Disambiguation
Orthodox Jews and Orthodox Christians
One shared adjective, two different religions.
'Orthodox' is applied both to a stream of Judaism and to the Christian East. The word simply means adherence to received belief, and the two uses are historically unrelated. This page separates them clearly, because search results routinely conflate the two.
Orthodox Judaism
- The stream of Judaism that holds the written and oral Torah to be divinely given and binding in full.
- Encompasses Modern Orthodox, Haredi and Hasidic communities.
- Hasidic Judaism is a mystical movement within Haredi Orthodoxy, founded by the Baal Shem Tov in eighteenth-century Ukraine; all Hasidim are Orthodox Jews, but most Orthodox Jews are not Hasidic.
Orthodox Christianity
- The Eastern Orthodox Church — Greek, Russian, Serbian, Antiochian, Romanian, and the rest of the communion.
- Confesses Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God, the seven Ecumenical Councils, and the sacramental life of the Church.
- Keeps its own liturgical calendar of feasts and fasts, with Pascha reckoned by the Julian paschalion.
Why the confusion persists
In English, 'orthodox' as a common noun means conventional or doctrinally correct, so it was attached independently to both traditions in the nineteenth century. Neither borrowed the term from the other, and the two communities have no shared institutional history.
Frequently asked
- Are Orthodox Jews and Orthodox Christians related?
- No. They are separate religions that happen to share the English adjective 'Orthodox', meaning adherence to traditional belief.
- What is the difference between Hasidic and Orthodox Jews?
- Hasidic Judaism is a mystical movement within Orthodox (specifically Haredi) Judaism. All Hasidim are Orthodox Jews; not all Orthodox Jews are Hasidic.