How Old Is Islam vs Christianity vs Judaism? A Complete Comparison

Judaism is widely considered the oldest of the three Abrahamic religions, with origins scholars trace back roughly 3,500 to 4,000 years. Its foundational narratives center on the patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — and the covenant God established with them Genesis 17:24. Abraham's circumcision at age ninety-nine is recorded as a defining moment of that covenant Genesis 17:24, and his son Isaac's birth marks the continuation of the promised lineage Genesis 21:5.

The formal giving of the Torah at Sinai, mediated by Moses, is another landmark moment. Moses was eighty years old when he stood before Pharaoh Exodus 7:7, suggesting a long period of formation before Israel's laws were codified. Rabbinic tradition dates the Torah's revelation to approximately 1312 BCE, though scholarly estimates vary. Judaism's longevity makes it the parent tradition from which both Christianity and Islam drew heavily.

Judaism does not recognize Jesus as the Messiah nor Muhammad as a prophet, viewing its own covenant as complete and ongoing. The Hebrew scriptures — the Tanakh — remain the sole canonical revelation, and Jewish communities have maintained continuous practice for millennia despite diaspora and persecution.

Christianity is approximately 2,000 years old, emerging in the 1st century CE in Roman-occupied Judea. It centers on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians believe to be the Son of God and the promised Messiah of the Hebrew scriptures. The Gospels record details of Jesus's early life — including that at twelve years old he was already engaging teachers in Jerusalem Luke 2:42 — underscoring his identity as rooted in Jewish tradition.

Christianity grew out of Second Temple Judaism and initially spread among Jewish communities before expanding rapidly into the Gentile world through the missionary work of the Apostle Paul and others. By the 4th century CE, it had become the official religion of the Roman Empire. Today it's the world's largest religion, with over 2.4 billion adherents across Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox branches.

Christians trace their spiritual ancestry back to Abraham Genesis 17:24, whom Paul calls the 'father of all who believe' (Romans 4:11). This shared Abrahamic heritage connects Christianity to both Judaism and Islam, though Christians uniquely affirm Jesus as the definitive and final Word of God incarnate.

Islam is the youngest of the three Abrahamic faiths, founded in the 7th century CE — approximately 610 CE — when the Prophet Muhammad received his first revelation in a cave near Mecca. Islam is therefore roughly 1,400 years old, making it about 600 years younger than Christianity and over 2,000 years younger than the earliest forms of Judaism. Despite being the youngest, Islam claims to be the restoration of the original, uncorrupted faith of Abraham Genesis 17:24.

The Quran explicitly honors Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael as prophets and models of submission to God. Ishmael — born when Abram was eighty-six years old Genesis 16:16 — holds a particularly important place in Islamic tradition, as Muslims trace Muhammad's lineage and the Ka'bah in Mecca back to Ishmael and Abraham. Ishmael's circumcision at thirteen Genesis 17:25 is also noted in Islamic tradition as a sign of covenant faithfulness.

Islam spread with extraordinary speed across Arabia, the Middle East, North Africa, and beyond within just a century of Muhammad's death in 632 CE. Today it's the world's second-largest religion with roughly 1.9 billion followers. Muslims believe the Quran is God's final, perfectly preserved revelation, superseding earlier scriptures they view as having been altered over time.