Judaism's view of Jesus is a very peripheral one. Jews have traditionally seen Jesus as one of a number of false messiahs who have appeared throughout history[citation needed]. Jesus is viewed as having been the most influential, and consequently the most damaging of all false messiahs. However, since the messiah does not take center stage in Judaism, the total rejection of Jesus as either messiah or deity in Judaism has never been a central issue for Judaism.
Judaism has never accepted any of the claimed fulfillments of prophecy that Christianity attributes to Jesus. Judaism also forbids the worship of a person as a form of idolatry, since the central belief of Judaism is the absolute unity and singularity of God Although Jews and religious leaders share a core of monotheistic principles, Judaism has no formal statement of principles of faith such as a creed that is recognized or accepted by all.[1][2]
Jewish eschatology Jewish eschatology is concerned with the Jewish Messiah, afterlife, and the revival of the dead. Eschatology, generically, is the area of theology and philosophy concerned with the final events in the history of the world, the ultimate destiny of humanity, and related concepts holds that the coming of the Messiah Messiah (Hebrew: משיח; mashiah, moshiah, mashiach, or moshiach, is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to describe priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:22-25. For example, Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia, though not a Hebrew, is referred to as "God's anointed" ( will be associated with a specific series of events that have not yet occurred, including the return of Jews to their homeland and the rebuilding of The Temple Since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, religious Jews have prayed that God will allow for the building of a Third Temple on the Temple Mount. This prayer has been a formal part of the traditional thrice daily Jewish prayer services. Though it remains unbuilt, the notion of and desire for a Third Temple is sacred in Judaism,, an era of peace Messianic Age is a theological term referring to a future time of peace and brotherhood on the earth, without crime, war and poverty. Many religions believe that there will be such an age; some refer to it as the "Kingdom of God"[3] and understanding during which "the knowledge of God" fills the earth,[4] and since Judaism holds that none of these events occurred during the lifetime of Jesus, he is not a candidate for messiah.
Contents |
Background
Main article: Christianity and Judaism Although Christianity and Judaism share historical roots, these two religions diverge in fundamental ways. Judaism places emphasis on actions, focusing primary questions on how to respond to the eternal covenant God made with Israelites and Proselytes, as recorded in the Torah. Ever since the First Council of Nicaea, Christianity places emphasis Woodcut carved by Johann von Armssheim (1483). Portrays a disputation between Christian and Jewish scholarsThe belief that Jesus Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ or simply Jesus, is the central figure of Christianity, which views him as the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God (in the concept of the Trinity, he is God [as] the Son), who came to provide humankind with salvation and reconciliation with God by his is God God is the English name given to the singular omnipotent being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism, a person of the Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The doctrine states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, or in the Greek hypostases, but one being. Since the beginning of the third century the doctrine of the Trinity has been stated as "the one God, the Messiah The word originally came from Hebrew messiaḥ, “anointed”. In Judaism, the expected king of the Davidic line who would deliver Israel from foreign bondage and restore the glories of its golden age. The Greek New Testament’s translation of the term, Christos, became the accepted Christian designation and title of Jesus of Nazareth,, or a prophet In religion, a prophet is an individual who believes they have been contacted by, or has encountered, the supernatural or the divine, and serves as an intermediary with humanity, delivering this newfound knowledge from the supernatural entity to other humans. The message that the prophet conveys is called a prophecy of God are incompatible with traditional Jewish philosophical tenets. The idea of the Jewish Messiah Messiah (Hebrew: משיח; mashiah, moshiah, mashiach, or moshiach, is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to describe priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:22-25. For example, Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia, though not a Hebrew, is referred to as "God's anointed" ( is different from the Christian A Christian (pronounced /ˈkrɪstʃən/ ) is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe is the Messiah (the Christ in Greek-derived terminology) prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, and the son of God. Most Christians believe in the doctrine of Christ Christ is the English term for the Greek Χριστός meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Māšîaḥ), usually transliterated into English as Messiah because Jews believe Jesus did not fulfill Jewish Messianic prophecies The word originally came from Hebrew messiaḥ, “anointed”. In Judaism, the expected king of the Davidic line who would deliver Israel from foreign bondage and restore the glories of its golden age. The Greek New Testament’s translation of the term, Christos, became the accepted Christian designation and title of Jesus of Nazareth, that establish the criteria for the coming of the Messiah.[5] Authoritative texts Judaism's view of Jesus is a very peripheral one. Jews have traditionally seen Jesus as one of a number of false messiahs who have appeared throughout history[citation needed]. Jesus is viewed as having been the most influential, and consequently the most damaging of all false messiahs. However, since the messiah does not take center stage in of Judaism Judaism is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people. Judaism, originating in the Hebrew Bible and explored in later texts such as the Talmud, is considered by Jews to be the expression of the covenantal relationship God developed with the Children of Israel. According to traditional Rabbinic Judaism, God revealed reject Jesus as God, Divine Being, intermediary between humans and God, Messiah or saint. The belief in the Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The doctrine states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, or in the Greek hypostases, but one being. Since the beginning of the third century the doctrine of the Trinity has been stated as "the one God is also held to be incompatible with Judaism, as are many other tenets of Christianity.
