Why Judaism Was The First Of The Three Abrahamic Religions – OpEd

“The word in the Hebrew Bible most often translated as “covenant” is berit, appearing about 280 times. A covenant in God’s mind is more than just a partnership with each partner doing their own responsibility. A covenant with God is a promise that builds on an ongoing, long lasting relationship between the Creator and His creations.

The first religious covenant was with all Humanity. Genesis 1:26 states “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

The Quran points out that every human community, from small tribes to major empires, has received at least one of the one God’s prophets. Abraham the Hebrew (Genesis 14:13) was the only prophet whose two sons were the biological ancestors of the three Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and for 13 centuries Judaism was the only ongoing, imageless, monotheist, anti idols religious community. Genesis 12:2-3 states: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

Exodus 19:5-6  states: “Now if you obey me and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

And Prophet Samuel (2 Samuel 7:23-24) states: “And what one nation on the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people and to make a name for Himself, and to do a great thing for You and awesome things for Your land, before Your people whom You have redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, from (pagan) nations and their gods? For You have established for Yourself  Your people Israel as Your own people forever, and You, O Lord, have become their God.”

Deuteronomy 7:6-8 states “For you (Israel) are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

And Deuteronomy 26:17-19  states”You have today declared the Lord to be your God, and that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice. The Lord has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken.”

Psalm 105:8-10 states: “He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made, for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant.”

Deuteronomy 7:9 “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; is a faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.”

Deuteronomy 5:2-3 “The Lord our God made a covenant with us (the Jewish People) at Horeb (another name for Mount Sinai). It was not (only) with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.” (People born Jewish and all future converts to Judaism.) 

Prophet Jeremiah 31:33 states: “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law (the Torah) in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

A major misunderstanding of the Biblical concept of God choosing a people or a prophet is caused by the use of the word ‘the’ chosen when a better translation would be ‘a’ chosen prophet or people. Relationships are always unique and exclusive, but just as a parent can and should have a loving relationship with several different children; God can and does have unique and exclusive relationships with many different prophets and many different religious communities.

Before Prophets Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus, “We (God) sent messengers to many nations, and We afflicted the nations with suffering and adversity, that they call Allah in humility. When the suffering reached them from Us, why then did they not call Allah in humility? On the contrary, their hearts became hardened, and Satan made their sinful acts seem alluring to them.”(Qur’an 6:42-43)

The Banu Israel (Jewish People) became the first ongoing monotheistic community to last to the present because God made a special covenant with the whole Banu Israel which; according to the Bible , was similar to a marital partnership, as can be seen from the following Biblical verses:

1. God proposes a marriage covenant at Sinai: God said to Moses “Speak thus to the house of Jacob, and tell this to the children of Israel… Now if you listen to me and keep my covenant, then you will be my special possession out of all the peoples, for the whole earth is mine. You will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation. These words you shall speak to the people of Israel” (this is the proposal)

“Moses came and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these proposals as God had commanded him. All the people answered together, ‘All that God has proposed, we will do.’ (like “I do” at a wedding). Moses brought this answer back to the Lord.” (Exodus 19:5-8). 

2. Why the Jews? Because God loved their ancestors. “The Lord cared for your ancestors, loving them and chose their descendants after them from all nations, as you are to this day.” (Deuteronomy 10:15)

 “I will fulfill my covenant between myself and you (Abraham) and your descendants after you, generation after generation, an everlasting covenant, to be your God, yours and your descendants after you.” (Genesis 17:7)” “All the families of the earth shall be blessed through you (Jacob) and your descendants.”  (Genesis 28:14)

3. Why the Jews? Divine love isn’t based on popularity or large numbers. “It was not because you were more numerous than any other nation that the Lord cared about you and chose you, for you are the smallest of nations; it was because of the Lord’s love for you, and his oath to your ancestors.” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8)

4. Is being chosen and special make you better? No. A committed loving relationship results in more giving (Mitsvot), more receiving (Torah, Prophets and sages) and more grief (because each cares about the other). “For you alone have I cared among all the nations of the world, therefore I will castigate you for all your iniquities.”    
(Amos 3:2)

