Law stand on one fundamental idea, 'The righteous man liveth by his faith'
(Makkoth, 23 b).

This desire to find one or a few general fundamental passages on
which the whole Scripture might be seen to base itself is, however,
far removed from anything of the nature of the Christian Creeds or
of the Mohammedan Kalimah. And when we remember that the Pharisees
and Sadducees differed on questions of doctrine (such as the belief in
immortality held by the former and rejected by the latter), it becomes
clear that the absence of a formal declaration of faith must have been
deliberate. The most that was done was to introduce into the Liturgy a
paragraph in which the assembled worshippers declared their assent to
the truth and permanent validity of the Word of God. After the Shema'
(whose contents are summarised above), the assembled worshippers daily
recited a passage in which they said (and still say): 'True and firm is
this Thy word unto us for ever.... True is it that Thou art indeed our
God ... and there is none beside Thee.'

After all, the difference between Pharisee and Sadducee was political
rather than theological. It was not till Judaism came into contact,
contact alike of attraction and repulsion, with other systems that a
desire or a need for formulating Articles of Faith was felt. Philo, coming
under the Hellenic spirit, was thus the first to make the attempt. In
the last chapter of the tract on the Creation (_De Opifico_, lxi.),
Philo enumerates what he terms the five most beautiful lessons, superior
to all others. These are--(i) God is; (ii) God is One; (iii) the World
was created (and is not eternal); (iv) the World is one, like unto God in
singleness; and (v) God exercises a continual providence for the benefit
of the world, caring for His creatures like a parent for his children.