<p><strong>Psychotherapist Dr. Richard Ganz was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home in New York City. Here is an excerpt from his story as it appears in chapter 5, “I AM Truth,” from <em>Storm Clouds of Blessings: True Stories of Ordinary People Finding Hope and Strength in Times of Trouble</em>, by Janice M. Cappucci. Reprinted by permission of Christian Focus Publications.</strong></p>
<p>It all started unremarkably enough – a vacation in Europe, a time for Rich and his wife Nancy to celebrate his job offer at the hospital. They had the whole thing mapped out. But day by day, through wild, unexpected twists and turns, they ended up in a village in Holland, being warmly welcomed at a place called L’Abri Fellowship – a house that seemed to operate a lot like a hostel, except room and board were free, and dinner was often followed by scholarly lectures by esteemed professors. A professor from M.I.T. set the stage their first night with a lecture entitled <em>Quantum Mechanics and its Relationship to God</em>. “I had no idea what he was talking about,” Rich said. “One thing I learned from this lecture: At least some Christians were certainly not as stupid as I had thought they were.”</p>
<h6>As a man with no sense of God, I saw myself as nothing better than a chance in a meaningless world.</h6>
<p>Over the course of the week, Rich and Nancy learned that philosophical and religious insights were standard fare in virtually every discussion at L’Abri. “They were incredibly interesting,” Rich said. “As a man with no sense of God, I saw myself as nothing better than a chance accumulation of molecules in an absurd and meaningless world. I listened and talked to these people, questioning and mocking their beliefs.” Then, one day, the leader at L’Abri, a man named Hans Van Seventer, asked Rich if he could read to him “something from the Bible.”</p>
<h3>Well, I guess...</h3>
<p>Wary, but willing, Rich consented.</p>
<p>Hans flipped open the Bible and started reading:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>See, my Servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him – his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness – so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1">1</a></p>
<p>Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2">2</a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Where have I heard that before?</h3>
<p><em>I’ve heard that expression before</em>, Rich thought – “<em>a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.</em>” <em>But where?</em> Then suddenly Rich understood – Hans was reading to him about Jesus. <em>Does he know what he is doing, reading this Christian stuff to a Jew?</em> Rich told himself to be patient as Hans continued.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we considered him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Images of Renaissance paintings leapt to Rich’s mind, paintings with Jesus hanging on a cross, pierced. <em>What is Hans' agenda here?</em> Rich asked himself, the anger rising in him.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>How dare you!</h3>
<p>Bristling with indignation, Rich could barely contain himself. <em>This was nothing less than an antisemitic assault. But he knew how he would counter. In a moment, he would blast Hans:</em> <em>This easy way out of your guilt – it’s irresponsible! All you have to say is Jesus took away your sins! How convenient – you found a cheap way out of long-term psychoanalysis.</em></p>
<p>Hans could not know he was unlocking vaults of old memories, frightening memories Rich had from when he was seven and, in an act of daring, snuck into a Catholic church. Looming from on high were images and impressions that seared powerfully into his brain. Jesus was Catholic, <em>obviously</em>. And – judging by his tall, delicate, slightly anorexic frame, his long silken blond hair and piercing blue eyes – <em>Scandinavian</em>.</p>
<h6>I ran eight blocks home to get away from what I considered to be an unpardonable sin. </h6>
<p>“I had gotten as far as the vestibule of that Catholic church, when I looked at one of the statues and thought that the ground was going to open and swallow me up. I thought that I was damned forever just for looking at that statue. I ran eight blocks home to get away from what I considered to be an unpardonable sin. But these ‘Catholics’ had it all worked out. No long-term therapy. Jesus pays and they go free. What a deal!”</p>
<h3>But wait, there's more!</h3>
<p>If Hans picked up on Rich’s discomfort, he didn’t comment, but instead read on.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment, he was taken away; and who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but with the rich in his death…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Rich’s mind, he saw paintings of Jesus on the cross, and the two thieves, one on either side of Him. <em>I’ve seen these things in museums,</em> Rich thought with growing irritation. <em>He’s not telling me anything new.</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>…though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. Though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Enough already!</h3>
