:"will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me."<ref>Jeremiah 31: 35-36.</ref>

:Our nation, the children of Israel, is a nation only by virtue of its laws. Since, then, the Creator has stated that the Jewish nation was destined to exist as long as heaven and earth exist, its laws would, of necessity, have to endure as long as would heaven and earth.<ref>Saadia Gaon, Emunot veDe'ot, Book III:7 </ref>

An eternal covenant links the eternal people to the eternal G-d. This idea is not merely fundamental to Judaism. It shapes the very meaning of the words truth (emet), faithfulness (emunah) and covenant (brit) when applied to G-d. It means that G-d, having made a covenant with the patriarchs (brit avot) and then with the children of Israel as a nation (brit Sinai), will be true to His word. He will not break it, terminate it, or replace it. In the language of the prophets, in the marriage between G-d and Israel there will be no divorce. A G-d who could abandon His people is unthinkable to the biblical mind. That is why, to a Jew, the replacement theology of classical Christianity and Islam is untenable as an interpretation of the Hebrew Bible.

Here, despite his knowledge of the suffering certain Islamic groups had visited on Jews, Maimonides insists that Islam in a genuine monotheism. Though he did not hold the same view of the Christianity of his time (the 12th century), he nonetheless ruled that it was permitted to teach Torah to Christians:

:It is permitted to teach the commandments to Christians and to draw them close to our religion . . . because they believe in the text of the Torah [as we have received it, and do not argue] that it has changed, through they frequently interpret it differently . . .<ref>Responsa, 149.</ref>

R. Menahem Ha-Meiri, the fourteenth century Provencal scholar, introduced a new perspective in framing relations between Jews and the wider Christian or Islamic societies in which they lived:

:It has already been stated that these things [laws relating to gentiles] were said concerning periods when there existed nations of idolaters, and they were contaminated in their deeds and tainted in their dispositions . . . but other nations, which are restrained by the ways of religion and which are free from such blemishes of character - on the contrary, they even punish such deeds - are, without doubt, exempt from this prohibition.<ref>Meiri, Bet Habechirah, Avodah Zarah, 53. See also, ibid., 39, 46, 48, 59 and in many other places in his writings.</ref>

According to Meiri, all mishnaic rules circumscribing business and other transactions with non-Jews are to be understood as referring to pagan or polytheistic cultures, no longer extant, which in addition to being idolatrous were also unprincipled in their dealings with people. That has now changed. The nations amongst whom Jews lived were now "restrained by the ways of religion" and were therefore to be regarded as on a par with the "resident alien" of biblical times, namely as "the pious of the nations of the world."<ref>Much has been written about Meiri's conceptual leap in relation to non-Jews: see Jacob Katz, Exclusiveness and Tolerance, New York, Behrman House, 1961, 114-128; Ephraim Urbach, "Shitat Hasovlanut shel Rabbi Menahem Hameiri," in E. Etkes (ed), Perakim beToldot haHevrah haYehudit, Jerusalem, 1980, 34-44; M. Halbertal, Bein Torah leChokhmah, Jerusalem, Magnes Press, 2000, 80-108.</ref>

R. Moses Rivkes gives halakhic expression to the difference between pagan and monotheistic gentile cultures:

:The rabbis of the Talmud meant by the term 'idolators' the pagans who lived in their time, who worshipped the stars and the constellations and did not believe in the Exodus from Egypt and in the creation of the world out of nothing. But the nations under whose benevolent shadow we, the Jewish nation, are exiled and are dispersed among them, they do believe in the creation of the world out of nothing and the Exodus from Egypt and in the essentials of faith, and their whole intention is toward the Maker of heaven and earth, as other authorities have said . . . these nations do believe in all of this<ref>R. Moses Rivkes (Lithuania, 17th century), Be'er haGolah to Choshen Mishpat 425:5).</ref>

So does the introduction to R. Jonathan Eybeschutz's halakhic commentary, Kreti uPleti:

By far the most significant analysis of Christianity, however, from a Judaic point of view was provided by R. Jacob Emden (1697-1776):

:The writers of the Gospels never meant to say that the Nazarene came to abolish Judaism, but only that he came to establish a new religion for the Gentiles from that time onward. Nor was it new, but actually ancient; they being the Seven commandments of the sons of Noah, which were forgotten. The Apostles of the Nazarene established them anew . . . It is therefore a habitual saying of mine . . . that the Nazarene brought about a double kindness in the world. On the one hand, he strengthened the Torah of Moses majestically, as mentioned earlier, and not one of our sages spoke out more emphatically concerning the immutability of the Torah. And on the other hand he did much good for the gentiles . . . by doing away with idolatry and removing the images from their midst. He obligated them with the seven commandments . . . and also bestowed on them ethical ways, and in this respect he was much more stringent with them than the Torah of Moses, as is well known.<ref>Rabbi Yaakov Emden, [[~~Rabbi Jacob Emden's Letter (Seder_Olam_Rabbah_Vezuta)~~Yaakov_Emden_on_Noahides#Rabbi_Jacob_Emden.27s_Letter_.28Seder_Olam_Rabbah_Vezuta.29|Seder Olam Rabbah ve-Zuta]], Appendix. Translation, H. Falk, Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 19:1 [Winter 1982], 105-111).</ref>

Citing Acts 15, Emden argues that the founders of Christianity were not engaged in creating a new religion but rather bringing the Noahide covenant and its seven laws to the gentiles. That is why they did not require their followers to observe the Sabbath or the command of circumcision (which do not apply to non-Jews). Only later did Christians (mistakenly, Emden argues) see their faith as a rival to and replacement of Judaism. Emden urges Christians to go back to their own first principles. If they did so they would "bring their people to love the ancient Children of Israel who remain loyal to their G-d, as indeed commanded to Christians by their original teachers."

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