Why didn't more early Jews convert?

[amaxiner]

I heard an argument on Trent Horns podcast with John Loftus who is an atheist. He said that the number of Jews at the end of the first century was incredibly low (something like only 100,000 out of millions). Although I dont think this is a super sound argument against christianity, I am curious. why there weren’t more jewish converts? What was it that made them not believe in the ressurection?

 

[7_Sorrows]

A belief in their own faith, peer pressure (family and friends), they did not believe
Jesus was the Messiah because he was poor and many Jewish converts left with the scripture of eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ.
Many felt God did make a covenant with them and they did not want to break
the covenant and disobey God.

That is my theory.

Perhaps @meltzerboy2 has more insight and can add more.

 

[GiftofMercy]

I heard an argument on Trent Horns podcast with John Loftus who is an atheist. He said that the number of Jews at the end of the first century was incredibly low (something like only 100,000 out of millions). Although I dont think this is a super sound argument against christianity, I am curious. why there weren’t more jewish converts? What was it that made them not believe in the ressurection?

Jews in Jerusalem or in the Diaspora? We must remember at the end of the first century there had been that failed revolt and the destruction of the Temple. Imagine if the Vatican was completely destroyed, and all our Churches and there was no place to worship God .

But we do know that Christianity spread very fast in the Diaspora and beyond due to the marvel of the Roman Roads.

 

[TK421]

I don’t know where you got that statistic from but a large percentage of Jews converted to the Christian faith within several centuries; most of them were Jews living abroad in Greece or Africa. Mission efforts in Palestine were less successful but that is where the top religious leaders held power. Long before Christ or the Maccabean Revolt there was already an established clique culture within Judaism, where displaced Jews living abroad were perceived with a sense of inferiority.

The Church in general was still very tiny at the end of the 1st century.

 

[FiveLinden]

There a recent study quoted by Bart Ehrman that demonstrates that the rise of Christianity was sustained but not very fast in comparison with the spread of other systems of thought. The increase in Mormons seems to have happened at much the same rate. And the huge rise in adherence to parties like the communist parties of the former Soviet Union and China in must surely eclipse the rise of Christianity.

In the very early years (pre the destruction of the temple) it is likely that most Jews had never heard of Jesus. Of course if you accept the gospels you have to believe that at one point a great many locals in Jerusalem were resurrected. [Matthew 27:51–53] It’s difficult to accept the historical nature of that with anyone at all not at least considering converting.

 

[Kullervo]

Yeshua wasn’t the Messiah they thought will come. He didn’t met their expectations. They thought that the Messiah will be a great political or military leader which would bring justice and freedom. They didn’t understand his message and that his Kingdom is not of this world. It’s not easy to understand Jesus, I think nobody can fully grasp him, beacause although he is fully human he’s also fully God and nobody can fully grasp God. Maybe the gentiles were more open minded and listened.

 

[GiftofMercy]

In the very early years (pre the destruction of the temple) it is likely that most Jews had never heard of Jesus.

Jesus was a hot topic. Many had heard of what happened and were trying to work out what it meant. Jesus and the Passion were being discussed in many places and small groups. This went on for several hundred years.
There were many ideas and theories floating around.

 

[irenaeuslyons]

The increase in Mormons seems to have happened at much the same rate.

Communication was much more advanced in the first 150+ years of Mormonism than it was for Christianity. Its a bad comparison by Erhman as per usual

 

[meltzerboy2]

There were probably several reasons. One is the idea that G-d was, once again, testing the Jews to see how faithful to Him they were. The notion of a man who was also G-d was a foreign concept to the G-d the Jews knew. Some may have paid heed to Moses’ admonition in Deuteronomy to beware of the appearance of a prophet, a dreamer of dreams and doer of miracles, if they suggest following another god. Another reason, already mentioned, is that the Jews expected a different kind of Messiah, one who would achieve peace among the nations and lead to the realization that the G-d of Israel was the only G-d. Further, as stated, many people may not have heard about Jesus and His miracles. Finally, it is often difficult for people to convert to a new religion, or a “new” anything for that matter. The principle of inertia often applies to people’s ideas and behavior.

 

[Dan_Defender]

The High Priests and Jewish religious establishment had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, so they incited the persecution of Christians. Until 70 AD when the Jewish nation lost all its power suddenly along with most of its population. Why few converts after 70 AD? Free will.

 

[Pattylt]

There are several reasons why Jews did not accept Jesus.
Firstly, not ALL Jews were looking for a Messiah
For those that were, Jesus was nothing like the Messiah as described in the Bible. The passages that Christians used to show that Jesus was the Messiah were not passages that the Jews understood to be messianic. The messianic passages that the Jews used were those that actually talked about the messiah and Jesus was not like those passages.
Jews are extremely monotheistic. Anyone claiming that Jesus was also God in any way would be dismissed out of hand. The idea of a man/God is very objectionable to most Jews.
According to Rodney Starks study of the rise and spread of Christianity…he’s a quoted expert on the topic…many Jews, even in Jerusalem, would never have heard of Jesus until much later. It was a very small sect in a very large city.

Jews in the diaspora were exposed to and more accepting of other ideas because they were living amongst so many different peoples. Jerusalem and Israel were much less diverse and Jews there kept themselves more separated from any diversity compared to the diaspora.

Christianity became a diaspora religion. It took off when taken out of Israel and to the Pagans. After the destruction of the temple, there were probably few to no Christians left in Jerusalem…it’s expansion was through the Pagans from that point forward.

