Wait, if Jesus was Jewish, and he was supposedly flawless, then why are there Christians?

Question

I mean, if he followed Judaism...wouldn't that have been the "right" religion?

Answer 1

We are called "Christians" because we follow Christ, a Jew who, by the way, was very openly critical of the religious leaders of His day. He said "Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it." Just like today, many - but not all - of the leaders of His day were not conducting themselves as they should, twisting the truth and leading people astray. Jesus came, in part, to set straight those who will turn from error and follow Him. Jesus indeed followed Judaism but He followed it the way God meant for us to follow it. Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism as was spoken by Jewish prophets. By the way, John the Baptist was not Baptist, He was also a Jew, but that doesn't mean that no one should be a Baptist.

Answer 2

From the Christian perspective, he was the Messiah prophesied about in the Old Testament. So, he was born to a Jewish mother, Mary, but changed the Jewish religion. Instead of waiting for their Messiah, the Christian perspective would have it that Jews should accept Jesus as that Messiah.

Jews, however, do not see it that way, and do not interpret the Old Testament prophesies as having anything to do with Jesus of Nazereth. Also, the Jewish concept of what savior would be like is different. They weren't expecting a soul-saving son of God. They were expecting a liberator to restore the nation of Israel which had been destroyed in the time of Solomon and had been ruled alternatively by Babylonians, Persians and Romans for hundreds of years.

So, that's why there are two different religions. The Christians are the Jews and the gentiles who accepted Jesus as the savior predicted in the Old Testament. That raises an interesting tangent too - in pre-Jesus times, the Jewish religion really wasn't something you could convert to willy-nilly. They were the chosen people, and that had a racial/genetic aspect to it. With the advent of the Christian sect, the Christians were big on recruiting gentiles (pagans/non-Jews) into the new religion. That is why Christianity never developed any real racial/genetic aspects - you "choose" to be Christian. You are "born" a Jew. It's a little looser these days, with some people converting to Judaism - but, that is a new thing.

Answer 3

1. Jesus was named Jesus the Christ long after he was dead.
2. Jesus was absolutely Jewish because he was born of a Jewish woman.
3. Christ is not a last name or even a synonym of Jesus, its a word meaning "the anointed."
4. Jesus was a Rebbe--a teacher.
5. Jesus was a Magus....The older Magi visited him.
6. Hebrew mystics accepted Magi and works such as the Qabala.
7. Jesus had no blood attachment to the line of David.
8. Jesus was accepted by the Jewish majority as a teacher and possible prophet.
9. Jesus was condemned because of a fundamentalist sect of Judaism called Pharisees--not the general population.
10. The Apostles turned their whole experience into a new religion Christianity....which has come to mean "followers of the anointed one.....but not the messiah.

Answer 4

Jesus was flawless because he was God on earth. The fashioning of religions came about when the Tower of Babble fell, and all mankind was spread about and spoke different languages. And according to the Bible Jews are Gods chosen people but at the same time are cursed because they did not accept Jesus as the Messiah as to days Christians do.

Answer 5

Religious Jews may or may not feel attacked by the following statement, though it is not meant to attack....

Christ's ministry was not only to reveal to the Jews God's will, but also to usher in something better than judaism (no offense). God had a plan to go out with the old, and in with the new-old. Christ went deeper into what the Jews knew as right and wrong, and came to prepare us for a relationship with God and repentance of sin, rather than just trying to please God with works and covering up sin.

Judaism had been corrupted by the "leven of the pharisees". The Pharisees and Saducees, the religious leaders of Jusaism in Jesus' day, had over time added onto what God had said by creating new practices/beliefs that God never declared nor agreed with. Eg: the Pharisees believed you were unholy if you did not ceremonially wash your hands before you ate. I mean, come on. The only purpose washing your hands serves is hygiene, not holiness. (Catholics, don't be offended) Christ came to lead mankind into a new era, of knowing God personally. Religion was in God's eyes, obsolete. He wants us to know Him, not just act religiously.

Answer 6

Because He is Jesus the Christ (the anointed one). Christian comes from the word Christ. Judaism was the religion from Moses time it was called "the law." Jesus came to fulfill the law so that the people would not have to live by the law because it was so hard to do. Jesus took on the sins of the world so that we would not have to face the punishment that our sins deserve. This is because Jesus is the One perfect person that did not committ sin therefore when His blood was shed it was the one pure thing acceptable to God.

Answer 7

He did follow Judaism. that was a huge concern for the chief priests and rulers of the people. He kept the LAW of God. The Jews to this day don't do that. The religion that Moses brought down from Sinai was God truth. The trouble was NO one has ever been able to keep the Law and by those words breathed by God we all stand condemned. Jesus came into the world died because of our failure and set us free from the Law and it's consequence death. You are missing half of God's plans by saying that Judaism is the way of truth... Jim

Answer 8

He would've been a jew, or he couldn't have been in the temple with access to the scrolls.. christians are going to have to find a way to resolve this instead of trying to find a way around it.
The bottom line.. if he was a jew, he never would've done away with the Torah, the Writings or the Prophets.. the "law", as they put it, was the 613 commandments of the jewish God, and it was an everlasting covenant throughout all their generations.

Answer 9

He was born a Jew, He did not follow Judaism He attempted to teach them the true way, the same way He taught to his disciples who then went out and taught the rest of the world. Unfortunately most people attempted to combine The Truth with what they already knew and now we have a jumbled mess of religions.

Answer 10

You can't be serious!
Jesus was a descendent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was of the Jewish race and of the Jewish religion. But not of the modern Jewish religion. The Bible teaches that "the true Jew is one who is in his heart". In other words, Jesus taught heart conversion. The religious leaders of his time rejected him, and took him to Pilate to be crucified. So there surely must have been a difference between him and the Jewishness of his own time.
The bible tells us that true Jewishness is of the heart, as I have said, and that the believing gentiles (non-Jews have been grafted onto the olive tree of Israel, while the unbelieving Jews have been cut off of the olive tree. While I probably don't have a drop of Jewish blood in me (I really don't know my family tree back further than 4 generations, so I really don't know!), I am more of an Israelite than the Jew who denies Jesus is the Son of God. At least according to the epistle to the Romans, and the epistle to the Galatians as well.