While mainstream Rabbinic Judaism is classically monotheistic and follows in the footsteps of the Aristotelian theologian Maimonides, the panentheistic conception of God can be found in certain Jewish mystical currents.

Ephrem combines in his writing a threefold heritage: he draws on the models and methods of early Rabbinic Judaism, he engages skillfully with Greek science and philosophy, and he delights in the Mesopotamian / Persian tradition of mystery symbolism.

Some proponents contend that Christianity emerged organically from Hellenistic Judaism and draws on perceived parallels between the biography of Jesus and those of Greek, Egyptian, and other gods, especially those figuring in myths about dying and rising deities.

This is the starting point of a complex and somewhat metaphorical argument which draws on the stereotype of the Jew as a financially apt " huckster " and posits a special connection between Judaism as a religion and the economy of contemporary bourgeois society.

The contents are correspondingly varied: a confession of sin and a plea to God not to maintain his anger forever ( ch. 63: 7 – 64: 11 ); a poem on the theme that God has no need of a temple because Heaven is his throne and Earth his footstool ( Isaiah 66: 1 – 2 ); verses setting out conditions for admission to the community ; complaints of sin, incompetence and paganism ; and distinctions between the " righteous " and the " sinners ", foreshadowing the categories used in much later Judaism and early Christianity.

At the time of Jesus, there was no single, coherent form or order within Second Temple Judaism, and significant political, social and religious differences existed among the Jews.

For the first time in nearly a century, Conservative Judaism is no longer the largest denomination in America.

Christmas and other Christian festivals have no religious significance in Judaism and are not celebrated.

There are also parallels ( though no direct connection ) between the easter egg tradition and the celebration of Passover in Judaism, notable because in Christian tradition, Christ was celebrating Passover with his disciples on the evening before Good Friday.

Other scholars have suggested that Hebrews is part of an internal New Testament debate between the extreme Judaizers ( who argued that non-Jews must convert to Judaism before they can receive the Holy Spirit of Jesus ' Jewish covenant ) versus the extreme Antinomians ( who argued that Jews must reject God's commandments and that Jewish law was no longer in effect ).

According to Nicholas de Lange, Judaism offers no clear teaching about the destiny which lies in wait for the individual after death and its attitude to life after death has been expressed as follows: " For the future is inscrutable, and the accepted sources of knowledge, whether experience, or reason, or revelation, offer no clear guidance about what is to come.

Within Modern Orthodox Judaism, there is no one committee or leader, but Modern Orthodox rabbis generally agree with the views set by consensus by the leaders of the Rabbinical Council of America.

Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism both hold that modern views of how the Torah and rabbinic law developed imply that the body of rabbinic Jewish law is no longer normative ( seen as binding ) on Jews today.

Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism hold that halakha ( Jewish law ) is no longer binding, and rabbis in those movements follow their individual consciences on such matters ; some uphold the traditional prohibitions and some permit weddings on these days.

Like Reform Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism has also altered traditional prayers so that they no longer refer to a personal Messiah.

In this effort, precursors of the National Conference of Christians and Jews created teams consisting of a priest, a rabbi, and a minister, to run programs across the country, and fashion a more pluralistic America, no longer defined as a Christian land, but " one nurtured by three ennobling traditions: Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism.

He knows of a division among the orthodox only on the question of the millennium and on the attitude toward the milder Jewish Christianity, which he personally is willing to tolerate as long as its professors in their turn do not interfere with the liberty of the Gentile converts ; his millenarianism seems to have no connection with Judaism, but he believes firmly in a millennium, and generally in the Christian eschatology.

“ Now let us understand the exact meaning of the expression historical Judaism … Looking at Judaism from a historical point of view, we become convinced that there is no one aspect deep enough to exhaust the content of such a complex phenomenon as Judaism … Accordingly, Torah-less Judaism … would be an entirely new thing and not the continuation of something given …

Haredi Judaism asserts that it may no longer be changed in any fashion.

Orthodox Judaism holds that, given Jewish law's Divine origin, no underlying principle may be compromised in accounting for changing political, social or economic conditions ; in this sense, " creativity " and development in Jewish law is limited.

Furthermore, Orthodox Judaism holds that, given Jewish law's Divine origin, no underlying principle may be compromised in accounting for changing political, social or economic conditions ; in this sense, " creativity " and development in Jewish law is held to have been limited.

Thus, Christianity acquired an identity distinct from Rabbinic Judaism, but this distinction was not recognised all at once by the Roman Empire, see Split of early Christianity and Judaism for details.

