What is Judaism, particularly Rabbinic Judaism, and how should we understand it in relation to Christianity? In short, Rabbinic Judaism is the common form of Judaism in our time. Not all Jews practice Judaism, most of them do to some degree or another. While there are many different sects within Judaism, most of them centering around the teachings of a particular rabbi, or group of rabbis, virtually all of them fall into three basic categories…
- Orthodox: Strict adherence to traditional Jewish laws from Torah and Talmud (Halakha meaning “law and jurisprudence”), resisting modern changes.
- Conservative: Balances Jewish tradition with adaptations to contemporary life, allowing contextual changes to Halakha.
- Reform: Prioritizes ethical teachings and personal choice, adapting rituals to modern values like equality and social justice.
Basically, the Orthodox Jews are the most conservative Jews, practicing Rabbinic Judaism in its most pure and authentic form. Conservatives take a step back from Orthodoxy, and Reformers take two, three or four steps back, and tend to be more liberal. But it wasn’t always this way. Before the nineteenth century, Conservative and Reform Judaism didn’t exist. Orthodox Judaism was just Judaism, and that’s what all Jews practiced.
So why do we call the three categories of modern Judaism “rabbinic”? We call them “rabbinic” because they follow the teachings of the rabbis as opposed to the teachings of Moses and the Temple priesthood. Before I go any further, we need to explain how Judaism appears in the Old Testament, and during the time of Jesus and his Apostles, which is how most people (particularly Christians) know and understand Judaism. To do this, we’re going to have to go through a little timeline…
The Evolution of Judaism
Judaism did not originally appear in a crystalized form, or as an organized religion. The Biblical books of Genesis and Job give us a picture of primordial monotheist (or at least henotheist) beliefs in the Middle East. There we see the worship of an all-powerful and all-knowing God among such figures as Job, Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin. Generally speaking, this monotheist (or at least henotheist) belief in God was fairly widespread, but very much a minority opinion. This belief was very informal and unorganized. It acknowledged belief in one nameless God, who is above all others, and who created all things, and who alone is deserving of worship. The appropriate means of worship of this one nameless God was through animal sacrifice and full submission of the will. This God was called El Shaddai (translated as “God Almighty”) or Elohim (a more general term for God). Elohim is an interesting word because it represents a plurality of majesty, as in a God who is both plural and singular at the same time. Christians would later use this to help explain the concept of the Trinity. Elohim comes from the root words El and Eloah, which simply mean “God” in a singular sense. All of these terms were used to describe patriarchal belief in the God of the books of Genesis and Job.
It isn’t until we get to the Book of Exodus (chronicling events about 400 years after the books of Genesis and Job) that this all-powerful God gets a name, and the informal belief in him becomes an organized religion with laws and a centralized place of procedural worship (Tabernacle). The name of this God is Yahweh, which translates to English as “I Am,” or more literally as “He Is.”
Now, the ancient Israelites (Hebrews) didn’t really have a word for their religion at this time because back then, religions were intimately connected to ethnicity. So one’s religion was often connected to who a person was ethnically and who they were connected to tribally. The ancient Israelites (Hebrews) simply referred to their religion as the Torah, meaning “Law” or “Instruction.” However, because Moses revealed the name of God as “Yahweh” in the Exodus, this new ethno-religion, specific to the Israelites (Hebrews), is often referred to as Yahwism by modern scholars.
Yahwism continued and developed through the centuries, most notably in the building of a Temple in Jerusalem to replace the tent Tabernacle that was old and falling into disrepair. Yahwism required ancient Israelites (Hebrews) to make regular trips to Jerusalem for certain festivals at least a couple times a year. Beyond that, required sacrifices for sin or thanksgiving were personal in nature, and depended on the individual. Religious devotion, away from the Temple in Jerusalem, consisted mainly of prayers and songs at various times of the day based on personal preference, often including grace before (and after meals), as well as observance of the Sabbath rest (every Saturday) wherein the head of household might conduct prayers and songs throughout the day within his own home, not in any community house of worship. Actual worship, in its fullest sense, always happened in the Jerusalem Temple, as this is the only place where it was lawful to perform animal or grain sacrifices, and only the established priesthood was allowed to do it on behalf of a person or the people in general.
