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Summary
From NHK Learning Basics, “Reading the Core of Christianity. In this article, I will discuss the three major monotheistic religions, the Old Testament and Abraham.
Three major monotheistic religions and scriptures
Christianity would be one of the three major monotheistic religions in the world (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Considering the “scriptures” of each religion, the Jewish scriptures are the Old Testament, the Christian scriptures are the Old Testament plus the New Testament, and the Islamic scriptures are the Qur’an. (The name “Koran” is more familiar, but these days it is called the Qur’an to honor the original sound of the Arabic language.)
The majority of the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, while the New Testament is written in Greek. Hebrew and Greek are quite different languages, and Hebrew is a Semitic language system, which is in the same group as Arabic. The script is written from right to left like Arabic, and the Qur’an is written in Arabic, while Greek is an Indo-European language similar to English and German.
The scriptures of these three religions have something in common. Judaism and Islam are written in languages that are very close to each other in terms of language system, while Christianity and Judaism share the Old Testament scriptures in their entirety.
What all three religions have in common is the understanding that the scriptures are not merely the carved insights of man’s deep consideration of what God is like, but rather what God has revealed to him that he is like.
The second is that the scope of the scriptures is clear. Each of the three monotheistic religions has clear boundaries, such as “the scriptures from here to here” and “the rest of the scriptures are not considered scriptures. As previously mentioned in “Mahayana Buddhism and the Prajnaparamita Sutra,” there are no clear boundaries such as “other sutras are not regarded as scriptures,” even though each sect has its own scriptures that they cherish. In the three major monotheistic religions, only the books mentioned above are considered to be their respective scriptures.
The “order of establishment” of each scripture is as follows: the Old Testament is established first, then the New Testament, and finally the Qur’an. This means that Judaism recognizes only the Old Testament as scripture, while Christianity recognizes the Old Testament plus the New Testament as scripture, and although the Qur’an is not recognized as scripture, events and people from the Old and New Testaments appear in the scriptures with slight modifications. In other words, the structure of the later scriptures is based on the earlier scriptures, while adding new stories and their own interpretations and variations on what is stated in the earlier clear-cut scriptures.
Although these three monotheistic religions share many similarities and connections, they also have their differences. The first major difference between the Holy Scriptures and the Qur’an is that the Holy Scriptures are either man-made or not.
In the Bible, God discloses Himself (God Himself) in history, and the scriptures are seen as a human record of this. In other words, each word of the Bible is not the word itself spoken by a hair, but a human interpretation and record of it.
The Qur’an, on the other hand, is in the form of words spoken by God, word for word, and the hair detective is in the Qur’an itself, a book spoken by God Himself. So, the translation of the Qur’an is not strictly speaking a Qur’an, but only a commentary on the Qur’an, and the words spoken by God himself are only in the Qur’an written in Arabic.
Old Testament and New Testament
Here is the difference between the Old Testament and the New Translation of the Bible. The New Testament is the scripture that describes Jesus Christ, while the Old Testament describes the relationship between God and man before that time. The New Testament covers the events of the first few decades A.D., while the Old Testament covers the history of the first several thousand years A.D.
The word “covenant” in the Old and New Testaments refers to a covenant, and one of the characteristics of the Bible is the concept of covenant in the relationship between God and man. For example, in the “Exodus” in the Old Testament, when Moses, the leader of the Israelites, leads the Israelites, who were suffering from oppression, out of Egypt, a miracle occurs during the exodus: the sea breaks and a road is made, God gives the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, and they travel south to the “Promised Land”.
The covenant between God and man before Jesus, representing the covenant made at Mount Sinai between God and the Israelites (Hebrews and Israelites) through Moses at this time, is the central covenant of Judaism. The Old Testament tells the story of God’s giving of the Law, centering on the Ten Commandments, and the people’s pledge to obey them, for which God bestows blessings on them.
In contrast, the New Covenant is a “new covenant” in which Christ, the “Son of God,” became a human being and was considered to have established a new covenant as the mediator between God and man.
In other words, the fact that a new relationship between God and man became possible through Christ did not render the old covenant completely meaningless, but rather, the “new covenant” became possible only on the basis of the mutual relationship between God and man that had been nurtured during the Old Testament era. The Christian view is to regard both the Old and New Testaments as scripture.
