Adherents of

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

do not believe that

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

Nazareth Nazareth is the largest Cities in Israel, city in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. In its population was . Known as "the Arab capital of Israel", Nazareth serves as a cultural, political, religious, economic and ...

was the Messiah or

Prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

nor do they believe he was the Son of God. In the Jewish perspective, it is believed that the way Christians see Jesus goes against

monotheism Monotheism is the belief that one God is the only, or at least the dominant deity.F. L. Cross, Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. A ...

, a belief in the absolute unity and singularity of God, which is central to Judaism; Judaism sees the worship of a person as a form of idolatry, which is forbidden. Therefore, considering Jesus

divine Divinity (from Latin ) refers to the quality, presence, or nature of that which is divine—a term that, before the rise of monotheism, evoked a broad and dynamic field of sacred power. In the ancient world, divinity was not limited to a singl ...

, as “ God the Son”, is forbidden. Judaism's

rejection of Jesus There are a number of episodes in the New Testament in which Jesus was social rejection, rejected. Jesus is rejected in Judaism as a failed Jewish messiah claimant and a false prophet by all denominations of Judaism. New Testament Hometown rej ...

as the Messiah is based on

Jewish eschatology Jewish eschatology is the area of Jewish philosophy, Jewish theology concerned with events that will happen in the Eschatology, end of days and related concepts. This includes the ingathering of the exiled Jewish diaspora, diaspora, the coming ...

, which holds that the coming of the true Messiah will be associated with events that have not yet occurred, such as building the Third Temple, a

Messianic Age In Abrahamic religions, the Messianic Age () is the future eternal period of time on Earth in which the messiah will reign and bring universal peace and brotherhood, without any evil (through mankind's own terms). Many believe that there will be s ...

of peace, and the ingathering of Jews to their homeland. Judaism does not accept any of the claimed fulfilments of prophecy that Christianity attributes to Jesus.

Background

The belief that Jesus is

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

, the Son of God, or a person of the

Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...

, is incompatible with Jewish theology. Jews believe Jesus did not fulfill messianic prophecies that establish the criteria for the coming of the Messiah.Rabbi Shraga Simmons, ,
"Why Jews Don't Believe in Jesus"
Ohr Samayach - ''Ask the Rabbi'', accessed March 14, 2006
"Why don't Jews believe that Jesus was the messiah?"
, AskMoses.com, accessed March 14, 2006. Judaism does not accept Jesus as a divine being, an intermediary between humans and God, a messiah, or holy. Belief in the Trinity is also held to be incompatible with Judaism, as are a number of other tenets of Christianity.

Jewish theology

Oneness and indivisibility of God

In Judaism, the idea of God as a duality or trinity is heretical – it is even considered by some polytheistic. According to Judaic beliefs, the

Torah The Torah ( , "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Torah is also known as the Pentateuch () ...

rules out a trinitarian God in

Deuteronomy Deuteronomy (; ) is the fifth book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called () which makes it the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. Chapters 1–30 of the book consist of three sermons or speeches delivered to ...

(6:4): "Hear Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD is one." Judaism teaches that it is heretical for any man to claim to be God, part of God, or the literal son of God. The Jerusalem Talmud states explicitly: "If a man claims to be God, he is a liar." Paul Johnson, in his book ''A History of the Jews'', describes the schism between Jews and Christians caused by a divergence from this principle:

To the question, Was Jesus God or man?, the Christians therefore answered: both. After 70 AD, their answer was unanimous and increasingly emphatic. This made a complete breach with Judaism inevitable.

In the 12th century, the preeminent Jewish scholar

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

codified core principles of Modern Judaism, writing " od the Cause of all, is one. This does not mean one as in one of a pair, nor one like a species (which encompasses many individuals), nor one as in an object that is made up of many elements, nor as a single simple object that is infinitely divisible. Rather, God is a unity unlike any other possible unity." Some Orthodox Jewish scholars note that the common poetic Jewish expression, "Our Father in Heaven", was used literally by Jesus to refer to God as "his Father in Heaven" (cf. Lord's Prayer).

