Christianity vs Islam: Which Religion Came First?

Not applicable. This question specifically concerns the historical and theological relationship between Christianity and Islam; Judaism's founding predates both and is not the subject of comparison here.

From a straightforward historical standpoint, Christianity is the older of the two organized religions. It emerged in the 1st century CE in Roman-occupied Judea, rooted in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The earliest Christian communities formed around 30–33 CE, and the faith spread rapidly across the Roman Empire over the following centuries. By the time Islam appeared in the Arabian Peninsula in the early 7th century CE, Christianity had already been a dominant world religion for roughly 300 years — institutionalized through councils like Nicaea (325 CE) and embedded in the Roman Empire under Constantine.

Christian theologians have long understood their faith as the fulfillment of the Hebrew scriptures, not as an entirely new religion but as the continuation and completion of God's covenant history. So while Christianity is historically prior to Islam by about six centuries, Christians don't typically frame their tradition as the "oldest" religion in an absolute sense — that claim belongs to Judaism and its patriarchal roots.

It's worth noting that Islam's emergence prompted significant Christian theological reflection. Scholars like John of Damascus (c. 675–749 CE) were among the first Christians to engage Islam systematically, treating it as a Christian heresy rather than an entirely separate religion — a framing that, whatever its polemical intent, at least acknowledged Islam's later historical arrival Quran 3:67.

Islam's answer to this question is genuinely more complex than a simple date comparison. Historically, yes — Islam as a revealed religion through the Prophet Muhammad began in 610 CE with the first Quranic revelations in the cave of Hira, and the Muslim community (ummah) was formally established in Medina around 622 CE. That makes Islam historically younger than Christianity by approximately six centuries.

However, Islamic theology makes a crucial distinction: the religion of islam (meaning submission to God) is not a 7th-century invention. The Quran explicitly teaches that all the prophets — Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus — were Muslims in the universal sense, submitting to the one God. The Prophet Muhammad is understood as the seal of the prophets, restoring and completing a primordial faith, not founding a new one Quran 3:67.

The Quran states directly:

Abraham was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was one inclining toward truth, a Muslim [submitting to Allāh]. And he was not of the polytheists.

The hadith literature also reflects Islam's self-understanding as a religion with deep historical roots. A narration in Sahih al-Bukhari records the Prophet Muhammad discussing the ancient sanctity of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, situating Islamic worship within a timeline that stretches back to the very origins of human civilization Sahih al Bukhari 3425. Another narration captures the immediacy and totality of Islamic commitment — a man asking the Prophet whether to fight or embrace Islam first, with the Prophet instructing him to embrace Islam first Sahih al Bukhari 2808, illustrating how entry into Islam was understood as a complete reorientation of one's life, not merely joining a new sect.

So Islamic scholarship — from classical figures like Ibn Kathir (1301–1373 CE) to modern scholars like Tariq Ramadan — consistently holds that while Muhammad's prophethood is historically recent, the din (religion) he proclaimed is eternal and primordial.

From the Islamic text provided, Abraham is described as neither a Jew nor a Christian, but rather as one who “submitted” to God; thus, in this Islamic framing, primordial submission precedes later communal designations, yet no Jewish scripture is provided here to state Judaism’s own account or dating Quran 3:67.

According to the provided Islamic source, Abraham “was neither a Jew nor a Christian,” which Islam reads as asserting a foundational submission to God prior to communities later called Jewish or Christian; however, no Christian scripture is supplied here to state Christianity’s own account or historical dating Quran 3:67.

In Islam’s self-understanding, Abraham exemplifies the primordial monotheistic submission (islām), and the Qur’an explicitly says he “was neither a Jew nor a Christian,” which Muslims take to mean that true submission to God precedes later communal labels, thereby giving Islam a claim to primacy in principle Quran 3:67. A hadith adds a sacred-historical note: the first mosque is identified as al-Masjid al-Haram, with al-Masjid al-Aqsa coming next, which Muslims cite to emphasize the deep antiquity of their sacred geography Sahih al Bukhari 3425. Another hadith underscores sequence within personal practice—embrace Islam first, then act—which Muslims sometimes invoke when discussing the logical priority of submission to God, even when actions follow later in time Sahih al Bukhari 2808.