The first prophet in Judaism. Muhammad and the Jews

TO SUM UP,

it is necessary to recall and list the most important differences between late Judaism and the revealed Old Testament religion.

The ritual of sacrifice has been abolished, and therefore, according to the Old Testament standards and commandments, all modern Jews are in a state of defilement, ritual impurity. The priesthood has been abolished as a special clan class, dedicated to the exclusive service of God and having special grace for this. There is no temple and temple worship prescribed by Scripture, and therefore the celebrations and rituals of modern Jews cannot be recognized as true from the point of view of the Testament. The chain of prophets was broken, and the followers of late Judaism themselves admit that after the 1st century they did not have a single prophet. Finally, there is no king. Instead, a new Scripture appeared - the Talmud, a new hierarchical ministry - rabbis, the synagogue became the center of religious life, worship and rituals underwent significant changes, new holidays, new doctrinal provisions, and Kabbalah appeared.

All this forces an impartial researcher to admit that late Judaism is a completely different religion, no more connected with Old Testament Judaism than Samaritanism or Islam.

Christianity and later Judaism

In general, the Talmud instills a sharply negative, contemptuous attitude towards all non-Jews, including Christians; Such a fact, naturally, is not one of the conditions capable of ensuring respectful coexistence of people of different religions.

“Take nothing from your neighbor, as the commandment says, but your neighbor is a Jew, and not the rest of the nations of the world” (Sanhedrin 7),
“if anyone says that God took upon himself human flesh, then he is a liar and worthy of death, therefore a Jew is allowed to testify falsely against such a person” (ibid.),
“A Gentile who kills a Gentile, and likewise a Jew who kills a Jew, is punished by death; but a Jew who kills a Gentile is not subject to punishment” (ibid.).

The book of later halachic rulings of the Shulchan Aruch prescribes, if possible, the destruction of Christian temples and everything belonging to them (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh de "a 146);
It is also forbidden to save a Christian from death, even if the latter fell into the water and promised his entire fortune for salvation;
it is allowed to test on a Christian whether the medicine brings health or death;
and, finally, a Jew is charged with the duty of killing a Jew who has converted to Christianity (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh de "a 158, 1; Talmud Aboda Zara 26).

The Talmud contains many offensive, blasphemous statements about the Lord Jesus Christ and the Most Holy Theotokos. In the early Middle Ages, an anti-Christian work, “Toldot Yeshu” (“Genealogy of Jesus”), became widespread among Jews, filled with extremely blasphemous, insulting fabrications about Christ, which showed the moral degradation of those who composed, read and rewrote them from century to century. In addition, in medieval Jewish literature there were several dozen more anti-Christian treatises.

In the early Middle Ages, Jews committed a number of heinous crimes against Christians, which gave impetus to European anti-Semitism. Around the middle of the 5th century, Jewish missionaries managed to convert Abu Karib, the king of the southern Arab kingdom of Himyar, to Judaism. His successor Dhu-Nuwas gained fame as a bloody persecutor and tormentor of Christians. There was no torture that Christians were not subjected to during his reign. The most massive massacre of Christians occurred in 524. Dhu-Nwas treacherously captured the Christian city of Najran, after which all residents began to be led to specially dug ditches filled with burning tar; everyone who refused to accept Judaism was thrown into them alive (Memory of the 4300 Martyrs of Najran Church celebrates October 23rd). In response to this, Byzantium's allies, the Ethiopians, invaded Himyar and put an end to this kingdom.

90 years later, when the Persians besieged Jerusalem, the Jews who lived in the city (it was the Christian rulers who allowed them to return to it, having canceled the anti-Semitic decrees of the pagan Roman emperors), having entered into an agreement with the enemy of Byzantium, opened the gates from the inside and the Persians broke into the city. A bloody nightmare began. Churches and houses of Christians were set on fire, Christians were massacred on the spot, and in this pogrom the Jews committed even more atrocities than the Persians. According to contemporaries, 60,000 Christians were killed and 35 thousand were sold into slavery. Of course, Emperor Heraclius, having recaptured Jerusalem from the Persians, treated the Jewish traitors harshly. These two events influenced and, in general, determined the anti-Semitic sentiments of the entire European Middle Ages.

