Why Jews don't consider Christ to be the Messiah

[JPII_the_Great]

For the last two years I have been involved in R.C.I.A. at my church, and I have had a number of interesting questions during this time. However, the person that I am currently instructing asked me a question that I don’t have a good answer to (at least not one that I’m satisfied with). The question is why doesn’t Judaism accept Christ as the Messiah. I guess that the best place to ask this question would be to an expert in Judaism. However, I thought that I would start here. Thank you.

 

[tdandh26]

For the last two years I have been involved in R.C.I.A. at my church, and I have had a number of interesting questions during this time. However, the person that I am currently instructing asked me a question that I don’t have a good answer to (at least not one that I’m satisfied with). The question is why doesn’t Judaism accept Christ as the Messiah. I guess that the best place to ask this question would be to an expert in Judaism. However, I thought that I would start here. Thank you.

Many of the Jews did accept Jesus. Almost all of the first Christians were Jews. The reason that others did not though is found, I believe in the Gospels themselves. It was the Jewish leaders who for many reason probably most of all fear of losing thier own authority, did all they could to reject Jesus. Also as is with most people who reject Christ, He forced them to look at who they really were and when faced with this truth they reacted angrily, rather than reform their lives. Remember that that Jewish leaders paid off the Guards at Christ’s tomb to lie about what had occured.

 

[BrianH]

This site is useful to address that specific question.
jewsforjudaism.org/

 

[catsrus]

I have always understood that the Jews expected a warrior Messiah who would defete all the enemies of Israel.
tdandh26 makes the excellent point that the Jews, as a whole, were so complacent that they were the ‘chosen people’ that they did not believe they had to change a thing about themselves, their religion or their life style so Jesus and His message was not welcomed by them.

 

[Valke2]

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=126894
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=115625

Complacement in being “chosen” as a reason for rejecting Jesus doesn 't sound very convincing to me.

 

[artist3189]

This is a very complicated question, so what else is new when we talk religion. I’ve read quite a bit of Jewish history and Judaica and I’m not sure there is an absolute answer to that question. One ‘forum poster’ pointed out that many Jews did convert, and as obvious as that sounds, sometimes we overlook that fact. Human nature seems to lend itself to a strong conflict with ‘the truth’ when it doesn’t fit with OUR expectations or wants or needs. The Jews were waiting for a ‘warrior Messiah’, to free them from persecution, not their sins per se. During Jesus’ lifetime, Judaism had become more philosophic with a heavy Hellenistic influence, and the strong ruling class would naturally feel threatened by a ’ false prophet’ that appeared to undermine their authority. The Jews did have their share of true ‘false prophets’ in their past, which I’m sure had muddled things a bit… but historically, they treated many of their 'true prophet’s with the same disdain. Skepticism is natural and healthy. But many of the greatest prophets were rejected in their own time. ‘Saint Stephen’ rails against this very fact in Acts. Quoting ‘Gods’ very own O.T. description of the Israelites:

Acts 51
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors.
52
Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.
53
You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it.”

And our Lord even said that a prophet is rejected in his own town.

Jesus did not fulfill the majority of the Jews EXPECTATIONS of what the Messiah should be. But their will wasn’t Gods will. If a teaching doesn’t fit a ‘mans’ idea of what it should be, it is easier to reject it and stay ‘stiff necked’ rather than bow to the will of God. The Jews of that age are no different than most ‘people’ of this age.

 

[Valke2]

One ‘forum poster’ pointed out that many Jews did convert, and as obvious as that sounds, sometimes we overlook that fact.

You’d have to define many. Only A very small percentage of the Jews of Jesus’ time even knew he existed or heard him speak. And not a large percentage of those that heard him seem to have “converted”. For example, it seems more Jews believed Bar Kobah was the Messiah than Jesus.

 

[artist3189]

You’d have to define many. Only A very small percentage of the Jews of Jesus’ time even knew he existed or heard him speak. And not a large percentage of those that heard him seem to have “converted”. For example, it seems more Jews believed Bar Kobah was the Messiah than Jesus.

