Why Do Jews Hate Jesus

What Do Jews Believe About Jesus?

Christian tradition holds that Jesus is the major character of the religion, and that he is also the messiah, the son of God, and the second member in the trinity. What, on the other hand, do Jews believe about Jesus?

• Christian tradition holds that Jesus is the major character of the religion, and that he is also the messiah, the son of God, and the second person in the trinitarian Godhead. What, on the other hand, do Jews think of Jesus?

While many people now consider Jesus to be the founder of Christianity, it is vital to remember that he did not plan to start a new religion, at least according to the earliest accounts, and he never used the name “Christian” himself. He was born and raised as a Jew, and his early disciples were also sprung from Jewish stock. After Jesus’ death, Christianity did not develop as a distinct religion until several decades later.

Who Was Jesus?

Most of what we know about the real Jesus comes from the four New Testament Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — which historians think were written many decades after Jesus’ death and are thus the most reliable sources. However, despite the lack of archaeological or other tangible proof for his existence, the majority of experts accept that Jesus did live and that he was born somewhere before the Common Era and crucified sometime between 26 and 36 CE, according to the most recent estimates (the years when the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, ruled Judea).

The period was also characterized by unrest, with some people expressing dissatisfaction with Roman policies as well as with theTemple’s high priests, while others hoped for a messianic redeemer who would drive out the foreign rulers and restore Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.

(Taken from the novel “At Home,” written by Grace Stebbing and published by John F.

Was Jesus the Messiah?

Scholars think that the four New Testament Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — were written many decades after Jesus’ death and hence contain virtually all of what is known about the actual Jesus. However, despite the lack of archaeological or other tangible proof for his existence, the majority of experts accept that Jesus did live and that he was born somewhere before the Common Era and crucified sometime between 26 and 36 CE, according to the most recent research (the years when the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, ruled Judea).

The period was also characterized by unrest, with some people expressing dissatisfaction with Roman policies as well as with theTemple’s high priests, while others held out hope for a messianic redeemer who would drive out the foreign rulers and restore Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.

Jesus and some of his disciples are seen fishing on the Sea of Galilee in an illustration. (Extracted from Grace Stebbing’s novel “At Home,” published by John F. ShawCo.)

What About Jews for Jesus?

Jews for Jesus is an acronym that stands for Jews for Jesus. is a subset of a larger movement known as Messianic Jews, which includes a number of other groups. Members of this organization are not recognized as Jews by the larger Jewish community, despite the fact that some members may have been born Jewish and that their ritual life involves Jewish customs, among other factors. Individual Jews might embrace Jesus as the messiah and still be considered Jewish under the law — rejection of any essential Jewish belief or practice does not automatically exclude one from being considered Jewish — but the ideas of messianic Jews are theologically irreconcilable with Judaism.

Did the Jews Kill Jesus?

Jews for Jesus is an acronym that stands for Jews for Jesus is an acronym that stands for Jews for Jesus is an acronym that Is a subset of the Messianic Jewish movement, which is a larger movement. Although some adherents of this movement may have been born Jewish and their ritual life involves Jewish customs, members of the larger Jewish community do not recognize them as Jewish. Individual Jews could accept Jesus as the messiah and still be considered Jewish under the law — rejection of any core Jewish belief or practice does not automatically disqualify one from being considered Jewish — but the beliefs of messianic Jews are theologically incompatible with traditional Jewish beliefs.

Why Was Jesus Killed?

Some have argued that Jesus was a political rebel who sought the restoration of Jewish sovereignty and was executed by the Romans for his actions — an argument advanced in two recent works: Reza Aslan’s Zealot and Shmuley Boteach’s Kosher Jesus — while others have argued that Jesus was a religious revolutionary. This concept, on the other hand, is not universally accepted by scholars of the New Testament. if Rome had recognized Jesus as the head of a revolutionary group, it would have apprehended and executed his disciples as well.

A more plausible explanation is that the Romans considered Jesus as a threat to the peace and executed him because he was attracting followers who saw him as a messianic figure, according to this theory.

Did Jesus Reject Judaism?

Several passages in the Gospels have been read as rejections of Jewish religion and practice, according to some. Jesus is claimed to have declared banned foods “clean” in the Gospel of Mark, a statement that has come to be taken as a repudiation of traditional Jewish dietary regulations. However, this is Mark’s inference, not necessarily Jesus’ purpose. When Jesus and his early Jewish disciples returned to their homeland, they continued to obey Jewish law. Additionally, the New Testament has multiple lines that affirm Jesus as being equal to and divine with God, a concept that is difficult to reconcile with Judaism’s stress on God’s oneness.

