Judaism and Hinduism - Essay Example

Whole (Instuctor’s Analysis Paper on Judaism and Hinduism Introduction Religions exist around the worldthe world to guide the spirituality of people. They tend to explain the source of everything and life after death. They guide people with their morals and beliefs (Clack and Clack 2). Two of the religions are Judaism and Hinduism which are two of the oldest major religions in the world. The history has proven their credibility in providing the path toward enlightenment for the believers as they have millions of followers.

Similarities and Differences Judaism began 4000 years ago as a Middle East religion and its people are known as Jewish. As centuries passed, many Jews or Jewish people had lived in various nations at present; they cover over 100 countries (Faelli 5). On the other hand, Hinduism is another religion that exists since 3,000 or more years in the past. The people of that religion are called Hindus who once lived along a river in India. The famous Indus River became Hindu to describe that group of people.

The Hindus have varying beliefs but many similarities classify them under the religion they call Sanatan Dharma (Symmons 4). Both religions exist for a long time but they started from different places. The comparison of the two religions would be seen in the succeeding paragraphs. Both Hinduism and Judaism revolve around one God. The difference is Hinduism has two or three hundred million deities that symbolize various parts or aspects of God (Symmons 4). Judaism can be called as a monotheistic religion as it has one Supreme God who created all things and gives justice to people (Geldart 2).

Some experts may argue that Hinduism is a polytheistic religion as they have replicas of various deities (Srinivasan 84) and rich mythology but in essence, it is monotheistic (Kishore 80). History may explain the difference of the two and clear up the polytheistic-monotheistic view on Hinduism. Hinduism started when the Dravidians who were native to the Indus River were conquered by Aryans coming from Russia and the mixture of beliefs gave rise to it. Dravidians believed and worshipped their God Shiva and goddesses for crop growth.

Animals and fertility symbols were considered sacred for them. They also believed in karma that the past affects the present. The conquerors called Aryans came from Russia and Ganges River in particular. They brought with them the belief of no reincarnation. They also have several gods such as Varuna who sent bad people to the House of Clay beneath the earth. In general, the Aryan gods are males. They also had a belief on sacrifice that they do by offering animals to their gods (Symmons 6). The history of Judaism is quite different as it started in Israel at about 2000 BCE.

It is the root of Christianity and Islam as the events seen in Tenakh or the Hebrew Bible are reflected in Koran and Holy Bible. The Ten Commandments are then the laws believed to be Supreme are followed by the Jews as well as Christians and Muslims. The covenant believed as sign of the relationship between the believers and God as it started from Abraham. Abraham was named as Abram before who was a rich man married to Sarai. Both their names were changed to Abraham and Sara respectively as they showed faith and obedience to God (Geldart 4).

In general, the two oppose each other as Hinduism is said to be Polytheistic and iconocentric while Judaism is monotheistic and iconoclastic that were elaborated by the cyclical versus linear views of existence (Holdredge 103). Conclusion Both religions provide rich histories of people as they originated from different places. They differ in religious figures and view of existence but in totality, they both have “priests”, scripture, rituals, caste system and in essence, belief in One God.

Works Cited: Clack, Beverly and Brian Clack. The Philosophy of Religion: A Critical Introduction. United Kingdom: Polity Press, 2008. Faelli, Rita. Judaism: History, Beliefs, Worship and Celebrations. Australia: Blake Education, 2006. Geldart, Anne. Modern World Religions: Judaism. USA: Camera Press, 2002. Holdredge, Barbara. “Veda and Torah: The Word Embodied in Scripture.” Between Jerusalem and Benares: comparative studies in Judaism and Hinduism. Ed. Hananya Goodman. USA: State University of New York, 1994.

Kishore, B. Hinduism. New Delhi: Diamond Pocket Books. Srinivasan, Amrutur. Hinduism for Dummies. New Jersey: Willey Publishing, 2011. Symmons, Dave. What is Hinduism? United Kingdom: Deigns and Pate Delta Place, 1998.