Judaism's worldview and Jesus
Indivisibility of God
In Judaism, the idea of God as a duality Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The word's origin is the Latin duo, "two". The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages or trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The doctrine states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, or in the Greek hypostases, but one being. Since the beginning of the third century the doctrine of the Trinity has been stated as "the one God is heretical — it's even considered by some polytheistic Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities, usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals.[6] According to Judaic beliefs, the Torah The term Torah , also known as the Pentateuch (Greek: Πεντάτευχος from πεντα- penta- [five] and τεῦχος teuchos [tool, vessel, book]), refers to the Five Books of Moses—the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts. A "Sefer Torah" (סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה, "book of Torah") or rules out a trinitarian God in Deuteronomy Deuteronomy or Devarim (Hebrew: דְּבָרִים, literally "things" or "words") is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and the fifth of five books of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch (6:4): "Hear Israel Shema Yisrael (Hebrew: שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל; "Hear, [O] Israel") are the first two words of a section of the Torah (Hebrew Bible) that is a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. The first verse encapsulates the monotheistic essence of Judaism: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one."
In his book A History of the Jews, Paul Johnson Paul Bede Johnson is a British Roman Catholic journalist, historian, speechwriter and author. He was educated at the Jesuit independent school Stonyhurst College, and at Magdalen College, Oxford. Johnson first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist writing for, and later editing, the New Statesman magazine. A prolific writer, he has describes the schism between Jews and Christians Schisms among the Jews are cultural as well as religious. They have happened as a product of historical accident, geography, and theology 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.[7]
Fundamentally, Judaism believes that God, as the creator of time, space, energy and matter, is beyond them, and cannot be born or die, or have a son. 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 The Jerusalem Talmud or Talmud Yerushalmi , often the Yerushalmi for short, is a collection of Rabbinic notes about the Jewish Oral tradition as detailed in the 2nd-century Mishnah. Other descriptions are Talmud de-Eretz Yisrael (Talmud of the Land of Israel) or, in some scholarly literature, Palestinian Talmud: these names are considered more (Ta'anit 2:1) states explicitly: "if a man claims to be God, he is a liar."
In the 12th century, the preeminent Jewish scholar Maimonides Moses Maimonides, also known as Rambam, was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher; one of the greatest Torah scholars of the Middle Ages. He was born in Córdoba, Spain on Passover Eve, 1135, and died in Egypt on 20th Tevet, December 12, 1204. He worked as a rabbi, physician and philosopher in Morocco and Egypt. With the contemporary Muslim elucidated the core principles of Judaism, writing "[God], 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."[8]
Some Jewish scholars note that though Jesus is said to have used the phrase "my Father in Heaven" (cf. Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also known as the Our Father or Pater Noster, is perhaps the best-known prayer in Christianity. Two versions of it occur in the New Testament, one in the Gospel of Matthew 6:9–13 as part of the discourse on ostentation, a section of the Sermon on the Mount; and the other in the Gospel of Luke 11:2–4), this common poetic Jewish expression may have been misinterpreted as literal.[9]
It should be noted that many well known Kabbalistic mystics called some Biblical figures and Hasidic Tzaddikim Tzadik is a title generally given to personalities in Orthodox Judaism considered saintly, such as a spiritual master or rebbe. The root of the word tzadik, is tzedek (צדק), which means justice or righteousness "pure Divinity", "God enclothed in a body of a man", "first-born son of God" or even just "God". Such statements caused much anger among the opponents of Hasidism and were one of the major reasons of anti-Hasidic antagonism.
