Introduction/Thesis
Christians believe that the Jewish people do not accept Christ as the Messiah because they are waiting for a political leader rather than a spiritual one. The Jewish people do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah because he does not fulfill all of the requirements. This paper will discuss the differences between the two beliefs.
Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah because fulfills the criteria that was laid out in the Bible. This criterion was dominated by the fact that Jesus said that he was the Messiah. In John 4:25-26, when a woman told him that she knew the Messiah was coming he said to her that it was him. It was his claim that he was the Messiah that allowed his followers to view him in light of the evidence.
According to Bible, Jesus fulfills all of the criterion in that he (1) was born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). Joseph and Mary traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem which was the town where the house of David originated (2) he was born of the tribe of Judea, in the house of David. Joseph was a direct descendent of David (Jeremiah 23:5) (3) He will be born of a virgin. Mary who was a virgin, conceived a child from the Holy Spirit/ God (Isaiah 7:14) (4) He will be sold for thirty pieces of silver. Judas betrayed Jesus to Herod for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12) (5) Children will be slaughtered at the time of his birth. When Herod heard from the Magi that the Messiah had been born. He had all of the male children two years and under slaughtered. This is known as the Slaughter of the Innocents (Jeremiah 31:15).
The Jewish people do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah for the following reason. He did not fulfill the prophecies put forth in the old testament. These prophecies include (1) building a third temple (Jeremiah 33:18). Jesus was alive during the time that the temple was still standing (2) The Messiah will save the Israelites. After Jesus death the temple of Jerusalem was demolished when the city of Jerusalem was destroyed. This lead to the Jews being in exile for 1900 years (3) uniting all Jews in the land of Israel (Isaiah 11:10-12) uniting the world under the belief in God. This is the idea that Israel will not only be a land that is free from anyone that is not a Jew, but also that Israel will be the center of a world government. Jesus did not fulfill any of these prophecies for the Jewish people and if a Messiah is unable to fulfill even one of these tenets, he is not the Messiah. Christians argue that these will be fulfilled at the Second Coming, but in the Bible the idea of second coming does not exist.
According to the Jewish people Jesus does not live up, to many of the qualities that are supposed to identify the Messiah. (1) The Messiah is a Prophet. According to Jewish belief Israel is only able to have prophecy when the majority of the world’s Jews live in Israel. This only occurred at the time of Ezra and ended in the time of the prophet Malachi. Jesus was born around 350 years later, so this means that he cannot be a prophet (2) Descended from the line of David. This is a catch-22 scenario when it comes to Christian and Jewish faiths. If Jesus was born to a virgin and had no earthly father, then he could not have been from the line of David as the Jewish faith does not include adopted children in the line of succession. On the other hand, if Jesus is born of both a human mother and father, then he does not fulfill the criteria of being Messiah according to Christianity. (3) Jesus is not the Messiah because he sought to change the Torah and even claimed that some of its laws were no longer applicable. This is in contradiction the belief that the Messiah would be a strict observer or the Torah Laws.
Christians believe that every prophecy that Jesus did not satisfy while he was on earth will be something that he fulfills when he returns. Jews, who do not believe that the Messiah has ever been here because no one has satisfied the requirements of the prophecy are waiting for the man who does. That is another difference between Christianity and Judaism. Christians believe that Jesus is both the son of God and God in human form. This goes against the Torah which states “God is not a mortal” (Numbers 23:19). As the Jews do not believe that the Messiah will be a demi-god. They also do not believe that he will be the subject of any miraculous events, such as a virgin birth, or resurrection which are the two ideas that Christianity is based on.
The Jewish people also do not believe that the Messiah is a part of God. In fact, this is in direct contradiction to the Jewish faith. Jewish people believe that God is one "Hear O Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is ONE" (Deut. 6:4). This means that he cannot be broken up into three parts as Christians do with the Trinity, which consists of the father, son and holy ghost. He is not divine or the key to salvation. This idea is equated with idolatry in the Jewish faith as they feel that only God can provide them with salvation. In the Jewish faith the Messiah is just a normal man
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