Does Judaism believe in Jesus

Answer 1

Answer 1

No, the Jews do not believe in Jesus and Judaism does not believe in Jesus. Judaism believes in a monotheistic belief in God (that there is only one God).

Christians are also monotheist, but believe that God has made himself known in three persons or that there are three persons in the God-head. To the Jews, this is blasphemy.

Answer 2

Your question is incomplete. The above answer, answers the question "Does judaism believe in Jesus as God? But, if you're asking "Does Judaism believe in Jesus as the Messiah?", the answer is also a No.

Answer 3

No, Jesus plays no role in Judaism whatsoever.

Answer 4

Judaism follows what God said in the Torah (5 books of Moses); and according to God, people like Jesus are described (at most) as false prophets.

In Deuteronomy 13 God tells the Jews if a prophet does great wonders (supernatural things) and says let us worship gods that they don't know, It is a test. To see if you love God with all your heart and soul. And to kill that prophet. Jesus was a man who some people think is god, but this is completely foreign to Judaism. It is not the God that freed the Jews from Egypt; therefore it is a different god, and like the verse says, it is a test. Christianity is a test: will you follow what God said? Or will you follow what a man said?

Note also that according to Judaism, prophecy ceased centuries before the time of Jesus.

Answer 2

Answer 1

Some Jews believe that Jesus lived, but not that he was the messiah. From the Jewish perspective, at most, he would have been a false prophet.

Answer 2

Some Jews do, but the religion 'Judaism' believes that Jesus was just a person and they do not believe in the New Testament.

Answer 3

No. In Jewish tradition we never consider God as a corporeal being.

We say that God is, was, and always will be. This is not the quality of a human being and will never be.

God is on a higher level than any human, animal, angel, et cetera.

Some Jews may believe that a historical person named Jesus once lived, but they do not see him as the Messiah or as more than human.

According to the Jewish scriptures, there are criteria that the Messiah ("Mashiach" in Hebrew) will meet. Jesus does not fulfill the requirements of the Jewish prophecies.

Specifically, the Bible says Mashiach will:

* 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, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4)

* Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "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.

If a person fails to fulfill even one of these conditions, then he cannot be the Mashiach. The Jewish prophecies say the Mashiach will fulfill the prophecies in his lifetime. In the Jewish Bible there isn't a second coming.

Answer 4

Jesus plays no role in Judaism. From the Jewish perspective, he may or may not have existed as a real person; but at most, would have been a false prophet.

Answer 5

See the Related Question "Why don't Jews believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God?" on the left, for previous answers to this question.

And it would seem obvious that as Jesus was supposed to be Jewish (in fact by many accounts a religious Jew), and Judaism existed well before Jesus or Christianity. As a religious matter, Jews don't have any reason to address Jesus...(and equally obviously, Jesus couldn't really have either).

As a general comment, most Jews have no problem accepting or believing that there existed a Jewish person by the name of Jesus; and as many before and after, that he had a following. Whether it was he or his later followers who produced a discreditable version of religious doctrine, writing what some would claim as a new political manifesto to meet their needs, isn't important to us. But again, he has no particular relevance as a religious figure - and absolutely none as a god; that concept being foreign to the Jewish religion with its central belief of One ethereal, overwhelming supreme Being - and opposed to any form of idolatry. (Giving God a form, a face, a name, and all those things so many Christians seem to do, is unacceptable to all those, of many faiths, that believe in a One as primary. The trinity concept starts with the idea of 3, "tri-" and tries to find a way to explain it).

But I suspect that Jesus as a person isn't what you ask about...I suspect you mean believing in Jesus as an ideal.

If Muslims believed what Christians did, then they would be Christians.

If Buddhists believed what Christians did, then they would be Christians.

If Hindus believed what Christians did, then they would be Christians.

And on and on it goes...there are many, many spiritual beliefs other than the one that includes Jesus.

Please appreciate, that while Christians may need to make an affirmation of their belief with a positive "acceptance of Christ as..", it does not therefore follow that all these other beliefs have any need to actively disaffirm, address or "not accept" it.

I guess that it's as much a part of their equation as Buddha or Mohammed is to Christians. That is to say, not particularly relevant and no need for it to be specifically mentioned - religiously or not.

Answer 6

Traditional Jews view Jesus as having been a regular person, not a prophet, false or otherwise, since Jewish tradition places the end of prophecy some 330 years before the time of Jesus.

Answer 3

Judaism accepts him as a man, but not as the Messiah or God.

The previous answer is wrong. Judaism actually makes no comments whatsoever about Jesus or Muhammad, or any other non-Jewish religious icons. What a Jew believes about Jesus has more to do with their own personal experiences with Christians, and nothing to do with Judaism.

Answer 4

No. 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.