<p>Rich rolled his eyes. <em>This whole scene is absurd.</em> <em>These people never stop. Here they go with that myth about the resurrection. Why can’t they accept the fact that once a person is dead, he is dead? Grow up! Put away your infantile neuroses and realize that when you are dead, you are dead. That is it.</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p>He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3">3</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>At last, Hans finished reading. He looked at Rich and said, “What do you think?”</p>
<h3>That's in <em>my</em> Bible?</h3>
<p>By this time, Rich was brimming with choice retorts, absolutely convinced Hans had just read a passage from his Gentile Bible, and that it was a report of someone who had witnessed the crucifixion.</p>
<p>Rich responded without a moment’s hesitation: “Anyone who was there at that cross could have written that stuff! What does that prove?”</p>
<h6>Hans had been reading to me from <em>MY</em> Bible, from <em>my Hebrew Scriptures</em>,</h6>
<p>Hans handed Rich the Bible. “In that millisecond,” Rich recalls, “my life was shattered. The name that I saw at the top of the page was <em>Isaiah</em>! Hans had been reading to me from <em>MY</em> Bible, from <em>my Hebrew Scriptures</em>, and I felt as though someone had taken a sword and cut me to pieces.”</p>
<p>Rich sat dumbfounded, his eyes transfixed on that name, Isaiah.</p>
<p>“Rich,” Hans said, “Isaiah was written 700 years before Jesus was born.”</p>
<h3>The psychotherapist goes crazy</h3>
<p>“I felt as if I had been stabbed to death,” Rich said. “It hit me like an explosive, it was so beyond my ability to assimilate. I felt myself moaning. I was sitting there practically going crazy. Because I knew it was true. I knew it right then and there. As much as I couldn’t stand it, I believed it. And I thought, I’m being torn to pieces. This is the roughest experience of my life! Why couldn’t it be anyone else? Why couldn't it be Krishna? Why couldn't it be Buddha? Why does it have to be <em>Him?</em></p>
<p>“Prior to that day, the one thing I had going for me as an unbeliever was that I was always looking for truth. The moment I saw Isaiah printed at the top of that page, I knew instantly, Jesus was Truth. Though I didn’t have the knowledge or the words to express this at the time, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the One who is the Truth was in that room and He was speaking to me.</p>
<p><strong>Read Dr. Ganz’s full account, as well as the story of seven others who weathered personal storms (including Messianic Jewish Holocaust survivor Maria Weinstein Yanyuk), in Janice M. Cappucci’s book, available from Amazon <a href="https://www.amazon.com/storm-clouds-blessings-ordinary-strength/dp/1527100286/ref=redir_mobile_desktop/144-7676255-1958026?_encoding=utf8&amp;dpid=51ul96kzdcl&amp;dppl=1&amp;keywords=cappucci%20storm&amp;pi=ac_sx236_sy340_fmwebp_ql65&amp;qid=1523000876&amp;ref=plsrch&amp;ref_=mp_s_a_1_1&amp;sr=8-1&amp;tac=issues-online-only1805&amp;utm_source=issues&amp;utm_medium=description&amp;utm_campaign=issues-online-only1805&amp;firstsourcecode=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_term=">here.</a></strong></p>
<h4>Endnotes</h4>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1">1.</a> Isaiah 52:13–15 (NIV)</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2">2.</a> The remaining verses in this section are all from Isaiah 53 (NIV)</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3">3.</a> Isaiah 53 (NIV)</p>

This Orthodox Jewish Psychotherapist Couldn’t Believe His Eyes…

<h3>What is sin?</h3>
<p>The word sin generally makes people squirm uncomfortably, either internally or externally. But what <i>is</i> sin? What is the word conveying that makes us react so strongly? The origin of the English word “sin” comes from a Latin word (<i>sont-is</i>) meaning “guilty.” In Biblical Greek, the word for sin (<i>hamartia</i>) relates to missing the mark, as if one were throwing a spear to hit a target.</p>
<h6>Sin is anything that ascends higher than God in our lives.</h6>
<p>Sin is, in a sense, all of these things - missing the mark, feeling guilt, surrendering to habitual vices, the understanding of the need to make atonement. Sin is something that, as described in Genesis 4, gets in our way and separates us from God. It is that which consumes us and distracts us from the holiness and sovereignty of God. It is anything that ascends higher than God in our lives. It is any action we take in which we are not listening to God.</p>
<p>Most Jews believe in sin (at least once a year—on Yom Kippur)! <a href="/jewish-resources/jewish-holidays/yom-kippur/">Yom Kippur</a>, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest and most somber day of the Jewish year. Yom Kippur concludes the Ten Days of Awe that begin with Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year). Like Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur is a prospective holiday, when we prepare for the year ahead through fasting, penitence and confession.</p>
<h3>An Orthodox Jewish concept of sin</h3>