A notable thing happened in 930 BC, that dramatically affected the development of Yahwism. It happened following the death of King Solomon, and during the reign of his son Rehoboam. The northern ten tribes of Israel (Hebrews) revolted due to heavy taxation and forced labor policies. This resulted in Solomon’s Kingdom splitting into two kingdoms after his death. The Northern Kingdom consisted of the majority of the tribes of Israel, so it maintained its name as the Kingdom of Israel. The southern minority tribes, of which Judah was the largest, took on a new name as the Kingdom of Judah. The Northern Kingdom of Israel, after its split from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, established alternative centers for worship and religious observance in the cities of Dan and Bethel to discourage pilgrimages to the Temple in Jerusalem. This was initiated by King Jeroboam I, who set up golden calf idols and appointed non-Levitical priests, adapting elements of Torah-based practices like sacrifices, festivals, and rituals to these new sites, combining them with calf-idol worship. In contrast, the Southern Kingdom of Judah maintained classical Yahwism, worshipping the unseen God (Yahweh) using the original Torah system proscribed by Moses. This is when the Israelites, of the Southern Kingdom of Judah, started calling themselves Jews in connection with the Israelite tribe of Judah.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel was later conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BC, wherein these tribes of Israelites (Hebrews) were taken away into captivity, never to be seen or heard from again. The Southern Kingdom of Judah stood alone for just a little over a century before it was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BC. Most of the Jews who survived the sieges were taken into captivity to Babylon, where they resettled as conquered subjects. They were not allowed to leave Babylon, but they were allowed to integrate with the population in a limited way, having their own ethnic settlements along the Euphrates River. The Babylonians did this to weaken Jewish strength in the former Southern Kingdom of Judah. They were eventually allowed to return about 50+ years later, when the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians in 538 BC. It was here, during what is commonly called the “Babylonian Exile” that some major changes happened to the religion of the Jews (Yahwism).
Mosaic Judaism
The Temple of Solomon was destroyed in the final Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 586 BC. So the sacrificial system was impossible during the Babylonian Exile. To maintain a distinct ethnic and cultural identity, the Jewish exiles in Babylon developed a system of weekly meetings at houses of worship called synagogues. It was during these weekly meetings they would read from the Torah (five Books of Moses) as well as from other books of poetry, history and prophets commonly associated with the Old Testament. They kept whatever temple customs they could as well, such as Hebrew chant and prayer. It is also believed that home-ritual observances, like the Passover Seder for example, became more standardized here.
When the Jews returned from Babylon in 538 BC their weekly synagogue custom returned with them. Keep in mind that synagogue attendance was not part of the original Law of Moses, but rather a custom that developed in Babylon for practical reasons. It was such a successful method of passing on Yahwism, and keeping Jews faithful to it, that the custom continued and became nearly universal among all Jews. Upon returning to the Holy Land, the Temple was rebuilt, so that in addition to weekly synagogue attendance, Jews could keep their biannual and personal sacrifices again. This system would remain in place until AD 70. There was a brief interruption during the Maccabean Revolt between 167-164 BC when Jews rebelled against the Seleucid Greeks for defiling their Temple. The Temple was rededicated in 164 BC which has been annually celebrated by the Jews ever since in the eight-day celebration of Hanukah, meaning “dedication.” It was also around this same time that the word “Judaism” first appeared to describe the religion of the Jews (2 Maccabees 2:21, 8:1, and 14:38). Scholars today refer to this type of Judaism as “Mosaic Judaism” because it focused on making sacrifices in the Temple and learning the Torah (five Books of Moses) in the synagogues.
Jews also began migrating to other regions in the ancient world, as the synagogue system helped them retain their Jewish identity and customs in distant lands far away from the Temple in Jerusalem. The migration of Jews around the Mediterranean began under Alexander the Great after he conquered the Holy Land in 332 BC, allowing them to move freely throughout his empire. In 63 BC, Rome conquered the Seleucid Greek Empire and took control of the Holy Land, giving Jews even greater migration access to the whole Roman Empire. This is called the diaspora (meaning “dispersion” or “scattering”), and this diaspora of Jews continues to this day.
