Jesus, Jews and Brotherly Love
Dru linked to this post that came from dark angel:
“There are some other historical tidbits about J.C. that casual Christians don’t know. First off, he was a revolutionary Nazarene (mistranslated as “Jesus of Nazareth” he was not from Nazareth - he was from Bethlehem.) which was a subsect of the revolutionary and mystical Essenes. This is why the Jews said “He’s not our messiah!” He actually was, but because of his leftist political leanings, they distanced themselves from his teachings. To have this miraculous human show up and start preaching brotherly love and giving up personal property was threatening to every group interested in ruling the status quo.”
Is this true? Did the Jews reject Jesus because he was too revolutionary for them? Nope. This is why the Jews rejected Jesus as their messiah:
1) Jesus did not fulfill the messianic prophecies.
2) Jesus did not embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah.
3) Biblical verses “referring” to Jesus are mistranslations.
4) Jewish belief is based on national revelation.
from Aish.com
(Go there if you want details about those 4 points.)
The coming (if you subscribe to Jewish beliefs) moshiach (messiah) is not God. He’s not the son of God either nor will he claim to be.
The moshiach will be a great political leader descended from King David (Jeremiah 23:5). The moshiach is often referred to as “moshiach ben David” (moshiach, son of David). He will be well-versed in Jewish law, and observant of its commandments. (Isaiah 11:2-5) He will be a charismatic leader, inspiring others to follow his example. He will be a great military leader, who will win battles for Israel. He will be a great judge, who makes righteous decisions (Jeremiah 33:15). But above all, he will be a human being, not a god, demi-god or other supernatural being.
from Judaism 101 as is this:
Jews do not believe that Jesus was the moshiach. Assuming that he existed, and assuming that the Christian scriptures are accurate in describing him (both matters that are debatable), he simply did not fulfill the mission of the moshiach as it is described in the biblical passages cited above. Jesus did not do any of the things that the scriptures said the messiah would do.
Get it? He didn’t fulfill the prophecy and that is why Jews don’t recognize him as the messiah. The Essenes had their eyes on the after life because they thought the end of the world was imminent. The rest of the Jewish community wasn’t as worried about what happens next because in Judaism, what happens next is up for grabs. Some Jews believe in heaven and some don’t. Some Jews believe in reincarnation and some don’t. Judaism doesn’t focus on what comes next because the focus is on being a good person now in this life. Judaism is ultimately a very practical religion focused on loving-kindness. Here’s an example of this: in Christianity the golden rule is “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Well, I’d like you to give me the new mp3 player that you got for Christmas. Seriously. Send it over. If you thought that end times were due here by the end of the week, you might find it pretty easy to give up the mp3 player. In Judaism the golden rule is “do NOT do unto others as you would NOT have them do unto you.” Much more practical.
Judaism teaches that you can’t have more than one God, therefore no trinity and no matter how many times Catholics explain it to me, there’s no way to make it sound Jewish. Judaism does not believe in original sin so does not need salvation. In fact, the concept of original sin is contemptible to Jews.
Jewish thinkers [believed] that no one is morally tainted by the sins of Adam. The rabbis always championed the dignity of the human spirit. Human nature was not at all corrupted nor did a human being become an inherently immoral, “evil” creature, outside the realm of “grace.” Each human being through acts of will, freely decides whether or not to unleash the forces of chaos and destruction that exist within him. Even when a person has sinned, the breach can be repaired through the power of penitence. Rather than pointing to human depravity, the rabbis sought to encourage their followers to adopt an optimistic approach, thus awakening the capacity for human goodness. The human instinct for pleasure and power becomes a problem only when it is allowed to run amok. There is no inherited predisposition that prevents man from becoming virtuous and pious. Only the quality of our behavior can determine whether or not the light of the Divine image will ever find its reflection in us.
I have had one hundred and one million opportunities to accept Christ as my Lord and Savior in my life just by virtue of living in America and I never have. In fact, I chose to embrace by Jewish heritage by formally converting, why is this? It’s because I looked into my heart and what I saw doesn’t jive with Christian teachings. I don’t believe in original sin and I don’t believe in salvation. I believe that we have an obligation set for us by God to be kind to each other and take care of those who are less fortunate.
Famously, Rabbi Hillel once said, “What is hateful to yourself, do not do to your fellow man. That is the whole Torah; the rest is just commentary. Go and study it.” Sounds like a man well versed in brotherly love, eh?
In a sense, the goal of the whole enterprise of Judaism is to develop human beings whose principal trait is chesed. …
Chesed is a daily requirement — which means it is a lifetime requirement — and it is most succinctly manifested in the act of giving. It implies attitudes integral to the person’s character, inseparable from one’s inner nature, and spans the whole gamut of virtues which operate in interpersonal relationships — charity and compassion, love and respect.
from Aish.com again.