God is not corporeal

Maimonides' 13 principles of faith includes the concept that God has no body and that physical concepts do not apply to him. In the "

Yigdal Yigdal () is a Religious Jewish music, Jewish hymn which in various rituals shares with ''Adon Olam'' the place of honor at the opening of the morning and the close of the evening service. It is based on the Maimonides#Thirteen principles of faith, ...

" prayer, found towards the beginning of the Jewish prayer books used in synagogues around the world, it states "He has no semblance of a body nor is He corporeal". It is a central tenet of Judaism that God does not have any physical characteristics; that God's essence cannot be fathomed.

Jesus as the Jewish Messiah

Judaism's idea of the messiah differs substantially from the Christian idea of the Messiah. In orthodox

Rabbinic Judaism Rabbinic Judaism (), also called Rabbinism, Rabbinicism, Rabbanite Judaism, or Talmudic Judaism, is rooted in the many forms of Judaism that coexisted and together formed Second Temple Judaism in the land of Israel, giving birth to classical rabb ...

the messiah's task is to bring in the Messianic Age, a one-time event, and a presumed messiah who is killed before completing the task (i.e. compelling all of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

to walk in the way of Torah, repairing the breaches in observance, fighting the wars of God, building the Temple in its place, gathering in the dispersed exiles of Israel) is not the messiah. Maimonides states, Jews believe that the messiah will fulfill the messianic prophecies of the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. Nachmanides in his dispute with Pablo Christiani in 1263 paragraph 49. Simmons, Rabbi Shraga
"Why Jews Don't Believe in Jesus"
, accessed March 14, 2006."Why Jews Don't Believe in Jesus"
Ohr Samayach - ''Ask the Rabbi'', accessed March 14, 2006."Why don't Jews believe that Jesus was the messiah?"
, AskMoses.com, accessed March 14, 2006. Judaism interprets Isaiah 11:1 ("And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a twig shall grow forth out of his roots.") to mean that the messiah will be a patrilineal bloodline descendant of King David. He is expected to return the Jews to their homeland and rebuild the Temple, reign as king, and usher in an era of peace and understanding where "the knowledge of

" fills the earth, leading the nations to "end up recognizing the wrongs they did Israel". Ezekiel states the messiah will redeem the Jews. The Jewish view of Jesus is influenced by the fact that Jesus lived while the

Second Temple The Second Temple () was the Temple in Jerusalem that replaced Solomon's Temple, which was destroyed during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. It was constructed around 516 BCE and later enhanced by Herod ...

was standing, and not during an exile. Being conceived via the Holy Spirit (as espoused by orthodox Christian doctrine), it would be impossible for Jesus to be a patrilineal bloodline descendant of King David. He never reigned as king, and there was no subsequent era of peace or great knowledge. Jesus died without completing or even accomplishing part of any of the messianic tasks, which Christians say will occur at a

Second Coming The Second Coming (sometimes called the Second Advent or the Parousia) is the Christianity, Christian and Islam, Islamic belief that Jesus, Jesus Christ will return to Earth after his Ascension of Jesus, ascension to Heaven (Christianity), Heav ...

. Rather than being redeemed, the Jews were subsequently exiled from Judaea, and the Temple destroyed (as of yet it has not been rebuilt). These discrepancies were noted by Jewish scholars who were contemporaries of Jesus, as later pointed out by Nachmanides, who in 1263 observed that Jesus was rejected as the messiah by the rabbis of his time. Moreover, Judaism sees Christian claims that Jesus is the textual messiah of the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Jewish Messiah qualifications.