Composition of the Old Testament
The Old Testament is the name by which the Christian position has been taken, and in Judaism it is called Tanakh, neither old nor new. The Old Testament was divided into three parts, Torah, Nerviim, and Ketuvim, and the initials “TNK” plus vowels were added to form Tanakh. Torah means the law of God, Nevi’im means the prophets, and Ketuvim means the various books (諸書).
The Old Testament and the Tanach contain the same documents, but they are arranged in a different order. The following is an introduction to the contents of the Old Testament in the order of the Old Testament.
- The Book of the Law: The Book of the Law contains five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, collectively known as the Pentateuch. Moses is considered to be the greatest person in the Old Testament who passed on the Law given by God to the people. The Pentateuch summarizes the activities of Moses.
- History: The history books are the parts of the Bible that describe past history. In the Bible, God works through history. From this perspective, the history books describe how God has guided the Israelites up to the present.
- The Letters : The Letters are documents that contain various insights for living in the present. The Book of Job, for example, deeply appeals to those of us who are forced to live with suffering and evil on a daily basis.Job, a righteous man who lived an unblemished life, yet suffered greatly. He loses his family and possessions, and he himself becomes ill. In the midst of all this, he asks why evil exists when God exists, and if there is such great aq and misery, is there no such thing as a just God? This is a story that has been invoked repeatedly in literature and philosophy to this day when considering the problem of evil.The Psalms, also a literary book, is a poem of praise and lamentation sung by the ancient Israelites to God, and the Proverbs is a collection of sayings. The “Words of Qohelet” is a collection of aphorisms, but it also contains wisdom on how to survive in this impermanent world. The “Gaka,” on the other hand, is a song of love between a man and a woman, and there is no mention of God at all. It is interpreted as taking the form of a passionate love story between a man and a woman, but in fact metaphorically describing the love relationship between God and man.
- Prophetic Books : Prophetic books describe the activities of various prophets. A prophet is not necessarily a person who predicts the future. The most central meaning of a prophet is a person who speaks words that have been entrusted by God to people, but since these words are often about the future, they also have the aspect of predicting the future.
Two Readings of the Old Testament
There are two ways to read the Old Testament. One is to read the Old Testament as the Old Testament itself, and the other is to read it in relation to the New Testament.
For example, in the prophetic books of the Old Testament, there is the book of Isaiah, in which a mysterious “servant of the Lord” is mentioned. Because he was a righteous man who lived according to God, he was treated unjustly, suffered greatly, and ended up dying. In fact, he took our sins and illnesses on our behalf. What does this “servant of the Lord” mean?
When we read the Old Testament as the Old Testament itself, we can read it from the perspective of how this person is positioned in the context of the time in which “Isaiah” was written. Christians, however, interpret it as referring to Jesus Christ. This text is read as a preannouncement of the coming of Jesus Christ.
God in search of man
Abraham Heschel, one of the leading Jewish thinkers of the 20th century, wrote a famous work entitled “God in Search of Man. Heschel says that one of the major characteristics of the Old Testament is that God, rather than man’s dependence on God for emotional stability, causes various events in pursuit of man and speaks to him in words.
This is similar to the teachings of Pure Land Buddhism, a Mahayana Buddhism, as described in “The Power of Amitabha Buddha and Pure Land Buddhism, which introduced the concept of parallel worlds.
However, in the case of the Old Testament world, God’s side does not merely extend a helping hand to human beings, but gives them very strong promptings to take new activities, and the river of God takes the initiative thoroughly, causing various events and working on human beings. The river of God will take the initiative, causing various events to take place, and human beings will be asked to make a fundamental decision as to how to respond to this initiative.
Heschel describes this as the story of the Old Testament, the Jewish scriptures, but the author of the book says that this is the essence common to the three major monotheistic religions, including not only the Old Testament but also the New Testament and the Qur’an.
Abraham’s Calling and Migration
Abraham is considered the originator of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Abraham is described as “a figure from the Old Testament book of Genesis. He is considered the founder of the Israelites through his son Isaac, and the founder of the Arabs through his son Ishmael. He appears in the Koran under the name of Ibrahim, the builder of the Temple of the Ka’bah, the archetypal personality of the one God faith, debased and abolished in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and in comparative religious studies, these are called the “religions of Abraham. Formerly known as Abram.” It becomes.