<p>Steven was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home. He went to Hebrew school, had his bar mitzvah and observed the holidays. Yet when he turned 15, his parents began to experiment with a more liberal Jewish lifestyle. Perhaps it was an act of rebellion against her own mother, but Steven's mother began making pork chops, a food previously forbidden from the family menu and alien to their palates. At the same time, and seemingly unrelated at first, his father bought a smoke alarm. In case of fire, they would be ready! But as it happened, whenever the mother made pork chops, the alarm would start to blast. Its piercing warning would upset the otherwise peaceful household. Sometimes there was even smoke accompanying the alarm. Steven's father quipped that maybe God was trying to tell them something—namely that they shouldn't eat pork. The rest of the family shrugged off the remark as a joke and the culinary experiments continued. Still, whenever pork was cooked, the alarm sounded. Eventually, Steven's father took the obvious solution. He got rid of the smoke alarm!</p>
<p>Of course, removing the alarm didn't solve the problem. In fact, it heightened the potential for danger. They had merely disarmed the warning in an effort to deny the problem. That is the way many of us choose to deal with the problem of sin. We might refuse to acknowledge there is such a thing as sin—and we especially deny our own sins.</p>
<h6>Maybe we don't like to acknowledge the problem of sin because we are not certain there is a solution.</h6>
<p>The very word sin" often makes us uncomfortable. Maybe because we like to think of ourselves as "modern, rational, twentieth-century people" who have no need for such "archaic" concepts. Or maybe we don't like to acknowledge the problem of sin because we are not certain there is a solution. If we hear sounds that indicate we're erring, many of us would rather not heed the warning.</p>
<p>One warning sign is the shofar blast on Rosh Hashanah, calling our people to repentance. Too often we choose to weaken the significance of this liturgical alarm. We avoid the unpleasant aspects of its meaning, often treating sin and repentance as some sort of ancient side issue. By redefining, reorienting and revising the revealed message we make it more agreeable to ourselves.</p>
<h3>Where does Jewish belief in sin come from?</h3>
<p>The Hebrew Scriptures often refer to sin, yet do not explain or define it. Presumably the Bible reader already knows that there is a difference between right and wrong. God did provide a set of dos and don'ts (murder, for example, is a don't). But the sin problem goes much deeper than merely obeying or disobeying the rules.</p>
<p>God is continually showing us through the Scriptures that we have a choice: we can go his way or our way. Loving God means choosing his way. The other direction includes endless opportunities to serve self.</p>
<p>Ultimately, sin is linked with the disposition of the heart—a disposition to go our own way rather than God's way. Pharaoh exemplifies the hardened heart that rejects and rebels against the living God. The heart is often described as being in need of repair or replacement due to damage caused by sin. The prophets used the term "uncircumcised hearts" to describe people who were not obedient to God. The prophet Jeremiah records God as saying,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is difficult to deny the truth of this pronouncement. Few people would argue against the existence of sin. But the question of how and why sin entered the world often takes center stage in "Jewish-Christian" debate. Jewish scholars are quick to point out major differences in the Jewish and Christian views of sin's origin. Christian teaching states that when Adam and Eve sinned, all the human race was infected with a sin nature. Traditional Jewish thought not only disagrees with this view, but often cites the rejection of that doctrine as characteristic of Jewish belief:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>No more abhorrent doctrine than original depravity has ever been conceived. It is completely alien to jewish thought and to the Bible, even though Christians use the Garden parable to give it divine sanction.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1">1</a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Is "original sin" a Jewish concept?</h3>
<p>However, many would be surprised to discover that the concept of "original sin" is found in ancient Jewish documents. Samuel Cohon, former professor of theology and liturgy at Hebrew Union College, explained the changing nature of jewish views of sin in the early centuries:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>About the time of the beginning of Christianity three main conceptions of sin struggled for recognition in Judaism. The first regarded corruption of the race as hereditary. The second vaguely asserted as connection between Adam's sin and his posterity's liability to punishment, without defining the exact nature of the connection. The third view considered all sin as the fruit of man's own action.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2">2</a></p>
</blockquote>
<h6>The Bible seems to indicate that we commit sin because we are sinners.</h6>
