this is shared history that qualifies the “hyphen” then I say it is a twisting of the truth. No common history exists where followers of Christ were in agreement with followers of Judaism.
What shared scriptures do adherents of Judaism have with Christians?
The Old Testament is equated to the Hebrew Bible which is true except when you look deeper you realise that it is the Rabbinic Talmud, books containing vast numbers of opinions from dead rabbis that are held to the highest standard by Judaism. Even higher than the five books of Moses (the Torah).
The Rabbinic Talmud (Jerusalem, Babylonian) are the traditions that Jesus railed against because, as He said, they make the “word of God of none effect” (Mark 7:13). Effectively they nullify the true force of the Old Testament scriptures.
For example, God’s specifies marriage between one man and one woman from the beginning of the world and explicitly states that there are only two sexes, male and female (Genesis 1:27-28). Jesus affirmed this.
3 The Pharisees [proponents of Judaism] also came to him, tempting him, and saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 4 And [Jesus] answered and said to them, Have you not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall join to his wife: and they two shall be one flesh? 6 Why they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.
Matthew 19:3-6 AKJV
But according to Jewish Telegraphic Agency there are 8 genders in the Jewish Talmud.
But what if we told you that the foundation for all this [the biblical male and female] was wrong? That Judaism recognized not two, but as many as eight genders? The Mishnah describes half a dozen categories that are between male and female, such as saris or ailonit — the terms refer to an non-reproductive version of the male or female body, respectively — and categories that refer to ambiguous or indeterminate gender.
The Mishnah is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions. These oral traditions are known as the “Oral Torah”, to differentiate them from the (written) Torah, and both are believed in rabbinic tradition to have been revealed alongside each other to Moses at Mount Sinai. While the Torah was passed down in writing, the Oral Torah is believed to have been transmitted by Jewish scholars until the compilation of the Mishnah in the late second or early third century AD. The Mishnah is viewed as authoritative and binding revelation by most Orthodox Jews and some non-Orthodox Jews. The Mishnah is also the basis of the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud, which are both commentaries on the Mishnah.
Now the scriptural foundation of Christianity is the Jewish Messiah, as prophesied in the Old Testament, which Judaism has rejected. In fact the 53rd chapter of Isaiah is never read in the synagogues by adherents of Judaism. Why? Because it is all about Jesus Christ? Perhaps.
The Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b, discusses the Suffering Messiah of Isaiah 53 but identifies him as “the leper scholar” and establishes an early tradition of an individual, suffering Messianic figure who atones for Israel through his own afflictions.
Yet there is no identification as Jesus Christ, whom the Jews rejected as their own Messiah and crucified Him on a Roman cross. What followed was the destruction of the Temple by the Lord’s army led by General Titus, which ended all temple worship, and meant the termination of any Mosaic covenantal observances. That meant what was left was a hollow shell filled with only doctrines of devils. Without Christ, who is the fulfillment of all the OT prophecies, how could there remain anything but demons?
Judaism quickly evolved into what it is today which does not resemble the practices of the Old Testament. It has no priesthood. All genealogical records were lost in 70 AD, burned by the Romans. Those records were essential to know who were of the tribe of Levi, the only ones who could be priests. None of the required implements, furniture, and adornments of the priests survived either. So modern Judaism is left with very little that resembles the observances and requirements of Old Testament Jewish believers.
There is now no temple because Jesus Christ is the temple of God. Christians are in Christ and therefore are in the true temple of God.
Judaism also has no connection to the Father, God and Creator. My witness for this is Jesus Himself.
27 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Matthew 11:27 AKJV
6 Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me. 7 If you had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from now on you [that is, Christ’s disciples] know him, and have seen him.
John 14:6-7 AKJV
The Pharisees said to Jesus:
19 … Where is your Father? Jesus answered, You neither know me, nor my Father: if you had known me, you should have known my Father also.