In this same era (between 250–100 BC) the written Scriptures of the Jews were translated into Aramaic and Greek. The original Hebrew version was called the Mikra (meaning “Scripture”), and would later be called the Tanakh (meaning “law, prophets and writings”). The Aramaic translation of the Mikra/Tanakh was called the Targums (meaning “Translations”) and was more of a paraphrase than a literal translation. The Greek translation was called the Septuagint (meaning “Seventy”) in reference to seventy elders who translated it. It was an actual translation of the original Hebrew insomuch as possible into the Greek language. Many Greek-speaking Jews, particularly those living outside of the Holy Land, considered the Greek Septuagint to be of equal authority to the original Hebrew Mikra/Tanakh.
First-Century Judaism
A lot happened in the first century (AD 1–100) with the majority happening between AD 33–90). During this time, the Jews were waiting for the promised Messiah (meaning “Anointed One”), found in their Scriptures, who would deliver them from the Roman occupation and become their king. Many messianic figures arrived, each following the example of the Maccabean Revolt, leading a military insurrection, and each being subsequently put down by the Roman Empire. This led to the Roman Empire tightening their grip on control of the Holy Land. Loyalists to Rome were rewarded by high positions in government and religion. Because of this, those in charge understood that their positions of power were contingent upon Roman support. Their job was to keep the people pacified and report any signs of insurrection to the Roman authorities.
It was during this time that Judaism divided into multiple parties. Some of these are mentioned in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. They are as follows…
- Sadducees: An aristocratic, priestly sect aligned with the Temple elite and Roman authorities; they rejected the oral law, broader Scriptures (Mikra/Tanakh), resurrection, angels, and spirits, accepting only the written Torah (Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) as authoritative.
- Pharisees: A prominent group of rabbis (religious teachers) and laity (ordinary Jews) emphasizing strict observance of the Torah, broader Scriptures (Mikra/Tanakh), oral traditions, belief in resurrection, angels, and divine providence; they were influential among the common people and often clashed with the Sadducees, Jesus of Nazareth and his followers.
- Scribes: Professional scholars and interpreters of the Torah, often aligned with Pharisees; they taught scripture, copied texts, and served in legal roles but emphasized traditions over pure scripture.
- Herodians: A political party supporting the Herodian dynasty and Roman rule; they favored Hellenistic influences and often allied with Pharisees against perceived threats like Jesus.
- Essenes: An ascetic, communal sect focused on ritual purity, apocalyptic expectations, and separation from mainstream society; linked to the Qumran community and Dead Sea Scrolls, they criticized the Jerusalem Temple as corrupt.
- Zealots: A militant nationalist group advocating armed resistance against Roman occupation to achieve Jewish independence; they combined religious fervor with political rebellion, contributing to the Jewish-Roman War (AD 66–73).
- Sicarii: An extremist subgroup of Zealots known for assassinations of Roman collaborators using hidden daggers; they promoted violent revolution and seized Masada during the Jewish-Roman War (AD 66–73) .
- Samaritans: A distinct ethnic-religious group in Samaria with their own version of the Torah and temple on Mount Gerizim; viewed as schismatic by mainstream Jews but sharing Abrahamic roots
It is into this elaborate group of religious/political parties that Jesus of Nazareth entered the scene. His second-cousin (John the Baptist) may have been remotely connected to the Essene community in some way, which aligns with the possibility that Jesus and his Apostles may have been using the Essene calendar for their calculation of the Passover Seder date. That said, there is no evidence that Jesus or John the Baptist were Essenes, and their public ministries would seem to go against Essene custom. As the Essenes were ascetics and communal. John the Baptist was ascetic but not communal. Jesus of Nazareth practiced asceticism only on occasion and was not communal. Both Jesus and John were highly public in their ministries. Rather, it would appear they heavily sympathized with Essene positions, while not actually being Essenes themselves. The Apostles of Jesus took public affairs even further after Jesus’ death and resurrection, adopting the Greek Septuagint as their primary source of Scripture, quoting it far more often than the Hebrew Mikra/Tanakh. This allowed easy expansion into Jewish communities of the diaspora outside of the Holy Land, where Greek was more commonly spoken among Jews. Such missionary characteristics were not part of Essene life, but they were more typical of the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:15).
