Judaism, Christianity and Islam
History
 Founded by Abram in 1800 BCE in Ur in Mesopotamia
 Believed in one god
 Made a covenant with God
 Abram and his wife Sarai would move to Canaan, which
they called the promised land (Israel). Changed their
names to Abraham and Sarah. They would remain
faithful to God (Yahweh). All male descendants would
be circumcised. Many years later had a son name Isaac.
 All of the people descended from Abraham through his
son Isaac are known as Jews.
History cont…
 Around 1300 BCE they moved to Egypt in search of
food
 Became slaves to the Pharaoh
 Freed by Moses
 Story told in the book of Exodus in the Bible
 Settled in Jerusalem and built a temple to worship
Yahweh
Destroyed by Romans in 60
 Built many synagogues throughout
the Middle East and the world

History cont…
 First Jewish congregation in America in 1650
 During WWII ,over 6 million Jews killed
 Movement called Zionism began in the late 19th
century
 Encouraged Jews to return to the Promised Land
Beliefs
 One God, the biblical Yahweh
 Emphasize the laws given in the
covenants
 In the United States three main
movements
 Orthodox Jews – Hebrew Bible
 Reform Jews – covenant with Yahweh
 Conservative Jews – elements of both
Concept of God
 First religion to believe that
there is one God who create the
universe and continues to
control it
 Jews do not attempt to convert
others to their beliefs
 Welcome outsiders who wish to
become Jewish
Judaism
 JUDAISM is a religion of just one people: the Jews.
 JUDAISM was the first to teach belief in only one God.
Two other important religions developed from
Judaism: Christianity and Islam.
Judaism
 Jews think that God will send a Messiah (a
deliverer) to unite them and lead them in
His way.
 Christians believe that Jesus was the
Messiah. The Jewish people do not agree;
they anticipate His arrival in the future.
 Judaism teaches that death is not the end
and that there is a world to come.
Sacred Writings
 Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
 First five books often attributed Moses as the author

Torah
 Talmud: Mishnah and the Germara
 Siddur – prayer book
Symbolism
 Star of David
 Shema
 Passage from the Torah begins “Hear, O Israel,” and
continues by telling the people to keep God constant in
their minds and hearts, and to write it on the doorposts
of their homes.


Mezuzah – shema placed inside a container and nailed to the
doorpost
Tefellin – small boxes or pouches
 tallit, or prayer shawl, and a yamulke.
Worship/Sacred Space
 Home or the synagogue
 Prayer three times a day
 At least ten Jewish men must gather for worship
 Service consists of the shema, blessings, readings from
the Torah and prayers.
 The Torah in the synagogue is kept in a cabinet called
an ark, a candle called the Eternal Light burns in front
 Read from a platform called a bimah.
 Worship is led by a rabbi, assisted by a gabbai.
 Singing by a cantor.
Worship cont…
 Orthodox worship is in Hebrew
 Women sit apart from men
 Reform Jews sit together
 Sabbath is the weekly remembrance that God rested from
creation on the 7th day.
 The Jewish Sabbath begins at sunset on Friday night and
continues until sunset on Saturday.

Day of rest, begins with a simple meal, then worship on Friday night
and/or Saturday morning.
 8 days after birth a baby boy is circumcised, brit milah, and
given his name
 A baby girl receives her name during blessing at the
synagogue
Worship cont…
 At 13
 Bar mitzvah – Jewish boy
becomes an adult, reads
from the Torah and often
leads the whole service.
 Bat mitzvah – Reform
movement for girls
 Bat hayil- Othodox
movement
Jewish Philosophy
 God is one and unique
 God is the creator
 God is transcendent
 God is immanent.
 God is lawgiver
 God is personal
 We have the obligation to worship
 The Torah is God's law
 God is judge
 The Messiah will come.
Holidays/Festivals
 Rosh Hashanah – Jewish New Year
 Yom Kippur – Day of Atonement
 Pesach (Passover) – spring holiday
 Shavuot (Pentecost) – summer festival
 Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles ) – fall harvest festival
 Hanukkah (Feast of Lights) - December
Membership
 13-14 million in the world
 Half in North America
 Five million in Israel and the Middle East
 Others in Europe, Russia, Africa and South America
History
 Followers of Jesus of Nazareth (a town in what is now
northern Israel)
 Born to a young girl named Mary who was engaged to
a man named Joseph
 Many Christians believe that Mary was a virgin when
Jesus was born, and that God was his father.
 Jesus traveled telling stories and curing ailments
 He gained a following and thousands flocked to hear
Him.
 He chose twelve apostles to carry on His message.
History cont…
 When he was about 33 years old he was sentenced to
death by hanging on a cross.
 Authorities saw Him as a threat to their political power
 Christians believe that after three days in the tomb Jesus
was resurrected and appeared to his followers many
times before finally leaving earth for heaven.
 Jesus’ followers banded together and began telling his
story, they were called Christians, from the Greek word
Christos, Hebrew for Messiah which means anointed
one.
Early Christians
 Had to meet in secret
 Persecuted by the Romans
 Changed in the 4th century when Emperor Constantine made
Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire
 Spread through Europe and parts of Africa and the Middle East
 The Christian church became known as the Roman Catholic
Church
 Church and government leaders controlled the empire
 In 1054 churches in Greece and areas east split and formed the
Eastern Orthodox Church
 During the Protestant Reformation more denominations formed
such as Lutheranism, Anabaptists, Anglicans, and many more later
on.
 Today Christianity is the worlds largest religion.
Beliefs
 All Christians honor
Jesus and most believe
that faith in His death a
resurrection saves a
person from the
consequences of sin and
gives them eternal life.
Concept of God
 Most believe in the
concept of the trinity:
 A supreme God, who
came to earth in the
person of Jesus Christ
and is active in the
world as the Holy Spirit
Sacred Writings
 The Bible
 Written over a period of several
centuries