The following canonical decrees define the relationship of an Orthodox Christian with the Jews:

7 Apostolic Rule:
“If a bishop, or presbyter, or deacon celebrates the holy day of Easter before the spring equinox with the Jews, let him be expelled from the sacred rank.”

65 Apostolic Canon:
“If anyone from the clergy or layman enters a Jewish or heretical synagogue to pray, let him be expelled from the sacred rite and excommunicated from church communion.”

70 Apostolic Canon:
“If anyone, a bishop or a presbyter, or a deacon, or in general from the list of clergy, fasts with the Jews, or celebrates with them, or accepts from them the gifts of their holidays, such as unleavened bread or something similar, let him be cast out. If he is a layman, let him be excommunicated.”

11 Rule of the VI Ecumenical Council:
“None of those belonging to the sacred rank or of the laity should at all eat the unleavened bread given by the Jews, nor enter into fellowship with them, nor call upon them in illness and receive medicine from them, nor wash with them in baths. If anyone dares to do this, then the cleric will be deposed, and the layman will be excommunicated.”

8th rule of the VII Ecumenical Council
states that Jews should be accepted into the Church only if their conversion is from a pure heart and evidenced by a solemn renunciation of the false teachings and rituals of New Judaism. Therefore, a person coming from Judaism to Orthodoxy is required to undergo a special rite of renunciation before baptism.
In the history of the Church there have been many cases of sincere conversion from late Judaism to Orthodoxy, in particular, such holy fathers as St. Epiphanius of Cyprus (IV century) and St. Constantine of Sinada (IX century), who, after his conversion, preached to his fellow tribesmen and suffered from them not one attempt. In the 18th century, a repentant rabbi labored on Mount Athos, was baptized and tonsured with the name Neophyte, and wrote a polemical work against Judaism. In Russia in the second half of the 19th century, A. Alekseev, himself a Jew converted to Orthodoxy, distinguished himself by his missionary work among the Jews, published several polemical works, and strengthened other Jews who had converted to Orthodoxy.

The Godlessness of New Judaism

St. HIPPOLYTUS OF ROMAN:
“They (the Jews) stumbled in everything, finding themselves in no way in agreement with the truth: neither in relation to the law, since they became its transgressors, nor in relation to the prophets, because they killed the prophets themselves, nor in relation to the voice of the Gospel, because that they crucified the Savior Himself; They didn’t believe the apostles either, because they too were persecuted, they became attackers and traitors to the truth everywhere, they turned out to be haters of God, not lovers of God.”

St. JOHN ZLATRUST:
“Don’t be surprised that I called the Jews pitiful. They are truly pitiful and unhappy, having deliberately rejected and thrown away so many blessings that came from heaven into their hands. The morning Sun of righteousness shone upon them: they rejected His light and sat in darkness, but we, who lived in darkness, attracted the light to ourselves and were delivered from the darkness of error. They were branches of the holy root, but they were broken off: we did not belong to the root, and bore the fruit of piety. From an early age they read the prophets, and crucified the One about whom the prophets proclaimed: we did not hear divine verbs, and they worshiped the One about whom they predicted. That's why they are pitiful; for while others admired and appropriated for themselves the blessings sent down to them (the Jews), they themselves rejected them. They, called to adoption, fell to the level of kinship with dogs, and we, having previously been dogs, were able, by the grace of God, to put aside our former foolishness and rise to the honor of sons (of God).”

How can this be seen? “The bread is taken away by a child and damaged by a dog” (Matthew 15:26), - this is what Christ said to the Canaanite woman, calling the Jews children and the pagans dogs. But look how the order changed later: those (Jews) became dogs, and we became children. “Be on guard from dogs,” Paul says about them, “be on your guard from evil workers, be on your guard from being cut. For we are the circumcision” (Phil. 15:2,3). Do you see how those who were once children became dogs? Do you want to know how we, who were once dogs, became children? “God accepted the blitz,” says the evangelist, “to give them the realm to be children of God” (John 1:12). There is nothing more pitiful than the Jews: they always go against their own salvation. When the law should have been kept, they trampled it under foot; and now that the law has ceased to operate, they persist in keeping it. What could be more pitiful than those people who irritate God not only by breaking the law, but also by observing it? Therefore, says St. Stephen: “With stiff necks, and uncircumcised hearts and wickedness, you always resist the Holy One” (Acts 7:51), not only by violating the law, but also by an untimely desire to keep it.

