Thanks for the responses, Boaz. Feedbacking...
--------------------------------------
YO: 1) Would Christianity exist historically without Judaism?
Boaz: 1. No it could not. Jesus was a Jew.
Agreed.
****************************************
YO: 2) Can genuine Christianity, as a belief, be absolutely separable from Judaism?
Boaz: The main belief is the Oneness of God. Not one in three.
I understanding that Judaism doesn't hold to a Trinity. That wasn't really my question. It seems to me that the answer from #1 ties directly to this. Jews and Christians disagree on Jesus being the
JEWISH Messiah. Jesus as the God's Messiah of Israel is a
CORE belief of Christianity, from the Disciples to Paul on down...East AND West. To me, it seems impossible for Christianity to be absolutely separable from Judaism...for Christianity would have to remove
any belief in Jesus as Messiah of the "Children of Israel". And Christianity CANNOT do that.
***********************
YO: 3) Jewishly speaking, is YHWH ever without his "Word" or His "Spirit"? (Thinking of the Law, Writings, and Prophets). In other words, is there any Scriptural context where YHWH is absolutely separable from his "Word" or His "Spirit"?
Boaz: I don't know of any. But Muslims believe the same thing.
1) Agreed. Scripturally speaking, it's never the case that YHWH is without either his Word or Spirit.
2) I don't know if Muslims believe the same thing with this. Maybe Naidamar can shed some light. :shade:
**********************
YO: 4) Does Judaism historically and currently hold that the Holy Spirit of YHWH--that was upon His Prophets, including David--is nothing other than the Angel Gabriel?
Boaz: Well, God has worked through His prophets. We don't hold David to be a prophet. He was a King. A pious man. A righteous man. But not a prophet. He wrote the psalms himself, they weren't revealed to him.
1) Interestingly enough, Islam holds David to be a prophet.
2) I don't think that you answered my main question: Is it the case that the Holy Spirit of YHWH--the Spirit of Prophecy that is spoken of in the Torah, Prophets, and Writings--is
SPECIFICALLY IDENTIFIED with the angel Gabriel? All of the reading I've done says no...but I wanted to know what you thought.
**********************
YO: 5) Does Judaism hold that human beings are created in the image and likeness of God? If so, how does Judaism articulate this "image of God" concept?
Boaz: In Genesis, God says "Let us make man in our image." He made man in the image of the angels.
This answer was confusing. Are you saying that the "us" in the above quote is talking about the angels? Doesn't the Genesis passage imply that God made Adam in HIS OWN image? The Jewish Encyclopedia seems to think so in it's
entry on Adam...
"The Hebrew and Biblical name for man, and also for the progenitor of the human race. In the account of the Creation given in Gen. i. man was brought into being at the close of the sixth creative day, "made in the image of God," and invested with dominion over the rest of the animate world. Man was thus created, male and female, charged to replenish the earth with his own kind and to subdue it to his own uses."
...
"Why was only a single specimen of man created first? To teach us that he who destroys a single soul destroys a whole world and that he who saves a single soul saves a whole world; furthermore, in order that no race or class may claim a nobler ancestry, saying, 'Our father was born first'; and, finally, to give testimony to the greatness of the Lord, who caused the wonderful diversity of mankind to emanate from one type. And why was Adam created last of all beings? To teach him humility; for if he be overbearing, let him remember that the little fly preceded him in the order of creation. In a dispute, therefore, as to which Biblical verse expresses the fundamental principle of the Law, Simon ben 'Azkai maintained against R. Akiba—who, following Hillel, had singled out the Golden Rule (Lev. xix. 18)—that the principle of love must have as its basis Gen. v. 1, which teaches that all men are the offspring of him who was made in the image of God (Sifra, Ḳedoshim, iv.; Yer. Ned. ix. 41c; Gen. R. 24)."