Others, such as the “Angel of the Lord,” who appears in Genesis 16, Genesis 22, Exodus 3 (in the burning bush), and other passages, could have seen Jesus as an angel, as did others before him.

Are There Jewish Texts that Reference Jesus?

Yes. Despite the fact that the Jewish historian Josephus mentions Jesus in hisAntiquities of the Jews, the principal reference in his work appears to have been modified and extended by Christian scribes in the first century. Many sources believe that the term “Yeshu” is a reference to Jesus in the Talmud, which has a few references to him. Yeshu the Nazarene was hanged on the eve of Passover, according to the Talmudic tractate Sanhedrin, for the offense of leading Jews astray, according to the original report.

The Toledot Yeshu, written during the medieval period, gave an alternate narrative of Jesus that was in opposition to traditional Christian beliefs.

In his Mishneh Torah, Maimonides sees Jesus as the failed messiah foretold by the prophet Daniel, and as such, he is condemned to death.

We would like to express our gratitude to Amy-Jill Levine, University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences, for her support in the preparation of this piece.

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Christians must understand that for Jews the cross is a symbol of oppression

Neither Jesus nor his disciples were Christians; the term “Christian” was invented later. He was of Jewish descent. His mother was of Jewish descent. He was circumcised in the manner of a Jew. Generally speaking, he adhered to Jewish law, deviating only in the sake of what he perceived to be the Torah’s deeper significance. Towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount, he emphasized that “not one letter, not one stroke of a letter,” would be removed from the law until all was completed. He did, after all, engage in a spirited argument with the Pharisees and Sadducees, particularly over the value of the temple.

• It was, however, originally intended to be an internal dispute inside Judaism, rather than an attack on Jews from the outside.
• So it is a terrible irony that Christianity carries the major blame for antisemitism throughout historical times!
• The only people who had the legal power to crucify someone were the Romans, of course, as it was their hallmark method of dealing with troublemakers.
• How do you explain this disturbing film, which was just released by the evangelical organization Jews for Jesus and has been generally referred to as one of the most insulting religious videos ever produced?
• “Just another Jew,” the guards scoff at the intruder.
• The only appropriate Christian reaction to the Holocaust, as Jews remember Yom HaShoahon Sunday, should be one of repentance and an acknowledgement of the ways in which Christian antisemitism created the theological basis for its ideological grounding.
• His death and burial cover the cost of human sin on our behalf.
• That it converts God into some sort of maniac who murders his own son as a magical means of coping with widespread human wrongdoing is overlooked by them.
• For the Christian theologian, punitive substitution is a mistake for a number of reasons, not least because it denies the resurrection any role in the economy of human redemption.
• While Christians believe that the crucifixion is an unavoidable aspect of human redemption, Jews see it as a symbol of persecution that has lasted for hundreds of years.

This is a situation in which a confession of culpability is the normal and correct Christian response, not a proclamation of theological supremacy. Twitter:@giles fraser

Christian Persecution of Jews over the Centuries — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Many contemporary Jews believe that the horrors of Hitler’s reign were just the culmination of generations of Judenhass persecution (“Jew Hate”). Is this, however, what happened? What if Hitler, Rosenberg, Göring, Himmler, and the rest of the Nazis had pounced on the baptized Christians of Europe when they were at their most vulnerable?

The Earliest Christians

The claim made by Jesus’ disciples that their Master was the one and only true interpretation of the Mosaic Law was not out of the ordinary at the time. The assertion that God had risen him from the dead was what distinguished his disciples from the rest. The majority of Jews were able to take this in humor and, in the early days, without retaliating violently. As Pharisee-oriented Jews were well aware, the resurrection of the just will take place on the Last Day once Elijah’s coming had been proclaimed by the angel Gabriel.

The Jesus Jews were certain that it had been predicted in their people’s sacred writings.

The writings in Greek by ethnic Jews, gathered around 135 AD and eventually known as the New Testament, are the only documented records of the disputes over Jesus that existed in various Jewish communities throughout history.

The Christian writings were produced between 50 and 125 years ago, and they came to be known by the name of the covenant to which they were believed to have testified: a “new” or, better yet, “renewed” covenant (in Latin, but a slightly inaccurate translation of B’rith: Novum Testamentum), which was believed to have been witnessed by them.