Prophecy and Jesus

According to the

( and ), the criteria for a person to be considered a

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

or speak for God in Judaism are that he must follow the God of Israel (and no other god); he must not describe God differently from how he is known to be from Scripture; he must not advocate change to God's word or state that God has changed his mind and wishes things that contradict his already-stated eternal word. There is no concept of the Messiah "fulfilling the law" to free the Israelites from their duty to maintain the '' mitzvot'' in Judaism, as is understood in much of Christianity or some Messianic Judaism. Deuteronomy 13:1 says, "Be careful to observe only that which I enjoin upon you; neither add to it nor take away from it."Frankel, Rabbi Pinchas
"Covenant of History"
Orthodox Union of Jewish Congregations of America, accessed March 14, 2006.Edwards, Laurence
"Torat Hayim - Living Torah: No Rest(s) for the Wicked"
, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, accessed March 14, 2006. Even if someone who appears to be a prophet can perform supernatural acts or signs, no prophet or dreamer can contradict the laws already stated in the Tanakh. Buchwald, Rabbi Ephraim
"Parashat Re'eh 5764-2004: Identifying a True Prophet"
, National Jewish Outreach Program, accessed March 14, 2006 Thus, any divergence espoused by Jesus from the tenets of scriptural Judaism would disqualify him from being considered a prophet in Judaism. This was the view adopted by Jesus' contemporaries, as according to rabbinical tradition as stated in the

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

( Sotah 48b) "when Malachi died the Prophecy departed from Israel." As Malachi lived centuries before Jesus it is clear that the rabbis of Talmudic times did not view Jesus as a divinely inspired prophet. Furthermore, the Bible itself includes an example of a prophet who could speak directly with God and could work miracles but was "evil", in the form of Balaam.

Jesus and salvation

Judaism does not share the Christian concept of salvation, as it does not believe people are born in a state of sin. Judaism holds instead that man is born to strive for perfection, and to follow the word of God. Sin is then divided into two categories; transgression against God (through a failure to fulfill ritual obligations, such as not sanctifying the

Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, Ten Commandments, commanded by God to be kept as a Holid ...

), and transgression against man (through a failure to fulfill moral obligations, such as committing

gossip Gossip is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling. Etymology The word is from Old English ''godsibb'', from ''god (word), god'' and ''sibb'', the term for the ...

). To gain absolution, a person can repent of that sin, regret the sin, and commit to never do the sin again. God will then forgive their transgression against Him, although one may still be punished depending on the severity of the sin. If a sin is committed against man, the person needs to gain forgiveness from the one he sinned against; it cannot be forgiven by God or another person.

Jesus in rabbinical literature

The Talmud

Various works of classical Jewish

rabbinic literature Rabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, is the entire corpus of works authored by rabbis throughout Jewish history. The term typically refers to literature from the Talmudic era (70–640 CE), as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic ...

are thought to contain references to Jesus, including some uncensored manuscripts of the

Babylonian Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the centerpiece of Jewi ...

and the classical

midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

literature written between 250 CE and 700 CE. There is a spectrum of scholarly views on how many of these references are actually to Jesus. Christian authorities in Europe were largely unaware of possible references to Jesus in the Talmud until 1236, when a convert from Judaism, Nicholas Donin, laid thirty-five formal charges against the Talmud before Pope Gregory IX, and these charges were brought upon rabbi Yechiel of Paris to defend at the Disputation of Paris in 1240. Yechiel's primary defence was that the Yeshu in rabbinic literature was a disciple of Joshua ben Perachiah, and not to be confused with Jesus (''Vikkuah Rabbenu Yechiel mi-Paris''). At the later Disputation of Barcelona (1263) Catalonian rabbi Nachmanides made the same point. Jacob ben Meir (11th century), Jehiel ben Solomon Heilprin (17th century), and Jacob Emden (18th century) support this view, but not all rabbis took this view. ''The Kuzari'' by Yehuda Halevi (), understood these references in Talmud as referring to Jesus of Nazareth based on evidence that Jesus of Nazareth lived 130 years prior to the date that Christians believe he lived. Profiat Duran's anti-Christian polemic ''Kelimmat ha-Goyim'' ("Shame of the Gentiles", 1397) makes it evident that Duran gave no credence to Yechiel's theory of two Jesuses. Modern scholarship on the Talmud has a spectrum of views. From Joseph Klausner, R. Travers Herford and Peter Schäfer, who see some traces of a

historical Jesus The term ''historical Jesus'' refers to the life and teachings of Jesus as interpreted through critical historical methods, in contrast to what are traditionally religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural context ...