The population in the Holy Land in the first century was probably around 3 million or so, scattered all about. The population of Jerusalem, although Josephus said it alone was around 3 mil, the vast majority of ‘experts’ agrees with Tacitus’ estimation of around 600,000. Many Jews still lived all about the Middle East and Mediterranean as a result of the Diaspora. Since communication was rudimentary, carried mostly on foot and spread by word of mouth, if we use the Gospels as a guide, the ‘many’, would be taken as ‘the many’ that HEARD Jesus, or his disciples. Even though they spent much time in Jerusalem after the Resurrection, it’s likely that the audience they reached had its limits, since they were under threat much of the time. Obviously there wasn’t a mass conversion within the whole population and yes, many ‘sects’ had there own favorite Messiah such as Bar Kobah but again, mostly these men including Jesus where rejected in masse by the Jews for a lot of reasons, mostly I believe because Jesus just didn’t fit into the first century notion of what the ‘savoir of Israel’ should be, period. Since he was a Jew and one of their ‘brothers’, it was far more difficult to accept his challenge to their notion of what the Messiah was all about. It would be much easier for a Gentile to accept his words, since his teachings and claims had no real connection to a Gentiles historical past or future expectations. Gentiles could more readily focus on his words of salvation, life, and conversion. The Jews focused on this claim to the Davidic line, big difference and harder to overcome.

 

[catsrus]

Originally posted by Valke2
Complacement in being “chosen” as a reason for rejecting Jesus doesn 't sound very convincing to me.

Not to you maybe, but I can see it.
If you were told by GOD that you, as a Jew, who abided by the Jewish faith since Moses, were chosen - why would you even consider thinking outside the box of all you knew and believed? Most especially, taking consideration of the teachings of an itinerent Rabbi who was thrown out of the synagogge for blasphemy.
We, as present day Christians can’t see what a dilemma this would have been for faithful Jews but I can imagine it was soul searing.

 

[water]

Jesus said no prophet was welcomed in his own town.

 

[DRIVING_BEAR]

I would like to offer my thoughts on his especially because i am part jewish.

The main reason is a lack of understanding of the OT

the second is history

in the first century AD their were many people claiming to be christ. some jews simply were unsure Jesus was the Christ.

Also in 70 AD when the Roman’s destroyed jerusalem
the Christians did not help defend the city so as a result many
jews felt that the church betrayed them .

Also the effect of years and years of anti-semitism by both the
CC and the protestants churches needs to be considered.

here i will make some people mad but here goes

the effect of church anti-semitism was/is that it the churches brought discredit to the name of Christ.

 

[DRIVING_BEAR]

some additional thoughts

First off this is starting to change

many jews are now acception Jesus Christ as their messiah

and to many jews that don’t , they now think that jesus was the messiah to the gentiles.

Also because of jewish / church history I think the best hope of spreading the Gosple to the jews will be with christian zionist and messianic Jews.

I personally think the CC and main line prost. churches should
transfere their outreach/ missionary resources to messianic jews for example Jews For Jesus

 

[Valke2]

Not to you maybe, but I can see it.
If you were told by GOD that you, as a Jew, who abided by the Jewish faith since Moses, were chosen - why would you even consider thinking outside the box of all you knew and believed? Most especially, taking consideration of the teachings of an itinerent Rabbi who was thrown out of the synagogge for blasphemy.
We, as present day Christians can’t see what a dilemma this would have been for faithful Jews but I can imagine it was soul searing.

Well, you are essentially saying if God HImself told us how to behave, why would we listen to someone who told us to behave differently. That is not complacency. That is faith in God’s word and His revelation.

 

[Valke2]

some additional thoughts

First off this is starting to change

many jews are now acception Jesus Christ as their messiah

Really? how many?

I personally think the CC and main line prost. churches should
transfere their outreach/ missionary resources to messianic jews for example Jews For Jesus

Yes. This is what they do now. They fund groups like Jews for Jesus, who pretend to be practicing Judiasm while accepting Jesus as God.

(and you are either jewish or you aren’t. YOu can’t be part jewish. Are you part Catholic?)

 

[artist3189]

some additional thoughts

First off this is starting to change

many jews are now acception Jesus Christ as their messiah

and to many jews that don’t , they now think that jesus was the messiah to the gentiles.

Also because of jewish / church history I think the best hope of spreading the Gosple to the jews will be with christian zionist and messianic Jews.

I personally think the CC and main line prost. churches should
transfere their outreach/ missionary resources to messianic jews for example Jews For Jesus

I don’t think thats true for the most part. I live in a area of the Northeast that has a good size Jewish population, I have quite a few Jewish friends, I went to school with a large Jewish group, and have been around many discussions with them. My sense is that, universally, Judaism has continued to devolve into a purely ethnic identity that has become entirely philosophic in terms of its approach to organized religious practices, something that has gone on non stop since the Hellenistic era. Exceptions being some developments like Kabala, but evermore now than ever, Judaism rarely exists in a purely religious state. It has really ceased to grow since the destruction of the Temple. I agree that the later Christian communities had done nothing but alienate the Jew further, that’s historical fact. But during Christ’s life, it was more a matter of politics, historical understanding and attitude that kept most of the Jews in the first century from following Christ. I also think the Church needs to be responsible for its own evangelism, it needs to make up ground. Groups like Jews for Jesus are so small and have little impact in the Jewish community, and frankly, if anyone needs to be evangelized or re-evangelized first, it’s our OWN falling away Catholics, schismatic Catholics like Pius Xer’s, our Orthodox brothers, and Anglicans, that makes much more sense than trying to convince Jews world wide to come to Christ since so much of the Jewish world community doesn’t even identify itself as 'religious. Google and see if you can find polls done in Israel itself and how many identify themselves as ‘secular’. You may be surprised but I’m not. Judaism is not dead, but not really alive either. I have nothing but respect for Judaism and my friends. Irony is, the Catholic Church is closer to Judaism than the Evangelical movement, and thats a fact! FYI, you cant be half Jewish, unless as most do, it is a ethnic identity. In a purely religious sense, you are either one thing or another, not both or you really aren’t good at either!