Jesus took a different approach to the mission of the promised Messiah (Greek: “Christ”), which the Essenes took as both a suffering servant and a conquering king. The Essenes speculated there may be two messiahs, one for each role. Jesus, however, reconciled the two roles in himself, while claiming to be more than a deliverer/king, but the actual embodiment of Yahweh (Mark 14:61-62, Luke 5:20-21, John 5:22-23, John 6:35, John 8:58, John 10:30 and John 14:9), fully God and fully man simultaneously. This was realized later by his Apostles in his crucifixion and following resurrection. The idea here was to move away from violent insurrection, and focus more on the spiritual warfare that affects every human being, no longer equating salvation to political deliverance from the Romans, but rather spiritual deliverance from the devil and sin, which is a much bigger problem. Deliverance of the Holy Land from Roman occupation would come not by defeating the Romans in battle, but by outlasting them and converting them to the worship of Yahweh.
It’s important to recognize here that Jesus and his Apostles were practicing their understanding of Mosaic Judaism, however, they didn’t seem to be directly connected to any of the known parties within Mosaic Judaism. Overall, Jesus and his Apostles were more interested in starting their own movement entirely, which was highly missionary in nature, focusing on converting other Jews into their movement first, and then later the Gentiles. It was in AD 43, ten years after the crucifixion and resurrection, that the followers of Jesus came to be called “Christians.” We can consider the Christians yet another Jewish party in the first century, as Christianity started out as a Jewish-majority movement through most (if not all) of the first century. Gentiles did not undisputedly outnumbered Jews in Christianity until the early second century.
Christianity grew within the Holy Land alongside the other Jewish parties, but simultaneously, Christianity saw its biggest success outside of the Holy Land among Greek-speaking Jews in diaspora and Gentile converts. Intense hostilities broke out between Christianity and the other parties of Mosaic Judaism throughout the first century, involving heavy persecution of Christians in the Holy Land. The references we see in the New Testament, referring to “the Jews,” and the “Synagogue of Satan,” were written by Jewish Christians about other Jews, primarily the party of the Pharisees and those closely associated with it. But the condemnations were more broadly directed toward all the Jewish parties at the time, insofar as they rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah and persecuted his followers. Thus, we could say the condemnations against Judaism in the New Testament are directed toward Mosaic Judaism in general. That’s important, because Mosaic Judaism no longer exists, as we shall see below.
The biggest change in Judaism came in the latter half of the first century, starting with the Jewish-Roman War (AD 66–73). The war resulted in the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in AD 70, a necessary component to practicing Mosaic Judaism. The war also saw the destruction of Jerusalem itself, and the complete suppression of Jewish resistance (Zealots and Sicarii) and the Temple aristocracy (Sadducees). As time passed, the other sects became irrelevant or extinct. Only the Scribes and Pharisees remained as influential leaders of Judaism by the early second century. They set up a rabbinical school in Yavneh in AD 90, on the coast of the Holy Land about 30 miles north of what is Gaza today, where they would train all future rabbis, and guide the direction of Judaism into the long-term future. It is here that historians recognize that Mosaic Judaism came to an end, and Rabbinic Judaism began. It’s called “Rabbinic” because it’s a whole new way of practicing Judaism that is based on the traditions of the rabbis rather than the strict instructions of Moses in Temple sacrifices.
Rabbinic Judaism
Mosaic Judaism is extinct. It hasn’t existed since AD 70, when the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed. It cannot reemerge unless the Jerusalem Temple is rebuilt, the priesthood is restored, and the animal sacrifices begin again. What exists now are two expressions of Yahwism: Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. Christianity began in AD 33 with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Rabbinic Judaism began in AD 90 with the creation of the rabbinical school in Yavneh. So Christianity is about 60 years older than Rabbinic Judaism.