 

[Yep]

That’s what I’ve read too.

 

[annem]

I’ve read Loftus, and I have yet to come across a single thing he wrote that was right. I am not just being sarcastic or mean. He simply refuses to do research.

As for the incredible figure of 100,000 - an astounding, even idiotic claim. There were more Jews than that in Alexandria alone; in fact, historians claim that Jews appeared to make up about 15% of the Roman empire. A million Jews died in the war that ended in the temple’s destruction. Six hundred thousand Jews died in Bar Kokhba revolt. After that, historians differ as to the actual number, but we are talking millions upon millions upon millions of Jews.

Next, Loftus was likely wrong about a lack of Jewish converts. Anyone interested in the subject should pick up a copy of Rodney Stark’s "Cities of God’. He argues (p 137) “…a substantial Jewish -Christianity persisted…there is no reason to suppose the Jewish Christians had lost the ability to attract new converts from their network of Hellenized families and friends…interpret it as proof that Jewish conversions had never stopped.”

Yes, liberal/atheist scholars argue Jews rarely converted after the first few decades of Christianity. But hey, how often are these people right? What do they base these claims on?? Nothing, that’s what.

As Stark continues: “Probably the most fundamental assumption concerned the ‘failure’ of the mission to the Jews is that…there remained a substantial Diasporan Jewish population…(so) the Jews must have rejected the Christian mission efforts. But that overlooks that there were millions of Diasporan Jews” (p 148). and Stark argues that by the time of the Islamic conquests, Jewish numbers had, indeed been significantly reduced, because so many had become Christians.

 

[Mountie]

In the First Century, there were different sects of Jew (similar to Orthodox Jews, Conservative Jews, etc of today). There were Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots. It was a Pharisaic movement that a Messiah was coming soon. Even then, the Pharisaic conception of the Messiah was a strong political leader from the Line of David who couldn’t die. Apart from the Pharisees, the Sadducees didn’t believe in an afterlife at all. The Essenes were drawn to more monastic ways of life. And the Zealots were politically motivated.

Then along comes Jesus, a humble man who was crucified as a criminal. This would have been a turn-off for every sect of Jew. He wasn’t a strong political leader. His followers claimed that He rose from the dead (which was a foreign concept to people of any faith tradition). Christianity was weird and they weren’t actively rebelling against the Romans. It’s actually incredible that Christianity had any Jewish followers let alone a lot (and their early numbers are still remarkable). Christianity appealed more to the Gentiles than the Jews especially for these reasons.

 

[John10]

Not to mention, that nobody in all of human history had ever claimed to die and then come back, Romans were very strict in wanting to squash any Christians.

They though Christians might represent a “threat” to the Roman Empire, after all Christ had said He was King.

 

[Dan_Defender]

There were Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots.

I think the Essenes are not heard of as a sect after 70 AD because they likely embraced Christianity. Not here to argue this point, just my opinion.

 

[Mishakel]

As a group, the Jews were destined to not follow the Messiah. God revealed through Moses and David that the Jews would reject Christ. You can split hairs on trying to come up with specific reasons but none of them really matter. God proclaimed the end from the beginning. There’s no escaping God’s judgement and prophecy. Jesus even reminded the Jews of this prophecy.

 

[Gab123]

why there weren’t more jewish converts? What was it that made them not believe in the ressurection?

All the first Christians were Jewish, and scripture describes how after Peter preached 3,000 converted in a single day. As the gospel spread like wildfire, it was the Jewish authorities who campaigned to stop the spread of Christianity among the Jews. By the year AD 90 they rejected the Septuagint (the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible), as it was being used to demonstrate that Jesus fulfilled the ancient prophecies. I.e, the Book of Wisdom describes the suffering messiah:

“Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, because he is annoying to us; he opposes our actions, Reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the LORD. To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, because his life is not like that of others, and different are his ways. He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure. He calls blest the destiny of the righteous and boasts that God is his Father. Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him in the end. For if the righteous one is the son of God, God will help him and deliver him from the hand of his foes. With violence and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.” These were their thoughts, but they erred; for their wickedness blinded them”-Wisdom 2:12-21

The blindness of the Jewish authorities was part of a God’s Plan of Salvation. Paul describes how “Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved”-Rom. 11:25-26

Salvation is from the Jews—it was through the Chosen People that the messiah came into the world. It was the blindness of the Jewish authorities that made it possible for the true Lamb of God to be sacrificed by the chief priests to take away the sins of the world. The rejection of Christ by the Jewish leaders was the catalyst for the gospel being preached to the gentiles.
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Judaism as a religion ceased being one of priests offering sacrifice (the temple was destroyed in 70AD) and developed into a rabbinic religion of debate, compiled over centuries in the Jewish Talmud, debating what the Torah means.

The Church teaches that before the end of the world there will be a mass conversion of Jews to Christ, ushering in the Second Coming and the Last Judgment.

In his book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week Pope Benedict XVI suggested that the Church should not be targeting Jews for conversion efforts, since "Israel is in the hands of God, who will save it ‘as a whole’ at the proper time..
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[AlbMagno]

Interesting! I never made the connection that the High Priest were in part the ones who sacrificed the Lamb. It’s all so poetic that you know it comes from God.

 

[Mountie]

I think that you’re correct. They joined the Johannite community after the Romans began to conquer Jewish land if I’m not mistaken.