• He uses the term “faith” to refer to complete confidence in God as the One who resurrected Jesus from the grave.
• In the Gospel of John, “the Jews” are addressed in a manner that is similar to and much harsher than this.
• Religious discord among Jews after the Holocaust was not unfamiliar territory for hard fighting and harsh language.
• Over the course of a century, one of the two plaintiffs lost his or her Jewish ethnicity.
• Because many Judean Jews were unfamiliar with Jesus, and because most Jews living outside of Israel were unaware of the movement until more than a century had passed, the movement was mostly ignored.

Although this was true, it did not prevent the new, mostly gentile preachers of the Gospel from concluding that the Jews’ lack of reaction was a result of their failure to recognize what they should have learned from their scriptures.

Political Changes

The dramatic shift occurred in the year 380. At this point, Theodosius I declared Christianity to be the official state religion of the Roman Empire. Despite the fact that pagans outnumbered the preferred immigrant at the time, the prior disparity in population between Jews and Christians was a distant memory by that point. However, as a result of this pronouncement, the Jewish position became insecure. However, although no political steps against Jews were taken immediately, the situation did not augur well for Judaism or any other faith apart from Christianity in the long run.

The emperor was forced to back down by Ambrose after a public dispute in his cathedral.

Christ, whom they have crucified and denied, who do you worship?

Peaceful Coexistence and Papal Intervention

There is no existing popular writing that tells us what ordinary Christians in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa believed about Jews and how they behaved toward them throughout the first six hundred years of Christianity’s existence. Due to the fact that they had never rejected their actions, it is likely that it cemented in the common mind the belief that the Jews had crucified Jesus and that their descendants held inherited guilt for the atrocity. Given the fact that heathen worship was the shared adversary, it is reasonable to assume that Jews and Christians coexisted amicably on a local level during the Middle Ages.

1. Unsurprisingly, he supports their conversion to Christianity, but he also insists that they be treated fairly under Roman law.
2. The papal communication was, for the most part, supportive of Jewish rights, but still maintaining their subservient place in the society in which they lived.
3. Meanwhile, the expulsion of Jews from Europe was underway; it began in France under King Dagobert (626) and continued under the Spanish monarchy—with church collaboration—when the Jews were forced to choose between baptism and servitude in 694.
4. The one-of-a-kind aspect was that the Christians came to the incorrect conclusion early on that the Jews were being divinely punished for not having converted to their way of thinking.
5. From 500 to 1500, the Jews were a religious and cultural minority who were frequently preyed upon by the Christian majority, following a well-known sociological pattern during the time of their persecution.
6. At the same time as severe infringements of Jewish rights are condemned, constraints on their ability to fully participate in society are imposed on them.

In spite of this, as many Jewish historians have pointed out, these infringements of civil and social liberty never reached the point of eradicating the Jewish people from the planet entirely—a scary first from the Nazi period, to say the least.

The Medieval Era

Once they had enjoyed a few decades of relative independence during the Carolingian period (800-1000), the Jews of western Europe began to experience fresh indignities as the Crusades progressed farther into history. In the attempted recovery of the holy sites in Palestine, the Muslims were designated as “infidels” by the Israelis. The looting and killing committed by Christian mobs against Jews along the road, on the other hand, will live on in Jewish memory for a long time. Several indignities were heaped upon the Jews of Germany following the Crusades, including charges of poisoning the wells and ritual murder, among other things.

• Many German Jews fled eastward, carrying with them a specific dialect (Jüdisch, ergo Yiddish), which was perhaps derived from Bavarians, which they brought with them.
• Lower or elementary school (heder) and Talmudic academy (yeshiva) were located everywhere in Poland, and autonomous systems of Jewish communal administration (the kahal) thrived there as well.
• The preceding centuries were unquestionably the pinnacle of Jewish intellectual life in Europe, which only served to highlight the tragedy of more recent Polish anti-Semitism in the country.
• Catherine the Great, who was born in Germany, reigned from 1725 to 1796 and was known as the “Great Empress.” Nevertheless, she relocated them to a piece of land as a means of keeping them out of economic jobs and the professions.
• Many an older Jew in the United States has heard vivid stories from grandparents about harsh measures in the old country, including the necessity of locking oneself in one’s house on Good Friday to protect one’s family from marauding ruffians during Passover.
• When nothing of the kind occurred, he slammed them in a series of pamphlets written in a vituperative rage that he distributed.

