Christians Only: I always believed that Jesus was a Christian, but then I learned he was a Jew.?

Question

What's the difference between the two?

Thank you.

Answer 1

Christianity did not exist in the time of Christ. The word Christan comes from Christ and Christians are followers of Christ.

Jesus himself was born in Bethlehem, and he was Jewish.

Ignore all the hateful comments.

Answer 2

Jesus was a Jew, as were Paul and James and Peter and Mary and Mary Magdelene etc. Yet, the message of Christ wasn't limited to Jews. Unlike Judiasim, where one could then become a "God fearer", yet not a true Jew, Christianity spread to the Gentiles (non-Jews). Non Jews could become full Christians. Which is one of the differences.

Another big difference was that Christian "Jews" believed Jesus was the promised Messiah, while not Christian Jews either did not look to an actual Messiah or didn't believe Jesus was that Messiah. Then there's circumsicion: Jews (including Christian Jews of the time) believed circumscision was a requirement, while other Christians (including Gentile Christians) felt that a circumscion of the heart was the point. Of course, too, lots of Jews, especially Jewish leaders, thought the Christians were wacky and that Christians drew too much attention from Roman.

But, yeah, Jesus was Jewish and early Christianity was Jewish.

Answer 3

How can Christ be a Christian (see the word Christ int he word Christian) if they derived Christianity after his death?

Anyways, Judaism is everything you read in the old testament. They lived in the middle east. Anyways, as you know there were always old testament prophecies about a messiah or savior of mankind. There is debate as to what the purpose of the messiah actually was, but we won't get into that.

Anyways, Jesus was from the Jewish faith and he preached a lot. A lot of what he was saying was new. After his death people did believe he was the so called messiah in the prophecies and wrote down what he said and did and this is the new testament. So thus came Christianity. So Jews today still do not believe that Christ was the messiah and Christians do.

There is more conjecture and if things really happened and stuff, but for the jist of things, that's it.

Answer 4

Actually all the disciples were Jewish too.
Christianity is strongly connected to the Jewish faith, certainly its roots are.
I think the biggest differences between the two is that first of all, Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah, (the Savior of the world) and they believe that Jesus' death/Resurrection created a new covenant with God and man and therefore practicing Jewish Law was no longer necessary in order to have God's favor.
So, for any Christian to think poorly of the Jews is insulting the very family and bloodline of the One they claim to represent. It is possible that they are doing so out of ignorance.

Answer 5

Jesus was a Christian, so to speak. Christian means Christ-one. Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for Messiah. It isn't his name, it is His title. As God-incarnte, He came through the Jewish people as a promise fulfillment to them that they would bless the whole world, and would do so because Messiah, or Christ would come from them. Sure enough, Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Christ, the one-Christ, and there is to be no other. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called Christians (meaning Christ-ones) ones of Christ. Jesus didn't cease to be Jewish any more than you might cease to be Irish or American just because you become his follower. The thing is, as people of the world embraced Christ, His own people became a minority, and those that never received Him as Messiah only continued in a dead religion we now know as Judaism. It is a Christless, ethnic religion now, but Jews still continue to come out of it and into the relationship with God through Jesus. It is just very hard since modern Jews will accept just about anything and allow it as Jewish except a belief in Jesus. If you are Jewish and say you believe in the Jewish Messiah named Jesus, the Jewish community will pretty much disown you. Unfortunate, but would you rather be in God's family or some passe cultural clique?

Answer 6

Well, of course, Jesus was born a Jew. He was born to be the King of Jews. Jesus himself was not a Christian, as being a Christian means that one believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Many Jews did not believe he was and so they stayed in the old Jewish ways and customs. And the Old Testament. Most Jews today do believe in a Messiah, just that Jesus was not that Messiah, they believe their Messiah is yet to come.

Jesus is why the Christian faith is, he is the Christian faith. So, he, himself could not be a Christian, exactly. Because he is Christianity, itself. Most of the first Christians, that is, believers in the Christ, were Jews that saw him as the Messiah.

Answer 7

At the time of Jesus, Judaism (or "the Jews") were the only ones following the God of the Bible. Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament law and prophecies, and in so doing, started the new religion of Christianity. He was born to a Jewish family, and worshipped God as such, but started a totally new movement. Jews and Christians are really "cousins" because of this.

Answer 8

There where no Christians until Jesus arrived he was a Jew but the name christian come from the fact that people who follow the Christs teaching are call Christians

Answer 9

Jesus could not have been a Christian, as Christianity was invented after he died. According the New Testament, the holy bible of the Christians, Jesus was born and died a Jew, who observed the commandments of the old testament, just as the observant Jews do today.

Answer 10

Christianity started out as a Jewish cult, practiced only by Jews. Jesus was a Jew, the Apostles were Jews, Mary and Joseph were Jews. The Messianic tradition comes from Judaism. Many, like Judas Iscariot, though the Messiah was going to come liberate the Jews from Roman dominion. That is why the Jewish leaders thought Pontius Pilate would support their bid to execute Jesus.

When Christianity survived the death of Jesus, the Romans wanted to investigate and sent Saul of Tarsus to infiltrate the organization. Saul changed his name to Paul and decided the best way to stop Christianity was to splinter it, so he created a new "version" of Christianity heavily influenced by Roman thought and opened it to none Jews.

Christianity was still seen as a threat to Rome, until Constantine realized that monotheism and the strict rules of obedience established by Paul made it the perfect state religion for an empire.

Answer 11

Jew can mean two different things.

1. Jewish is a race of people that originated from Israel similar to arabs.

2. Judaism is a religion based on the first five books of the Bible written by Moses.

Jesus was born into the Jewish race and is the founder of the Christian faith. Therfore the expression "Christ Jesus"