Does Christianity have roots to Old Testament Jewish faith?

Question

Or did it start with Jesus of the New Testament?

In other words, is there Hebraic influence seen in modern Christian beliefs and worship?

Answer 1

We are descendants of Abraham

Answer 2

Very good question!!

I will say most definitely. The first group of apostle were Jews. Paul, Peter, Matthew, John (his gospel,3letters and Apocalypse), James (his letter), Jude and many more. Luke a gentile physician from anthioch traveled with Paul a Jew and former Pharisee. Timothy was both Jewish and Greek, because of his Jewish mother and perhaps Greek father. Paul is a Jew and his letters dominate the new testament about 14 letters I believe. Paul is clearly a very good theologian teacher. In his letters he uses metaphors, illustrations, hermeneutics, poetry, examples and old testament illustrations that had Jewish origins, with minimal gentile expressions. Therefore the new testament is heavily Jewish. Too many passages from Jesus or the letters of his apostles CANNOT be understood unless you know something about Jewish culture or the general common culture of the Middle East.

There are some Christian groups today who foolishly use the new testament only. They claim that is all they need. They fail to remember that: 1. the new testament is small fraction compared to the old testament. 2. the N.T. cannot be complete with out the old. 3. we cannot get a complete picture with out Genesis, Exodus etc.. and the prophets. 4. The old testament actually gives the new testament a license to exist. It's like needing a license to drive a new car. 5. The old testament prophecied about a coming messiah and describes him so well---so that when He came, we are able to confirm that Jesus is the true Messiah. If He came without any prophecy of the old testament written concerning Him, the Jews would have all the reasons to crucify him and call him a lier and wouldn't you agree with them? 6. When Jesus wanted people to believe in Him, he pointed them to the old testament. Both the old and new are for Christians, besides that, we are SPIRITUAL JEWS, spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham according to the promised SEED, Jesus Christ.

When the book of Revelation is speaking about the 12 tribes, Jerusalem, and discribing many other places located in the middle east, so many people take it literally, failing to see that these are simply Jewish symbols to speak to the new Israel----the church.

So many fail to see that Jesus is the God of the old testament !! Read John 8:48--59 and compare it with Exodus 3:1--14. Please read it and tell me if you see Jesus in both testaments. He is the I am or IAM. Which means the eternal self-existent one, who always is and was. Read John 10:31--33, what do you see? There are dozens of other passages like these in the OLD testaments. Therefore, both testaments has one God and should be seen as one book. Jesus did not just appear in the new testament and came up with a religion that has nothing to do with the Jewish religion. Before the new testament came into existence, the church was being taught by the apostles and elders out of the Hebrew scriptures which is what Christians call the old testament. It was after the death of the apostles that their letters were preserve and put together to form the new testament that we have today. Therefore if we want to teach what they taught, we must adhere to both testaments and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is active in both.

Even when you say Hallelujah Jesus, you are using Jewish expressions. Do you love the book of Psalms? Well, you are reading Jewish poems, songs and prose. Do you like proverbs? Well you're reading Jewish thoughts, morals, culture and etc... Do you like ecclesiastics? Well, you are reading the literary works of one of the greatest, if not the greatest Jewish philosophers and rich too. We could go on and on. Therefore yes, it is heavily influenced.

Answer 3

Christiany has roots too it however christianity is based from the new testament where Jesus arrived.
If it was based on the old testament there would be no Christianity.
Christianity and Jewish faith are simillar in the sense that Jews use just the old testament where as Christians use both the Old and New testament. The bases of Christianity is Jesus.

Answer 4

yes the base of their beliefs and ideals are majority the same. being the fact that both christians and jews believe 100% in the old testemant. Jews actually believe of jesus but not in him, they belive he was a high ranking and great prophet. while christians belive jesus is the messiah, the one, their god. on the other hand jewish people are in the process of waitng for the messiah to come to earth, like the birth of jesus. the only way these two religions differ is in the christians and the new testemant, and the jews and the torrah.

Answer 5

What Christianity did not begin with

Christianity refers to Jesus of Nazareth. But it did not begin with him. Jesus was a Jew. He was born as a Jew, lived as a Jew and died as a Jew. If he is described as the founder of Christianity, then he is a founder who throughout his life belonged to a different religion from the one he is supposed to have founded. His death on the cross with the reason of his execution indicated by the inscription "King of the Jews" shows that the Roman power in the person of the prefect Pontius Pilate had him executed as a Jewish agitator. That is a fact, even if the Romans misunderstood his work. The Gospels represent Jesus as a Jew who lived in the Jewish context and rarely came in contact with non-Jews. They show him sometimes in conflict and at other times in consensus with other Jewish groups. Whoever interprets Jesus as he appears in the Gospels as being outside of Judaism – as having transcended Judaism, having overcome it or even broken with it – can do so only by ignoring or disregarding and misinterpreting the Jewish sources. This much has been widely accepted: Jesus was a Jew.

Answer 6

Yes, roots of the OT are seen in the Psalms read in worship services, the hymns being like the songs discussed in the Psalms, the fact that the early Christians were all Jews, the Ten Commandments still discussed & used regularly.

Answer 7

This is one of the best kept Bible secrets ever. It sounds like a Jerry Springer episode- but it is Bible, Bible, Bible.
God married Israel by the Old Covenant. God divorced Israel because of her idolatry, and began driving her children over the face of the whole earth. God married Israel's sister, Judah, by the Old Covenant. Though Judah was twice as bad as Israel, God had promised to never take His mercy from Judah. God promised to remarry Israel with a new covenant -not like the first, at all-.in righteousness. To do that, Judah, God's second wife, had to kill Him, and He would have to be resurrected.
By going through the death and resurrection process, Jesus was able to save the nation of Judah and to gather into another nation the other children of God scattered abroad- i.e., Israel. When the children of Judah repent and are converted Jesus comes back.
See The Israel Files at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Thinking_Kingdom/files/

Answer 8

Yeah, Jesus was Jewish. The Bible is the genealogy of one family from Adam to Jesus.

Answer 9

christianity = Buddhism + Judaism
Whatever Jesus has preached is fundamentally Buddhist.

Look at these :

Answer 10

Yes. Christianity originated actually from Abrahamic religion and also of Judaism. Their connections with each other are from the prophecies of the prophets in the old testament back to Abraham. THANKS GOD; FEAR GOD; PRAISE GOD; GLORIFY GOD; HONOR GOD; LOVE GOD AND WORSHIP GOD. Pls visit my [e-mail]