• Link: What in Christianity is unacceptable in Judaism?
  

The few who came in contact with Jesus 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.

In Judaism, Jesus was a regular human being who lived in olden times, and is not part of Jewish religious belief.

• Link: What do Jews believe about God?
  

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 5

Let's first clarify what is meant by "believe". The question is likely not asking whether Jews accept that there was a man who lived roughly 2000 years ago named Jesus. However, to quickly answer that, most Jews have no issue accepting the historical claim that Jesus existed, but feel no need to defend his existence from critics since Jesus has no importance in Judaism. (This is the same way that Christians feel no compulsion to defend the historicity of Siddharta Gautama from this man's critics.)

If we proceed to the question of whether Jews believe in Jesus in the way that Christians believe in him, then No. Jews do not believe in Jesus. The idea that the Christian ascription of Jesus' redemptive qualities (i.e. He is the Christ, the truth, and the way) accords with Jewish principles or understandings of the Messiah is false. It is on account of this major issue that Jews opposed what Jesus was saying and doing, even assuming that the Gospels are accurate or historical materials.

The Jewish Messiah is to be an Earthly King, not an incarnation or union with God. As a result, a person claiming to be God himself is instantly recognized as not being the Messiah. John 5:16-18 asserts that Jews clearly believed that Jesus was articulating that he was the physical progeny of God. Additionally, John 3:16 is at fundamental odds with the Torah's prohibition on Human Sacrifice, its prohibition of blood consumption, its prohibition on cannibalism, and its prohibition on expiation for another's sins. There is no verse in the Old Testament that explains that one of the purposes of the Messiah is to die for sin at all (never mind for the sins of other people).

Jesus failed to perform requirements to be the Messiah and additionally performed actions contrary to the established Commandments. The Bible makes clear that one of the defining marks between a True Prophet and a False Prophet is that no True Prophet will ever deviate from the Law as it was established (Deuteronomy 13:1). A Messiah must also comport to this standard, since he is to be a Holy King. Lists of several of these actions continue below.

Functions of the Jewish Messiah that Jesus failed to fulfill (this list is not exhaustive):

• Setting up a lasting and Eternal Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28) -- Especially important since, seeing as the Temple was extant during his life, he should have been able to "keep it going eternally" if he were the Messiah. There wouldn't even have been any need to rebuild it. By contrast, Jesus explicitly claimed that the Temple would be completely destroyed in Matthew 24:1-2, betraying his duty to make it lasting and eternal.
• Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6) -- This should have been relatively easy since most Jews at that time were still in the Middle East (Judea and Babylon). After his death, (for unrelated reasons) the Jews were scattered all across the Roman Empire and later the entire world. Jesus did not facilitate any migration of Jews to Israel.
• Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4) -- More wars have been fought in the name of Christianity and Islam since the time of Jesus than for any almost any other single cause; and both claim him to be the Messiah (even though they define that term differently). Additionally, Jesus claims specifically that he did not come to bring peace but a sword in Mark 10:34.
• Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world -- on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9) -- When Jesus died, no larger population knew about God than when he was born. Still today, after many centuries of missionizing, only half of the world professes to believe in one God.
• The Messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1) -- While the Christian scriptures may allege this, they also allege that Jesus' Earthly father played no part in making him, so to speak. Therefore, he has no patrilineal lineage to speak of (save for God himself) and cannot therefore be descended from King David.
• The Messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah observance. -- Since the Messiah is the resolution of the problems of this world and nothing can be added or detracted from the Law, people will naturally follow the Law.
• The dead shall rise from their graves and death shall be abolished for eternal life (Isaiah 26:19 and Daniel 12:2). -- Jesus allegedly rose a few individuals from the dead, but did not raise all of the dead nor did he abolish death for everlasting life.

Commandments that Jesus actively violated (all quotes from the NIV). This list is not exhaustive:

• Matthew 15:11: "That goes into someone's mouth does not defile them; but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them." -- This is a blanket denial of some of the laws of ritual purity and all of the Laws of Kashrut, which tell us foods to eat and which foods not to eat in Leviticus ch. 11. This is an abrogation of the Law.
• Matthew 19:8-9: Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery." -- Jesus specifically rebukes the Mosaic Law and denies the permissibility of divorce which is expressly permitted according to Deuteronomy ch. 24.
• Matthew 19:29: "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life." -- Jesus actively supports the break-up of families, which runs counter to an entire tradition of family unity and tribal unity throughout Israelite and Jewish history. This also runs counter to the Messianic Prophecy that the Messiah will bring bickering families back together in Malachi 4:6.
• Mark 1:43-44: Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." & John 18:20-21: "I have spoken openly to the world," Jesus replied. "I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said." -- These verses show that Jesus lies (not to mention the issue with absconding truth in parables). If he said everything openly, he would not tell people to be quiet and secretive about who he was. Lying is prohibited in Leviticus 19:11. The Law being clear and accessible, not secretive, is stated in Deuteronomy 30:10-14 and Deut. 31:9-13.
• Mark 14:24-25: "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many," he said to them. "Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God." -- The consumption of blood is specifically forbidden in the Torah because it is the life-source of all creatures. This is made clear in Leviticus 17:10-12.

