Judaism
The fundamental tenet of Judaism is belief in a single God; its most sacred text is the Torah , Pentateuch, or five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. According to tradition, the Torah is both historical record and divine law, and a complete guide to human life. It forms the first part of the Hebrew Bible or Tenakh, whose books are the same as those of the Christian Old Testament (though in a slightly different order). The other two parts of the Tenakh are the books of the Prophets (Nevi'im), and the Sacred Writings, or Hagiography (Ketuvim).

According to the Old Testament, Abraham (originally named Abram) founded Judaism when he rejected the "idolatrous" religion of his father and migrated from Mesopotamia to Canaan. God rewarded him for his faith by promising the land to his descendants, who would be a people special to God. This promise was renewed to Abraham's son Isaac and grandson Jacob (later renamed Israel). Together, the three are known as the patriarchs , or forefathers, of Judaism. It was Moses , though, who was the lawgiver, and to him that the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Torah, as well as the unwritten "oral law", were given on Mount Sinai after the Exodus from Egypt.

Many of the characteristic ideas and institutions of Judaism emerged during the Babylonian exile after the destruction of Solomon's Temple by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC, and following the return of the Judeans - now called Jews - under Cyrus the Great some 48 years later. The Babylonian exile marked the beginning of the Jewish diaspora , or dispersion, since many Jews remained in Babylon which, in late antiquity and the Middle Ages, had one of the largest and most important Jewish communities in the world. In Babylon, much of the Hebrew Bible was rewritten, codified, annotated and completed; the ancient Hebrew alphabet - which the Samaritans still use - was replaced by the Aramaic one in which Hebrew is written today.

After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD and the razing of Jerusalem after the Second Revolt in 132-35 AD, the centre of Judaism moved to the Galilee and Mesopotamia. The rabbis (Jewish sages and religious authorities) codified and elaborated the oral law. Two compilations of this, the Talmud , emerged. The vast Babylonian Talmud was compiled between 200 and 500 AD, in the rabbinic academies of Babylon where Jews had lived continuously at least since Nebuchadnezzar's time. The second version, less complete and authoritative, and often misleadingly called the Jerusalem Talmud , was compiled predominantly in Caesarea, Tiberias and Sepphoris. Both have the same starting point, an older part called the Mishnah , which was codified in Galilee around 200 AD, and a development and commentary on that called the Gemara .

The main internal crisis in Judaism came with the Kara'ite schism in the mid-eighth century, but divisions also emerged in Eastern Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with the Hassidic movement, which placed the emphasis on piety and prayer as opposed to the scholasticism of the Talmudic academies. The Hassidim maintained their identity, and still do, by their dress - black hats, long coats, sidelocks (pey'ot) and beards - while the less orthodox were more in favour of integrating into the societies in which they lived. A more recent split, mostly now centred in the United States and to a lesser extent Britain, was brought about by the rise of Reform Judaism , which began in Germany in the early nineteenth century, and which attempts to adapt traditional Judaism to the modern world. It has two modern branches: Conservative Judaism (Reform Judaism in Britain), which is more restrained in its reinterpretation, and Reform Judaism (equivalent to Liberal or Progressive in Britain), which goes further. The reforms include many of the ritual laws, acceptance of modern biblical criticism, services in languages other than Hebrew, and full equality for women, even women rabbis. The divisions between Reform and Orthodox Judaism have recently put great strains on the religion.