The early, positive “That Christ Was Born a Jew” was published in 1523, but after turning against this so-called “damned, rejected race,” he composed the works Against the Sabbatarians (1538) and On the Jews and Their Lies (1539). (1543).

European antiSemitism after 1800

It is common to hear anti-Semitism described in terms of theological motivations, such as those of Poles, Germans, Russians, and others, against Jews in the patristic and medieval tradition. Nevertheless, anti-Jewish feeling in Catholic and Protestant Europe, which was itself becoming progressively secularized from the early nineteenth century onward, had other, no less mythological, origins. Anti-Semitism is the right phrase for this type of behavior. Its intended audience was people of Jewish descent.

1. Demagogues, on the other hand, were only too delighted to use the old Christian language of anti-Judaism to further their own political objectives.
2. It also inherited the same heinous legacy of anti-Jewish feeling as the rest of Christian Europe.
3. Hitler took advantage of the fact that Jews had been prominent supporters of the Republic and that a number of them had been among the authors of its constitution, a fact that Hitler exploited.
4. However, while some prominent capitalist families, both gentile and Jewish, were able to avoid the worst of the consequences, the angered people focused its attention on Jews rather than on gentiles.

Summary

It has been speculated that there was a direct link between anti-Semitic texts in the New Testament and the death chambers at Auschwitz. Most likely not. The route was a long and winding one, commencing about 150 with gentile misinterpretations of the intense intra-Jewish debate contained within those books. Theological anti-Judaism on the part of the Church fathers, which was repeated repeatedly in medieval and Renaissance-Reformation preaching, was the much bigger perpetrator in the persecution of Jews.

However, because the Church’s preaching and catechizing had long affected the common mentality, a new phenomena, contemporary anti-Semitism, was able to emerge as a result of this influence.

According to Catholics, statements such as Section 4 of the Vatican II statement on non-Christian religions (Nostra Aetate, October 1965), which exonerated Jews throughout history of the charge of deicide (“killing God”) and warned Catholics against believing that anything in their scriptures taught that Jews were a people cursed or rejected, are examples of what they mean.

Such documentation is necessary, but it is ineffectual unless it is communicated from the pulpit as well as included in church publications and educational resources.

Visitors to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and other Nazi-era exhibitions frequently express surprise, asking, “Why hasn’t anybody told us about these things?” It is possible that decades of education and prayer will be required to undo the damage done by two millennia of human history.

At the very least, the Christian communions have made a start. The full text of Gerald S. Sloyan’s essay is available for download (PDF)

Why Jews Don’t Believe In Jesus, why Jews reject Jesus

Jews have been rejecting the Christian notion of Jesus as the promised Messiah for more than 2,000 years. Why? “Why don’t Jews believe in Jesus?” is one of the most often asked questions we hear here at Aish.com. Let’s take a look at why – not to discredit other religions, but rather to clarify the Jewish viewpoint on the matter. Jews do not recognize Jesus as the messiah for the following reasons:

1. Jesus did not bring about the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies
2. In fact, Jesus did not possess the personal qualifications for being the Messiah. Verse in the Bible that are “referring” to Jesus are mistranslations. Jewish belief is founded on the revelation of the nation

But first, some background information: What is the Messiah’s actual identity? Mashiach is a Hebrew term that literally translates as “anointed.” The word “Messiah” is an English translation of the Hebrew wordMashiach, which literally translates as “anointed.” It is most commonly used to refer to a person who has been anointed with oil and therefore introduced into God’s ministry. Exodus 29:7, 1 Kings 1:39, 2 Kings 9:3; 1 Kings 1:39; 2 Kings 9:3;

(1) Jesus Did Not Fulfill the Messianic Prophecies

What is it that the Messiah is expected to achieve? In biblical prophecy, one of the most important themes is the promise of a future period of perfection, marked by worldwide peace and the acceptance of God as Creator. (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) (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 He will, according to the Bible, do the following:

1. Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28)
2. Bring all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6)
3. And bring all nations back to the Land of Israel. Bring about a new period of world peace by putting an end to all forms of hatred, oppression, suffering, and sickness. “Country shall not pick up sword against nation, nor shall man study war any longer,” the Bible declares. (See Isaiah 2:4) Disseminate worldwide knowledge of the God of Israel, which will bring all of mankind together as an one family. According to Zechariah 14:9, “God will reign as King over all the earth — on that day, God will be One, and His Name will be One” (God will be One, and His Name will be One).