 5. Israel can’t adore any other God, but God can and does redeem other nations. “Are not Israelites like Ethiopians to me? Says the Lord. Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt, the Philistines from Crete and the Aramaeans from Kir?” (Amos 9:7)

6. Jews are not THE chosen people; they are A chosen people, the first of several ongoing monotheistic religions. A parent can have many children but only one is the firstborn. “These are the words of the Lord, Israel is my first-born son.” (Exodus 4:22) The Jewish people was the first community to enter into a sacred relationship with the one God, but they are not the only ones to do so. In later centuries other communities (Christianity and Islam) were formed to spread imageless monotheism worldwide.

That process will continue until all nations have a sacred relationship to the one God of Israel. “Each nation will walk in the name of its God, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.” (Micah 4:5) Even in the Messianic Age the other nations will be free to faithfully follow their vision of the One God.

As the Qur’an states: “For every nation there is a direction to which they face (in prayer). So hasten towards all that is good. Wherever you may be, Allâh will bring you together. Truly, Allâh is able to do all things.” (2:148) The commentary/Tafsir of al-Jalalayn states: “Every person, of every community, has his direction/qibla, to which he turns in prayer, so compete with one another in good works; strive with acts of obedience and acceptance of these. Wherever you may be, God will bring you all together, gathering you on the Day of Resurrection and requiting you for your deeds; surely God has power over all things.”

And as Prophet Isaiah states: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. On that day Israel  will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”…(Isaiah 19:23-5)

7. What is Israel chosen for? To be an agent of holiness and enlightenment.

“You are the children of the Lord your God…You are a people holy to the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19). “The Lord has chosen you out of all the nations on earth to be his special possession.” (Deuteronomy 14:1-2) “I will make you a light for the nations” (Isaiah 49:6) Thus, other nations will also be blessed through their own religions that were connected by Israel’s covenant with God at Sinai, thus fulfilling the promise to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth.

As a Reform Rabbi, I believe that the many prophets Allah/God sends to the Children of Israel is a sign of the ongoing covenant between Allah and the Children of Israel. I know Muslim interpreters interpret 2:63-64 to mean that the favors mentioned in those verses were conditional with a certain period of time when the Divine trust—the representation and promotion of God’s eternal religion—rested on the shoulders of the Children of Israel.

The biblical religious tradition claims this trust is an “ongoing covenant” between God and the Children of Israel. Clearly, not all Jews live up to this trust, but God’s commitment is ongoing for the whole Jewish Umma of those who do. For Jews, the ongoing continuity of God’s covenant with the Jewish People is achieved through the faithful linked chain connection of endless successive loyal generations. This is why the Jewish Umma (community) is both a religious and an ethnic community.

Although many Christians claim the new covenant replaces the old covenant for all Jews (1), and some Muslims say the Jewish covenant has expired for all Jews, faithful Jews remain loyal to their spiritual relationship with God. I believe wisdom dictates that we follow the Qur’an’s (22:67) advice: “For every community We have appointed a whole system of worship which they are to observe. So do not let them draw you into disputes concerning this matter.”

The Qur’an relates God’s ongoing concern for faithful Jews when Prophet Moses speaks to his people as follows: “O my people! Remember God’s favor upon you, for He appointed among you Prophets, and rulers, and He granted to you favors such as He had not granted to anyone else in the worlds” (5:20). This is one reason why Jews in Sunni Muslim lands have rarely been forcibly converted; as frequently happened in Christian lands.

Note (1): This is the concept of supersessionism , a.k.a. replacement theology or fulfillment theology. Many early Christian believed that the Christian Church succeeded the Israelites as “the” chosen people of God. This was a common belief in the Church until the Nazi Holocaust, which triggered theological thought after World War II. The Roman Catholic Church largely abandoned the concept starting in the mid-1970”s. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Christ, and Episcopal Church (USA) followed in the 1980’s. Some denominations still retain the belief.