According to Daniel Boyarin, the underlying distinction between religion and ethnicity is foreign to Judaism itself, and is one form of the dualism between spirit and flesh that has its origin in Platonic philosophy and that permeated Hellenistic Judaism.

In Eros and Kabbalah, Moshe Idel ( Professor of Jewish Mysticism, Hebrew University in Jerusalem ) argues that the fundamental distinction between the rational-philosophic strain of Judaism and mystical Judaism, as exemplified by the Zohar, is the mystical belief that the Godhead is complex, rather than simple, and that divinity is dynamic and incorporates gender, having both male and female dimensions.

At the fringes of Zionist thought, the Canaanites, who were radically opposed to Judaism, drew a sharp distinction between " Jews " and " Hebrew ".

Belief in the messiahship and divinity of Jesus, which Messianic Judaism generally shares, is viewed by many Christian denominations and Jewish religious movements as a defining distinction between Christianity and Judaism.

In contrast to the Hellenistic-influenced Christology of Alexandria, Rome, and Constantinople, Antiochene theology was greatly influenced by Rabbinic Judaism and other modes of Semitic thought — emphasizing the single, transcendent divine substance (), which in turn led to adoptionism in certain extremes, and to the clear distinction of two natures of Christ (: dyophysitism ): one participating in humanity, the other in divinity.

In Judaism during the Christian intertestamental period, there was a basic distinction between the current age and the “ age to come ”.

Hence, little to no distinction is made in Judaism between those who are born Jewish and those who are Jewish as a result of conversion.

Traditional Christianity and Judaism make a clear distinction between what is spiritual and what is temporal, while Mormon theology specifically denies that there is such a distinction.

Hill also notes that in Jesus ' time mainstream Judaism did make a distinction between lesser and greater commandments and supported the notion that the punishment for breaking a lesser one would be less than for breaking a great one.

How fully in correspondence with such an environment the work would be, as apologia for the Church against the Synagogue's attempts to influence Roman policy to its harm, must be clear to all familiar with the strength of Judaism in Asia ( cf.

In this view, Christianity is seen as a religion in its own right, rather than a subset of Judaism, if one makes the common assumption that Judaism is not universal, however see Noahide Laws and Christianity and Judaism for details.

In its own right it can be the subject of intense study and analysis, and provides insight into the relationship between God and Man beyond the world of Judaism and for all Monotheism.

In Judaism and Christianity, its authorship is attributed to a prophet who lived in the Assyrian Period, Obadiah, whose name means “ servant or worshipper of Yahweh ”.

In Judaism it is the Haftarah for the afternoon of Yom Kippur due to its story of God's willingness to forgive those who repent.

Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism, developed in 1850s Germany as a reaction to the more liberal religious positions taken by Reform Judaism.

Its principal founder was Rabbi Zecharias Frankel, who had broken with the German Reform Judaism in 1845 over its rejection of the primacy of the Hebrew language in Jewish prayer and the rejection of the laws of kashrut.

In 1913, the Conservative Movement founded its congregational arm, the United Synagogue of America, which would later become the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Conservative Judaism believes that its approach is the most authentic expression of Judaism as it was traditionally practiced.

Conservative Jews believe that movements to its left, such as Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism, have erred by rejecting the traditional authority of Jewish law and tradition.

Accordingly, Conservative Judaism holds itself bound by the Jewish legal tradition, but asserts the right of its rabbinical body, acting as a whole, to interpret and to apply Jewish law.

In 2002, the Committee adopted a responsum that provides an official religious-law foundation for its past actions and articulates the current Conservative approach to the role of women in Judaism.

Some Modern Orthodox leaders cooperate and work with the Conservative movement, while haredi (" Ultra-Orthodox ") Jews often eschew formal contact with Conservative Judaism, or at least its rabbinate.

Rabbi Milton Steinberg wrote that " By its nature Judaism is averse to formal creeds which of necessity limit and restrain thought " and asserted in his book Basic Judaism ( 1947 ) that " Judaism has never arrived at a creed.

Christianity is characterized by its claim to universality, which marks a significant break from current Jewish identity and thought, but has its roots in Hellenistic Judaism.

" For many reasons, some historical and some religious, Judaism does not encourage its members to convert others and in fact would require the initiative from the person who would like to convert.

Judaism does not accept the retronymic labeling of its sacred texts as the " Old Testament ", and some Jews refer to the New Testament as the Christian Testament or Christian Bible.