If a person does to meet any one of these requirements, he or she cannot be considered the Messiah. Because no one has ever come close to fulfilling the Bible’s depiction of this future King, Jews continue to look forward to the Messiah’s arrival. All previous Messianic claimants, including Jesus of Nazareth, Bar Cochba, and Shabbtai Tzvi, have been disqualified from the position of Messiah. Christians argue that Jesus will fulfill these prophecies at the Second Coming of Christ. According to Jewish sources, the Messiah will completely fulfill the predictions; the Bible does not mention a second coming of the Messiah at all.

(2) Jesus Did Not Embody the Personal Qualifications of Messiah

The Messiah will surpass Moses as the greatest prophet in history, and he will be the greatest prophet of all time. In accordance with Targum (Isaiah 11:2; Maimonides – Teshuva 9:2), Prophecy can only exist in Israel if the country is occupied by a majority of world Jewry, which has not been the case since 300 BCE, and it has not been since then. Prophecy came to an end during the reign of Ezra, when the bulk of Jews remained in Babylon, with the deaths of the last prophets — Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi – marking the end of the Old Testament.

B. Descendant of David

In a number of prophetic prophecies, it is said that a descendant of King David will rule Israel during the era of perfection. It is necessary for the Messiah to be descended on his father’s side from King David, as stated in the Scriptures (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). (see Genesis 49:10, Isaiah 11:1, Jeremiah 23:5, 33:17; Ezekiel 34:23-24). As a result of the Christian belief that Jesus was born of a virgin, he did not have a father — and so could not have conceivably met the messianic criteria of being descended on his father’s side from the patriarch David.

The Messiah will be born of human parents and have regular physical characteristics like the rest of us, according to Jewish tradition. He will not be a demi-god (2), nor will he have any superhuman abilities or characteristics.

C. Torah Observance

The Jewish people shall be led by the Messiah to complete Torah compliance in their lives. According to the Torah, all mitzvot are eternally binding, and anybody who seeks to modify the Torah is immediately labeled as a false prophet and excommunicated. (Deuteronomy 13:1-4) Throughout the Christian “New Testament,” Jesus declares that the Torah is no longer valid and that its prohibitions are no longer applicable to the Christian faith. To give an example, John 9:14 tells that Jesus prepared a paste in violation of Shabbat, prompting the Pharisees to declare (in verse 16), “He does not keep Shabbat!”

(3) Mistranslated Verses “Referring” to Jesus

It is only through close examination of the original Hebrew text that biblical verses can be understood – and this examination reveals numerous inconsistencies in the Christian translation.

A. Virgin Birth

According to Christian tradition, the concept of virgin birth derives from the biblical passage Isaiah 7:14, which describes a “alma” giving birth. The word “alma” has traditionally been used to refer to a young lady, but Christian theologians came along centuries later and changed it to mean “virgin” instead. This is consistent with the pagan concept of people being pregnant by gods that was prevalent in the first century.

B. Suffering Servant

As the “suffering servant,” Christianity asserts that Isaiah chapter 53 alludes to Jesus as the “Savior.” In truth, the topic of Isaiah 52 is carried over into chapter 53, which describes the exile and redemption of the Jewish people in Babylon. Because the Jews (“Israel”) are viewed as a single entity, the predictions are written in the singular form of the Hebrew language. Throughout Jewish scripture, Israel is referred to as the “Servant of God” on a number of occasions, and in the singular (see Isaiah 43:8).

When properly interpreted, Isaiah 53 plainly alludes to the Jewish people as having been “bruised, crushed, and like sheep carried to slaughter” by the nations of the earth, as well as other things.

When the Jewish people are redeemed, according to Isaiah 53, the nations will acknowledge and bear responsibility for the excruciating sorrow and death that they have caused the Jews throughout history.

(4) Jewish Belief is Based Solely on National Revelation

A person’s endeavor to convince others that he or she is the authentic prophet of God has resulted in the founding of hundreds of religious organizations throughout history. Personal revelation, on the other hand, is a shaky foundation for a religion because it is impossible to know whether or not it is accurate. Because no one else was there when God spoke to this individual, they must take his word for what he said. A person claiming personal revelation may accomplish miracles, but this does not always establish him or her as a legitimate prophet.