John 8:19 AKJV
Jesus speaking to His disciples said:
2b … the time comes, that whoever kills you will think that he does God service. 3 And these things will they do to you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.
John 16:2b-3 AKJV
Judaism does not know Christ the foundation of “Christ”-ianity. They do not know Lord Jesus nor the Father, so who do they worship? Jesus answered this thus.
44 You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stayed not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
John 8:44 AKJV
Therefore Judaism is a religion worshipping their father, Satan. That is diametrically opposite to the religion of Christianity, worshipping Jesus Christ.
What shared ethical values do adherents of Judaism have with Christians?
If the followers of Judaism obey the 10 Commandments and the rest of the moral Mosaic law perhaps there is some commonality but as Jesus taught they use their Talmudic tradition to distort even those. He exposited on that in Matthew chapter 23. He admonished the masses and His disciples to follow the Pharisees’ good and correct teaching, but not their evil practices.
23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24 You blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 26 You blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like to white washed sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous, 30 And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31 Why you be witnesses to yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets. 32 Fill you up then the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?
Matthew 23:23-33 AKJV
The only valid foundation is Jesus Christ. The entire Bible is about Him, about His creation of the Earth and the rest of the universe. About His establishment of His followers to bring light to the world, His plan for salvation of all those He chose for His new nation, His birth on Earth as the Man Christ Jesus and His resurrection and leadership of His Church on Earth.
11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:11 AKJV
Cultural and sociological connection
However the AI definition scraped from the internet stated that Judeo-Christian is primarily a cultural and sociological concept rather than a theological one.
As shown above, Judaism is not the religion of the Old Testament and as such Judaism is not the root out of which Christianity grew. Therefore there are no shared historical and cultural roots.
Jesus destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem to instigate His new covenant. The old covenant was finished and the assembly of God moved from Israel to the whole world.
21 Jesus said to [the Samaritan woman], Woman, believe me, the hour comes, when you shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews [Jesus Christ came from the Jews but not Judaism]. 23 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him. 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 25 The woman said to him, I know that Messiah comes, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. 26 Jesus said to her, I that speak to you am he.
John 4:21-26 AKJV
Christianity emerged out of first-century Jewish communities in Roman-ruled Palestine but those communities were Christian, primarily Jews who forsook their Judaism and embraced Christ.
Both faiths are monotheistic, and revere Abraham as the father of faith. But that is where the agreement ends.
Judaism disputes the monotheism of Christianity. Their claim is that Christians are polytheists because they believe in the Trinity, one Godhead with 3 persons, who are all One.
Judaism may say it reveres Abraham but they don’t know him, never did, even though they had the oracles of God. Abraham is the father of faith because it was his seed (singular) who is Jesus Christ.
16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ.
Galatians 3:16 AKJV
In Christ all, Jew or Gentile, who believe and trust in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, born in human flesh and died for our sins on the cross, are the true Israel of God. That is the true history and social culture here. There is no alternative.
No, there is no such thing as Judeo-Christian. Both Old and New Testaments are entirely and only about Jesus Christ. Only He is the Messiah who is called Christ. Jesus many times identified Himself as Messiah. He explicitly said he is I AM, the self-existent One, Creator and God.
The biblical worldview as founded in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament is an entirely New Covenant with God through Christ. Therefore the biblical worldview is entirely about and only founded on Jesus Christ — it is the Christian worldview.
Related Reading
- Young Earth Creation in the New Testament | A Warning of Coming Judgment
- Gender Bending is Witchcraft
- Monotheistic God and the Trinity
- The Blessings of God on Abraham
- The True Israel of God
- Reclaiming the True Israel of God | Why the Next Generation Must Hear the Bible, Not the Commentators
- The Great I AM Born in a Manger
- Jesus Christ, the Creator of Life and the Universe
- Substack: Judeo-Christian? by Rev. Matthew Littlefield
- Book: The Hyphenated Heresy: Judeo-Christianity by Joel Webbon and Jordan Hall
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