Why do Jews not believe in Christ as a Messiah?

Answer 1

Christian answer: By the time Jesus came to earth, Jewish religious thinking and practices had strayed far from what was taught in the inspired Scriptures. The religious leaders of the day-the Sadducees, Pharisees, and scribes-upheld man-made traditions, putting them ahead of God's written Word. Time and again they accused Jesus of breaking the Law because he performed miraculous cures on the Sabbath. By forcefully refuting their unscriptural teachings, Jesus challenged both their authority and their claims of having an approved standing with God. By contrast, Jesus came from a humble background and lacked their formal religious education. No wonder it was so difficult for such proud men to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah! Such confrontations so enraged them that they "took counsel against [Jesus] that they might destroy him."-Matthew 12:1-8, 14; 15:1-9.

The attitude of first-century Jewish religious leaders created a social climate that was hostile to anyone accepting Jesus as the Messiah. Taking pride in their prominent positions, they belittled anyone showing faith in Jesus, saying: "Not one of the rulers or of the Pharisees has put faith in him, has he?" (John 7:13, 48) Some Jewish leaders, such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, did become disciples of Jesus, but they kept their faith secret out of fear. (John 3:1, 2; 12:42; 19:38, 39) The Jewish leaders had decreed that "if anyone confessed [Jesus] as Christ, he should get expelled from the synagogue." (John 9:22) Such a person would be shunned and scorned as a social outcast. Opposition to Jesus' apostles and disciples eventually ignited violent persecution. Because of their bold preaching, the apostles suffered at the hands of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high court. (Acts 5:40) Opposers framed false charges of blasphemy against the disciple Stephen. He was condemned by the Sanhedrin and stoned to death. Then, "great persecution arose against the congregation that was in Jerusalem; all except the apostles were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria." (Acts 6:8-14; 7:54-8:1) Saul, who later became the Apostle Paul, shared in a campaign of persecution that was officially supported by the high priest and "the assembly of older men."-Acts 9:1, 2; 22:4, 5. There is really no lack of evidence by which each one of us can make an informed choice or decision in this matter. And that decision is urgent. Why? Because The Bible reveals that as the Messianic King of God's Kingdom, Jesus will soon take action to remove all those who are ruining the earth and bring about righteous rule that will allow all obedient subjects to live forever on earth in paradisaic conditions. (Daniel 2:44; Revelation 11:15, 18; 21:3-5) This marvelous future can be yours if you make the effort to learn about Jesus and demonstrate faith in him now. Take to heart Jesus' own words: "God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life."-John 3:16.

• Jewish answer

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.

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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.

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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 2

A New Testament perspective:The Jews' rejection of Jesus stems from their religious leaders of the day.

Their contention, simply put, was that Jesus did not fit the prophesied criteria.

For one thing, He was "Jesus of Nazareth;" the prophets said the Messiah would come from the City of David, and it wasn't widely known that Jesus was, in fact, born in Bethlehem. They also anticipated a conquering Messiah in the mold of King David who would free them from Roman oppression. Jesus didn't offer any such thing (John 18:36).

Ultimately, they considered Him guilty of blasphemy for claiming to forgive sins (Matthew 9:2, 3) and otherwise making Himself to be equal with God (John 10:33; Matthew 26:63-65).

Because of their rejection, God has since allowed the Jewish people to be blinded to the fact that Jesus was indeed their promised Messiah until such a time as He shall determine (Romans 11:25).

Jewish answer:

According to our tradition, the vast majority of the Jews at the time didn't hear of him. The Sages of the Mishna (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 hundeds 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 not say" about Jesus. And the answer is that we do not believe that he is or was anything other than a regular human being. 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 translates to "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 many meshichim (plural) in the form of kings and priests. There is absolutely 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 Tanach.

The Jewish requirements of hamoshiach 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, 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)

* Hamoshiach must be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1)

* Hamoshiach will lead the Jewish people to full Torah-observance. The Torah states that all of its mitzvot (commands) remain binding forever.

Answer 3

There are two ways to deal with this question: from a present evidential prospective and from a biblical evidential perspective.

Present Evidential Arguments
Some of the most common Jewish arguments against their accepting Jesus as the Messiah are 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.

Biblical Evidential Arguments
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.

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 4

According to our tradition, the vast majority of the Jews at the time didn't hear of him. 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.

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 change anything of the Torah.
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.

• Link: What do Jews believe about God?