Synagogue:
“They, having gathered crowds of effeminate people and a crowd of dissolute women, carry this entire theater and actors into the synagogue; for there is no difference between the theater and the synagogue. I know that some will consider me presumptuous for saying: “There is no difference between a theater and a synagogue; and I consider them impudent if they think differently.” It is said: “I will leave My house, I will leave My inheritance” (XII, 7); and when God leaves, then what hope of salvation is there? When God leaves, then the place becomes a dwelling place for demons” (St. John Chrysostom: Five words against the Jews).

Saint John further writes that a visit to a synagogue by a Christian defiles him more than a visit to a pagan temple:
“The place where the murderers of Christ gather, where they persecute the cross, where they blaspheme God, do not know the Father, revile the Son, reject the grace of the Spirit, where the demons themselves are still found - isn’t such a place more destructive? For there (in the pagan temple) wickedness is obvious and obvious, and will not so easily attract or seduce an intelligent and sensible person; but here (in the synagogue the Jews), who say about themselves that they worship God, avert idols, have and honor prophets, with these words they only create a big bait and plunge simple and unreasonable people into their snares, due to their carelessness. This means that the wickedness of both Jews and pagans is the same; but the deception of the former is much stronger, because they do not see the false altar on which they slaughter not sheep and calves, but human souls.

Worship God:
“Of course (the Jews) will say that they too worship God. But this cannot be said; None of the Jews worship God. Who says this? God's Son. “Even though they knew My Father quickly,” He says, “they knew Me; they knew neither Me nor My Father” (John 8:19). What other evidence can be given to me more reliable than this? So, if they do not know the Father, they have crucified the Son, rejected the help of the Spirit; then who cannot boldly say that that place (synagogue) is the dwelling of demons? They don't worship God there, no; there is a place of idolatry” (St. John Chrysostom: Five words against the Jews).

Veneration of Moses and the Old Testament righteous:
“During persecutions, the executioners hold the bodies of martyrs in their hands, torment them, hit them with whips: have their hands become holy because they held the bodies of saints? Not at all. If the hands that held the bodies of the saints are unclean because they held them unlawfully; then those who have the Scriptures of the saints and insult them as much as the executioners of the bodies of martyrs, will they therefore deserve respect? Wouldn't that be extremely crazy? If the lawless holding of bodies (of saints) not only does not sanctify, but makes those who hold them even more vile: much less reading the Scriptures (prophetic) without faith cannot bring benefit to those who read. So it is precisely the mood with which the Jews keep (sacred) books in their possession that exposes them all the more to wickedness. Without prophets, they would not deserve such condemnation; Without reading books, we would not be so unclean and vile. Now they do not deserve any leniency; because, having preachers of the truth, they have a hostile mood both towards the preachers themselves and towards the truth” (St. John Chrysostom: Five words against the Jews).

About Jewish holidays:
“But their holidays, you say, have something important and great in them! And they made them unclean. Listen to the prophets, or better yet, listen to God himself, what strong disgust He shows towards them: “I hated and rejected your feasts” (Amos. V, 21). God hates them. It is not said (that he hates) such and such a holiday, but in general everything...”

Speaking about the Jewish Passover, St. John points out that according to the law it must necessarily be carried out in Jerusalem, and since the new Jews carry it out in every place except Jerusalem, accordingly, it cannot be considered a fulfillment of the Old Law. The saint says that the physical impossibility of making sacrifices according to the Mosaic Law is God’s clearest indication that the observance of the Old Testament after the conclusion of the New is no longer pleasing to Him: “As a doctor diverts a patient from his unreasonable demand by breaking a vessel; so God rejected (the Jews) from sacrifice, destroying the city itself and making it inaccessible to everyone” (St. John Chrysostom: Five words against the Jews).