For example, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev wrote that Jacob Jacob , also later known as Israel (Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל, Standard Yisraʾel, Tiberian Yiśrāʾēl; Septuagint Greek: Ἰσραήλ Israēl; Arabic: إِسْرَائِيل Isrāʾīl; "persevere with God"), as described in the Hebrew Bible, was the third patriarch of the Jewish people whom God made a covenant with, and was an aspect of Divinity and was called "God" by God Himself, therefore it was appropriate to bow to him. [10]. Rabbi Naftali Zvi of Ropshitz wrote that Moses Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a religious leader, lawgiver, and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew (Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּנוּ, Lit. "Moses our Teacher/Rabbi"), is the most important prophet in Judaism, and is also considered an important, as well as every true Tzaddik is God, therefore the numerical Gematria or gimatria is a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other, or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to a person's age, the calendar year, or the like. It is likely that the term derives from the order of value of the Hebrew phrase "Moses, our teacher" is identical to the expression "Lord, God of Israel". According to the Ropshitzer Rebbe, Moses' prayers were identical to the prayers of Shechina Shekhinah is the English spelling of a grammatically feminine Hebrew language word that means the dwelling or settling, and is used to denote the dwelling or settling presence of God (cf. divine presence), especially in the Temple in Jerusalem, the feminine aspect of God. [11]. Rabbi Jacob Koppel Lifshitz, who is revered by the Hasidim as a great pre-Hasidic Kabbalist, wrote that Moses was "first-born son of God" and a "God-man".[12] Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson Menachem Mendel Schneerson , known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or just the Rebbe among his followers, was a prominent hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and most recent Rebbe (hasidic leader) of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. He was fifth in a direct paternal line to the third Chabad-Lubavitch Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, also made similar statements about his father-in-law and Tzaddikim in general, which fueled the controversial radical trends in the Chabad Messianism [13].
However, such statements are just a part of the general acute emanationism Emanationism is an idea in the cosmology or cosmogony of certain religious or philosophical systems. Emanation, from the Latin emanare meaning "to flow from", is the mode by which all things are derived from the First Reality, or Principle. All things are derived from the first reality or perfect God by steps of degradation to lesser or pantheism Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Ancient Greek: πᾶν (pan) meaning ‘all’ and θεός (theos) meaning ‘God’. As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that “God” is best seen as a way of relating to the of the same Hasidic authors, who believed that God is the only true reality of everything, including inanimate matter. In the contrary, many Christians would consider such pantheistic views fundamentally anti-Christian.
These Hasidic ideas can be compared to similar views of such Sufi masters as Al-Hallaj Mansur al-Hallaj (c. 858 – March 26, 922) (Hijri c. 244 AH-309 AH) was a Persian mystic, revolutionary writer and pious teacher of Sufism most famous for his apparent, but disputed, self-proclaimed divinity, his poetry and for his execution for heresy at the orders of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir after a long, drawn-out investigation, Ibn Arabi Ibn 'Arabī (July 28, 1165 – November 10, 1240) was an Andalusian Arab Sufi mystic and philosopher. His full name was Abū 'Abdullāh Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-`Arabī al-Hātimī al-Ṭā'ī (أبو عبد الله محمد بن علي بن محمد بن العربي الحاتمي الطائي) and Naimi or, perhaps, to the monistic trends in Hinduism Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as Sanātana Dharma by its adherents. Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti tradition, as in Vaishnavism. Hinduism also includes yogic and Mahayana Buddhism Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice. Mahāyāna Buddhism originated in India[14]. The major difference from the Christian Trinitarianism The Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The doctrine states that God is the Triune God, existing as three persons, or in the Greek hypostases, but one being. Since the beginning of the third century the doctrine of the Trinity has been stated as "the one God is the emphasis of the Divine unity of all beings, which is not limited, in the Hasidic view, to any particular individual or a particular number of God's aspects. Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschutz wrote that "they separate, while we unite", meaning, that while the Kabbalists also talk about multilayer hypostases of God, they emphasize the monistic oneness of all being from the perspective of the supra-personal apophatic Apophatic theology—also known as Negative theology or Via Negativa —is a theology that attempts to describe God, the Divine Good, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be said about the perfect goodness that is God. It stands in contrast with Cataphatic theology Absolute, while the Trinitarian Christians insist on essentially triune nature of God.[15]
