 |
| Source : Getty Images |
These three religions are connected not only through acceptance of the same prophets and basic teachings but also through locations that matter to them and many very similar rituals, prayers and aspirations. When one examines the similarities between these three religious groups, the differences between them somehow seem to fade away into nothing.
The Jewish Torah consists of the Biblical books Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Together with several other books by or about prophets and some containing wisdom or songs or teachings, these books together make up the Tanakh - the full "Jewish Bible".
Christians rearrange the books and call it the "Old Testament" with writings about and since (the birth of) Jesus known as the "New Testament". Christians are known as Christians because they believe that Jesus was the Christ (from ancient Greek Christós) aka the prophesied Messiah of Jewish scripture.
Jesus was a Jewish man, born of a Jewish mother in a time when Jewish Israel / Palestine was occupied by the Romans. He taught about the One God to both Jews and non-Jews and lived at a time when the Holy Temple still stood in Jerusalem. The Western Wall that Jews worship at today was only a foundation wall for the Temple Mount back in Jesus' time.
In 70 CE the Temple was destroyed and Judaism changed as a religion. Previously, the Temple in Jerusalem had been the heart of religious life. After the destruction of the Temple, synagogues took over as locations for religious happenings while the Temple Mount remained and remains the most important place and the most holy of Jewish locations in the entire world.
Long after the destruction of the Jewish Temple and the growth of Christianity, a man named Muhammad lived in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
The Muslim holy book is known as the Qur'an (Quran, Koran) and refers to many events and people from both the Jewish Bible and the Christian Bible. The Qur'an speaks of Jews and Christians as "People of the Book" or Ahl al-Kitab, acknowledging a shared history and inspiration.
While I'm not a Catholic (nor a Christian for that matter), I do find the 'popularity' of Pope Francis (who's been the current Pope since March 2013) and the changing image of the Catholic Church very interesting to observe and study. As the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church, the Pope's words always end up being headline news, somehow.
Personally I'm more interested in the Jewish and Muslim worlds than the Catholic (or Christian) world, even though I live in a nominally Christian country. As such, I've very much enjoyed reading about the Pope's visit to Israel and Palestine these past few days.
One of the articles I read was from the Huffington Post. The piece not only moved me, it also inspired me to start writing. And that is never a bad thing!
"Through his witness and statements, Pope Francis reminded us that we can recognize the injustice experienced by the Palestinian people and insist on the right of statehood for Palestine, and that does not diminish our support for the State of Israel. We can visit the separation wall and protest the damage the settlements are doing to the the Palestinian people, and at the same time we can insist that violence and terrorism is never legitimate or a pathway to peace. We can visit the Dome on the Rock and the Western Wall on the same day and pray for peace at both. We can honor the victims of the Holocaust and pledge our support for a homeland for the Jewish people, while visiting camps for Palestinians where poverty and degradation are a way of life and insist that they too deserve a homeland a secure future."
Source: "The Pope and Peace in the Middle East: We Are All Francis Now"
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, Executive Religion Editor
The Huffington Post