Me, I don’t dislike Jesus although I have some trouble enjoying the company of some of his less tolerant, more zealous followers. I think Jesus got a lot of it wrong and I’m sorry that Paul (Saul) decided to twist it up further and take it outside the Jewish community (Jesus never said he fulfilled the law — he was an observant Jew — and never intended his words to be taken to the gentiles). I’m sorry that throughout history Christians have used their beliefs as an excuse to persecute others (see Martin Luther, for example). And I am really, really, really sorry that there are Christians out there so blinded by their faith that they can’t see that Jews are fulfilled without the benefit of Jesus and who don’t recognize that God is bigger than any one way of believing.
To dark angel (and other Christians who feel bad for the poor misguided Jews) I say, he is NOT my messiah so don’t force him on me or any other Jews and I promise I won’t make you keep kosher.
Thank you Dawn for all the links and excerpts. I haven’t run into too much proselytizing, thankfully, but I am very secure in my Jewishness, mainly because it really feels right. I didn’t even know about Chesed specifically but that is basically what Judaism means to me… Also, when I was little, my dad would respond to “who’s there?” by saying “the Messiah” Hmmm, that is a little messed up. I remember saying it to friends of mine but hopefully not to their parents.
Thanks so much for responding to this. I know embarrassingly little about religions…while that post had some interesting information about J.C…. I was a bit concerned about the portrayal of Jews. I couldn’t really explain why. You and Hanne have helped a lot, and educated me in the process. Yay!
Well, actually, that post had a lot of mis-information about Jesus…..Jesus was a Pharisaic Jew and taught that view. He was a practicing Jew who did not reject Judaism, but rather focused on the Messianic hope aspect (which has long been part of Jewish theology) — as did others who were Pharisaic Jews. He was not a “leftist” and it was Romans, not Jews, who were threatened by him and others like him.
A Frontline special on the apocolypse I watched said that it’s very likely that Jesus was inspired by the Essenes since many of his teachings were similar to theirs. Mostly I wanted to take issue with the statement that Jesus *was* the messiah and the Jews missed that because they were too busy being greedy.
Thanks. I learned a lot. Even though I grew up around Jews, they were kids like me and didn’t talk much about theology.
I was especially interested to hear of the prophecies in the Old Testament, since that’s what so many evangelizing Christians love to point to as supernatural proof of Jesus’ divinity.
Like most of us, what gets my goat is the smug certainty many of these Christians have that they are going to be cuddled by God forever while I get red-hot pokers crammed up my ass.
Brotherly love, indeed.
my heartfelt thanks for all of the excellent information here. just goes to show that there is always more to learn. i sincerely meant no affront to anyone by the post, as i am sure “danger angel” meant none by her statements–nor is it my intent, or her intent, to cram red-hot pokers up anyone’s ass, or try to promote any vile stereotypes. it’s altogether too easy to use simplistic reductions of history, particularly ancient history, to prove some sort of point, particularly when one doesn’t avail oneself of each different version of it. when i think of how difficult it is to get one’s story straight about yesterday, the problem of getting a 2,000 year old story straight is completely overwhelming. also i’m neither a christian (anymore) nor do i think anyone’s going to hell. i feel a resonance with many religions, but i sure as heck don’t know what “truth” is, other than trying to sift through all the information and occasionally find something meaningful. again, thanks for sharing your information with me.
In truth, your accounts of jesus are inaccurate, and are testimonies to your ignorance of truth.
My suggestion to you is to wake up, and get the facts about jesus. He did fulfill the prophesies. He performed countless miracles. he claimed to be the messiah. He died and rose from the dead. I pray that people like you will stop being so skeptikal. Your cowardly nature hinders you from taking the leap of faith neccessary to come to know the truth. Do the research and find out for yourself how ludicrous your statements about jesus are.
As one gerim to another, you go girl ~! This is an awesome explanation of how Jews DON’T view J.C. and right on ~! I live around a LOT of fundy prots, and they delight in a) trying to UN-convert me (notta chance) and b) “not” (sic) arguing but wanting to “discuss” (NOT) religion by asking if J.C. wasn’t the messiah, then who was he and what will the messiah of the Jews do that J.c. didn’t do — a LOT imho ~!
Hi, my name is alicia. i dont want to lie and say i am completely perfect and say i follow every word of God. Because its not true i lie, swear, and other bad things (never done nothing to critical tho), but i just want to be good i want everyone to know that jesus is with you 4ever and ever.. people dont have to be told to believe it because the truth about jesus is born with us.. he loves us and guides us. gives us life and food, families, love .. everything… what more could we want?