Judaism's view of the Messiah
Main articles: Messiah The word originally came from Hebrew messiaḥ, “anointed”. In Judaism, the expected king of the Davidic line who would deliver Israel from foreign bondage and restore the glories of its golden age. The Greek New Testament’s translation of the term, Christos, became the accepted Christian designation and title of Jesus of Nazareth, and Jewish Messiah Messiah (Hebrew: משיח; mashiah, moshiah, mashiach, or moshiach, is a term used in the Hebrew Bible to describe priests and kings, who were traditionally anointed with holy anointing oil as described in Exodus 30:22-25. For example, Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia, though not a Hebrew, is referred to as "God's anointed" (Judaism's view of the Messiah differs substantially from the Christian idea of the Messiah. In the Jewish account, the Messiah's task is to bring in the Messianic age, a one-time event, and a presumed messiah who dies before completing the task (i.e., compelling all of Israel 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, "But if he did not succeed in all this or was killed, he is definitely not the Moshiach promised in the Torah... and God only appointed him in order to test the masses."[16]
Jews believe that the Messiah will fulfill the messianic prophecies of the Prophets Isaiah Isaiah (Hebrew: יְשַׁעְיָהוּ, Modern Yeshayahu Tiberian Yəšạʻyā́hû ; Greek: Ἠσαΐας, Ēsaïās ; Aramaic/Syriac/Assyrian: ܐܫܥܝܐ , Isha`ya ; Arabic: أشعیاء, Ašʿiyāʾ ; "Yahweh is salvation"; pronounced /aɪˈzeɪ.ə/ , /aɪˈzaɪ.ə/ (UK)) lived approximately 2700 years ago and was a prophet in and Ezekiel According to religious texts, Ezekiel , "God will strengthen" (from חזק, khazaq, [kħaˈzaq], literally "to fasten upon", figuratively "strong", and אל, el, [ʔel], literally "strength", figuratively "Almighty"), was a priest in the Bible who prophesied for 22 years sometime in the 6th century.[17][18][19][20] According to Isaiah, the Messiah will be a paternal descendant of King David[21] via King Solomon.[22] He is expected to return the Jews to their homeland and rebuild the Temple Since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, religious Jews have prayed that God will allow for the building of a Third Temple on the Temple Mount. This prayer has been a formal part of the traditional thrice daily Jewish prayer services. Though it remains unbuilt, the notion of and desire for a Third Temple is sacred in Judaism,, reign as King, and usher in an era of peace Messianic Age is a theological term referring to a future time of peace and brotherhood on the earth, without crime, war and poverty. Many religions believe that there will be such an age; some refer to it as the "Kingdom of God"[23] and understanding where "the knowledge of God" fills the earth,[24] leading the nations to "end up recognizing the wrongs they did Israel".[25] Ezekiel states the Messiah will redeem the Jews.[26]
Therefore, any Judaic view of Jesus per se is influenced by the fact that Jesus lived while the Second Temple The Second Temple stood between 516 BCE and 70 CE, during which time it was the center of Jewish sacrificial worship. It was the second temple in Jerusalem, built to replace the First Temple which was destroyed in 586 BCE when the Jewish nation was exiled to Babylon was standing, and not while the Jews were exiled. 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, instead promising a second coming. Rather than being redeemed, the Jews were subsequently exiled from Israel. These discrepancies were noted by Jewish scholars who were contemporaries of Jesus, as later pointed out by Nahmanides, who in 1263 observed that Jesus was rejected as the Messiah by the rabbis of his time.[27]
Further, according to common beliefs of Judaism, Christian claims that Jesus is the textual messiah of the Hebrew Bible are based on mistranslations[28][29][30] and Jesus did not fulfill the qualifications for Jewish Messiah.
However, not all traditional rabbinical authorities viewed Jesus in negative terms. Maimonides wrote that Jesus helped to "pave the way" for the future true Messiah, by introducing the basic concepts of Judaism to Gentiles. Rabbi Jacob Emden considered Jesus a righteous man, who brought the light of faith and morality to the world, but not a Messiah.
|
oversoooooo
Mon, 06 Sep 2010 09:38:13 GM
It traces the evolution of Christianity from its days as honest another . Jewish. denomination to its final smash into an entirely novel faith, along with the evolution of the historical . Jesus. (admittedly a rather obscure figure, given that apart from Josephus, ... One must have a beautiful stale faith if it falls apart or feels threatened by fresh historical information, or modern-day schools of . view. that don't adhere to an absolute unlit and white idea of the Bible. ...
