Why do Christians classify Jesus as the "Messiah" if he doesn't fit the Jewish description?

Question

After all, the Messiah is a Jewish concept, and he was supposed to be a priest and/or king who was NOT a deity.

The former assumption is not what Jesus claimed to be, and the latter assumption violates current Christian doctrine.

My bad, I forgot the perfection of multiple-edited texts 400 years after the fact.

Jewish tradition held that the Messiah was NOT a god. Sorry if the truth hurts.

Couple of very brief points:

1) God threw them a curveball? Why would God want to fool his "chosen people"?

2) You are convinced that Jewish leaders perverted the "true" meaning over time.....but you're unwilling to accept that Christian leaders may have done the same thing over 2000 years? Interesting. Thanks for the answers, all.

Sources for the kiddies:

Cross/Linvgstone "The Oxofrd History of the Christian Church"

Grabbe - "Judaic Religion"
Freyne - "Galillee and Gospel"

Answer 1

This is a very good question. May I elaborate?

I find it ironic that many Christians don't know that "Christ" is another word for the Messiah. Many of them seem to think that Christ is Jesus's last name.

I also find it ironic that the Messiah/Christ was supposed to be a descendant of King David. A couple of the gospels do their best to make the connection from David down to Joseph, the husband of Mary. Unfortunately the two accounts are inconsistent. Also, what's the point of Joseph being a descendant of David if Jesus was born of the virgin Mary? If this "miracle" did occur then he wasn't related to Joseph at all, so the genealogy is moot.

I also think it's strange that according to tradition the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, the traditional home of David. However, Jesus was from Nazareth. Notice the clunky explanation that put Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem so the Christ could fulfill prophecy by being born there. Nice try Mr. Disciple.

That's just a short list of the inconsistencies in this crazy thing we call the Bible.

Answer 2

If the Jewish human beings had understood the prophecies of Isaiah, they might have understood that Messiah got here first a million) to pay the cost for guy's sins (by using loss of existence on the pass, it incredibly is the curse of remarkable on a tree), this had to be completed by using a guy, and by using a spotless guy, typified interior the Levitical sacrifices by using the spotless lamb. THEN 2) Messiah might rule and reign with suited righteousness. considering Israel rejected Christ because of the fact the Messiah, the Gentile era is now in effect. whilst Jesus Christ returns the 2d time, all those prophecies will actually be fulfilled. you ought to income the previous few chapters of the e book of Revelation with the prophecies of Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Isaiah.

Answer 3

John selects 7 signs or miracles that prove the deity of Jesus Christ in the form of miracles, of power, of wonder and of words. These were supernatural events in which God transcends the natural laws of His universe, exercising his authority over His Creation.

That you may believe the fact that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. The word "Christ" (Greek Christos) means the same as Messiah in Hebrew, i.e, Anointed. Jesus is God's Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King.

In the Messianic Psalms, the Messiah is exalted (Ps. 8:1-9), rejected (118:22-29), forsaken (69:1-21), crucified (22:1-31), resurrected 16:1-11), the High Priest (110:1-7), and the King of Kings (2:1-12).

Jesus the Messiah, has fulfilled all the ceremonial laws relative to the atoning sacrifices, as well as the moral laws, both positive and negative. He has fulfilled all the types and all the prophecies that pertained to His first coming.

When He returns, He will fulfill all those related to His second coming. If the Jewish rulers had truly understood the types (biblical objects, persons and events that illustrate what is to come) and prophecies of the Tanakh books, they would have recognized the Christ early in His ministry and accepted Him as their Messiah.

Answer 4

You obviously don't know your scripture. Non believers should go straight to the source instead of relying on someone elses interpretation. Christ actually fulfilled 119 prophesies from the old testament. the last of which was 470 yrs before His birth.

It was not a Jewish idea it was a promise God made to David that a savior would come through his seed. Which Jesus was his descendant. The promise was made all the way back to Abraham and followed all the way through to Jesus.

Many nonbelievers here have accused us [Christians] of being gullible and unintelligent fools. But what I see is people to lazy to read and look for truth and eager to come up with half baked notions picked up from sites run by people who don't even know what they are talking about.

Why you ask then don't the Jews believe it, my humble opinion on that is the same as what I just said they let the leaders decide for them, and they were corrupt. They don't even teach alot of that stuff, like Isaiah they say was added later but yet is backed up by other scripture including David's Psalms. Many are begining to become Messianic Jews now because they a being exposed to it.

Answer 5

According to the prophesy, when the Messiah showed up, all the suffering and death on Earth was supposed to end, and the dead was to be ressurected, which we can obviously see, did not happen.

Also, the word "messiah" has multiple meanings including general (as is military commander).

christ is based off of the Greek word christos-meaning savior

Jesus was not from Nazereth. He was a Nazerean, but that doesn't mean "a person from Nazereth". He was from Judea.
Nazereth did not exist at the time. As a general proof I'd say that I trust Roman tax records better than someone's misinterpretation

YHVH is a reference to G-d, not Jesus.

I would suggest to anyone that want to know the Jewish interpretation of things to learn Hebrew first before judging what the OT says based off of the text in a Christian Bible, because the two versions are very different. For example, where G-d says (in the Christian Bible) "I am your G-d. You shall have no other gods before me," in the Hebrew Bible it says "I am your G-d who led you out of Egypt to be your G-d." Quite a bit of difference in interpretation and meaning don't you think?

Answer 6

Tradition doesnt match scripture. The concept of the holy trinity is not in the bible. Its suggested, but not really stated. All the prophecies fit. Jesus was a preist, and he was a king in the sense of a great leader. If you can find ONE MESSIANIC PROPHECY that Jesus did not fulfill, than maybe Ill consider it. There are 30 or so prophecies Jesus fulfilled. The odds of a person fulfilling just 8 prophecies is 1 to 1 million billion. This is a scientific figure from an actual study.

I have to say this far to much, but instead of contradicting other religions, just find your own.

Answer 7

The "Messiah" is part of Judaic prophecy and as such open to interpretation by those who accept such prophecy as reality.

Christians are Jews who believe the prophesy was fulfilled by Christ and modern Jews are those who do not accept it as being so (except for Messianic Jews).

Messiah means "savior" and so Christians believe Christ to be God, after all, only god can forgive sin and hence, our savior who was made man and defeated death took on his deity part with his resurrection and ascension.

It is common to Christians to believe there is only one God and he is manifested in three parts or ways. The Orthodox church goes so far as to say that the NAME of God is "Father, son and holy spirit"

Answer 8

I notice you do not list any sources for your claims, that is because you do not have any. It is obvious you do not understand the prophecies that point to Jesus as the Messiah. Study the books of the prophets with an open mind and heart, pray God will show you how the prophets prove Jesus is the Christ. God bless.

Answer 9

Actually, Jesus alone fulfilled over 450 specific Messianic Prophecies.

Alfred Edersheim, who was a 19th century Jewish scholar, (and converted to Christianity) did the research based on rabbinical writings, as well as the Hebrew Bible.

Answer 10

The Jewish description changed over time, due to the uninspired teachings of their scribes and doctors of the law. They yearned for all of their political enemies to be destroyed by the Messiah, and therefore assumed that when Messiah came he would utterly obliterate the Romans who occupied their land. However, they may have confused the Messiah's second coming with his first coming. There are numerous prophesies that fit the description of Jesus Christ in their Torah, particularly in their book of Isaiah. For a list of those I refer you to the source link below. Be well and God bless.