So, if Jews adhere to the Torah and the rest of the old testament -?

Question

Does that mean that they are under the "old law" and abide by what the old testament says? Do they not believe in the New Testament because of Jesus? I really am confused about this issue.

Answer 1

That is right. We believe in what you call the OT. We do not believe in the NT.
Orthodox Jews follow the OT laws closely, while Conservative and Reform Jews do so to a lesser degree.
This is how our beliefs differ from Christianity:Jews believe that one person cannot die for the sins of another person.
Jews believe that we do not need a blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.
Jews believe that Jesus was not the messiah.
Jews believe that God hates human sacrifices. Who died on the cross? Was it Jesus-the-god, or was it Jesus-the-human? If it was Jesus-the-god, Jews don't believe that God can die. If it was Jesus-the-human, then all Christians have in the death of Jesus was a human death, a human sacrifice. Jews believe that God hates the very idea of human sacrifice.
Jews believe that one is born into the world with original purity, and not with original sin. Jews do not believe in original sin.
Jews believe that God is one and indivisible. Jews do not believe in a trinity.
Jews believe in The Satan, but not in a devil. There is a difference between The Satan and the devil.
Jews believe that God is God, and humans are humans. God does not become human nor do humans become God.

Answer 2

We follow the Tanakh and the Talmud. The Old Testament contains the badly translated and changed Tanakh (per se. We as Jews do not use the Old Testament.) From a Xtian's point of view, yes we abide by the 'old' law, however we do not view it as old because it is still our law. We abide by what the Torah says, both Written and Oral (Tanakh and Talmud.) We do not believe in the New Testament for a few reasons. 1. We do not believe J*sus is the messiah for many, many reasons. 2. We believe that the line of prophets has ended, so no more holy writings can come about. The New Testament surfaced after the line of prophets had ended, so we do not follow it. (So even if J*sus wasn't in it, we still wouldn't follow it.)

Feel free to email me if you need more clarification
Peace

Answer 3

Jews are supposed to adhere to Mosaic Law, aka Jewish Law. These are spelled out in impressive detail in Deuteronomy and Leviticus (and probably elsewhere). Many Jews, however, are rather secular, and do not follow the letter of the law. It takes a great deal of time and commitment to follow all those rules. The so-called "New Testament" is a Christian invention that is not recognized by Jews. While Jews believe that God will (someday) send a Messiah, they do not believe that Jesus was the Messiah; therefore the New Testament carries no religious weight to them. In my experience, immediate interest in the Messiah in the Jewish community (at least in the USA) is virtually non-existent, except in insular, hyper-religious sects like the Lubavitchers of Brooklyn. Of course, Jesus was a Jew, as were the 12 Apostles, but Christianity did not attract many Jews in Jesus' time. It became a religion of gentiles almost from the beginning.

Answer 4

Jewish people are as diverse as can be, yet unlike many other groups they still consider all of the varieties, "Jewish".

Most Jewish people are of the opinion that Jesus was NOT the Messiah, and thus are not Christian.

Some few believe he was the Messiah and thus follow his teachings but not necessarily Paul's teachings and those of the Christians that followed after Jesus.

Christians believe he was the Messiah (though they have a very different definition of Messiah from the time period in which Jesus lived and most Jewish people) and thus follow primarily the teachings of Christians and Jesus, not the Old Testament (which is a translation, somewhat changed, from the Torah, the holy book of the Jewish people).

Let me know if I can clarify anything.

Answer 5

The actual "Old Testament" is the Jewish Scriptures, which the Roman Church copied from the Jews and dared to change it's original order. The New Testament is the Christian bible. Christian churches "say" that Christians are to follow the New Testament, but, when it's convenient for them, they use the Old Testament as well.

The Old Testament is about the old covenant and the New Testament is about the new covenant.

Answer 6

Jews as a whole reject Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah (same as Christ).
They would mostly claim to believe in the Law (Torah), but most give more heed to the Talmud, composed of the oral traditions handed down and compiled by the Rabbis (Mishnah) and the commentaries on the Mishnah called Gemara than to the teachings of the Old Testament (or Tanakh as the Jews call it).
Of course it is presently impossible to fulfill the commandments of the Law of Moses since these hinge upon ceremonial offerings and sacrifices which are to be carried out in the temple in Jerusalem. There are grassroots efforts in Israel to rebuild the temple and restore Levitical sacrifices as ordained in the Law of Moses. Since the proper site for the temple is on the Temple Mount, the site of the first and second temples, where two mosques are currently situated, you can see how this could become a real thorny issue some day. Really the closest ties most Jews have to the Law of Moses is through observance of dietary (Kosher) laws and the feasts instituted by Moses such as Passover (Pesach), Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and Festival of Booths (Sukkot). They also celebrate numerous other feasts, some linked to Biblical events, some not.

Answer 7

the new testament is about Jesus and his teachings... the Jews can not follow it as they do not believe that Jesus is the messiah. the Torah is pretty much the old testament. and they follow the messianic law, which Christians don't because Jesus fulfilled it.

Answer 8

They seem to follow an interpretation of what Christians refer to as the Old Testament, rather than literally follow what Christians would call the bible.

This interpretation is called the "Talmud".

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The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (c. 200 CE), the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law; and the Gemara (c. 500 CE), a discussion of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Tanakh. The terms Talmud and Gemara are often used interchangeably. The Gemara is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is much quoted in other rabbinic literature. The whole Talmud is also traditionally referred to as Shas (a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim, the "six orders" of the Mishnah)...

Answer 9

Jews don't believe in Jesus because he didn't fulfill the prophesy of the Old Testament in many areas--including bring about world peace--so they still await the real Christ---however they have modified many of Moses's laws--they no longer practice "an eye for an eye" --stoning adulteresses to death--or killing anyone who gathers sticks on the Sabbath.

Answer 10

We follow what G-d told us to do in the Torah (the written -- which you might think of as the "OT" though we don't use that term, and the Oral, which includes the Talmud). We don't see divinity in texts written outside the Tanach (the Torah, the prophets and writings) and don't accept that Jesus was anything in particular worth mentioning, let alone worshipping.