Question for those of the Jewish faith...?

Question

Who do you believe Jesus was? I've heard (please tell me if I am misinformed; I'm genuinely trying to learn) that those of the Jewish faith believe that Jesus was a "good man" and a "prophet" (just not the son of God) and that their Messiah has yet to come. If that is accurate, then I'm confused by this. Why would someone who believes their Messiah has not yet come, think a man who walked around proclaiming to be the Son of God was a "good man". On the contrary, it seems more likely they would think of him as either pure evil or a lunatic. Am I just misinformed about Jewish beliefs?

Answer 1

Well, I believe he was good man, because he did go around spreading the word of G-d. He was a great teacher and a great "messenger" if you will. Being Jewish himself, he emphasized the beliefs that all of us Jews hold close. For example, when asked what the most important commandment was, he responded by saying "To love G-d with all your heart and all your soul and all your might..." and he continued "Hear O Israel: The Lord is our G-d, the Lord is one" which is all also known as the Sh'ma--the most important prayer in Judaism.
Jesus was in no way a bad man. Jews just don't believe in worshipping a separate being since the Sh'ma proclaims that we believe in only one G-d.

Answer 2

to Judaism, Jesus was just a good guy. not a prophet even. a rabbi, or MAYBE (some people) a powerful Mystic.

>>"Why would someone who believes their Messiah has not yet come, think a man who walked around proclaiming to be the Son of God was a "good man". On the contrary, it seems more likely they would think of him as either pure evil or a lunatic. Am I just misinformed about Jewish beliefs?"<<

this is a very good point, but basically I think most are somewhat skeptical that he really said everything he was said to have said. ...

lets say he DID make such claims. then by jewish standards he would simply be wrong, and sinful to make such claims. (btw, the jewish messiah wasn't meant to be "son of god" or anything like that. we are all god's children, and to say that he was more divine than anyone else, is idolotorous. and ungodly. and doing so would be DEFINITELY deserving of a death penalty.

but he wouldn't be considered evil, just... criminal, if that makes sense.

I think most jews do not see him as having been in his right mind, so I guess you could say "lunatic" would fit... that he meant well, but was simply wrong, and that wrongness being wrong in an intolerable way.

but really judaism has little to no "standard" beliefs about jesus, becuase hes simply not relevant. I mean does christianity have any unified beliefs on muhummad? not secular beliefs, but religious ones.

Answer 3

the biggest distinction is the Jews do not have faith that Jesus replaced into the messiah (the anointed one, or the Christ - all of it skill a similar element). they don't have faith that Jesus rose from the ineffective. Many Jews have faith that Jesus had some particularly stable teachings. yet they don't agree that Jesus is God. There are some people who're Jewish by making use of ethnicity yet additionally have faith that Jesus is Lord - they are mentioned as messianic Jews. they're going to prepare Passover and Communion. the factor concerning the religion rituals differing lots is using the fact the ideals are diverse, yet there is generally a complication-unfastened topic in the two. like the 1st communion replaced into additionally a passover meal. The previous testomony is a similar in the two faiths. Jews do not have faith the hot testomony. Jews have an entire number of found out, and scholarly writings mentioned as the Talmud which clarify and tricky the 1st 5 books of the previous testomony that are additionally mentioned as the Torah. Christians do not must be circumcised, yet Jews do must be on account it particularly is the covenant (like a settlement) between Jews and God. yet the two faiths talk concerning the circumcision of the coronary heart that's becoming delicate to God's coronary heart. Christian human beings being what they are (sinners) used the transformations in the previous to persecute and kill the Jews and that has been the source of somewhat some animosity.

Answer 4

I can only answer for my self but I will say that categorically that no Jewish group, thought, or movement believes that Jesus or any one for the last 2,200 years was a prophet.

A basic Jewish belief is that the next prophet will be the Messiah so calling Jesus a prophet is tantamount to calling him the messiah.

as for a nice guy part most Jews say that out of political correctness. As for my self I am not sure I think is possible that Jesus was well intentioned and possibly a bit schizophrenic, but unfortunatly their as so many conflicting accounts of his own life (even in the christian bible) not to mention other historical records. To the point that I would rather say that I dont know if Jesus was a nice guy that got his message twisted, nuts, evil or none of the above.