In the Old Testament book of Genesis, “The Lord said to Abram. ‘Leave your native place/your father’s house/and go to the land that I will show you. I will bless thee and exalt thy name. /I will bless those who bless thee, and I will curse those who curse thee, that thou mayest be a source of blessing. All the clans of the earth will be blessed by you,” Abram set out according to the words of the seed. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. The story goes.
Abram was the original name of Abraham, who was later given a new name by God, “Abraham,” meaning “father of the nations.
What is striking about this story is that the “Lord” appears to Abraham in a sort of sudden appearance, and in the Bible the Lord means God. This is not, for example, a story of Abraham having a bad time in his birthplace and praying to God for a new path in his hair, and God fulfills his request.
What God is saying here, in essence, is that you should leave your old inertial way of life and set out on a new journey, breaking with your existing ties and leaving your hometown, father, and home behind. We do not know what the hair initiative means, but the story of Abraham begins with his departure to the Promised Land accordingly.
After this story, Abraham receives the words of the abode that it is not the servants of the house who will succeed him, but your children who will be born from you. This is hard to believe for Abraham, who is now 75 years old. But here Abraham believes in God. Again, the entire event unfolds on the initiative of thoroughness on the part of the hairy man who is watching over Abraham. God promises offspring in a way that could be described as “one-sided,” and he promises that these offspring will inherit the land. And Abraham’s way of being, believing in this unbelievable thing, was recognized as the right thing to do. The story goes on to say.
The archetype of the human figure in the Bible
Thus, Abraham is the key to the Old Testament, but to see how this Abraham can be reimagined in our time, we refer to what the current Catholic Pope Francis has said.
He says, “Ours is the theology of the immigrant. For we are all migrants, from the moment Abraham was chosen by the hair. The Israelites were migrants many times, and Jesus himself was a migrant, a refugee. And according to our faith, in an existential sense, we are migrants. Human dignity necessarily includes the meaning of “going on the road. A person who has not gone the way, whether male or female, is a mummy. He or she is a museum exhibit. That person is not alive. […] When a person decides not to walk anymore, he fails. He fails in his calling as a person. Walk and always be on the road, always communicate. There will be times when you take the wrong road, and there will be times when you fall. […] Walk anyway. (from “To Build a Bridge”)”
Returning to his origin, Abraham, the Pope said that it is human nature to walk the path. The Pope uses the term “the theology of the migrant” because he is talking about refugees in this context, which can also be translated as “the theology of the traveler.”
Furthermore, what is noteworthy in the Pope’s words is that he sees human dignity as a very dynamic and dynamic aspect of “going on the road,” rather than addressing the static nature of man, as if to say that man has reason, etc. He further says that there is a spirit of walking with it, even while making mistakes.
Even in the Old Testament, the image of man is presented as one who, although he may make mistakes, such as doubting God, continues to walk in a new way even while making mistakes. This understanding is a hint for those of us who are walking in the face of various difficulties today, regardless of whether we have faith or not.
A “common ancestor” who does not preach the teachings
In the three major monotheistic religions, in Judaism, Abraham is the blood father of the Jewish people and the first chief of Israel. In Christianity, Abraham is a model of faith, and in Islam, he is one of the five great prophets, along with Muhammed and others, and the founder of pure monotheism.
Thus, despite their slightly different aspects, Abraham is regarded as an important figure in each religion as a man who believed in the One God. What that One God is is not clear. If there is such a thing called “God,” it must, in principle, have aspects that are beyond human comprehension.
Abraham embodied the spirit of responding to such a strong impetus from someone else and thoroughly obeying it. This figure from the “Book of Genesis” in the Old Testament has been handed down as the starting point not only in Christianity, but also in Judaism and Islam, and has continued to the present day.
When we read the story of “Genesis” here, Abraham does not “teach us. If you ask, “What are the ideas that Abraham could teach us?” I would say almost nothing.
Abraham continues to move forward, overcoming various difficulties, deviations, and failures that he causes, while being nourished by the urging of someone beyond himself. In other words, he is only guided by promptings and acts on them, where abstract and fixed “doctrines” are absent. This is what makes Abraham the “common ancestor” of the three monotheistic religions, which differ in “doctrine” and concrete forms of belief.
In the next article, we will discuss the New Testament.
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