 

[Valke2]

I can’t see how you can say Judaism has ceased to grow since the destruction of the Temple, much less that it has devolved (whatever that is supposed to imply). You would have to ignore 2,000 years of rabbinic discussion, responsa, Talmud, philosophy, and practice to arrive at that conclusion.

What kept the large majority of Jews from following Jesus was not politics, I think (who’s politics?) It was a firm understanding of basic jewish principles. It is fine to say you are the Messiah. But if you don’t unite the people, bring all the Jews back to Israel, Rule in a time of world peace, vanquish Israel’s enemies, etc., then why should any jew, first century or otherwise, believe you are the Messiah?

 

[artist3189]

I can’t see how you can say Judaism has ceased to grow since the destruction of the Temple. You would have to ignore 2,000 years of rabbinic discussion, responsa, Talmud, philosophy, and practice to arrive at that conclusion. And what kept Jews in the 1st century from following Jesus was a firm understanding of basic jewish principles.

It hasn’t grown. I ignore nothing. You may be able to point to some enlightened periods along the way as you note, and I agree they are legitimate expansions on Jewish ‘THOUGHT’ with some mystical offshoots, but what is the end result. Has Judaism continued to grow as a religion as far as growth in basic theology, no, has the world population of Jews grown in proportion to rest of the world, no, has Judaism been able to establish a centralized form of worship, no, has it attracted large groups of converts, no, does it evangelize, no, does it even flourish at the basic community level, not here. How does attendance at synagogues compare with that of Christian counterparts. With a few exceptions, as there always are, like Orthodox communities, most of the Jewish communities around here have become almost non-existent in local participations, visibility, religious force etc. I know that’s a small sampling, but I’d suspect a good sample of the overall condition. Being so close to New York City, we get a lot of transplants, with a Rabbinical School here now also. But just because there has been ‘discussions’ or writings or outgrowths of understanding by men like Baal Shem Tov or whomever does not mean a religion has “grown”. Some individuals have grown but as a whole, Judaism had stopped to exist as the dynamic religion it was prior to the first century. Look at the numbers. And I agree with your statement that the basic understanding of Jewish principles kept them from Christ in the first century, if you read my post, you’ll see that. And the First Principle, honor God with your whole heart and soul, AND anyone who spoke ‘AS GOD’ was suspect, as many false prophets did, and to them, Jesus was just another false prophet and not telling them what they wanted to hear, victims of human nature as much as anything else.

 

[artist3189]

I
What kept the large majority of Jews from following Jesus was not politics, I think (who’s politics?) It was a firm understanding of basic jewish principles. It is fine to say you are the Messiah. But if you don’t unite the people, bring all the Jews back to Israel, Rule in a time of world peace, vanquish Israel’s enemies, etc., then why should any jew, first century or otherwise, believe you are the Messiah?

And again, you make my point, everything you say, Rule in a time of peace, (here on earth I gather), Jews back to Israel, vanquish enemies, that’s not political? Really. Jesus came to vanquish SIN, not the Romans. They weren’t prepared for that answer. But if they understood the greater meaning of OT prophets, they would have been. Without that basic agreement on Jesus’s purpose, then it’s just a POLITICAL discussion as to why and when.

 

[catsrus]

originally posted by Valke2
Well, you are essentially saying if God HImself told us how to behave, why would we listen to someone who told us to behave differently. That is not complacency. That is faith in God’s word and His revelation.

You are misunderstanding me.
The Jews, after 2 thousand years of prophets and GOD Himself, speaking to them, became “settled” (to use a different word) into the knowledge that they WERE the chosen people. They knew that GOD had promised a Messiah but refused to recognise Him when He arrived (many Jews) because they had their own idea of who and what He would be. Look at it as a test of their faith. They did not see because they were relying own understanding.
It may have been easier and safer from their point of view to sit back in their “chosen-ness” and wait some more .

Which they are still doing.