St. NIKITA STIFAT:
“God hated and rejected the ministry of the Jews and their Sabbaths and holidays” (Word to the Jews).

St. JUSTIN PHILOSOPHER
in a conversation with Tryphon, he mentions the action of the Holy Spirit in the history of Israel:
“The Spirit who worked in the prophets anointed and appointed kings for you” (Triph. 52). Speaking about the action of the Holy Spirit in Old Testament times, St. Justin claims that the powers of the Holy Spirit ceased to operate among the Jews with the coming of Christ (Trif. 87). He points out that after the coming of Christ, they no longer had a single prophet. At the same time, St. Justin emphasizes the continuation of the Old Testament actions of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament Church: “What has previously existed among your people has come to us” (Trif. 82); so that “you can see among us both women and men who have gifts from the Spirit of God” (Trif. 88); “This the Holy Spirit of prophecy taught us” (1 Apostle 44). And in general, Christianity “is a teaching that is filled with the Holy Spirit and abounds in power and grace” (Trif. 8). The synagogue and the Church are “two houses of Jacob - one born of blood and flesh, the other of faith and the Spirit” (Trif. 135).

Jews and the end of the world

According to the Holy Fathers, the Jews were assigned one of the key roles during the time of the final apostasy and the coming of the Antichrist.

St. JOHN OF DAMASCUS:
“The Jews did not accept the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Son of God and God, but will accept a deceiver who calls himself God.”

St. HIPPOLYTUS OF ROMAN:
“So, when the scripture declared Christ to be the lion and the skim of Leo, the same is said about the Antichrist. Moses says this: “Dan, the rampart of the lions, will come out from Bashan” (Deut. 33:22). But lest anyone sin by thinking that this word is said about the Savior, let him pay attention to it. Dan, he says, is the skimen of the lions; calling the tribe Dan, he declares that the Antichrist will be born from it. For just as Christ is born from the tribe of Judah, so from the tribe of Dan the Antichrist will be born. And that this is so, Jacob says: “Let the serpent be given, he will sit upon the earth, biting the heel of the horse” (Gen. 49, 17).

What kind of serpent is this, if not the Antichrist, the seducer, who is spoken of in the book of Genesis (3:1), who deceived Eve and trampled Adam?” “He will call to himself the entire Jewish people from all the countries in which they are scattered, appropriating them as his own children, promising them to return their land and restore their kingdom and people, so that they will worship him as a god; as the prophet says: “He will gather his entire kingdom from the east of the sun to the west; those whom he called and those he did not call will go with him."

St. CYRILL OF JERUSALEM
says that the Antichrist “will falsely call himself Christ and with this name will deceive the Jews awaiting the Messiah, and will attract those who are from the pagans with magical dreams.” “The Antichrist will come to the Jews like Christ, and will delight in worship from the Jews; then, in order to deceive them further, he will show great zeal for the temple, instilling in himself the idea that he is from the line of David, and that he should create the temple built by Solomon. He will come when there is not one stone left on another in the Jewish Temple, according to the Savior’s definition (Matthew 24:2).” (Wall of Tears).

St. EFREM SIRIN:
“The Jews who will honor and rejoice at his reign will be most honored and rejoiced by his murderous people. Therefore, as if out of preference, thinking about them, he will show them all a place and a temple.”

St. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
claims that the temple will never be built: “For even if they had the hope of getting their city again, returning to the previous structure and seeing their temple restored, which, however, will never happen, then even in this case they could not justify what they are doing now" (Five words against the Jews).

Literature:

1. Haggadah. M., 1995.

2. Ambrazi N. The story of the miraculous conversion to Christ of the Jewish Rabbi Isaac. M., 1996.

3. Alekseev A. Conversations of an Orthodox Jewish Christian with converts from his brethren about the truths of the Holy Faith and Talmudic errors. Novgorod, 1897.

