Teach the Controversy: Question Belief!
Was Jesus Christ the Jewish Messiah?
Abstract
© Dr M D Magee
Contents Updated: Friday, July 30, 1999
September 2004
Messianic Characteristics
Over a billion Christians are convinced a Jew called Jesus was the messiah, but Jews disagree. Since the Christian concept of a messiah came from Judaism, surely the Jews ought to know what the criteria of messiahdom are. They say the scriptures are clear about it. Biblical messianic prophecy says the messiah would:
- be descended on his father’s side from king David (Gen 49:10; Isa 11:1)—Jesus was not,
- build the third temple (Ezek 37:26-28),
- gather all Jews back to Israel (Isa 43:5-6),
- promote the Torah commandments—anyone who wants to change them is a false prophet (Dt 13:1-4)—Jesus is a false prophet (Jn 1:45; 9:16, Acts 3:22; 7:37),
- begin an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease—“Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore” (Isa 2:4),
- spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel to unite humanity—“God will be king over all the world—on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One” (Zech 14:9).
Jesus has not done any of this, but Christians are waiting for the second coming of Christ for it all to happen. It has been coming soon for the last 2000 years but something like a hundred generations of Christians have died waitung for this imminent event. One wonders when they will begin to think they have been gulled. The Jews, of course, sensibly reject any idea of an imminent second comming that is still imminent after 2000 years. They say the Jewish scriptures have nothing to say about a second coming. The idea was invented by Christians because the messiah did not fulfil the appropriate scriptural prophecies at his first attempt, but instead got hung on a tree, quite the wrong thing for any messiah to do, Jews think.
Then Jesus said:
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
But the Jewish scriptures say:
God is near to all who call unto Him (Ps 145:18).
For Jews, prayer is a private matter between each person and God, and no mediator is needed or even allowed. The Ten Commandments say:
You shall have no other gods before me.
Christians use the sophistry of identifying the son of God with his father God, but none of it cuts any ice for Jews who believe the Shema so strongly that they say it daily and write it on doorposts as Mezuzah, and bind it on arm and head as Tefillin.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord (Dt 6:4):
Why do the Christians ignore the Jewish arguments? If they think their God is the Hebrew God, what is wrong with them all converting to Judaism? They would still worship the same God but would simply have abandoned the idea of a second coming, an idea that always seemed a hostage to fortune, and that bishops and baptist ministers keep having to assure the faithful will be soon! What odds are the bookies offering on it being soon—say in the next generation? It will be a good bet to take the odds against, although the winnings might be negligible, one suspects.
