To the Jewish population...Are you waiting for the Messiah?

Question

If so, what signs are you looking for that says he has or will arrive?
(Not trying to exclude any groups or lack thereof, I'm solely interested in answers from the Jewish population hoping to see the Messiah.) Below I've listed only 12 prophecies fulfilled by Jesus. Do you believe?

1.) Be of the offspring of the woman, shall bruise the serpent's head (Gal 4:4 & Heb 2:14
2.) All nations shall be blessed through Abraham (Acts 3:25,26)
3.) Be of the tribe Judah (Matt 1:1-3
4.) Be born in the town of Bethlehem of Judea (Matt 2:1-6)
5.) Be born a king of the line of David (Matt 1:1)
6.) A child to be born (Luke 2:11)
7.) Be born of a virgin (Matt 1:18-23)
8.) Kings shall bring him gifts, fall down before him (Matt 2:1-11)
9.) Rulers take council against him (Matt 12:14)
10.) Call those who were not his people (Romans 9:23-26)
11.) The King comes to Jerusalem riding a donkey (Mark 11:1-10)
12.) Upon his coming the deaf hear, the blind see (Matt 11:5)

Answer 1

*drinks*

Yes, we're waiting for the messiah.

All those prophecies you listed are from the New Testament which, no offense, we view about as valuable in scripture as a Harry Potter book. Why? The New Testament was written AFTER J*sus--so those are hardly prophecies, are they???

Here is a list of prophecies we hold in authority:

Is there universal knowledge of one G-d? (Jeremiah 31:33, Zechariah 8:23, 14:9, 14:16,
Isaiah 11:9, Isaiah 40:5, Zephaniah 3:9)
Were all Jews returned to Israel? (Isaiah 43:5-6, Isaiah 11:12, Isaiah 27:12-13)
Did he bring world peace? (Isaiah 11:6, Micah 4:3)
Were all weapons destroyed? (Ezekiel 39:9)
Did all warfare cease? (Isaiah 2:4)
Was the Temple rebuilt in it's place? (Ezekiel 37:24-28 Ezekiel 40-48, Isaiah 33:20, Micah
4:1)
Did he bring physical restoration to all who are sick or disabled in any way? (Isaiah
35:5-6)
Was he preceded by Elijah? (Malachi 3:23-24-- 4:4-5 in KJV)
Did the nations help the Jews materially? (Isaiah 60:5, 60:10-12, 61:6)
Does eternal joy and gladness characterize the Jewish nation? (Isaiah 51:11)
Are Jews sought for spiritual guidance? (Zechariah 8:23)
Is the Egyptian river dry yet? (Isaiah 11:15)
Do trees in Israel yield new fruit every month? (Ezekiel 47:12)
Did each tribe receive it's inheritance? (Ezekiel 47:13-14)
Is the enemy buried? (Ezekiel 39:12)
Did he accomplish these tasks without tiring or failing? (Isaiah 42:4)
Did death cease? (Isaiah 25:8)
Are the dead resurrected? (Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:2, Ezekiel 37:12-13)

And obviously, none of these have happened.

Secondly, the Messiah is a mortal man born of two earthly parents. Not a god, and won't have to do miracles to prove himself. The prophecies will be enough. Also in Judaism, we don't do human sacrifices. Only we can atone for our sins on our behalf. Nobody can do it for us.

Answer 2

Well.... no, I'm not waiting for the Messiah. I've always understood the whole business to be about awaiting a time of peace and realisation. I find it a bit weird that you cite as 'prophecies' things that were written after the death of Jesus. Perhaps this is because you realise that all the bits of the Tanach (Jewish bible) usually cited by Christians (who call these books the Old Testament) are actually nothing to do with a person. So no, I don't 'believe' what you apparently believe. I do believe that the inner search for the ways in which one can serve life are hugely important, and it is when all people respect life that the 'messianic' kingdom will come. I don't place this all on any individual, but the individual efforts of everyone. I don't mind what faith they hold, so long as they respect other people's efforts to live a good life and serve life.

Answer 3

Several of the prophecies that you mention were not concerning Jesus - such as the so called virgin birht. Others, such as having to be born in the town of Bethlehem do not exist. At all.

I don't mean to be harsh, that's not my intention, but it seems that you do not fully understand what the true Messianic prophecies really entail. We are talking about bringing the entire world to G-d under one nation and world wide peace. There is no mention anywhere in the bible that the Messiah will die and rise again. Simply none. All of these that you have listed, that could be borderline Messianic are minor compared to what the Messiah is to do.

As to Jews waiting for the Messiah: The Jewish people have gotten themselves into trouble in the past for trying to look or even find the Messiah in their lifetimes. They have incurred hardships among other burdens for not trusting G-d to work in his own time. Not to mention the great sorrow when the believed Messiah turns out to be false.

So no, Jews and Righteous Gentiles alike hope for the Messiah but we do not spend our days waiting for him to come. Instead life is a gift to be enjoyed.

Answer 4

there is not a single jewish person who belives that jesus was the messiah. for one to belive that, would be betraying their heritage and forsaking their God, and they would no longer be jewish.

1) not a messianic prophecy.
2) not relevant to jesus.
3) did jesus have a biological father? if you concede joseph being jesus's biological genetic father than alright. if not then jesus did not fulfil this.
4) irrelevant
5) see #3. if he did not have a biological genetic father, then he did not fulfil this.
6) ... what? meaningless.
7) thats not what the text says. the hebrew says young woman. this implies virginity, but is not specific or signifigant.
8) not messianic prophecy.
9) not profound.
10) Jesus did not fulfil anything that this was obviously intended to mean
11) irrelevant. unprofound.
12) not messianic prophecy.

heres some that Jesus did *NOT* fulfil that *ARE* important.

Universal Knowlege of God.
World Peace.
reestablishment of the temple.

the Messiah of Judaism is *NOT* god incarnate, is no more divine than you or I.
the Messiah of Judaism does *NOT* die in the process and does not serve the purpose of a sacrifice in any way shape or form.
the Messiah of Judaism will be known in a very obvious way. much like most of christianity thinks that jesus would be "when he returns" that it would be a rather undeniable obvious affair. ... its amusing how christianity applies the same "it will just be obvious!" "detection" yet denies the legitimacy of such when Judaism applies it.

you may find this site interesting, the first specifies various things that jesus fails to fulfil. (its targeted mainly at countering messianics and other deceptive evangelical christians.)

Answer 5

We don't believe that Jesus fulfilled any prophecies:
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)

Answer 6

Among some of the most important:

1.) HaMosiach will build the Third Temple.
2.) Sin will cease to exist -- not be atoned for, but annihilated.
3.) Torah will be inscribed on the hearts of all, giving perfect knowledge of Torah's wisdom.
4.) There will be no nation-against-nation violence at all, anywhere in the world.

[not Jewish personally, but quite enthralled by the religion and study well]

Answer 7

I think my fellow Jews have said it all above. That's a very nice list you have (assuming that your translation of the Hebdrew is correct, which it isn't--the Hebrew 'almah that so many reference from Isaiah does not mean virgin, for example). However, since not all of the prophecies have been fulfilled, then unless one believes in a "partial messiah" we're still waiting.

Answer 8

A. Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).

B. Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).

C. Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4)

D. Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world -- on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).


Jesus wasn't even close.

Answer 9

What you don't seem to have understood is that we don't reckon the Gospel as God's speech.
hence: your 10 prophecies are fake (for Jews, no offence intended to you)

then: yes, we do think the Messiah will come before the year 6000 (we are right now in the year 5767)

Answer 10

I'm looking forward to your next question after "digesting" these answers!
.