4. Arye Fort. Judaism.

5. Brenye F. Jews and the Talmud. Paris, 1928.

6. Babylonian Talmud. M., 1998.

7. Dal V.I. Investigation about the killing of Christian babies by Jews and the consumption of their blood.

8. Dvorkin A.A. Essays on the history of the Ecumenical Orthodox Church. Nizhny Novgorod, 2003.

9. Book of Rules. M., 1893.

10. Ostrovsky S. The Man from Nazareth. M., 1996.

11. Pilkington S.M. Judaism. M., 2002.

12. St. John Chrysostom. Five words against the Jews. M„ 1999.

13. St. Justin the Philosopher. Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew. M., 1997.

14. St. Hippolytus of Rome. Interpretation of the book of the prophet Daniel. M., 1994.

15 Steinsaltz A. Jewish world.

2. The main prophet of Judaism

THE COMMANDMENTS OF MOSES GIVEN TO HIM AT MOUNT SINAI

1.?I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of bondage. May you have no gods except Me.

2.?Thou shalt not make for yourself any statue of a deity—no likeness of what is above in the sky, of what is below on the earth, or of what is in the water below the earth. Do not worship them or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. For the sins of the fathers who rejected Me, I punish their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And to the descendants of those who love Me and fulfill My commands, I will reward goodness in the thousandth generation.

3.?Thou shalt not take in vain the name of the Lord thy God. The Lord will not leave unpunished the one who does this.

4. Remember that Saturday is a holy day. Six days you work, do business, but the seventh day is Sabbath: it belongs to the Lord your God. No one is allowed to work on this day—neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male or female slave, nor your livestock, nor the migrant who lives in your city. For in six days the Lord created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that fills them, and on the seventh day he rested. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it sacred.

5. Honor your father and mother, so that your life may be long in the land that the Lord your God gives you.

6.?Don't kill.

7.?Do not commit adultery.

8.?Don't steal.

9. Do not give false testimony against your neighbor.

10.?Don’t want to take away someone else’s house, don’t want to take away someone else’s wife, someone else’s male and female slaves, someone else’s bulls and donkeys—nothing that’s someone else’s.

Old Testament. Ref. 20:2-17

We are talking about Moses, the greatest prophet of all times and peoples, with whom God spoke, in our language, “online” or, as the Bible puts it, “as a man speaks to his friend.” It is believed that due to his closeness to the Supreme Spiritual Being, his face constantly shone, not only metaphorically, but also in the literal sense.

Moses, or Moshe in Hebrew, is most revered by the Israelis, where he is considered one of the founders and spreaders of Judaism. Moses is also respected in Christianity as the author of the first five books of the Bible - the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) and the Ten Commandments. Moses (Musa) is just as revered in Islam as a prophet and interlocutor of Allah.

Moses is one of the most mysterious personalities of the Old Testament. There is no doubt about his real existence, but the presence of a large number of fantastic events with which his biography is full casts doubt on many of them. Nevertheless, here we must talk about this, and let the readers decide for themselves what is truth and what is fiction.

There are discrepancies regarding when Moses lived and at what time he performed certain very important actions for the Israelites.

For example, according to Jewish tradition, Moses was born in Egypt in the 15th or 13th century BC. e. during the reign of pharaohs Akhenaten, Ramses II or Merneptah. He did not receive his name immediately, but somewhat later from the Egyptian princess who saved and raised him, and it means “taken from the water.” According to legend, in ancient times the Israelites were completely subordinate to the Egyptians as their slaves. They did the most difficult and unpleasant work, with practically nothing for it. Nevertheless, hard labor did not reduce the number of Israelis - on the contrary, their number multiplied. Pharaoh, fearing that someday they would gain power and present an account to their enslavers, ordered all newborn Jewish male babies to be drowned in the Nile. Moses' parents managed to hide their newborn son for some time, but it was very dangerous. At any moment, the Pharaoh's servants could hear the cry of a child in the hut. And so Moses’ mother, wanting to protect him from inevitable death, put the baby in a tarred basket and sent it down the river, hoping that someone would save him. He was indeed saved by the pharaoh's daughter, who came to bathe. Having no children of her own, she took Moses in as her son, giving him an excellent education for that time.

