2,000 YEARS AND COUNTING: Why Jews Don’t Believe In Jesus and Never Will

Ed-note (Sabba) This article is somehow edulcorated and does not put any emphasis on 2 of the key reasons why they rejected Jesus (PBUH).

The first one is his birth without a father. The jews claimed that he is therefore a bastard, the son of a whore who made it with some Roman centurion.

Pauline Christianity, which flourished in the West,  went the opposite direction and made him the son of God (thus vindicating the jews), while most of the early Christian communities in the Middle East rejected the divinity of Christ and up until the Vth century, it was the most prevalent belief among the Christians of the Middle East and North Africa.

The Last Testament (the Quran) rejects the divinity of Jesus based on that proposition: Adam (PBUH) had no father nor any mother, Eve (PBUH) had no mother, she is even the only woman who was born of a man. But that does not make them ‘sons of god’.

The other reason why the jews rejected him is because he failed to liberate them from their oppressors. The Messiah is supposed to be a Prophet and a King, a warrior, whose mission was to set them free from Roman rule, Roman oppression and lead them in a perpetual war against Humanity to achieve world domination. 

I would like to suggest that Jesus did just that: he came to liberate the jews from oppression, from the oppression of the rabbis, from the oppression of the synagogue of satan.

He tried to set them free from the satanic hold the rabbis had on them, he tried to bring them back to the path of God. He tried to re-unite them with the Brotherhood of Man by cleansing their hearts and minds of the utterly sick concept of choseness and the deranged rabbinical concept that this world, this planet was created for the jews and them alone and that the rest of mankind has no place in it except as slaves or dead. 

He tried, he failed. His successor, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) also tried  to reclaim them and he too, failed. And if these 2 great men of God failed, no one else will succeed.

The many Christians who refuse to take a stand against the jews and who see Islam as their implacable enemy, the many Christians who still believe it is their mission on earth to convert the jews, who still believe that the jews can be saved should ponder deeply and at length over this.  

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JEWISH NEWS

One of the most common questions we receive at Aish.com is: “Why don’t Jews believe in Jesus?” Let’s understand why – not to disparage other religions, but rather to clarify the Jewish position.

Jews do not accept Jesus as the messiah because:

** Jesus did not fulfill the messianic prophecies.

** Jesus did not embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah.

** Biblical verses “referring” to Jesus are mistranslations.

** Jewish belief is based on national revelation.

But first, some background: What exactly is the Messiah?

The word “Messiah” is an English rendering of the Hebrew wordMashiach, which means “anointed.” It usually refers to a person initiated into God’s service by being anointed with oil. (Exodus 29:7, 1-Kings 1:39, 2-Kings 9:3)

What is the Messiah supposed to accomplish? One of the central themes of biblical prophecy is the promise of a future age of perfection characterized by universal peace and recognition of God. (Isaiah 2:1-4, 32:15-18, 60:15-18; Zephaniah 3:9; Hosea 2:20-22; Amos 9:13-15; Micah 4:1-4; Zechariah 8:23, 14:9; Jeremiah 31:33-34)

Specifically, the Bible says he will:

** Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28) (Sabba: the arrival of the Messiah was announced to the jews when they were in captivity in Babylon. The prophecy could have never talked of a ‘Third’ temple at that time. It mentioned the rebuilding of the Temple, without giving any number)

** 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 anymore.” (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).

If an individual fails to fulfill even one of these conditions, then he cannot be the Messiah.

Because no one has ever fulfilled the Bible’s description of this future King, Jews still await the coming of the Messiah. All past Messianic claimants, including Jesus of Nazareth, Bar Cochba and Shabbtai Tzvi have been rejected.

Christians counter that Jesus will fulfill these in the Second Coming. Jewish sources show that the Messiah will fulfill the prophecies outright; in the Bible no concept of a second coming exists.

The Messiah will become the greatest prophet in history, second only to Moses. (Targum – Isaiah 11:2; Maimonides – Teshuva 9:2)

Prophecy can only exist in Israel when the land is inhabited by a majority of world Jewry, a situation which has not existed since 300 BCE. During the time of Ezra, when the majority of Jews remained in Babylon, prophecy ended upon the death of the last prophets – Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

Jesus appeared on the scene approximately 350 years after prophecy had ended, and thus could not be a prophet.