<p>As the early followers of Jesus continued holding to a traditional view of sin as linked to Adam, the rabbinical authorities put more emphasis on sin as exclusively the result of our own actions. Perhaps it is because followers of Jesus regarded sin as universal contamination that the rabbis disclaimed and spoke strongly against it. Today, Christians still teach that sinful actions stem from a sin nature. The rabbis seem to teach that the condition of sin is subsequent to an act of sin. The Bible seems to indicate that we commit sin because we are sinners.</p>
<p>Cohon continued to describe rabbinical views of sin in the following centuries saying that they,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>have the character of random, informal and private opinions without any dogmatic import whatever.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3">3</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The most common of these opinions is that of the <strong>yetzer ha tov</strong> and the <strong>yetzer ha ra</strong> (the good inclination and the evil inclination). This concept states that we have the potential for both good and evil and that it is up to us to choose. However, this view is often expressed more as a tip of the hat to Jewish folklore than as a true problem in need of a solution. Like the "evil eye," it is part of our tradition, not part of our present reality.</p>
<p>Many views of sin that are espoused by the jewish community today often parallel non-Jewish thought, whether inspired by psychology or the many variations of New Age religion or philosophy. The former seeks to shift blame while the latter denies the problem. (In New Age thought we are all part of God, rather than the biblical view of a Creator separate from his creation.)</p>
<h3>Good, Evil, Sin and Relativism</h3>
<p>The nature of good and evil has been discussed and debated since the dawn of philosophy. In our time the notion of evil is often explained away or relabeled. Allan Bloom, in his book, <i>The Closing of the American Mind</i>, recognized this tendency among modern American university students. When asked who they thought was evil, their only response was Adolph Hitler. Bloom remarked,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They have no idea of evil; they doubt its existence. Hitler is just another abstraction, and item to fill up an empty category. Although they live in a world in which the most terrible deeds are being performed and they see brutal crime in the streets, they turn aside. Perhaps they believe that evil deeds are performed by persons who, if they got the proper therapy, would not do them again—that there are no evil deeds, not evil people. There is no inferno in this comedy.<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4">4</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is easy to recognize sins of the very sinful; murderers, rapists and child molesters immediately come to mind. These acts remain distant from us, usually foreign to our own experiences. The evening news presents us with radical examples of sin, causing us to wonder how and why such evil still exists "in this day and age." But what does "this age" have to do with anything? Our age of advanced technology has not found a way to deal with the age-old problems of the human heart. Bigotry, hatred and greed still abound.</p>
<p>The political process also offers us a unique glimpse into the human condition. No candidate ever comes through the mudslinging sessions without ending up all muddy. Even the best are less than spotless. Dirt is always disclosed to reveal the "true identity" of the opponent. It then becomes our choice of the lesser of two evils. Does the political process <i>create</i> their problems, or does it merely spotlight the imperfections? What is it that gets "brought out" anyhow? Where does it come from, and why do we spend so much time denying it, covering it up or accusing others of having more of it than we do?</p>
<h6>We are <i>not</i> all okay—we have seen the enemy and it is us.</h6>
<p>A few decades ago the bestseller <i>I'm OK, You're OK</i> helped change our thinking about the nature of our own humanness. Our imperfections were dismissed because they were seen as "only human." But that is the very problem that should not have been dismissed. Psychologists today have begun to acknowledge this. "Twelve-Step" programs and other self-help groups abound. Surely, we are <i>not</i> all okay—we have seen the enemy and it is us.</p>
<h3>What about small sins?</h3>
<p>What about the people who do not commit the "big" sins, who are not in the political or social spotlight and who do not even come from "dysfunctional" families? In the eyes of the larger community they are okay, perhaps even righteous. But the most dangerous sins are the ones that are unseen by others, the ones that fester in our hearts, for which we remain unrepentant.</p>
<p>All "okay, nice and righteous" people fall into this category. It may involve the choices made to protect our egos even at the expense of others. Or it may involve our desire to have our own needs met on demand as if we deserve something in this life. It might also come about as we defame or judge others, as if we ourselves are in a position to judge. Some of us might take credit for good deeds or talents given by God as though we deserve glory and God doesn't. And what about the "little white lies," as well as the not-so-little ones? Which person does not decide that his or her way of following God (or not following God) is acceptable or good enough in their own sight? All of these are subtle ways of saying to God, "My will, not your will, be done!"</p>
