What Does the Torah Say About Christians? A Three-Faith Comparison

The Torah simply doesn't mention Christians — it predates Christianity by over a millennium. What it does say is that the Jewish people are a am segulah, a treasured or peculiar people, chosen by God above all nations Deuteronomy 14:2. Rabbinic tradition, from the Talmudic period onward, has generally understood this chosenness as a covenantal responsibility, not a statement of superiority over other peoples.

The Torah does command love of neighbor — ve-ahavta le-re'akha kamokha — which Rabbi Akiva (c. 50–135 CE) famously called the great principle of the Torah Leviticus 19:18. Most mainstream Jewish legal authorities, including Maimonides in the 12th century, extended basic ethical obligations to righteous gentiles, even if Christians were not specifically addressed in the text itself.

The Torah's laws of holiness and separation Leviticus 20:26 were interpreted by some medieval authorities as creating a boundary between Israel and surrounding nations, including Christian ones. However, the text itself makes no theological judgment about Christianity as a religion, since that religion did not yet exist when the Torah was composed.

Christian theology does not read the Torah as speaking about Christians in a direct sense, but rather as speaking to them typologically and prophetically. The New Testament reframes the Torah's covenant language — including the designation of Israel as a holy, chosen people Deuteronomy 7:6 — and applies it to the Church. The Apostle Peter, for instance, echoes Deuteronomy 7:6 almost verbatim when describing the Christian community in 1 Peter 2:9.

The Torah's command to love one's neighbor Leviticus 19:18 is cited by Jesus in the Gospels as one of the two greatest commandments, suggesting that Christianity sees itself as fulfilling, not abandoning, Torah ethics. Paul's letters, including 1 Corinthians, reflect a community that understood itself as under divine discipline rather than divine condemnation 1 Corinthians 11:32, distinguishing the Church from the broader world.

Theologians like N.T. Wright (b. 1948) argue that the Torah's narrative of a holy people set apart Leviticus 20:26 finds its intended culmination in Christ and the Church. Others, like Marcion in the 2nd century, controversially rejected this continuity — a position declared heretical by mainstream Christianity. The dominant view remains that the Torah speaks about Christians insofar as it points forward to them.

Islam holds that the Torah (Tawrat) is a genuine divine revelation given to Moses, but that the text as it exists today has undergone some degree of alteration (tahrif). The Quran acknowledges the Torah's authority in principle while asserting that certain communities — including those who persistently reject divine guidance — will not believe regardless of the signs shown to them Quran 10:96. This verse is often applied broadly to those who harden their hearts against revelation.

From an Islamic perspective, the Torah's designation of Israel as a chosen, holy people Deuteronomy 14:2 is understood historically and conditionally — their chosenness was tied to obedience to God's commands. The Quran argues that when communities, including the Children of Israel, deviated from the covenant, that special status became conditional rather than permanent.

Islam does not read the Torah as speaking specifically about Christians either, since both Judaism and Christianity are seen as earlier Abrahamic communities that received valid but incomplete or partially corrupted scriptures before the final revelation of the Quran to Muhammad (c. 610 CE). Islamic scholars like Ibn Kathir (1301–1373 CE) discussed Torah passages extensively but always within the framework of the Quran's corrective authority.