1. It has absolutely nothing to do with his prophetic claims.
2. 13:4).
3. If God is going to create a religion, it only seems reasonable that He will notify everyone about it, rather than just a few select individuals.
4. All of Moses’ miracles in the wilderness were accomplished because they were required, rather than as confirmation of his prophesy as some have claimed.
5. The Revelation on Mount Sinai, which we witnessed with our own eyes and heard with our own ears, rather than relying on the testimony of others, was a powerful experience.
6. The Torah also teaches that “God did not establish this covenant with our forebears, but with us — who are all still living today” (God did not create this agreement with our forefathers).

(Deuteronomy 5:3) Judaism does not believe in miracles. Everyone who stood on Mount Sinai 3,300 years ago had a firsthand eyewitness account of what they were witnessing. Read on for more information: “Did God Speak at Mount Sinai?”

Waiting for the Messiah

Messianic redemption is desperately needed across the world. Our need for redemption will be heightened to the extent that we are conscious of the difficulties that face our society. According to the Talmud, one of the first questions asked of a Jew on Judgment Day is: “Did you long for the coming of the Messiah?” What steps might we take to speed the arrival of the Messiah? The most effective method is to love all of mankind unconditionally, to observe the commandments of the Torah (to the best of our ability), and to urge others to do so as well.

One visible proof is that the Jewish people have returned to the Land of Israel and have re-established its agricultural production.

The Messiah might appear at any time, and everything is dependent on our deeds.

Because, as King David proclaims, “Redemption will come today – if you would just heed to His voice.” For more research:

• “Jews for Judaism” is an acronym that stands for Jews for Judaism “”The Real Messiah” by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
• “Let’s Get Biblical! ” by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
• “Let’s Get Biblical! What is it about the Christian Messiah that Judaism does not accept?” by Rabbi Tovia Singer
• “Path of the Righteous Gentile” by Chaim Clorfene and Yakov Rogalsky
• And “Path of the Righteous Jew” by Chaim Clorfene and Yakov Rogalsky

FOOTNOTES

(1) In response, it is asserted that Joseph adopted Jesus and via adoption passed on his ancestry to his children. However, there are two issues with this claim: a) There is no scriptural foundation for the concept of a father handing along his tribe line through adoption. A priest who adopts a son from another tribe does not have the authority to elevate him to the position of priest. b) Joseph would never be able to give on via adoption what he does not already possess. Because Joseph was descended from Jeconiah (Matthew 1:11), he was subjected to the curse of that monarch, which decreed that none of his descendants would ever sit on the throne of David (Matthew 1:12).

1. In spite of the fact that Jeconiah repented, as recounted in Talmud Sanhedrin 37a and elsewhere, it is not apparent from the early sources whether or not his repentance was accepted to the extent that the royal line persisted through him.
2. In this case, there are four major issues with the claim: The existence of Mary as a descendant of David has not been established.
3. b) Even if Mary can trace her ancestors back to David, this is of little use to Jesus, because tribal identity is only established through the father, not the mother.
4. Mary did not come from a legitimate messianic family, even if the familial line could be traced down to her mother.
5. The third chapter of Luke is irrelevant to this issue since it covers the ancestry of David’s son Nathan, not Solomon, and hence is not relevant to this discussion.
6. In addition, these two individuals are mentioned in Matthew 1:12 as descendants of the doomed Jeconiah.
7. In his “Guide for the Perplexed,” Maimonides spends a significant portion of his writings to the fundamental premise that God is incorporeal, which means that He takes on no bodily form.
8. He is limitless and exists beyond of time and space.

Saying that God takes on human form reduces God to a little and insignificant figure, undermining both His oneness and divinity. As the Torah states, “God is not mortal” (God is not mortal) (Numbers 23:19). Thank you to Rabbi Michael Skobac of Jews for Judaism for his assistance.

Perspective

During the Jewish Sabbath this past week, a white-nationalist terrorist opened fire on worshipers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, killing 11 people in what has been dubbed “the worst attack on Jewish people in American history.” Unfortunately, at a time when it appears as though more violence and terror are being perpetrated in this country on a weekly basis, we should not allow the news cycle to pass without taking a critical look at what this incident implies for us as Christians.