in the Talmud, to the views of Johann Maier and Jacob Neusner, who consider that there are little or no historical traces and texts have been applied to Jesus in later editing, to others such as Daniel Boyarin (1999), who argue that Jesus in the Talmud is a literary device used by Pharisaic rabbis to comment on their relationship to and with early Jewish Christians. The Vatican's

papal bull A papal bull is a type of public decree, letters patent, or charter issued by the pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the leaden Seal (emblem), seal (''bulla (seal), bulla'') traditionally appended to authenticate it. History Papal ...

issued in 1554 censored the Talmud and other Jewish texts, resulting in the removal of references to Yeshu. No known manuscript of the Jerusalem Talmud makes mention of the name, although one translation (Herford) has added it to '' Avodah Zarah 2:2'' to align it with similar text of ''Chullin 2:22'' in the Tosefta. In the Munich (1342 CE), Paris, and

Jewish Theological Seminary of America The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism as well as a hub for academic scholarship in Jewish studies ...

manuscripts of the Talmud, the appellation ''Ha-Notzri'' is added to the last mention of a Yeshu in '' Sanhedrin 107b'' and ''Sotah 47a'' as well as to the occurrences in ''Sanhedrin 43a'', ''Sanhedrin 103a'', '' Berachot 17b'' and ''Avodah Zarah'' 16b-17a.

Student A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most The Commonwealth, commonwealth countries, a "student" attends ...

, Zindler and McKinsey ''Ha-Notzri'' is not found in other early pre-censorship partial manuscripts (the Florence, Hamburg and Karlsruhe) where these cover the passages in question. Although ''Notzri'' does not appear in the Tosefta, by the time the Babylonian Talmud was produced, ''Notzri'' had become the standard

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

word for Christian and the '' Yeshu Ha-Notzri'' found in the Talmud has become the controversial rendition of "Jesus the Nazarene" in Hebrew. For example, by 1180 CE the term ''Yeshu Ha-Notzri'' can be found in the Maimonides' '' Mishneh Torah'' (''Hilchos Melachim'' 11:4, uncensored version).

''Toledot Yeshu''

In the '' Toledot Yeshu'' the name of Yeshu is taken to mean '' yimakh shemo'' (''May his name be erased)''. In all cases of its use, the references to Yeshu are associated with acts or behaviour that are seen as leading Jews away from Judaism to '' Minuth'', or "

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

" , "

apostasy Apostasy (; ) is the formal religious disaffiliation, disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous re ...

". Historically, the portrayals of Jesus in the Talmud and Jewish literature were used to justify antisemitic sentiments.

Maimonides

lamented the pains that Jews felt as a result of new faiths that attempted to supplant Judaism, specifically Christianity and Islam. Referring to Jesus, he wrote:

Concerning Jesus of Nazareth who imagined himself to become the Messiah and was put to death by the court, the Prophet Daniel said already: "also the rebellious sons of thy people will lift themselves up to establish the vision; but they will stumble." (Dan.11,14) And can there be a greater stumbling block than this: All the prophets affirmed that the Messiah would redeem Israel, save them, gather their dispersed and strengthen the commandments, but he caused Israel to be destroyed by the sword, their remnants to be dispersed, and humiliated, their changing the Torah, and misleading the world to serve gods besides the Lord.

