Hi, I've been reading in christian apologetics texts about judeo- christian tradition of European and American culture. (Politicans also like to use it.) But the same apologicians (?) say that Christianity is so different from Judaism, mainly the idea of a Messiah, and also the Law and such. But today, we always hear about judeo-christian tradition. I would like to know when this term came to use and why. Is it because post-holocaust trauma, that we have to acknowledge Jews as part of European history, which to me seems pretty inadequate as the Jews were, and still are, just a minority among plenty other cultures. Or to what extent is this term justifiable? Thank you, and I'm very sorry for my bad english, which constrains me from stating my questions properly.
But the same apologicians (?) say that Christianity is so different from Judaism, mainly the idea of a Messiah, and also the Law and such.
The basic answer is that this statement is not correct. The idea of a messianic figure and a binitarian (with maybe even some hints at what might evolve into a trinitarian) godhead is well established within the Second Temple Jewish literary tradition. It is certainly evident both in the apocryphal Book of Enoch as well as the Biblical Book of Daniel. Some, like myself, have even argued that it makes little sense to distinguish between Jews and Christians before the Council of Nicaea, that is, before what Christianity was was officially established and imperially sanctioned.
The term itself seems to come from 19th c. positivist historical-critical biblical scholarship, but has only more recently come into popular usage in the US. I believe this is because of political use.