How Old Is Judaism vs Islam? A Historical Age Comparison

Judaism is widely regarded as one of the world's oldest monotheistic religions, with origins scholars typically place between roughly 2000 BCE and 1200 BCE — making it approximately 3,500 to 4,000 years old. There are two common anchor points for dating Judaism's beginnings:

• The Abrahamic Covenant (c. 2000–1800 BCE): Many historians and theologians trace Judaism's roots to the patriarch Abraham, whose covenant with God is foundational to Jewish identity. The Quran itself acknowledges this lineage, asking whether Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Descendants were Jews or Christians Quran 2:140 — implying the tradition predates both labels in their later institutional forms.
• The Mosaic Period (c. 1300–1200 BCE): Others date the formal emergence of Judaism to Moses and the giving of the Torah at Sinai. The Hebrew Bible records Moses as eighty years old when he confronted Pharaoh Exodus 7:7, situating him within a datable historical narrative. The prophet Jeremiah, writing centuries later, anchors his own prophetic career to the thirteenth year of King Josiah Jeremiah 25:3, illustrating how Jewish tradition carefully tracked its own historical timeline. King Josiah himself became king at age eight 2 Chronicles 34:1, and his reign is a well-documented marker in Israelite chronology.

Academic scholars like John Bright (in A History of Israel, 1959) and Israel Finkelstein (in The Bible Unearthed, 2001) debate whether the patriarchal narratives are historical or literary constructs, but most agree that a distinctly Israelite religious identity was consolidated no later than the 10th–9th centuries BCE. Rabbinic Judaism as practiced today took shape after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, so in one sense Judaism has multiple "ages" depending on which layer you're measuring.

Not applicable in the strict sense of this comparison — the question focuses on Judaism vs. Islam. However, for useful context: Christianity emerged in the 1st century CE, rooted in Second Temple Judaism. A New Testament passage captures the Jewish audience's skepticism of Jesus's claims by referencing Abraham's antiquity: "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" John 8:57 — implying Abraham was understood to be thousands of years in the past even by 1st-century reckoning. Christianity is thus roughly 2,000 years old, placing it chronologically between Judaism and Islam.

Islam, as a distinct historical religion, dates to the early 7th century CE. The Prophet Muhammad received the first Quranic revelation around 610 CE, and the religion was formally established in the Arabian Peninsula over the following two decades. Muhammad died in 632 CE. A hadith in Sahih al-Bukhari records that Ibn Abbas had already been circumcised when the Prophet died Sahih al Bukhari 6299, grounding the tradition in datable biographical history. This makes Islam approximately 1,400 years old — significantly younger than Judaism by roughly 2,000 years on conventional dating.

However, Islamic theology explicitly rejects the idea that Islam is a "new" religion. The Quran argues that Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Descendants were neither Jews nor Christians but submitted to God — i.e., were Muslims in the theological sense Quran 2:140. Islam thus claims a spiritual antiquity equal to or greater than Judaism, even while its historical institutional form is far more recent. Scholar Fazlur Rahman (in Islam, 1966) emphasized this distinction between Islam as a historical community and Islam as the primordial religion of submission (din al-fitra).

The Quran also directly addresses the Jewish and Christian communities as distorters of an original revelation Quran 9:30, framing Islam not as a younger sibling but as a restoration. This theological claim is a major point of disagreement with Jewish (and Christian) self-understanding.

The Hebrew Bible does not give a single calendar “age” of Judaism in the passages provided. It does, however, center Israel’s formative narrative in the Exodus era: “Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh” Exodus 7:7. Later monarchy notices (e.g., the accession of King Josiah) attest to continuity of Judah’s covenant community across centuries, though without computing a religion-wide age 2 Chronicles 34:1. Given only these texts, a precise numeric age for Judaism can’t be stated here.

The New Testament does not calculate an “age of Judaism,” but it records a debate in which Jews say to Jesus, “Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?”—invoking Abraham’s deep antiquity relative to the first century John 8:57. This shows awareness of Judaism’s roots long before the time of Jesus, yet it doesn’t yield a numeric age from the provided passage.

The Qur’an asserts that Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and their descendants are not to be anachronistically labeled “Jews” or “Christians,” presenting Islam as a restoration of primordial, Abrahamic submission to God Quran 2:140. It also engages Jewish and Christian claims polemically, situating itself in dialogue with those communities Quran 9:30. A hadith preserves Ibn ‘Abbas’s recollection of his own age-status when the Prophet died, anchoring the earliest Muslim community in the Prophet’s lifetime—even though it doesn’t give a Gregorian date Sahih al Bukhari 6299. None of these texts state a calendar age for Islam.