Islam
Islam , which in Arabic means "submission" (to God), originated in the early seventh century in Mecca, now in Saudi Arabia. The essential creed of Islam is that there is one God, Allah, and that Mohammed is his prophet. The basis of Islamic belief and practice, and the source of its legal and social system, is the Koran , the literal word of God dictated through the Archangel Gabriel to the Prophet Mohammed , who received it over a number of years beginning around 610 AD (the first verse that he received was almost certainly 96:1 - "Recite in the name of your Lord who creates: creates man from a clot of blood"). The Koran consists of 114 suras or chapters, arranged according to length and written in Classical Arabic. One of the suras (number 17) describes Mohammed's night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem in the company of the Archangel Gabriel, where he prayed and then ascended to heaven. It was towards Jerusalem that Muslims first directed their prayers, and although this later changed, Jerusalem has remained the third holy site of Islam, after Mecca and Medina, and has long been a place of Muslim pilgrimage. The revelation that prompted the change of the qibla (direction of prayer) is set out in the second sura of the Koran, which established the Ka'aba in Mecca (Saudi Arabia) as the religious centre to which all Muslims have turned in prayer ever since. Mohammed claimed Abraham and his son Ishmael (Isma'il in Arabic) as founders of the Ka'aba and of Arabian monotheism, thus predating and independent of both Judaism and Christianity.

Mohammed was born in 571 AD in Mecca and worked for a merchant for whom he travelled along trade routes as far north as Damascus. He became disillusioned with the multiple idolatries of Arabia, with the exclusiveness of the Jews, and with the ritual and doctrine of the Christians. But the new monotheistic faith that Mohammed introduced into his native city of Mecca met with opposition and persecution so that, in 622 AD, he and his followers were forced to flee to Medina . It is from this event - the Hegira - that Islam is dated. Seven years after the Hegira, the new code of social justice had gained such influence that Mohammed was able to return to Mecca as a powerful political leader. After the Prophet's death in 632 AD he was succeeded by four caliphs (successors). It was under the third caliph, Uthman , that the revelations which had been preserved by Mohammed's followers were collected and codified.

Not long after Mohammed's death, the spiritual leadership of Islam became a source of contention. The first three caliphs were all related to Mohammed by marriage, but the fourth, Ali, was not only the Prophet's son-in-law but also his cousin. A substantial minority - the Shi'ites - supported Ali (Shi'at Ali) and broke away from the mainstream Sunni Muslims. Shi'ites believe that the Islamic community should be ruled only by a direct descendant of Mohammed (and therefore of Ali), called the Imam , a divinely appointed ruler who possesses superhuman qualities. The Sunnis, on the other hand, supported the Ummayads, descended from Mohammed's uncle Ummaya - and later the Abbasids who deposed them in 749 - as caliphs, responsible for the administration of justice through the shari'a (Islamic law) and for the defence of the realm of Islam. One of the offshoots of Shi'ite Islam is the Isma'ilis , who broke away from the Shi'ite mainstream over the question of succession on the death of the sixth Imam; the Fatimids, who ruled Egypt and Palestine in the eleventh century, were Isma'ilis. Non-Isma'ili Shi'ites recognize twelve Imams , the last of whom, Mohammed al-Muntazar, disappeared around 873, and is considered to still be living - the Hidden Imam, who will one day reappear and be known as the Mahdi .

In the seventh and eighth centuries, Islam extended through the Middle East and North Africa, later spreading to sub-Saharan Africa, India, China, Southeast Asia, parts of Russia and the Balkans and Spain. Islam was brought to Palestine in 638 AD under the third caliph, Omar Ibn al-Khattab , and the land lay under Muslim rule for the next 1300 years, interrupted only by around ninety years of Crusader dominance (1099-1187).

Islam shares a number of beliefs with Judaism and Christianity, accepting the Torah, Psalms and Gospel as divine in origin, but regarding them as corrupted texts that are superseded by the Koran (the Koran, being in perfect verse, is safe from alteration). There is no formally organized church or priesthood, but there are five fundamental duties, known as the five pillars of Islam , which a Muslim must perform: the declaration of faith (shahada) that there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is Allah's prophet; prayer (salah) recited five times daily at set times facing Mecca; the observance of Ramadan , the holy month when no food or drink must be taken from sunrise to sunset (those with specific difficulties are excused or may postpone the fast); the giving of alms (zakah); and the pilgrimage (haj) to Mecca, which should be undertaken at least once in a lifetime. Islamic fundamentalists often stress, too, the duty to fight a jihad (Crusade) to expand the faith or to defend it when under threat. Friday is not a Sabbath for Muslims as Saturday is for Jews or Sunday for Christians, but a day when Muslims should all pray communally, if they can. As in Judaism, meat must be slaughtered by cutting the throat and draining the blood to be halal (permitted). Pork is forbidden ( haram ), as is alcohol (though, arguably, it is not alcohol per se which the Koran forbids, so much as drunkenness).

