Abrahamic Religions: Judaism, Christianity, And Islam

Three monotheistic religions rose from the Middle East; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Believed by many to be unrelated, these three Abrahamic religions draw from a common ancestor and history, the prophet Abraham. The history of Judaism begins with the Covenant of Abraham. God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham obediently led his son to the altar, but God stopped Abraham. God explained that the command was a test of Abraham faith and obedience. Abraham’s submission to God’s will would become the core belief of the religions to follow. Jews, Christians, and Muslims all agree that Abraham was tested and his son was to be sacrificed; however, Jews and Christians name Isaac, and the Muslims name Ishmael, as the son to be

placed on the altar. While this seems a minor note of contention, it would set a precedent for future divergences in belief between the three. Some of these divergences would generate strife between the three. Divided by their differences the religions inspired by Abraham have more in common than they believe. A trait shared by Christians and Muslims, conversion is not common in Judaism. As an ethnic religion Judaism has few converts, unlike Christianity and Islam which have spread far beyond their lands of origin to become the two most populous religious in the world. Years of political strife carried out in the name of religion has inflamed the passions of faithful and created rifts between sister religions. We are reminded of the struggles of Cain and Abel, brothers brought to ruin by jealously for God’s favor.
The oldest of the three Abraham religion is Judaism. Unlike the other Judaism is more than a religion, it is an ethnic group native to the Middle East. Jewish history and law were passed down orally. However, fearing a loss of cultural and religious identity, caused by sectarian divides within Jewish society, Jewish scholars, rabbis, wrote down the Oral Torah, a massive collection of stories, explanations, and interpretations of the covenant of Abraham passes down to the next generation. The recorded Torah, Mishnah, received criticism, too dry and incomplete. Recording the comments, disagreements and consensus of the Mishnah, called the Gemara and added it creating the Talmud. Not as fluid as the Oral Torah, it unified the holy text of the Jews. The holy text of the Jews are a collection consisting of: the Torah, the books of Moses; Nevi’im, the prophets; Ketubim, writings. These collected works would later become the Christian Old Testament (Sayre 250-252).
The second religion to spring from the Middle East was Christianity. Beginning as a reform sect of Judaism, Christianity has strong ties to Judaism’s history and cultural past. Christians study the works of Moses and the history that followed him until the time of Jesus. Jesus’ sect sought to reform the commercialism of the Temple of Jerusalem. His opposition caused him disfavor among the leaders of the Temple and claims that Jesus was the son of God created trouble with the Romans, because only the emperor could claim to be a divine mortal. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus became the foundation of the Christian sect. Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God and his sacrifice was a conduit between humans and God. While Jews refuse to acknowledge Jesus as even a prophet; Muslims acknowledge Jesus as a prophet, but deny his divine heritage. The Christians believe Jesus, born of a virgin mother and divine intervention, is the son of God. However, Christians through the ages have disagreed about the nature of Jesus, some of these sects have faced persecution from other Christians because of this seeming minor difference. The following gained in Jesus’ lifetime would be minor compared to the spread of Christianity after his resurrection. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, his followers became evangelist. Christian evangelist spread the word of Jesus’ life and resurrection. One evangelist spread the word of Christianity and influenced the religion greatly, his name was Paul. Persecuting Jews in his early career, Paul converted to Christianity in Damascus and became a major influence in Christianity. Paul wrote epistles, letters, to churches dedicated to Christianity scattered around the Middle East and in the Roman Empire. Paul taught that Christ suffering and death paid for the sins of humanity. Paul’s writings would be added to the gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to form the New Testament of the Christianity Bible (Sayre 254-255). Like the Jews the Christians would create a unifying dogma in order to stabilize the Christian faith. The Nicene Creed collected the Christians into a single holy catholic church and established a single, Latin, Bible. Created by the Nicene Creed the Bible would be considered infallible for centuries to follow (Sayre 259).
The youngest of the three Abraham religions is Islam, founded by the prophet Muhammad. Muhammad did not begin his life as a prophet, orphaned at a young age he can into the care of his uncle. Despite his humble beginning Muhammad managed to become a successful merchant. When Muhammad first received God message he believed himself mad (Goldschmidt 23-24). Supported by his wife Muhammad founded the Islamic religion in Mecca. Forced to leave Mecca to protect his follows Muhammad became a judge in the village of Medina. In Medina Muhammad found success. Despite persecution from the pagan Arabs of Mecca, Muhammad and his young religion survived. The success of Muslim raids against caravans traveling to Mecca, gained the support of the nomadic tribes. Muhammad finally subdued the pagan Mecca and reentered the city (Goldschmidt 29-34). Support for Islam grew and continued to thrive. Despite Muhammad’s success, he could not gain the acceptance of his Jewish neighbors. Muhammad accepted the holy text of the Jews and the Christians, calling them people of the book, he also accepted the figures found in the Jewish texts. Muhammad expected the same acceptance, however, the Jews were unable or unwilling to accept Muhammad as a prophet. The Jews disregard for Muhammad would continue to cause friction between the Muslims and the Jews (Goldschmidt 31-32). The Muslims believe that Ishmael was the son brought to the altar by Abraham and Ishmael fathered the line that would become the Arabs. Once again the Jews had rejected the Arabs.
The unstable nature of the Muslim empire required constant expansion to prevent the tribal rivalries and feuds to shatter the cohesion of the Islamic Empire.