Answer 5

There is nothing at all about Jesus in any Jewish writings. If Jesus lived, and if he claimed to be the messiah (not God), he could have had many followers. But when Jesus died without bringing peace on earth for all the righteous of the world, he was obviously NOT the messiah and his followers would have returned to other Jewish groups.

There were many Jewish groups at the time, just as today we have several types of Jews: Orthodox Jews, Conservative Jews, Reform Jews, Reconstructionist Jews, and Renewal Jews. There are many differences, but all of them regard practice, not belief! Whereas in Christianity all the different groups separate by belief.
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Answer 6

wow, great question- I never thought about it this way. I just recently spoke to a person of the Jewish faith and this was what he told me: Jesus was a good man, a good teacher but not the Messiah. I was also told by more than one of the Jewish faith that if a Jewish person receives Jesus as their Messiah, they are no longer considered Jewish- even if they continue in all of the feasts of the Lord and Jewish traditions and customs - they are basically disowned.

I never really thought about how contradictory it is to claim that Jesus was a good man but in light of what Jesus himself said believe that he was not the Messiah. Excellent question!
I am very interested in the other answers.

Answer 7

No, that is not accurate.

According to Judaism, prophecy ended about 400 years before the birth of Jesus. Thus, no one from his era was a prophet.

As to what Jesus was, he was not a prophet, not the son of G-d, nor the Messiah, nor even a rabbi. In short, he is irrelevant.

You are also trying to pose the classic question about Jesus phrased differently, i.e. was a liar, lord, or lunatic? The problem with that is that it boxes the discussion into those three alternatives. In truth there are many more alternatives. e.g. he never existed, he never said what the Christian Bible said he said but others said it or, he was simply wrong.

Answer 8

I'll try to answer this question as a Jewish person. From what I understand, Jesus taught nothing but love, peace and goodness. He taught people to accept, support and love each other. Although I don't believe he was the son of God, he certainly was anything but evil and not crazy either. It's all about faith. The new Christians chose to follow him, the Jews didn't. Who knows why? None of us living today was there. Hope that helps.
MG

Answer 9

I can't answer the question as I'm not Jewish, so please pardon the intrusion, but I just wanted to post this quote which kind of goes along with your question. (BTW, I agree that you either have to accept him as Lord or believe he was a lunatic.)

"I am trying to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I am ready to accept Jesus as the great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
--C.S. Lewis

Answer 10

SweetGracey, I'm afraid you were misinformed.

Judaism in general and the Jewish people in particular do not believe in Jesus in any way.
Jesus is not mentioned in any of our holy scriptures; he is not gestured in any of our holydays, nor our regular rituals and prayers. In fact- Jesus is not considered in any aspect of the Jewish life, not to mention considered "a prophet". As far as we're concerned, Jesus is a Christian figure and feature exclusively.
We do not reject Jesus' existence, but we do not reject Buddha's and Mohammed's either. They're just not of our interest…
Maybe there was a guy named "Jesus of Nazareth", and maybe he was a lovely man and a wise teacher, but he is neither important nor valuable to our religion and ancestry more than any other Jewish person.

Some of us (Jewish people) tend to say that Jesus was a "good man" because we've found that Christian people hate us less when we say it. C'est tout.


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The Jewish Messiah is said to be a regular man that will bring peace and some other prophecies to earth. Not only Jesus does not fit some of the descriptions of the Messiah (http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/jewishsociety/Why_Jews_Dont_Believe_In_Jesus.asp), his proclaiming (to be exact- his followers proclaiming) to be the son of god, or even god itself, is outraging in the eyes of Judaism and totally unacceptable. That is why we do not consider the Messianic Jews as real Jews: believing in Jesus as anything more than a "good man" is an unJewish belief in its essence, and some of us will even say- unmonotheistic.