Question

In order to know jQuery, do I have to know JavaScript first?

Answer 1

My answer is also YES and Here are the reasons in this nice article:

Learning Javascript or Simply the JS Frameworks?

Quoting main reasons from above article:

• Frameworks don’t do it all.

Whereas frameworks and code libraries
often take a lot of the heavy lifting
when coding up sites, they can’t do it
all. If you come along and think “I
need to do this” and your framework
does not provide such a function,
you’re stuck up a creek without one
very handy paddle.

• Employment

Imagine you’ve spent 9 years working
with jQuery but never took the time,
for whatever reason, to fully learn
Javascript. Then you see the perfect
job vacancy, javascript developer at a
well respected company with very good
pay. You’re thinking to yourself that
they HAVE to pick you, you’ve worked
with javascript for so long, but when
you arrive and they ask you about your
knowledge of javascript, you’re in
trouble.

• Easier to pick up the framework

If you’ve spent a period of time with
javascript, the syntax that jQuery
(and most other javascript frameworks)
uses is going to be a lot easier to
pick up and a lot easier to master.

• Edit the Source and Plug In!

It’s always great fun to dive into the
code and edit the library to suit
yourself, you can add your own
functions when you find a gap in the
library

It is also discussed before:

Is it a good idea to learn JavaScript before learning jQuery?