Many prophetic passages speak of a descendant of King David who will rule Israel during the age of perfection. (Isaiah 11:1-9; Jeremiah 23:5-6, 30:7-10, 33:14-16; Ezekiel 34:11-31, 37:21-28; Hosea 3:4-5)

The Messiah must be descended on his father’s side from King David (see Genesis 49:10, Isaiah 11:1, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:17; Ezekiel 34:23-24). According to the Christian claim that Jesus was the product of a virgin birth, he had no father – and thus could not have possibly fulfilled the messianic requirement of being descended on his father’s side from King David. (1)

According to Jewish sources, the Messiah will be born of human parents and possess normal physical attributes like other people. He will not be a demi-god, (2) nor will he possess supernatural qualities.

The Messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah observance. The Torah states that all mitzvot remain binding forever, and anyone coming to change the Torah is immediately identified as a false prophet. (Deut. 13:1-4)

Throughout the Christian “New Testament,” Jesus contradicts the Torah and states that its commandments are no longer applicable. For example, John 9:14 records that Jesus made a paste in violation of Shabbat, which caused the Pharisees to say (verse 16), “He does not observe Shabbat!”

Biblical verses can only be understood by studying the original Hebrew text – which reveals many discrepancies in the Christian translation.

The Christian idea of a virgin birth is derived from the verse in Isaiah 7:14 describing an “alma” as giving birth. The word “alma” has always meant a young woman, but Christian theologians came centuries later and translated it as “virgin.” This accords Jesus’ birth with the first century pagan idea of mortals being impregnated by gods. (Sabba – It is since then that the rabbis, the ‘lying pens of scribes’ have condemned virginity and made sex out of wedlock kosher).

Christianity claims that Isaiah chapter 53 refers to Jesus, as the “suffering servant.”

In actuality, Isaiah 53 directly follows the theme of chapter 52, describing the exile and redemption of the Jewish people. The prophecies are written in the singular form because the Jews (“Israel”) are regarded as one unit. Throughout Jewish scripture, Israel is repeatedly called, in the singular, the “Servant of God” (see Isaiah 43:8). In fact, Isaiah states no less than 11 times in the chapters prior to 53 that the Servant of God is Israel.

When read correctly, Isaiah 53 clearly [and ironically] refers to the Jewish people being “bruised, crushed and as sheep brought to slaughter” at the hands of the nations of the world. These descriptions are used throughout Jewish scripture to graphically describe the suffering of the Jewish people (see Psalm 44).

Isaiah 53 concludes that when the Jewish people are redeemed, the nations will recognize and accept responsibility for the inordinate suffering and death of the Jews.

Throughout history, thousands of religions have been started by individuals, attempting to convince people that he or she is God’s true prophet. But personal revelation is an extremely weak basis for a religion because one can never know if it is indeed true. Since others did not hear God speak to this person, they have to take his word for it. Even if the individual claiming personal revelation performs miracles, they do not prove  he is a genuine prophet. All the miracles show – assuming they are genuine – is that he has certain powers. It has nothing to do with his claim of prophecy.

Judaism, unique among all of the world’s major religions, does not rely on “claims of miracles” as the basis for its religion. In fact, the Bible says that God sometimes grants the power of “miracles” to charlatans, in order to test Jewish loyalty to the Torah (Deut. 13:4).

Of the thousands of religions in human history, only Judaism bases its belief on national revelation – i.e. God speaking to the entire nation. If God is going to start a religion, it makes sense He’ll tell everyone, not just one person.

Maimonides states (Foundations of Torah, ch. 8):

The Jews did not believe in Moses, our teacher, because of the miracles he performed. Whenever anyone’s belief is based on seeing miracles, he has lingering doubts, because it is possible the miracles were performed through magic or sorcery. All of the miracles performed by Moses in the desert were because they were necessary, and not as proof of his prophecy.What then was the basis of [Jewish] belief? The Revelation at Mount Sinai, which we saw with our own eyes and heard with our own ears, not dependent on the testimony of others… as it says, “Face to face, God spoke with you…” The Torah also states: “God did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us – who are all here alive today.” (Deut. 5:3)

Judaism is not miracles. It is the personal eyewitness experience of every man, woman and child, standing at Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago.

The world is in desperate need of Messianic redemption. To the extent that we are aware of the problems of society, is the extent we will yearn for redemption. As the Talmud says, one of the first questions asked of a Jew on Judgment Day is: “Did you yearn for the arrival of the Messiah?”

How can we hasten the coming of the Messiah? The best way is to love all humanity generously, to keep the mitzvot of the Torah (as best we can), and to encourage others to do so as well.

Despite the gloom, the world does seem headed toward redemption. One apparent sign is that the Jewish people have returned to the Land of Israel and made it bloom again. Additionally, a major movement is afoot of young Jews returning to Torah tradition.

The Messiah can come any day, and it all depends on our actions. God is ready when we are. For as King David says: “Redemption will come today – if you hearken to His voice.”