<p>We all experience and understand that sin is a problem whether or not we deny it, relabel it, or disagree on its point of origin. This is a reality we all must face. God sent the Hebrew prophets to hold a mirror that shows us as we are, as well as how we act. God's message was and is, "I'm OK, you're not!"</p>
<h3>Are there consequences for sin?</h3>
<p>A sign in the dentist's office read, "You don't have to floss all of your teeth, only the ones you want to keep." That dentist knew how to communicate. He proclaimed the problem, the consequences and the solution all at once! Such was the message of the prophets of old. They proclaimed a startling message in hopes that we would face our problem and respond rightly.</p>
<p>The consequences of our sin are both immediate and eternal. God declared through the prophet Isaiah:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)</p>
</blockquote>
<h6>Sins are the static that keeps us disconnected—separated from God.</h6>
<p>Separation and alienation from God hinder our communication with him. It is like shouting across the ocean to a friend on the next continent. Sincerity and vocal magnitude are inadequate. In such a case, perhaps a telephone is needed to bridge the gap—not just any telephone, but one that will have no static on the line. In the same way, our sins are the static that keeps us disconnected—separated—from God.</p>
<h3>Jewish thought on sin</h3>
<p>Modern Jewish views on the eternal consequences of sin vary. Many believe that all Jewish people—by virtue of birthright—have a place in the world to come. Others are convinced that only our time here on earth is relevant, and that we are responsible for creating our own heaven and hell now. Still others see the whole notion of judgment as archaic, having no relevance in modern society.</p>
<p>Maimonides' "Thirteen Principles" does not mention sin specifically, but it does comment on the results of our disobedience to God. The eleventh principle states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I believe with perfect faith that God rewards those who fulfill the commandments of the Torah, and punish those who transgress them.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Jewish belief in and practice of atonement for sin</h3>
<p>In the Chumash (one of the first five books of the Jewish Bible, in the Torah), the solution to sin is clearly spelled out in the regulations regarding Yom Kippur. First, the High Priest slaughtered a bull for his own atonement. Then re interceded, making atonement on behalf of the children of Israel. One goat was killed as a substitute for them. Its life was given in place of their sin-tainted lives. Later, a second goat, called the <strong>azazel</strong> (scapegoat), was chased into the wilderness to symbolize our sins being put far away from us.</p>
<p>A Jewish commentary on the sacrificial system explains its importance:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The sacrifice substituted for an individual human life or for the lives of the members of the community in situations where God could have exacted the life of the offender, or of anyone else, for that matter. Indeed, all who stood in God's immediate presence risked becoming the object of divine wrath. But substitution could avert the danger, with sacrificial blood being especially instrumental because it was the symbol of life.<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5">5</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The observance of Yom Kippur was given by God as a solution to a problem. In 70 C.E., the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed by the Romans, thus ending the era of substutionary atonement.</p>
<p>Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai and his colleagues devised another plan for the Day of Atonement at that time. They state that in the absence of the Temple, fasting and prayer would become the means of atonement. Our people have followed that plan for centuries, even to this day, yet the inner renewal the day was to bring eludes us. We ignore, redefine and even feel embarrassed about the issue of sin.</p>
<h6>Just do the best you can and make the right choices.</h6>
<h3>Sin and repentance without the Temple today</h3>
<p>There are modern theories of <strong>t'shuvah</strong> (repentance) but they are offered only to those who choose to be religious, as if it is a choice of lifestyle rather than a problem that is pressing and immediate before God. The message to the less religious community seems to be, "just do the best you can and make the right choices."</p>
<p>Unfortunately, our propensity to call wrong choices and actions "right" causes most of our problems in the first place! We have come a long way from the detailed, precise regulations of the Temple's sacrificial system. Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai and his colleagues did their best to provide an alternative in the absence of the Temple. But they did not take into account that inherent in the sacrificial system was the belief that someone else would not do for us what we could not do for ourselves.</p>