Christianity
Christianity is based on the teachings of Jesus , but more importantly on the belief that Jesus is the Christ , the Messiah prophesied by the Old Testament (Isaiah 7, 11 & 12, and Micah 5), and that as such, he is a manifestation of God in human form, and the only conduit between humanity and God.

A Jew from Nazareth, though apparently born in Bethlehem, Jesus taught in synagogues in the Galilee, gathering around him twelve Disciples or Apostles who accompanied him to Jerusalem, which he entered in triumph on Palm Sunday. Within a week, however, Jesus was arrested, tried and crucified . According to Christian belief, he was resurrected three days later (Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20). By suffering and dying on the cross, Jesus atoned for the sins of humanity, thus offering salvation to all who accept him.

The teachings of Jesus are best set out in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), in which he preaches a creed of love and humility, urging his followers to reject hypocrisy, to "turn the other cheek" (Matthew 5:38), to love and forgive their enemies (5:43), to store up treasures in heaven (the rewards of righteousness) rather than on earth (in the form of riches or the admiration of others - 6:19-21), and to "judge not lest ye be judged" (7:1). All this however, radical though it may be, is still within the mainstream of Jewish rabbinical thought. What sets Christianity apart from Judaism is its belief in Jesus's divinity.

According to most schools of Christianity, God has three aspects: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, referred to together as the Holy Trinity . God the Father is the creator of the universe and the God of the Old Testament. God the Son is Jesus, whose life, death and resurrection enable everybody to be redeemed from the sins of which we are all guilty, so long as we accept God and truly repent. God the Holy Spirit is the form of God that is everywhere and present in all things. It was this Holy Spirit that conceived Jesus in his mother, the Virgin Mary, immaculately - that is, without sex.

The break with Judaism came soon after Jesus's death, under St Paul . Paul was a Jewish persecutor of Christians who converted to Christianity after Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9), making him one of the disciples. Paul separated Christianity from Judaism, moving the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday and abandoning Jewish customs such as circumcision and kashrut. The last tie between the two religions was cut at the Council of Nicaea in 325, which ended the coincidence of Easter with the Jewish festival of Passover. Nonetheless, Christians in most denominations echo the rituals of Passover at Mass when they take holy communion , that is the wine and wafer, representing the blood and body of Christ, just as the disciples did at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:20-30; Mark 14:17-26; Luke 22:14-38), which was a Passover feast.

Despite persecution under Nero and later emperors, Christianity spread rapidly through the Roman Empire. It arose at a time when the traditional Greco-Roman religion of the empire was in decline, and the fact that Christianity was a brotherhood in which all were equal gained it many converts among the lower classes. The life and teachings of Jesus were originally disseminated by the apostles, but soon codified in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These, together with the Acts of the apostles, the Epistles (letters of St Paul to various Christian churches) and the Book of Revelation, constitute the New Testament , written between 80 and 120 AD. Early Christian communities under St Paul organized themselves into an international church . This was divided into five patriarchates - based at Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, Rome and Jerusalem - each independent of the others, although all recognized the primacy of Rome. Within these, the church was sub-divided into dioceses, each with a bishop, who claimed the authority of apostolic succession , that is, appointed by someone who was appointed by someone who was appointed by someone else in a line that could be traced back to the original apostles. The bishop and patriarch of Rome, the pope, was thus a direct successor to St Peter, who was appointed as head of the church by Jesus himself (Matthew 16:18-19; John 21:15-17).