Tells the story of the Jewish people
before Jesus, of Jesus’ life and death,
and of the early Christian church
started by Jesus’ followers.
 Historic Christian documents
such as the Apostle’s Creed and
the Nicene Creed
Symbols
 The cross
 The crucifix
Worship/Sacred Space
 Church buildings
 Services vary from denomination to denomination
 Most include prayers, songs, readings from the Bible,
and a sermon or talk by a clergyperson or a lay person.
 One prayer in common in the Lord’s Prayer
 Most believe in baptism, some form of the Lord’s
Supper, and Communion.
 Holy Days – Christmas, Easter…
Christian Philosophy
 Sin and Evil are realities in our
existence.
 The Bible is the Holy Book that
records God's revelation.
 All believers are promised life
everlasting.
 The leader of Christianity was
Jesus, and the followers was his 12
disciples.
History
 Islam means submission to God in Arabic
 Person who follows Islam is called a Muslim, which
means a person who submits
 Trace heritage back to the Old Testament
 Ishmael, the son of the Hebrew prophet Abraham ,
lived in the city of Mecca.
 Many Arabs visited the city of Mecca to visit the many
statues of gods that were kept there.
 Muhammad (born about 570) was one of the
merchants but was uncomfortable with the worship of
idols.
Muhammad
 Began to spend time alone praying
 When he was about 40, he heard a voice telling him to




“recite” the words of Allah (God)
For the next 20 years he heard this voice
It told him there was only one God called Allah
Muhammad became a prophet and gained a small group of
followers
He moved to Medina in 622
 This trip is called the Hegira, and it marks the beginning of
the Islamic calendar
 The people were open to his message and his new religion
flourished
 The first mosque was built in Medina
Return to Mecca
 Muhammad and his followers
returned and took Mecca by force
 The took the city and destroyed the
idols
 The turned the shrine of the idols,
called the Kaaba, into a mosque
 By the time of his death in 632,
Islam had spread through Arabia
After Muhammad’s Death
 Sunnis
 Most qualified leader
should be chosen
 Sunna – means
traditions of the
prophet
 Chose a man, Abu Bakr,
called a caliph
 Shiites
 Muhammad’s nearest
relative, his cousin Ali,
should succeed him.
 Shiite – means followers
of the party of Ali
 In 680 the Shiites
formed a separate group
(about 20% today)
Beliefs
 Allah sent a series of prophets to the world
 Noah, Abraham, and Jesus
 Each shared some of Allah’s message but wasn’t
complete until Muhammad, considered to be the final
prophet
Five Pillars of Islam
 Shahada- declaration of faith
 “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his Prophet
and Messenger”
 Salat – daily prayer
 five times (dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset and bedtime),
all activities of daily living stop
 Zakat- charitable giving
 2.5% income to those in need
 Sawm – fasting
 Ramadan – during this month adults do not eat during
daylight hours
 Hajj- Travel to Mecca at least once in a lifetime during the
pilgrimage month Dhu-I-Hijja
Concept of God
 Believe in one God called Allah
 99 names describing the character of Allah
 Has a hundredth name which is not revealed
 Indicating that Allah has a dimension that is
unknowable
Sacred Writings
 Koran – means recitation
 Considered to be the word of Allah
 Includes stories from Jewish and
Christian scriptures
 Written in Arabic and still studied in
only that languauge
 Touched by only those who have
performed a ritual washing
 Kept in a special place, wrapped in a
cloth and nothing is allowed to rest on
top of the Koran
Symbols
 Since the 15th century the symbol has been the crescent
moon and star
 New moon represents the new birth that takes place at
the beginning of each month of the Islamic calendar
 The star represents the guidance of Allah
 Forbids the use of human or animal figures or pictures
in their mosques
Worship/Sacred Space
 Pray five times a day
 Usually carry a prayer rug
 Pray facing Mecca, reciting passages from the Koran ,
accompanied by standing, bowing, kneeling and
prostrating
 Muslims gather in mosques for community prayers
 Prayers led by an imam, who is not a priest but is a
leader in the local Muslim community
Islamic Philosophy
 Muslims learn that life on earth is a period of
testing and preparation for the life to come.
 Angels record good and bad deeds.
 People should behave themselves and help others,
trusting in Allah's justice and mercy for their
reward.
Holidays/Festivals
 Calendar has twelve lunar months, 354 days
 Holidays occur during different seasons depending on
the year
 Most sacred place is Kaaba, a shrine in the center of
Mecca
 Muslims believe it was built by Adam and later rebuilt
by Abraham and his son, Ishmael
Hajj Pilgrimage
 Muslims walk seven times around the Kaaba touching
or kissing the Black Stone as they pass
 They participate in the Feast of Sacrifice
 They also run back and forth between two hills,
imitating Hagar, one of the wives of Abraham, who ran
back and forth looking for water
 Other important days
 Ramadan, Festival of Ashura, and the birthday of
Muhhammad
Top Ten Organized Religions of the World
 Statistics of the world's
religions are only very
rough approximations.
 Aside from Christianity,
few religions, if any,
attempt to keep statistical
records; and even
Protestants and Catholics
employ different methods
of counting members.
 Christianity 2.1 billion 33.0%
 Islam 1.5 billion 21%
 Hinduism 900 million14%
 Buddhism 376 million 6%
 Sikhism 23 million 0.36%
 Judaism 14 million 0.22%
 Bahaism 7 million 0.1%
 Confucianism 6.3 million 0.1%
 Jainism 4.2 million 0.1%
 Shintoism 4 million 0.0%