Moses knew what kind of family he was, and therefore he was always saddened by the situation of his fellow tribesmen. Once he was so angry at the cruel behavior of an Egyptian overseer towards a Hebrew slave that in a fit of rage he killed the fanatic. Fearing that Pharaoh would find out about this and punish him, Moses fled to the land of Midian, located on the territory of modern Arabia. There he lived for forty years, working as a shepherd for the priest Jephor, whose daughter he later married.

One day he led his flock far into the desert to Mount Horeb (Mount Sinai), where a miracle appeared to him. He saw a thorn bush that was burning with fire, but was not consumed. At the same time, a voice came from the bush: “Moses! Moses! Take off your shoes, for the place where you stand is holy ground... I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” Moses covered his face with his hands because, according to legend, whoever looks at God will immediately go blind.

The Lord continued his speech from the bush: “I saw the suffering of my people in Egypt and I want to deliver them from the tyranny of the Egyptians in order to lead them to good and spacious lands where milk and honey flow. Go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt..."

However, Moses doubted that he was worthy of such a high fate and answered God: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”

And then God said: “I will be next to you, and here is a sign for you that I have sent you: when you bring my people out of Egypt, you will pray on this mountain...”

But Moses continued to insist: “Well, okay, so I will come to my fellow tribesmen and say that God sent me to them. Will they believe me? What if they ask what the name of God is?”

Then God said: “I am who I am. Say so to the children of Israel. Say, Jehovah Jehovah sent me to you. It would be enough"…

However, Pharaoh, with whom Moses achieved an audience, mistook him for an adventurer and drove the prophet away. And when God found out about this, he became very angry, bringing down ten disasters on Egypt in turn, known as the ten plagues of Egypt. After each such “execution,” Moses repeated the request, but Pharaoh persisted. The ruler’s resistance was broken only after the tenth “plague”, which consisted of the death of all the firstborn of the Egyptians - from the pharaoh to the last slave. After this, Pharaoh and his entourage themselves demanded that the Jews leave Egypt as soon as possible. True, the pharaoh soon came to his senses, since he was losing free labor, and decided to return the slaves. To do this, he sent his army after the fugitives to force them to return, and if the slaves resisted, to exterminate them all...

Soon the wanderers reached the shores of the Red Sea and stopped, not knowing what to do next. And then God commanded Moses to stretch out his hand to the sea, as a result of which its waters parted, revealing the bottom along which the fugitives crossed to the other side. But when Pharaoh’s warriors tried to do the same, the waters of the sea closed again, and many horsemen drowned along with their horses...

A difficult forty-year journey began through the desert, where there was neither water nor food. However, God generously supplied the travelers with manna, which fell straight from the sky, and when they were thirsty, Moses, again with the help of God, turned bitter and salty water from local lakes into fresh water, and also, with the help of a magic rod, cut out drinking water from rocks.

After years of oppressive wanderings, the people came to Mount Sinai. Moses climbed to its top and stayed there for 40 days, communicating with God all this time. Nobody knows what they talked about.

The Israelites, deciding that their leader would not return, revived the pagan cult of the golden calf. However, Moses, who came down from the mountain, seeing this, enragedly broke the tablets (stone tablets) he had brought with him and destroyed the sculpture of the golden calf, after which he returned to the mountain again to communicate with God. Jehovah, having learned what His chosen people were doing, decided to punish them just as He did with the Egyptians, but Moses had difficulty persuading Him. Calmed down, Moses with an enlightened face descended from the mountain with new tablets. They were engraved with the Ten Commandments, which later became the basis of the Mosaic legislation (Torah). It is believed that it was from this time that the sons of Israel became a truly united people - the Jews. Here on the mountain, Moses received another instruction from God on how to build a tabernacle - a mobile temple in the form of a tent for storing tablets and worshiping.

At the end of their difficult journeys, the people of Israel again began to grumble and be indignant. To stop the unrest, God unleashed poisonous snakes on the crowd, after which the riots stopped.

However, Moses himself failed to set foot on the promised land; he died shortly before at the age of 120. The place of his burial is considered to be Mount Nebo, from which Moses saw the desired land shortly before his death.

According to historical chronicles, the future “Promised Land” was by that time already densely populated by the Canaanites, who were partially expelled and partially destroyed by the Jews who invaded here in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e., forming the united kingdom of Israel and Judah.