In 312 AD, Constantine legalized Christianity and it eventually became the state religion of the Roman Empire, accelerating its spread, so that it is now the world's largest religion; but even by 312, it was falling into the factionalism that has dogged it more than any other world faith. The result is that Christians do not form a single communion - in other words, they pray in different churches that do not accept each other's legitimacy. The splits between these churches appeared to be over fine points of doctrine, but in fact politics was usually the main factor behind them. Some dissident churches such as the Nestorians and the Arians were excluded from orthodoxy as early as the fourth century, but the first split to affect churches that you will find in today's Jerusalem came in 451.

That year, the Council of Chalcedon declared that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine, having two natures united in one person. A group of mainly eastern churches however, unwilling to accept the authority of the Greek and Roman church establishment, took the view that Jesus had a single nature that was divine with some human attributes, and were thus excluded from the Catholic church. These Monophysites , including the Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox (Jacobite), Ethiopian and Coptic churches, are a tiny minority of Christians worldwide, but have an important presence in Jerusalem.

With the end of the Roman empire, Christianity went into decline. Many of the tribes that invaded the empire were pagan, or followed the Arian heresy (which was based on an attempt to reconcile Christianity with Germanic pagan religions), and in the seventh century Islam took over from Christianity as the main religion in most of North Africa and the Middle East. Nonetheless, Christianity expanded northward, and in the eleventh and twelfth centuries it went through a revival; but strains between Rome and the other four patriarchates led to an east-west schism that mirrored the old Rome-versus-Constantinople rivalry of the Roman Empire.

Again, the split was supposedly over matters of doctrine - the western churches believed that the Holy Spirit emanated from both God the Father and God the Son, while those of the east held that it emanated only from God the Father - but in reality the eastern churches resented the primacy of Rome, and were eager to reject it. The frequent breaches between east and west became definitive in 1054, when the eastern patriarchs broke away from communion with Rome. In 1204, the Crusaders captured Constantinople and tried to impose Catholicism by force, but the Greek population refused to be cowed and rebelled, driving out the Catholics in 1261. Constantinople's 1453 fall to the Muslim Ottomans severely weakened eastern Christianity, but the eastern Orthodox churches remain dominant in Greece, Russia, other parts of Eastern Europe, and indeed Jerusalem, where the largest Christian denomination is Greek Orthodox. A number of small eastern churches nonetheless continue to accept the authority of Rome, and remain in a communion with the Latin (Roman Catholic) church, though they have their own liturgies. These Uniate churches include the Greek Catholics (Melkites), Syrian Catholics, Armenian Catholics and Maronites (Lebanese Catholics).

Western Christianity underwent its most serious division in the Reformation , which took off when Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses to the door of a church at Wittenberg in 1517. Those who followed Luther and other reformers such as John Calvin , became Protestants . Again, the origins of Protestantism were based on doctrinal points - Protestants believe that each individual has their own relationship with God which does not require the intercession of a priest - but the real impetus behind the movement was political, a desire for greater independence from Rome by the economically strong nations of northern Europe and Britain.

Protestantism has four main branches: Lutheranism , which follows the teachings of Martin Luther and is strongest in Germany and the Netherlands; Presbyterianism , which follows the more austere teachings of John Calvin, and includes the Church of Scotland; Anglicanism , including the Church of England and the Scottish and American Episcopal churches, which retain a hierarchy of bishops and other Catholic features, but reject the authority of the pope and infallibility of the church; and Baptism , which is strong in Wales and the United States. Protestants form a small minority of Christians in Jerusalem, but became important here in the nineteenth century because of the worldwide dominance of Protestant countries. The result is a number of buildings constructed and maintained by Protestant churches. By far the largest Palestinian Protestant congregation is Anglican.