Nonetheless, Maimonides continued, developing a thought earlier expressed in Judah Halevi's '' Kuzari'',

Yet no man can grasp the thoughts of the Creator of the world, for our ways are not His ways, and our thoughts are not His thoughts; And all these ways of Jesus of Nazareth and of This Ismaelite who rose after him, were only to clear the way for Messiah the King." ... ." when the Messiah will really arise and he will succeed and will reign supreme, at once they shall all return and will know that they inherited lies from their forefathers and that their prophets and forefathers have misled them. (''Hilkhot Melakhim'' 11:10–12.)

''Epistle to Yemen''

Jesus is mentioned in Maimonides' '' Epistle to Yemen'', written about 1172 to Rabbi Jacob ben Netan'el al-Fayyumi, head of the Yemenite community:

In Karaite Judaism

The historical view of Jesus within

Karaite Judaism Karaite Judaism or Karaism is a Rabbinic Judaism, non-Rabbinical Jewish religious movements, Jewish sect characterized by the recognition of the written Tanakh alone as its supreme religious text, authority in ''halakha'' (religious law) and t ...

is a complex one. While Karaites share Rabbanite views in rejecting Christian beliefs of Jesus' divinity and claims to messiahship, Karaites throughout history have held warmer opinions about him. Karaite scholar Jacob Qirqisani stated that some Karaites of his day believed that: Persian historian and Islamic theologian Al-Shahrastani reported that Karaites believed that Jesus was indeed a righteous man, but was not a prophet, and that the Gospels were not divinely revealed, but created and compiled by Jesus and his disciples. ''

Hakham ''Hakham'' (or ''Chakam(i), Haham(i), Hacham(i), Hach''; ) is a term in Judaism meaning a wise or skillful man; it often refers to someone who is a great Torah scholar. It can also refer to any cultured and learned person: "He who says a wise th ...

'' Abraham Firkovich believed Jesus himself was actually a Karaite. Controversial ''hakham'' Seraya Shapshal said:

As a Nazarene

In addition to being a place-name, Nazarenes were Jews who committed to certain extreme observances of religious practice, such as shaving their heads and abstaining from various activities, foods or practices, spending time in contemplation in the desert and so on. They continue being recognized as Jews, and believe Jesus lived around 130 or 140 CE and was conflated with Neoplatonic beliefs into what became the New Testament. To them, he was not God or God's son.

Positive historical re-evaluations

Considering the

, some modern Jewish thinkers have come to hold a more positive view of Jesus, arguing that he himself did not abandon Judaism and/or that he benefited non-Jews. Among historic Orthodox rabbis holding these views are Jacob Emden, Eliyahu Soloveitchik, and Elijah Benamozegh. Moses Mendelssohn, as well as some other religious thinkers of the Jewish Enlightenment, also held more positive views. Austrian-born philosopher Martin Buber also held Jesus in great regard. A positive view of Jesus is fairly represented among modern Jews in the currents of Reform ( Emil G. Hirsch and Kaufmann Kohler),

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

( Milton Steinberg and Byron Sherwin,), and Jewish Renewal ( Zalman Schachter-Shalomi). Some modern Orthodox rabbis, such as Irving Greenberg and Jonathan Sacks, also hold positive views (Greenberg theorizes Jesus as "a "messiah, but not The Messiah"). Rabbi Shmuley Boteach takes this even further, following the research of Hyam Maccoby. Boteach authored '' Kosher Jesus'' in 2012, in which he depicts Jesus as "a Jewish patriot murdered by Rome for his struggle on behalf of his people." Shmuley Boteach, '' Kosher Jesus'' (Gefen Publishing House, 2012, ). Opinions of the merits of the book differ, with Israeli-American Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, President of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, praising it as "courageous and thought-provoking".Simon Rocker (January 26, 2012).
Seconds out: rabbis scrap over Jesus Christ
, ''The Jewish Chronicle''. Boteach said that the book "traces the teachings of Jesus to their original sources: the

, the

and

References

External links

The False Prophet
*
Jewish Encyclopedia: False Prophet
{{Authority control Jesus in Judaism Christ myth theory Criticism of Christianity Christianity and Judaism related controversies Talmud people