Did the Jews ever believe in Jesus as the Messiah?

Answer 1

Answer 1

No. Mainstream Judaism teaches that the messiah is yet to come. Almost all Jews subscribe to this.

There are, however, some groups of Jews who accept Christ as messiah. One group is called Jews for Jesus. Many Jews regard them as Christians.

There are also groups of Christians who adopt Jewish customs and laws while retaining their belief in Christ. They are called Messianic Fellowships.

In some sense, early Christianity started as a sect in Judaism.

Answer 2

It depends on how you read the question.

"Christ" is merely the Greek word that corresponds to the English word "Messiah" and the Hebrew word "Moshiach". If you are asking whether Jews believe that Christ is the proper Greek translation of the word Moshiach (which is the one that Jews use), then yes, Jews believe that statement is valid. Jews do not often concern themselves with Greek translations if only because Greek was never a dominant religious language in Judaism while it was in Christianity.

If you are using the term "Christ" as a short-form for "Jesus Christ", then no. Judaism rejects Jesus as a Messiah since he failed to perform several requisite prophecies, including the following:

No Kingdom of God on Earth: Firstly, Jesus did not bring about the most important prophecies that the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) ascribes to the Messiah. He did not establish the Kingdom of God on Earth (otherwise God would actually oversee the world on a day-to-day basis).

Wars Have Continued: He did not end all wars; in fact, after his death, numerous wars were fought in the name of Christianity, religious divisions in Christianity, and attempts to Christianize non-Christians. If anything, it is a reversal of the prophecy.

Violence in Nature: He failed to fulfill the prophecy of the lion and the lamb, where the lion and the lamb are supposed to live harmoniously without predation.

Destruction of Jerusalem: The Messiah is also supposed to make the Temple at Jerusalem a beacon for all of the nations, not portend its destruction.

Dead Are Still Dead: Finally, the Messiah is supposed to resurrect the dead en masse (not just himself and a few random people who had been dead for a few days). The entire world is to be resurrected (except the wicked) and brought to the Kingdom of God. In this, Jesus also failed.

Answer 2

No. In Judaism, Jesus was a regular human being who lived in olden times, and is not part of Jewish religious belief.

According to our tradition, the vast majority of the Jews at the time didn't hear of him. The Torah-sages (Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel, Chanina ben Dosa, Bava ben Buta, Shimon ben Hillel, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Akiva, and hundreds of others) were active at that time and their yeshivot (Torah-academies) were flourishing. Their tens of thousands of disciples and hundreds of thousands of sympathizers were active in the Jewish world in that generation; they were the leaders and the forefront of Judaism. As Josephus (Antiquities book 18) writes, "the cities give great attestations to them." The great majority of Jews loved their sages and their Torah.
The unlearned class of the Amei-haaretz (ignoramuses) was a small fringe of society, but even they would and did lay down their lives in order not to violate anything of the Torah. As one ancient historian famously wrote:
Hecateus declares again, "what regard we [Jews] have for our laws; and we resolve to endure anything rather than transgress them." And he adds: "They [Jews] may be stripped on this account, and have torments inflicted upon them, and be brought to the most terrible kinds of death, but they meet these tortures after an extraordinary manner, beyond all other people, and will not renounce the religion of their forefathers."

No one (even any of them who did hear of Jesus) - would have given any consideration to what was and is considered unacceptable for us. The few who came in contact with him soon lost interest, and the early Christians felt the need to turn to non-Jewish centers of population in order to gain adherents, while the Jews remained Jews.

Rather, you might prefer to ask "What does Judaism notbelieve about Jesus." And the answer is that we do not believe that he is or was anything other than a regular human being.

(See: What do Jews believe God is like?)

We may also note that according to our tradition, prophecy ceased about 340 years before the birth of Jesus; and public miracles stopped even earlier.

Here is a related topic:
The word "messiah" is the transliterated form of the Hebrew "moshiach." The word moshiach means "anointed." The title of moshiach was given to any person who was appropriately anointed with oil as part of their initiation to their service of God. We have had a number of meshichim (plural) in the form of kings and priests. There need be nothing supernatural about a moshiach.
This being said, there is a prophecy of a future moshiach. However, this is a relatively minor topic in Judaism and the Tanakh.
The Jewish requirements of the messiah have not yet been fulfilled. They are:
* Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
* Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
* Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred and oppression. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4).
* Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. "God will be King over all the world. On that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).
* The messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1).
* The messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah-observance. The Torah states that all of its mitzvot (commands) remain binding forever.

Answer 3

NO. As a community, the majority of Jews have never recognized Jesus as being the Messiah. There were and continue to be Jews who have recognized Jesus as the Messiah, but these have remained a minority of the community throughout history.

Answer 4

Some did, some didn't.

The first Christians were Jewish converts.

Answer 5

Not many of his time did and even today over 2, 000 years later there are some who are still waiting for 'the Messiah' - it is like waiting for the departed train.