Is Jesus the Jewish Messiah? If not, why not? Isn't the evidence overwhelming?

Question

I'm astonished that Jews and Christians aren't one family in the 21st century. Isn't the evidence from the Bible overwhelming, that Jews and Christians are one people? Is it too much to hope that Jews and Christians and Muslims will one day recognise their common heritage, and embrace each other in love and friendship? Even writing this, it sounds controversial, but for God's sake, why should it be? I'm relatively young, neither Jew nor Xtian nor Muslim, but I truly don't understand it. Please enlighten me with intelligent, thoughtful answers.

Kelly, the problem I have is that I do understand simply because I do have a good education (a very good one). I'm a devotee of Socrates who admitted we can't know anything until we admit that we don't know anything; until then, we won't be in a position to learn. We have to have a clean slate and start from there. Your abusive language epitomised for me the problem - your vitriol is spitting out at the world. You know nothing. I'm asking for your help in understanding, not your venom. Somewhere in your answer is the answer to my question. I'll think about it.

Answer 1

Here is why we don't believe that Jesus was the messiah in simple terms:
1) The dead were not resurrected
2) The Jews did not beome priests to the other nations
3) There is no world peace
4) The temple is not standing
5) There is no temple service
6) There is no parah adumah or its ashes to render us tahor
7) The messiah is from the House of David. your house/tribe is inherited from your father. Your father is your BIOLOGICAL father- there is no adoption in Judaisim to another father- if God is the father of Jesus- then Jesus cannot be from the House of David as God is not frm the House of David.
8) Human sacrifice is completely forbidden in Judaism- remeber God stopping the sacrifice of Isaac? The idea of a human being sacrificed is the opposite of anything from Judaism!
9) You have to atone for yourself! An essential part of the atonement process is being repentant. Someone cannot be repentant for you- you have to do it for yourself. ONly communal sins can be forgiven communally- not individual, private sins!

And no- the messiah does NOT proclaim himself- he will be recognised by his deeds- not by his claims- in other words, through doing the above he will be recognised as the messiah. On top of that- mashiach is a HUMAN being, with HUMAN parents- the idea of an anthropomorphised God going around and impregnating young woman is completely alien to Judaism- though it fits very nicely into the pagan religions of the time which had their heroes being fathered by gods (ala Hercules and his daddy Zeus)

Jews do not see a common heritage with Christianity. Christian theology has become completely divorced from Judaism- so much so that it shares exceptionally little with Judaism- Islam is far closer to Judaism than Christianity is. As for the fighting between Islam and judaism- aren't family feuds always the worst? The reality is that israel would love peace, but until the terrorists are prepared to give up on their dreams fo genocide and a single islamic waqf across the entire region, it isn't going to happen.

Answer 2

If it was 'overwhelming' one would think the current Jews would convert to Christianity. The Old Testament is the Jews' book. They know it and understand it FAR BETTER than any Christian would. If you want to know if Jesus was the real Messiah to the Jews then ask a Jew. They can tell you specifically why Jesus WASN'T the Messiah. The only reason that Christians don't bother to listen to what the Jews say on the matter is because Christianity teaches that it was supposedly prophesied that the Jews would reject Jesus. Which didn't come true completely since not all of them did. But if you were going to create a Messianic figure for the Jews that was false wouldn't you be smart enough to make such a claim so that future people would be deceived by it? So big deal it mostly worked, yet the Jews can show you specifically and in great detail why they still reject Jesus.

Answer 3

The Jews don't believe that Jesus was anything more then a prophet. They do not believe their Messiah has come yet. This really is very confusing because they both share the bible. Except the Jews call it the Torah. And it does not contain all the Chapters of the Bible just a select few. The Bible contains the Jewish Torah and other ancient Jewish books. Hmmm
i think I just confused myself.
I think it will take the second coming before these religious groups find there common ground

Answer 4

Isaiah 7:14 would not use the awareness "Virgin" in the Hebrew. the unique Hebrew is 'alma' which means 'maiden'. Had it meant to be 'virgin' the awareness might have quite been 'betulah'. extra, in case you examine purely some chapters later, you come across out precisely who Isaiah 7:14 grew to become into conversing approximately -- and it wasn't the messiah. Isaiah fifty 3:5 if examine in context with something of Isaiah fifty 3 and Isaiah fifty two is obviously approximately Israel, no longer a messiah. certainly a virgin beginning REJECTS the Messianic prophecies, with the aid of fact the Messiah ought to be of the Tribe of Judah. Tribal association handed purely by the organic and organic father. Adoption did no longer decrease it -- if a Levite had observed a son, to illustrate, his son does no longer replace into eligable for the Levitican responsibilities. So if Jesus grew to become into born of a Virgin lady and had no organic and organic father, he might have been tribeless and ineligable for any declare to being the Messiah.

Answer 5

Not only is the evidence not overwhelming but there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever. From the point of view of Judaism, all evidence must be based on the Jewish Bible, not the Christian one (I'm oversimplfying, but it will do for now). In such context, there is no evidence.

What you are saying is actually not contraversial as it is a very common statement from people who actually do not know very much about the details of religious belief of those three religions. That being the case, it comes across as mere wishful thinking.

If you examine the fundamentals of religions you will realize that they have NOTHING in common and the so called "common heritage" is irrelevant to this point.

Answer 6

. You could also say that, if the evidence **were** overwhelming, then **everyone** would believe in Jesus as the messiah--but clearly that is not so. I'm Jewish and all I can say is that our interpretation of my Bible--the one written in Hebrew--simply doesn't provide evidence that Jesus was the messiah. Period. I've put in a couple of links below that will help you understand our position. Having said that, we also believe that there are many paths to G-d. Christians, Muslims, etc.--they all have their way and we don't have an issue with that. We would just prefer not to be slaughtered and/or pushed into the Mediterranean.

Answer 7

There are prophecies from the OT that did not happen when Jesus was here (the temple was supposed to be rebuilt... etc)

That's one of the reasons many Jews do not believe he was/is God. Some Jews will say he might have been a prophet, but that's it. Messianic Jews are not Jews, they do not follow the 613 rules of Judaism- they just have a Jewish name.

Answer 8

One of the biggest problems is history. Jews and Muslims have been fighting for centuries, getting them to be friends is going to require at least on generation to completely stop fighting. The problem is that at a young age they are taught to hate the other side. Christians are being slain and persecuted by the Muslims in the Middle East and Africa and it is hard to be friends with someone who is trying to kill you. Also, don't X out Christ when you put Christmas or Christian. Its another small source of tension .

Answer 9

This will help explain why Jews have refused to accept Christian claims for the past 2000 years:

http://www.outreachjudaism.org/questions.html

Answer 10

He is not the Jewish Messiah solely because the Jewish community does not accept him as such. Just as the Muslims do not recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Until the Jews recognize and accept a Messiah, there will not be one.