Rabbinic Judaism was founded on the Pharisaic belief that Jesus of Nazareth was not the Messiah and most certainly not God in the flesh. So, from its early formation, Rabbinic Judaism was created to counter Christianity in every sense it possibly could, even though Christianity, originally a Jewish party, shared the same tradition and history as Mosaic Judaism up until AD 33. Christianity took on the weekly synagogue meetings in the form of weekly liturgies which all Christians participated in. Christianity took on the precepts of Temple sacrifice and incorporated them into Passover Seder meals as taught by Jesus in his Last Supper. This is the Divine Liturgy (in the East) or Holy Mass (in the West). The structures of Christian prayers, especially liturgical ones, are highly Jewish in form. The creation of canopies over Christian altars call to mind the Jewish wedding practice of using a chuppah (meaning “canopy”), drawing upon Christian imagery of the Divine Liturgy/Holy Mass as the “wedding supper of the Lamb.” Even Christian clergy will sometimes wear a kippah (or yarmulke), which they often call a zucchetto, in keeping with the traditions of the original (Jewish) apostles, disciples and bishops of the Early Church.
Rabbinic Judaism, on the other hand, using the traditions of the Pharisees as their guide, went through a process of pulling back, and narrowing down, what it means to be “Jewish.” All translations of the Mikra/Tanakh were abandoned, and only the original Hebrew was allowed to be read during synagogue readings. This also meant using a shorter canon of Scripture, omitting portions of Esther and Danial, as well as seven books included in the Greek Septuagint. Even though previous generations of Jews considered these books to be inspired, the Pharisees discarded them from their Canon of Scripture, in part because Christians used those books frequently in making their case for Jesus as the promised Messiah. We also see, in the creation of Rabbinic Judaism, a change in the way Jews atone for their sins. No longer are they able to make sacrifices for them in the Temple as commanded by Moses. So instead, good works are called for to “balance the scales” (so to speak) to make up for sins. Thus, a major tenet of Jewish religion was radically changed, as we move from Mosaic to Rabbinic Judaism. It was also during this time that liturgical practices, including those done typically in the home (like the Passover Seder) were regulated more tightly, with written guidelines.
There was one major resurgence of Jewish persecution of Christians in the Holy Land in the early second century (AD 132–135) during the Bar Kokhba Revolt. This happened under Rabbinic Judaism, but it was short-lived because the man hailed as their Messiah (Simon Bar Kokhba) turned out to be a fraud and was killed by the Romans. After that, Christianity became so heavily Gentile, with most Christians living in Gentile lands, that Rabbinic Jews were no longer able to mount any kind effective opposition to them. It was at that time Rabbinic Judaism stepped back from persecuting Christians and regarded Christianity as a separate religion from Judaism altogether, no longer a concern for Jews or Jewish leadership. Early Christians, most of them Gentile by this time anyway, didn’t care what the Jews thought of them, as they had bigger things to worry about with intermittent persecutions by the Roman Empire.
Christianity evolved using the traditions of Jesus and his Apostles. Its primary text would eventually become the New Testament and the teachings of the Church councils. The Christian religion, with creeds and New Testament, would become crystalized before the end of the fourth century. The Nicene Creed was composed between AD 325–381. The New Testament was compiled by St. Athanasius in AD 367 (in Northern Africa) and fully canonized (approved) by the Synod of Hippo (AD 393) and the Council of Carthage (AD 397). The pope later proclaimed this New Testament in AD 405.
Rabbinic Judaism evolved using the traditions (Halakha) of the Scribes and Pharisees which eventually became codified in two books called the Talmud. One was written in the Holy Land and is called the Jerusalem Talmud. It was completed in about AD 400. The other was the Babylonian Talmud, written in what is modern day Iraq. It was completed in about AD 600. The Babylonian Talmud is considered more comprehensive and therefore more authoritative. This is why some Rabbinic Jews will refer to themselves as Talmudic Jews, though this is not common practice. Most Rabbinic Jews simply refer to themselves as “Jews,” or else they will specify one of the modern categories: Orthodox Jew, Conservative Jew or Reformed Jew.
Shane Schaetzel is an author of Catholic books and he is an Evangelical convert to the Catholic Church. His articles have been featured on LifeSiteNews, The Remnant Newspaper, Forward in Christ, and Catholic Online. You can read Shane’s books at ShaneSchaetzel.Com
