Why does it seem like Christians think they know more about Judaism than Jews do?

Question

My experience is that most people know absolute crap about Judaism, or any any other relgion that isn't their own, but so many seem to think they know everything about everyone else's It'very annoying, especially when they argue.

Answer 1

Because, to validate their belief system, they have to convince themselves that their version of Judaism and the OT is the correct one. It's a classic attempt of reverse engineering. the only problem is that the original blueprint, and its full understanding, exists in a quite different form.

Answer 2

Most Christans that I have met know very little about Judaism. They do have a lot of misconceptions, however.

I have seen Christian evangelists make the most outrageous claims about Judaism, Islam, Buddism and so on, for the sole purpose of getting their points across.

This is all based either on "rabble rousing" or just plain ignorance of the facts. It would be for the best if all ministers of religion had to at least take a course in what other religions are about.

Answer 3

The reason even modern Jews don't know much about Judaism is because there is no longer any vestige of authentic traditional Judaism present in today's world.

The practices and beliefs of the world's Jews have continuously diverged from the "norm" ever since the destruction of the Jewish temple and their subsequent dispersal from Jerusalem in the late 1st century.

Today, there is no longer any true "norm" and the practice of Judaism can mean just about anything.

Sorry if you're annoyed.

Answer 4

The more that Christians study Judaism, the more obvious it will become to them that Christianity is just Romanized appolonian man-idol worship, dressed in Jewish clothing. It starts with the recognition that New Testament "quotes" of the Jewish Bible were actually quotes of Latin mistranslations of the Jewish Bible, giving the lie to the claim that the New Testament was authored by Jews at all. Many key elements of Christianity, like the "virgin birth" and the "resurrection" are only significant and important to the Roman pagans, not the Jews. Roman emperors were commonly believed to be virgin birthed, and resurrection was just proof that one had become one of the "immortals" of the Roman pantheon of gods. One only has to think for a second to realize that "waking up after one dies" is entirely irrelevant to omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence and other attributes of the Jewish God. I could go on and on....

Here's homework for you Christians: (1) Look at Luke and Matthew's geneologies of Jesus. If you are astute, you will discover that BOTH run through a common ancestor whom God CUT OFF from the House of David, and thus CUT OFF from the possibility of becoming messiah. Early Christians didn't realize this (because their mistranslations contained this error). (2) Ask yourself whether you truly believe the trinity concept, even though it is mathematically self-contradictory. Three persons all completely unique and separate AND also exactly the same. If they are the same, then how can Jews be faulted for praying to just one but not the other? But, if they are different, then how can God contain contradictory attributes (e.g. infinite and formless, yet finite and man-formed)? ----Most Christians will confess, when pushed, that the concept makes no sense to them at all, yet they persist in believing. God, on the other hand, said that false gods make themselves apparent in contradicting His revealed nature. -(3) Finally, ask yourself why one MUST go through the middle-man Jesus to get to God, when God, being all-powerful and all-loving knows each and everyone of His creatures and loves them enough to hear their prayers and accept their sincere and contrite atonement. Since we, as all those in the "old testament" did before Jesus, can approach God directly and seek out His love and forgiveness, who needs anything more?

Answering those three questions, with genuine endeavor, will ultimately bring you to do what I did: convert to Judaism.

Answer 5

see, I think the problem for a great many christians, is the fact that their beliefs are, for them, based on a complete misconception about judaism.

that being that what they think jesus was, is what judaism was, or should have been expecting.

much of christian belief only "works" when certain things are accepted ahead of time, if you take the mention and beliefs in a chronological order... much of it simply doesn't make any sense at all.

for example if you take a jewish concept of the one-ness of God, God saying "us" in genesis is rather obviously a "royal we". to think anything else would simply be absurd and nonsensical.
where if you accept the trinity, of course it supports a trinity.

so many people mistakenly think that judaism is nothing more than christianity minus jesus... when its different in such deeper, more complex ways...

Answer 6

I'm guessing since they got the O.T. (only half of the Torah) and the N.T. some obviously think they're now 100% full of knowledge, while the Jews are still only 50% full of knowledge! Ha, then why are the Jews more successful than the christians! Oh well...

Answer 7

Because most Christians think that Judaism is based on the OT and since they study that they think they understand. They don't know that Judaism is based on Talmudic teaching.

Answer 8

The one thing I see is that Christians know the Hebrew bible often better than Jews.

Beyond that they have a whole bunch of misconceptions about Judaism in general.

Answer 9

I agree with you. Looking here on R&S, I have seen many Christians and Muslims answer questions on Judaism, and their answers were untrue or misguided, or not based on any real information. (Doug Laurence's answer is a perfect example).
I always find this to be exteremely annoying!

Answer 10

Didn't you know when you become a christian you are infused with knowledge eternal making you omnipotent (not to be confused with impotent but there have been rumors).

J/K but seriously people that are like that always talk about things they usually hear in one place or another piece them together and make their own facts. Let em talk and look stupid instead of arguing with them.