Is the New Testament Jewish?

For most Jewish people, the New Testament is a closed and unfamiliar book, believed to be a major contributor to the age-old persecution of the Jewish people in the name of Christianity.

Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein had certainly been raised to see it that way. Ordained when he was barely 20 years old, he served the Jewish people of Hungary for some 35 years. One day he became curious about the small book he saw a teacher in his school reading. The teacher passed it to him, and as Lichtenstein leafed through the pages, his eye fell upon the name “Jesus Christ.” Realizing that the little book was a New Testament, he furiously threw it across the room. It landed behind some other books on a shelf where it lay forgotten.

The New Testament Took the Rabbi by Surprise

Nearly 30 years had passed when Lichtenstein found that little New Testament. He’d hated this book without ever reading it, believing it to be the source of venom aimed at his people. Now the aging rabbi wondered, was it really what he had supposed it to be? He opened its pages and began to read. Later he reflected on his experience in “Two Letters: or What I Really Wish.”¹ In it, he says:

I had thought the New Testament to be impure, a source of pride, of selfishness, of hatred, of the worst kind of violence. [But] I discovered pearls instead of pebbles; instead of hatred, love; instead of vengeance, forgiveness; instead of bondage, freedom; instead of pride, humility; instead of enmity, conciliation; instead of death, life …

Rabbi Lichtenstein not only became a follower of Yeshua (Jesus), but he reasoned with his fellow Jews to do likewise.

What We Discover in the New Testament

A growing number of Jewish people have been prompted, for one reason or another, to investigate seriously what the New Testament actually says. This writer is among them. We have found that the New Testament is something different than we had first supposed.

First, its authorship and cultural background are Jewish. The beginning scenes of the New Testament are centered in the land of Israel at the time of the Second Temple. The New Testament writers, with perhaps the exception of Luke, are all Jews. The early apostles and followers of Jesus are also Jewish. The action takes place primarily among Jewish communities.

The Themes of the New Testament Are Jewish

The primary theme of the New Testament is uniquely Jewish: the fulfillment of our messianic hope.

The teachings of the New Testament continue the familiar teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures: God’s holiness, righteousness and mercy; humanity’s rebellion and estrangement from God; God’s seeking love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. There are also the great themes of faith, sacrifice, redemption, hope, love, peace, joy, and the ultimate triumph of God’s Kingdom.

The New Testament Is Based on the Hebrew Bible

The initial New Testament proclamations are laced with passages from Moses and the prophets, indicating that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Jewish hope. In page after page of the New Testament, by direct quote, by free paraphrase, and by allusion, the authority of the Hebrew Scriptures is clear.

Jesus challenges the religious leaders with “You search the Scriptures … it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5:39). Peter proclaims to a Jewish crowd: “And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days” (Acts 3:24).…

If you are acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures, reading the New Testament will be somewhat familiar territory. Conversations with angels are reminiscent of the experiences of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, and many others. Supernatural births recall the miraculous conception of the patriarch, Isaac. Miracles confirm God’s activity as he reveals himself, even as miracles revealed his power and presence in the days of Moses, the prophets, and the kings of Israel. All of these occurrences are in keeping with the spiritual life and heritage of Israel.

A Suffering Messiah Is Jewish

Ancient rabbis wrestled with evidence in the Tanakh (Hebrew Scriptures) that Messiah was both to suffer and die and to reign as a triumphant and glorious king. Because of this conundrum, some suggested that there would be two Messiahs, Ben Joseph who would suffer and die, and Ben David who would triumph and reign. The Talmud (Sukkah 52 a and b) suggests that the prophet Zechariah, who wrote about a pierced one (chapter 12, verse 10), gave rise to this explanation.

In the Musaf service for the Day of Atonement, an ancient prayer refers to Moshiach Tzidkenu (Messiah our Righteousness) as one who is “wounded for our transgressions.”² The concept of a suffering and dying Messiah is not strange to historic Jewish thinking.

While the resurrection of the Messiah, as declared in the New Testament, seemed to take everyone by surprise, there are passages in the Tanakh which are seen as promising Messiah’s resurrection. Psalm 16:10 declares that God will not abandon his Holy One to the grave. Isaiah 53 (verses 10 and 12) portrays the Lord as prolonging the days of the Suffering Servant and causing God’s good pleasure to prosper in his hand because he has willingly poured out his soul unto death.

But Isn’t the New Testament Antisemitic?

There is conflict in the New Testament over the Messianic claims of Jesus, but it is mainly conflict between Jewish people who accept those claims and Jewish people who do not. In other words, it is a family dispute.

For example, the term “the Jews” is often used in the Gospel of John, as well as in some other New Testament writings, to represent the coalition among the Jewish leadership that had purposed to oppose Jesus. In those passages where this conflict is in view, the term refers to these opposed leaders. The New Testament reveals that Jesus was so popular with the people that his opposers had to operate in secret. This indicates clearly that the term “the Jews” did not refer to the general Jewish populace.

Certain harsh statements pronounced by Jesus and the New Testament preachers are prophetic rebukes, in the same vein as the words of Isaiah when he calls Israel “offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly!” (Isaiah 1:4). Though antisemites who professed to be Christians have used these statements as a pretext to persecute Jews, they did so in contradiction to the love Jesus had for his people and to the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem and lamented her coming destruction at the hands of the Romans, which he announced prophetically (Matthew 23:37–39). He taught his followers to love those who opposed them and to pray for those who shamefully treated them (Matthew 5:43–46). In fact, he taught that only the merciful were to receive mercy (Matthew 5:7), only the forgiving could expect forgiveness (Matthew 6:14–15), and that love would be the hallmark of his true disciples (John 13:35).

Is it True?

The New Testament contains nothing that is non-Jewish or anti-Jewish. The real challenge of the New Testament, as we see it, is not “Is it Jewish?” We believe that careful investigation will verify its Jewishness. The real question is, “Is it true?”

This content was adapted from an earlier Jews for Jesus article.

Endnotes

[1] Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein, Two Letters; or, What I Really Wish (London: Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel, 1887). Available online.

[2] A. Th. Philips, Machzor Leyom Kippur / Prayer Book for the Day of Atonement with English Translation: Revised and Enlarged Edition (New York: Hebrew Publishing Company, 1931), 239. The passage can also be found in the 1937 edition.