Beginning
Judaism regards itself as the religion of the descendants of Jacob, a grandson of Abraham. It has a strictly unitary view of God, and the central holy book for almost all branches is the Masoretic Text as elucidated in the oral Torah.
Christianity began as a sect of Judaism in the Mediterranean Basin of the 1st century CE and evolved into a separate religion—the Christian Church—with distinctive beliefs and practices. Jesus is the central figure of Christianity, considered by almost all denominations to be divine, a part of a single God (one person of a Triune God). The Christian Bible is usually held to be the ultimate authority, alongside Sacred Tradition in some denominations (such as Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy).
Islam arose in Arabia in the 7th century AD with a strictly unitary view of God. Muslims (adherents of Islam) typically hold the Qur'an to be the ultimate authority, as revealed and elucidated through the teachings and practices of a central, but not divine, prophet, Muhammad. Less well-known Abrahamic religions, originally offshoots of Shi'a Islam, include the Bahá'í Faith and Druze.
Read more about this topic: Abrahamic Religions
Famous quotes containing the word beginning:
“In a living society every day is a day of judgment; and its recognition as such is not the end of all things but the beginning of a real civilization.”
—George Bernard Shaw (18561950)
“The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness.”
—Eric Hoffer (19021983)
“We are beginning a new era in our government. I cannot too strongly urge the necessity of a rigid economy and an inflexible determination not to enlarge the income beyond the real necessities of the government.”
—Andrew Jackson (17671845)