Why was Jesus Jewish?

Question

When I was a kid, I was told that Jesus was Jewish, but I chose not to question it, because I knew I'd get a huge lecture on why not to question the bible.

I understand that it's written that Jesus was born into the Jewish religion. However, by him saying he is the son of God and the messiah, wouldn't that disqualify him of being a Jew? In the New Testament, Jesus admits to judge Pilate that he is the king of the Jews (Matthew 27:11). If Christianity is based upon Jesus' resurection, would that mean that when Jesus was said to have resurrected, he technically became the first Christian? All of this has always been fuzzy to me.

I honestly don't understand this part. Actually since I lost interest in my family's Catholic beliefs, I've found myself in a better position to ask these questions. I thought I'd ask on Y!A first, though.

It doesn't make sense to me that he is not the first Christian, because his life ended when he was crucified. There are no recordings of him continuing his life after he was said to have ressurected.

I understand that he was born into a Jewish family, but isn't he contradicting Judaism by saying he is the messiah?

So he was only Jewish by means of ethnic group/race and not by religion?

Answer 1

Jesus was born to a woman of the Jewish faith and therefore that makes him also a Jew. There is no contradiction in Him saying that he was the Messiah, as the Messiah was supposed to come from the House of David, which would make the Messiah also Jewish. It does not disqualify Him from anything simply because some people chose and still choose not to believe it.

There is a lot more to question about your Catholic beliefs, such as why one of the ten commandments was dropped, why do they worship on Sunday when the Sabbath is clearly not on Sunday or how can you get 3 days out of the Good Friday to Easter Sunday span of time. You might say that Jesus was the first Christian but I doubt that He would say that. He also said that he did not come to replace the law but to uphold it. The differences in religion is a distinction made by Man not by God.

Answer 2

OK, this is going to be a long one. Take a deep breath.

Jesus was Jewish for the same reason why I am part Polish and part Welsh, and someone with Chinese parents would be Chinese. It is a genetic thing, not necessarily a religious thing. It is a bit confusing because the race of people and the religious group are currently called by the same name.

For example, during Hitler's reign in Germany, he sought to destroy the Jews, but it wasn't simply their religious beliefs that he was focused on. So, even if a person had converted to some branch of Christianity, if their heritage was Jewish, they were sent to a prison camp.

People have made a similar tie (whether true or not) by confusing "Arabs" and Muslims. Just because someone looks Middle-Eastern does not mean that they are a Muslim, and just because someone is Muslim does not mean that they will look Middle-Eastern.

Also adding to the confusion is that Jesus was raised Jewish, and followed the religion (I'd dare say better than many of those who were religious leaders) his whole life.

Why would Jesus being the son of God and the Messiah (aka the Christ) disqualify him from being Jewish? The Jews believe in a Messiah, and in fact still watch and wait for Him to come and "rescue" them. They just don't believe that Jesus was the One.

Jesus actually didn't "admit" to being King of the Jews, but simply agreed that He had been called that by others. He really didn't have that much to say to Pilate. Ironically, because of His genealogy, Jesus might well have been Jewish royalty or even King had Rome not conquered Israel before His time and set up their own rulers.

As for Jesus being Christian: No, He wasn't. Christianity, when it comes right down to it, means "Followers of Christ." Since Jesus didn't "follow" Himself, He was not technically Christian. Does that make sense? I guess the first Christians were His apostles, although they didn't refer to themselves as Christians. If I remember correctly, the description "Christian" was thought up by the Romans several decades after Jesus' death and resurrection, and was rather a pejorative (a not very nice thing to be called).

Does the Catholic church teach that Christianity is based upon Jesus' resurrection? I'm not Catholic, but I am Christian. Jesus' resurrection was a big part but only part of the whole, not the ONLY foundation for Christianity. Foremost was that He was indeed the son of God, and thus divine. His teachings, improvements upon the Law of Moses along with new ideas (Love One Another, etc) are also big parts of what is supposed to belong to Christian religions.

Answer 3

Yes, Jesus was a Jew. Back in that day the Jews were the religious ones and the gentiles were considered heathens. When Jesus was resurrected all of the people that believed that He was the son of God were considered CHRISTians. The Jews did not believe it. So today the Jews are waiting for the messiah to come for the first time where as the Christians are waiting for His return. There are some Jews that believe in Jesus. They are still Jewish by race but Christians by their faith. The are called messianic Jews.
Please continue to learn the bible. Go to church and get answers. There is nothing you will ever do more important. God bless.

Answer 4

Jesus had a Jewish mother and was raised as a typical Jew. Do some research. Jesus never claimed he was the son of G-d. This came about during 200 C.E. when the religion of Christianity was being form, and the origin of Jesus was being debated. In the end they went along with the idea of making Jesus a G-d.

During the time around the destruction of the second Temple there were many false messiahs who claimed all kinds of things, as a result of corruption in the government, Temple, and throughout. Jesus just happened to be one of the many. If you look at the works of Josephus- the only historian present at the time- he does not even mention Jesus's name, adding to its insignificance.
Yes, any Jew can make comments of being a messiah, or G-d or anything and still be Jewish. A Jew can never convert from being a Jew. It is only after 3 generations of complete non-observance that one loses status as a Jew. However, a Jew who in front of many witnesses goes out of his way and leads other Jews in a path, which is deviant even to the fundamentals of Judaism than that Jew is given the death penalty. Capital punishment only comes after being warned several times. And, in Jewish law one has the right to refuse capital punishment and instead be banished. Capital punishment is but a favor that the government does for someone to atone for their sins. Jesus along with many self-proclaimed messiahs of the time shared this fate.
Check your historical facts, especially the original writings of Josephus - the ones not tainted by the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages.