Additionally. Judaism makes clear that there are those who can perform wondrous deeds even though they lack faith in God at all (see also Deuteronomy ch.13). The Magicians in Pharaoh's Court are a perfect example. They are able to replicate (Exodus ch.7-8) some of the early plagues. If God had stopped after the second plague, who could say that these Magicians were not Prophets, revealing the words of Amon Ra? Additionally, Balaam is recounted as a wicked prophet who was able to see the Will of God and prophesy. In Numbers ch.25 (see also Numbers ch.31), he cleverly devises a plan to get the Israelites to sin against God and incur His wrath. The plan succeeds and results in a pestilence afflicting the people. On account of these individuals and others sprinkled throughout the Bible, it is clear that being able to hear God's voice and/or perform miracles does not necessarily make someone a True Prophet.

Answer 6

Judaism says very little about Jesus. 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 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 7

Judaism says very little about Jesus. 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 who did hear of Jesus) - would have given heed 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 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. As it says: "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. As it says: "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 8

The Jews have no real beliefs about Jesus. However, because of the prevalence of Christianity and Islam, Judaism has had to explain the Jewish position on this non-issue. A parallel question would be to ask what beliefs Christians have about the Buddha; it is not relevant to Christianity, so there really are no beliefs on the subject.

As it stands, the assumption that the Christian ascription of Jesus' redemptive qualities (i.e. He is the Christ, the truth, and the way) accords with Jewish principles or understandings of the Messiah is false. It is on account of this major issue that Jews opposed what Jesus was saying and doing, even assuming that the Gospels are accurate or historical materials. This is why, like numerous other claimants to the rank of Messiah from Zerrubabel to Menachem Mendel Shneersohn, he was not accepted by the Jews.

To read more about why Jews reject the Christian claims about Jesus, please see the Related Question: Why do Jews not believe in Jesus?

Answer 9

NO. Actually, most Jews do not believe anything about Jesus other than that he is either a FAILED MESSIANIC CANDIDATE or an HERETICAL RABBI, assuming, of course, that Jesus is an actual historical figure.

Jesus was not even an important Failed Messianic Candidate as far as most Rabbis are concerned. Ever since Zerubbabel in 530 B.C.E., Judaism has had roughly 15 different individuals who claimed or were claimed by other Jews to be the Messiah. The latest one of these candidates died as recently as 1992 (Menachem Mendel Shneersohn). These claimants to being the Messiah had their claims tested against the relevant Old Testament requirements to be a Messiah (see below) and were found to have not been the Messiah. Additionally, numerous Christian claims about Jesus being the Messiah due to his partial divinity, dying for sin, being born of a virgin, and so on have no validity in the Jewish system of requirements, even in the time of Zerubbabel, the first Messianic Candidate who lived nearly five centuries before Jesus.

Oftentimes, in order to placate the sensibilities of Christians or Muslims in their vicinity, Jews will argue that Jesus was a Prophet. There is no basis to make such a claim within Judaism and the last accepted prophet in Judaism was Malachi, who died in the 300s B.C.E.

Old Testament Requirements of a Messiah
According to Judaism, there are several relevant prophecies such as:

• The Messiah will reign over Earth as an actual Righteous King on Earth (Jeremiah 23:5-6)
  
• The Messiah or God will rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and make the services operate properly (Ezekiel 37:26-28) (Obviously, if the Temple in Jerusalem was already built, only the latter part would apply.)
  
• All Jews, living or dead, will be gathered back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6)
• The Messiah's ascendance to power will usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4)
• Because of the righteousness of the Messiah universal knowledge of the God of Israel will spread across the world, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "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 have direct paternal lineage from King David via Solomon and Rehoboam (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1)
• Foreigners will help rebuild Israel and help serve it (Isaiah 60:10)
• The Natural Order will be abrogated, with a cessation of all predation and violence within the animal kingdom (Isaiah 11:6-8) and with the sun never setting (Isaiah 60:19-20)
  
• The Messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah observance. Any person who comes in an effort to abrogate laws, alter laws, or add new laws is clearly not the Messiah, but a false prophet. (Deut. 13:1-4)
• The Dead will rise from their graves and resume life among the living (Isaiah 26:19)
• Death shall be abolished for eternal life (Daniel 12:2)

Answer 10

No, none.

Other information:

Judaism says very little about Jesus. 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 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.