They claim that Jesus could not be the long-awaited messiah because Joseph was Jesus’ step father i.e. the messiah must be be a direct descendent from the Davidic line in order to possess the ancestral right to David’s throne.
Also, the Jews did not believe that the Messiah would be Divine.
As you might imagine, the question about Jews and Messiah has come up quite often here and these are useful links for understanding various approaches to the Jewish concept of Messiah -
Why? Why does the Messiah have to be a generic human political figure vulnerable to the sinful nature of humankind?
There are several arguments: about two dozen of them. One of the most essential is that the Messiah and the Messianic Age are supposed to usher in an era of worldwide peace among the nations and the absence of sin, during which everyone acknowledges and worships G-d. This has not happened either within the human lifetime of Jesus or during the following 2,000 years since His death and resurrection. As I explained in another thread, a rebuttal to this Jewish view offered by Christian scholars is that (1) the era of peace on earth will not occur until the Second Coming of Christ; and/or (2) the peace that Jesus brought is an internal peace of the soul. The difficulty that Jews have with the first argument is that there is no convincing evidence in the Hebrew Bible that the Messiah is supposed to come a second time. On the contrary, the “job” of the Messiah is supposed to be fully accomplished during his first visit. Christians counter-argue that Jesus brought the peace of redemption to all of mankind through His sacrifice, and followed this by providing the Church with the Sacrament of Baptism, which lifts the burden of original sin due to the fallen nature of mankind. (Jews do not believe in the doctrine of original sin.) Nonetheless, at an individual level, according to Christian teaching, the salvation of one’s soul may be in jeopardy without partaking of the other Sacraments of the Church, especially if one does not confess mortal sins before one’s death.
Curious. Does the fact that Jesus said the temple would be destroy, and it was not say something? Judaism requires a temple and animal sacrifice. True Judaism has not been practiced since Christ (who we say is the final sacrifice). Does that not say something. If Christianity is wrong and Judaism is right why would God allow his temple to be destroyed and not be rebuilt for going on 2000 years
I was thinking the same thing when I saw this post. Thousands of miracles in His name. I was a skeptic for an long time, I searched and studied for over 40 years, I finally went on a journey to Lourdes and found what I was looking for. Still the old adage is true, I paraphrase, “to those who believe no explanation is necessary, to those who don’t none is possible.”Is the New Testament useful as history?
Are the following gospels historical or not?
These would be historical in their description of gnosticism…not of real events in the first century as they were written far later.
Good question. What bothers me about their expectations vis-a-vis their political figure who will be nothing more than a human messiah, is the notion that this messiah they are waiting for will be limited, as a mere human, like king David, to the few years he will have on this little planet i.e. he will “bring about the political and spiritual redemption of the Jewish people”, "establish a government in Israel that will be the center of all world government, both for Jews and gentiles, “rebuild the Temple (and re-establish its worship) and finally restore the religious court system of Israel and establish Jewish law as the law of the land.” What then…? I suppose Israel, in this horrible world where sin abounds, will be the center of everything in this sinful world i.e. no hope for eternal blessings for mankind in the heavenly Jerusalem. In other words, Isaiah 9 will not be realized, nor will the following: “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5 Jesus as the messiah, promises a new heaven and a new earth - a new and everlasting heavenly Jerusalem - where sin is no more and life will be forever, with each person perfectly conformed to God’s divine will, something that can never happen on this side of eternity:
This is a misunderstanding of Jewish belief. There is indeed abundant “hope for eternal blessings for mankind in the heavenly Jerusalem.” And one need not convert to Judaism to attain these blessings, that is, there will be no forced conversions of any kind. The recognition and adoration of G-d will be self-evident to everyone and morality will prevail in all the nations of the world, not merely in Israel. There is no political conception of a world order in the Messianic Age.
I had this question also. Will the expected Jewish Messiah bring peace to the Middle East?