Answer 5

i am always happy to see people who question their belief system,
everybody should do it so as to fully understand what they believe or not
believe in.

i was 1 of those people who have always questioned the catholic religion &
many other religions. for knowing God is NOT really about a particular
religion or about religion itself. It is not about a set of dos & donts.
It is not about fear of being tormented for eternity if you prove yourself
unworthy.

to answer your questions will take a long time...(and a long discussion)
i will gladly invite you to visit my 360 page or even send me email
questions.

but briefly...Jesus was born a Hebrew because it was with that race that
God gave His promise, gave His covenant, the law, the prophesies and many
other things. You see everything that have happened in the universe was
planned out from the start by, let us call, the Intelligent Designer, the
Originator--whom we call God.

Jesus is technically not a Christian or the first Christian (for indeed He
is the Christ). A Christian is a term first used in the 1st Century AD to
ridicule people who believe in the Christ, in Jesus as the promised Messiah.

If you ask me, following a religion or being a religious person may mess up
everything you need to know about God. But don't get me wrong everything
you learned about your family's religion (or any other religion)--God will use to
make you understand what God is all about (& what God is not).

Jesus did not contradict Judaism, once you see the whole picture you can see that in fact He was the fulfillment of the prophesies in the Old Testament, it's just that the Jews had rejected Him as their Messiah. (which was also part of God's plan)

Lastly, if you have no knowledge of what has happened after Jesus was
crucified as you say that there were no recordings of Him continuing his
life after that, all will be given you once you understand what Jesus is
all about & find out what God is all about.

Seek that truth & you will find it.

Answer 6

Here's a simple way of putting it. George Washington was born a British subject. By signing the Declaration of Independence he chose to call himself an American. After the War of Independence, America bedame a recognized sovereign nation. With the ratification of the Consttution Washington became an official American citizen.

He went through several steps. But today you could go from a citizen of one country to a citizen of America in one step. Same thing, fewer steps.

Jesus was born to Jewish parents, lived in Roman occupied Palestine, spoke Aramaic and grew up a devout Jew. Eventually though he departed from traditional Jewish teachings. In particular he said there would be an afterlife. People could go to Heaven. It wasn't just God's home any more. He said that the spiritual was more important than the material. He said sinners could be saved. And he said he would rule with God in heaven. This was blasphemy and a contravention of the second commandment (no other gods before me). He also claimed to be the Messiah, but this was an exclusively Jewish concept.

When he died his followers founded a new Church and a new religion, Christianity. Most were still Jews by nationality and ethnicity. The beliefs still had a lot in common with Judaism, but then Paul took it in new directions. He himself was a Roman citizen and he managed to attract a huge following throughout the Roman world. Before long the Jewish Christians found themselves in the minority. But there were several steps in the transformation.

So I think the correct answer to your question is that Jesus remained a Jew until his death, both in terms of his nationailty and his religious beliefs. He believed in the Torah, though he had his own interpretation of it. And though he was considered a heretic and blasphemer by the Jewish priests and authorities, he did not really take steps to found his own Church while he was alive. It was his followers who decided to break away as a separate religion. Just as many American colonists decided to break away from Britain in 1776.

Answer 7

He was Jewish by ethnicity. He worshipped in the temple and synagogue, and followed Torah - he just interpreted it differently than many of his contemporaries. When he speaks in the Bible, he does so within a Jewish framework and often is shown quoting Jewish texts. His thoughts are also very Jewish. Additionally, the Messiah was supposed to come from among the Jews. Jesus does not appear to have come to start a new religion, but to reform it and to bring God's Kingdom to the earth (again, very Jewish and understood by Jesus in a very Jewish way). It appears that the distinctive Christian aspects of Jesus' message were later interpolations by scribes and the author's of the Bible who were writing after Jews and those who followed Christ eventually split. It is incontrovertible that most Christians still attended synogogue and temple even after conversion. They understood the Christ event as happening within Judaism, not as a separation from it.

Answer 8

The Jews were God’s chosen people. Jesus was born into the line of David (and by his mother into the line of Levi, so say some) therefore Jesus was Jewish. He was the Messiah. He came to his people the lost sheep of Israel. They did not reconize him as the Messiah and rejected him and for this reason salvation was then open for all.

His followers are Christians. But Jesus himself was born a Jew and died a Jew. Yet he was also the Son of God. I know that this is confusing. It is all about Theology and that can be very confusing, but on this point all agree.

Answer 9

You MUST clearly understand that the word "Christian" actually means being "a follower or disciple of Christ". Get it?

Yeshua/Jesus WAS in fact a Jew by birth and tradition, and He was THE MESSIAH [or the Christ], Saviour and King, that had been prophesied by their own Jewish Prophets of many centuries and generations earlier. But not all the Jews believed that He was the Messiah, so they wanted Him crucified!

But His first Apostles and disciples were MOSTLY Jewish, too... Then they were called either "Nazarenes" or "Christians" only much later on when the followers began to profess their new faith... Got it??

The word "Messiah", which means "Redeemer" or "Saviour" in English, was later translated to the Greek word 'Kristos', then to the Roman [or Latin] word 'Christus'. And now its English translation is 'Christ'. Get it??

Peace be with you.

Answer 10

He was ,and is today Jewish ,the whole bible is Jewish,if you don`t like the Jew you hate Jesus. Christians are confused about God because they don`t understand judaism nor God. Jews after Jesus were called "the way" then Christians,but the word says," I am the same today yesterday and forevermore" They are still the chosen people even though they did not recognize Jesus,we are to respect them and bless them not attack them.