• In light of a globe rife with resurgent “blood-and-soil” ethno-nationalism, most of it is anti-Semitic in origin, this is especially true.
• This reality should be communicated emphatically to anybody who would claim the title “Christian”: If you hate Jews, you hate Jesus.
• Especially while this should be self-evident, global history, and even church history, demonstrate that this is not the case.
• “Remember that Jesus was Jewish,” I’ve heard Christians repeat on several occasions.
• Jesus is alive and well, and he is seated on the throne of God in heaven.
• This implies that he is still and always will be a human being.
• He has always been and will continue to be a Galilean.

Jesus is a Jew, and he lives in the present tense.

Jesus is descended from Abraham.

He is a descendant of the House of David.

His priesthood, despite the fact that he is not a member of the tribe of Levi, is established as genuine because of Melchizedek, the priest’s connection to Abraham.

As Christians, we are all adopted into a Jewish family and into the story of the Israelites, regardless of our religious affiliation.

It’s for this reason that the New Testament may speak to gentile Christians as if the tale of their own predecessors were the account told in the Old Testament books, and vice versa.

In Christ, we are united with him, regardless of our ethnic heritage or nationality.

An attack on the Jewish people is an attack on all of us, whether we are Jews or not.

You’ll note that the way they describe something is in contradiction to the way another group defines it.

“European white identity,” as defined in terms of “Christendom,” is often what they are referring to.

Such individuals have been around for a long time.

A Bible that has had its Jewishness stripped from it is not a Bible.

The fact that we can’t even speak his name, “Jesus,” or “Yahweh saves” without being confronted with the fact that our Lord is Jewish is a source of constant frustration.

Every time there is a terrorist incident, we are moved to tears.

However, we must make it crystal clear that those who perpetrate such heinous atrocities against the Jewish people are committing an attack on the image of God, as well as an attack on Jesus as the son of Adam.

It’s not only that you’re targeting a synagogue’s rabbi; you’re also attacking our rabbi as well.

If you despise Jews, you despise Jesus. A Southern Baptist minister, Russell Moore serves as head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which serves as the policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention. Russell Moore’s website, russellmoore.com, is where this story initially appeared.

How to avoid anti-Judaism this Easter

Jesus of Nazareth, who has been accused of sedition by the Roman authorities, is crucified on a Roman cross. However, Jews – as a group, all Jews — came to be referred to as “Christ murderers.” The impact of that allegation, which is still troubling people today, becomes most obvious during Holy Week, when pastors and priests who speak about the killing of Jesus are forced to bring up the subject of “the Jews.” Every year, the same problem arises: how can a gospel of love be preached while the same gospel is being used to incite hatred against Jesus’ own people?

It is impossible to read the New Testament without being confronted with accusations against “the Jews.” “Let him be crucified.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter accuses “the entire house of Israel” (Acts 2:36) of blaming Pilate for forcing him

Excision

In the first instance, excision is recommended: take a pair of scissors to the objectionable paragraphs — or, in today’s jargon, hit “Delete” — and remove them. When Howard Thurmond was growing up, he heard his grandmother tell him about how the plantation preacher would always preach, “Slaves, be submissive to your masters,” and how she made the decision that even if she learned to read, she would never read that section of the Bible. The narrative has evolved into the usual sermon illustration that Thurman’s grandmother, once free and literate, cut up the text with a pair of scissors and read it aloud.

The destruction of a text that is regarded sacrosanct, on the other hand, sounds excessive to me.

Furthermore, if we individually create our own canons, we destroy the concept of community.

In the case of 1 Thessalonians 2:14b-16, for example, scholars frequently assert that Paul did not write it because it is inconsistent with his positive remarks about Jews (such as “They are Israelites,” “They are the covenant people,” “They are the covenant people,” “They are the covenant people,” “They are the covenant people,” “They are the covenant people,” and “They are the covenant people.” In the case of 1 Thessalonians 2:14b-16, scholars frequently assert that Paul did not It is also possible to eliminate the objectionable section from the letter without affecting the overall rhetorical flow.

For the same reason, many academics contend that Jesus’ invectives in the gospels do not originate with the man from Nazareth, but rather with the later church, which was in conflict with local synagogues at the time.

There is a possibility that Paul has altered his opinion; Jesus would not be the first Jew to be critical of his own people.

It is founded on the words of the Bible as they have been understood by the Christian community. As a result, Christians are forced to cope with those remarks.

