What Does the Torah Say About Other Religions?

The Torah's stance on other religions is blunt and consistent: don't follow them. It's not a comparative-religion textbook — it's a covenant document, and that covenant demands exclusive loyalty to the God of Israel. The Hebrew word avodah zarah (foreign worship) became a central legal and theological category in rabbinic Judaism, rooted directly in these Torah passages.

Deuteronomy 6:14 sets the tone plainly:

Do not follow other gods, any gods of the peoples about you—

Psalms 81:10 reinforces this with covenant language:

You shall have no foreign god, you shall not bow to an alien god.

2 Kings 17:35 frames this as a covenantal command:

having made a covenant with them and commanding them: "You shall worship no other gods; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them."

It's worth noting there's genuine scholarly disagreement about how universalist or particularist the Torah's vision is. Some passages (like Genesis 9's Noahide covenant) suggest a broader divine relationship with all humanity, while the Sinai covenant is clearly particular to Israel. Maimonides in the 12th century argued that righteous gentiles who follow the seven Noahide laws have a share in the world to come — a significant softening of any hard exclusivism.

Christianity fully inherits the Hebrew scriptures, including the Torah's prohibitions on following other gods. The First Commandment — "You shall have no other gods before me" — is foundational to Christian ethics and theology, and the passages in Deuteronomy and Psalms are read as authoritative scripture by virtually all Christian traditions.

Psalms 81:9 (KJV), cited in Christian worship for centuries, states:

There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.

Deuteronomy 6:14 is equally authoritative in Christian reading:

Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;

That said, Christianity's relationship to other religions is more theologically complex than the Torah alone would suggest. The New Testament introduces concepts like the Logos being present in all creation (John 1), and later theologians like Karl Rahner (20th century) developed the controversial idea of "anonymous Christians" — people outside the church who may be saved through Christ unknowingly. The Second Vatican Council's Nostra Aetate (1965) acknowledged truth and holiness in non-Christian religions, a significant departure from earlier exclusivist readings. So while the Torah's prohibitions are retained, their application to other religions in Christian thought is genuinely contested.

The Torah is not Islam's primary scripture — Muslims revere the Quran as the final and definitive revelation — so the question of what the Torah specifically says about other religions isn't directly applicable to Islamic practice or theology. Islam does regard the Torah (Tawrat) as an earlier divine revelation, but holds that it has been altered over time, making the Quran the authoritative corrective.

That said, the Quran independently and emphatically affirms exclusive devotion to Allah, echoing the Torah's exclusivist thrust. Quran 12:40 states:

You worship not besides Him except [mere] names you have named them, you and your fathers, for which Allāh has sent down no evidence. Legislation is not but for Allāh. He has commanded that you worship not except Him. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know.

Quran 2:138 frames Islam itself as the authentic expression of divine religion:

[And say, "Ours is] the religion of Allāh. And who is better than Allāh in [ordaining] religion? And we are worshippers of Him."

Islam's formal category of shirk (associating partners with Allah) functions similarly to the Torah's prohibition on foreign gods: it's the gravest theological error a person can commit. So while the Torah as a text isn't Islam's reference point, the underlying theological concern — exclusive monotheism against all competing religious claims — is deeply shared.

The Torah and wider Tanakh consistently forbid following or worshiping “other gods,” emphasizing exclusive loyalty to the God of Israel Deuteronomy 6:14. Deuteronomy warns Israel not to pursue the gods of surrounding peoples, and historical books reiterate the covenantal ban on bowing down, serving, or sacrificing to them Deuteronomy 6:142 Kings 17:35. Psalms likewise rejects any “foreign” or “alien” god, reinforcing monotheistic worship and rejecting idolatry Psalms 81:10. In short, the Torah’s stance isn’t a catalog of other religions; it’s a covenantal command to avoid them and worship God alone Deuteronomy 6:14.

Christians read the Torah within the Old Testament and encounter the same prohibitions against following or worshiping other gods Deuteronomy 6:14. These texts press exclusive devotion to the one God and reject idolatry, echoing passages such as Deuteronomy 6:14 and Psalm 81:9–10 that forbid seeking or bowing to “other” or “foreign” gods Deuteronomy 6:14Psalms 81:9Psalms 81:10. In this shared scriptural layer, the stance toward other religions is framed negatively: don’t worship their gods; worship the Lord alone Deuteronomy 6:14.

Not applicable. Concerns Jewish scripture (Torah/Tanakh); no direct counterpart is required to answer what the Torah says.