In many areas the religious tolerance of the Muslims toward the Christians allowed for a peaceful occupation. The indifference of the Muslims would prove to be preferable to the persecution the Byzantine Christians of another sect. The expansion of the Islamic empire would lead to conflict with the existing government. Byzantium suffering pressure from the expanding Muslim controlled army, called to Pope Urban II for assistance with the Muslim threat. Pope Urban II eager to prove his power over the secular rulers called for volunteers to punish the “wick race”, Muslims. Despite the differences between them, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam share a reverence for the city of Jerusalem. Pope Urban II claimed that the Muslims were attacking Christian pilgrims and preventing them from entering the city. This call to battle would be the first of a series of war named the Crusades by historians (Goldschmidt 84). Both Christians and Muslims describe the carnage of the Crusaders occupation of Jerusalem. The Dome of Rock was looted and converted to a church. Following the Christian capture of the Holy Land, four Christian states were formed to maintain control of the region. The success of the crusade was in partly due to the fact that Palestine was not part of the Muslim political or economic system. The first crusade passed through lands control by Christians and dissident Muslims (Goldschmidt 84-85). In 1144, the Zengi, Muslims, captured Edessa from the crusaders. Angered by the loss of Edessa, the Christians returned to the Middle East to capture the city of Damascus and take Syria from the Muslims. The Christians failed to take Syria; however the attempt roused the Muslims army who reclaimed Syria. Egypt remained uninvolved in the first and second crusade despite being Muslim controlled, because of trade with

Venice and Genoa. However, Egypt would become the target of the King of Jerusalem and Nur al-Din’s ambitions and greed. Nur al-Din had the advantage in Egypt with political manipulation. Salah al-Din, Saladin to the westerners, gained control of Egypt and took a Muslim army into the Holy Land and took Jerusalem and most of Palestine. Saladin failed to drive the Christians out of the Middle East, yet he did unite Egypt and Syria beneath his own family. Saladin’s victory in the Holy Land inspired the Muslim in time for their next challenge the Mongols (Goldschmidt 86-87).
The history of the Middle East is a story of three religious born in conflict, tempered and tested. Despite the apparent differences of the Christians and the Muslims, they share many parallels in their historical journey such as: rejected by the Jews, divided from within by politics, and constantly expanding. Years of political strife carried out in the name of religion has inflamed the passions of faithful and created rifts between sister religions.