Retranslate

The second approach is to retranslate, which is sometimes known as bowdlerizing. To give an example, some “progressive” translations of the Gospel of John translate the passage as denouncing not Jews but “Judeans,” “Jewishleaders,” “religiousleaders,” or simply “leaders,” rather than the term “Jews.” In many cases, such translations are well-intentioned; for example, at least the term “Judean” is a genuine translation of the Greek termIoudaeoi. However, to replace the term “Jews” in the New Testament with another phrase is to create ajudenreintext — a text that has been “purified” of Jewish references.

Politically correct translations, as a result, are not always biblically trustworthy translations.

Romanticise

Not “the Jews,” but “all of mankind,” is the religious response to the question “Who murdered Jesus?”. This is a fantastic spot to get things started. The dilemma, on the other hand, is that people who identify as “Jews” on Good Friday later identify as “Christians” after being redeemed on Sunday morning. The Jews, by refusing to acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Saviour, continue to bear the burden of their sin. The same romantic attitude is most illustrated now in the celebration of the Passoverseder churches, which takes place on Holy Thursday, as it did in the past.

• According to John’s gospel, which at this time has stronger claims to historicity than the other gospels, it is not apparent that the Last Supper was a Passover dinner. Jesus did not partake of matzohball soup or gefilte fish, sing Dayenu, or say “next year in Jerusalem” — thesederwould have consisted of a lamb sacrificed in the Temple and eaten in Jerusalem, not a brisket cooked in Nashville
• And thesederwould have included a lamb sacrificed in the Temple and eaten in Jerusalem, not a lamb sacrificed in Nashville. It was only Jews who could participate in the Passover at the time of Jesus because they had to proclaim, “My forefathers came out out of Egypt.” Because Jesus is the Passover offering in John’s gospel, and because he was killed at the same time that the lambs are slain in the temple, celebrating the Passover as a church would be theologically regressive.

In addition to being historically compromised, the Christian faith is also a source of contention in interreligious interactions. Messiahic Jewish scholars today say that the holes on thematzah (which have only been there since the baking ofmatzoh by machine, by the way) depict Jesus’ wounds; theafikomen, thematzoh that is concealed until dessert, represents Jesus’ corpse in the tomb; and so forth. Baptizing Jewish symbols in Christian terms is not a very significant step forward in terms of interfaith sensitivity.

Rather than bringing shame on the community, the performance serves to exonerate them: how could they be anti-Semitic if they are participating in something so Jewish as hosting a Passoverseder?

Allegorise

Lastly, there is the option of allegorizing, which is to declare that the text does not truly imply what it says. For example, we interpret Matthew’s blood-cry (27:15) not as a self-curse, but rather as a plea for redemption: the people are paradoxically pleading to be redeemed by Jesus’ blood in order to be saved from themselves.

While this method theologically redeems the passage, it also implies that the Jewish audience desired and required this redemption, implying that Judaism is ineffectual if it is not combined with the Christian message. Jews are transformed into crypto-Christians as a result of this decision.

Historicise

It is possible to allegorize, which means to declare that the text does not actually imply what it says. In Matthew’s blood-cry (27:15), for example, we don’t see it as a self-curse, but rather as a plea for redemption: the people are, paradoxically, pleading to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Theologically, this method of reclaiming the verse shows that the Jewish audience desired and required this reclaiming, and that Judaism is ineffectual when separated from the Christian message. Jews are transformed into crypto-Christians as a result of this migration.

Admit the problem

Finally, we arrive at our sixth option: admitting that there is a problem and dealing with it. There are a variety of approaches that congregations might use to dealing with challenging texts. Include a message in service bulletins to indicate the harm that has been caused by the texts. Silently or in hushed tones, read the difficult texts aloud. Inviting Jews from today to testify about how the scriptures have harmed them would be beneficial. If there is a Jewish kid in the front row, those who read the difficult verses from the pulpit should be extra cautious: don’t say anything that would damage this child, and don’t say anything that might cause another member of the congregation to injure this child.

Christians who hear the gospels during Holy Week should not be surprised if they hear a message of anti-Semitism, any more than Jews who read the Book of Esther on Purim should be offended by Persians, or Jews who celebrate Theder and relive the time when “we were slaves in Egypt” should be offended by Egyptians.

In the wake of two thousand years of hostility, Jews and Christians can now recover and even celebrate our common history, locate Jesus and his earliest followers within rather than over and against Judaism, and live into the time when, as both synagogue and church proclaim, we can love G-d and our neighbor.

She is also the Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University.