<h3>Sin and the New Testament</h3>
<p>Only a few decades before the Temple's destruction, another Jewish man named Yochannon offered a different solution to the sin problem. One day he saw Yeshua (Jesus) by the Jordan River. Pointing him out to the crowd he declared, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."</p>
<p>If the substitutionary solution of Jesus seems foreign, perhaps it is because we have lost sight of the reality and seriousness of the issue of sin. But God's character has not changed, nor have we evolved beyond the same old problems that our forefathers knew. And God has not left us without an operator to remove our static and make the connection:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord. (Romans 6:23)</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>This content was adapted from an earlier Jews for Jesus article.</em></p>
<h4>Endnotes</h4>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1">1.</a> V. Fisher, <i>American Zionist</i>, November 5, 1953, p. 14.<br />
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2">2.</a> Cohon, Samuel, <i>Essays in Jewish Theology</i>, (Cincinnati, Hebrew Union College Press, 1987), p. 240.<br />
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3">3.</a> Ibid p. 240.<br />
<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4">4.</a> Bloom, Allan, <i>The Closing of the American Mind</i>, (New York, Simon and Schuster Inc. 1987), p. 67.<br />
<a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5">5.</a> Levine, Baruch A., <i>The JPS Torah Commentary, Leviticus</i>, (Philadelphia, JPS, 1989), commentary on Leviticus 17:11.1, p. 115.</p>

Do Jews Believe in Sin?

<h3>What is Christian antisemitism?</h3>
<p>Antisemitism is both illogical and irrational. Its bitter fruit stems from psychological, political, and religious roots. Whatever the causes, this scourge has plagued humanity for centuries. Although the term antisemitism was only recently coined in 1879 by the German agitator, Wilhelm Marr, it was soon applied to all forms of hostility toward Jews throughout history.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1">1</a> Its genesis and genealogy go back hundreds of years before the common era. So-called Christian antisemitism is antedated by hatred of Jews among ancients.</p>
<h6>Caesar was lord—no other was tolerated, especially an unseen One.</h6>
<p>One authoritative Jewish source accurately reflects these antisemitic beginnings, Anti-Jewish prejudice appeared in antiquity mainly in countries which later became part of the Roman Empire. Refusal by the Jews to accept the imperially sanctioned cult in any form was regarded by Rome as a refusal to recognize the authority of the state, and the rejection of rules then universally held sacred."<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2">2</a> The Jewish people could only allow themselves to worship the one, true, invisible God. And the Romans refused to recognize their fidelity to their God. Caesar was lord—no other was tolerated, especially an unseen One. The first recorded outbreaks of antisemitism as a national policy date back to around 1550 B.C. Interestingly, the Bible records the historical incident. The first chapter of the Book of Exodus credits the Egyptians with the infamous distinction of beginning national antisemitism. Their irrational fear that our people would outgrow and eventually outnumber them led them to the conclusion that the Hebrews would take over their mighty empire. This ancient episode has a very modern ring to it!</p>
<h3>Jewish deicide and "Christ killer"</h3>
<p>Although antisemitism goes back to ancient history, its greatest impetus came as a result of the accusation that the Jews committed deicide, the killing of God by the crucifixion of Christ. It was vehemently asserted that the sole guilt for the death of Jesus Christ must lie with the Jews. Maintaining the guilt of the Jews, the church, primarily composed of Gentiles by this time, sought to "repay" the guilty party, a "repayment" enacted in the name of Christ and for the glory of God. But is it really true that our people bear the sole guilt for the death of Jesus? Have the stinging cries of "Christ-killer" been justified down through the centuries? The New Testament portion of the Bible is our major source of information for the events surrounding the death of Jesus. Where does the New Testament actually place the burden of guilt? Who is really responsible for the death of Jesus Christ…?</p>
<p>The following followers of Jesus recorded the names of those parties who God holds responsible for the death of the Messiah:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For truly in this city there were gathered together against Thy holy Servant Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and Thy purpose predestined to occur.</p>
<p id="source">Acts 4:27-28</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is obvious that the Jews alone were not responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus. The Roman government, through the decisions of her governing authorities, Herod and Pontius Pilate, bears a portion of the guilt. It is worthy to note that the Roman historian, Tacitus, writing in his Roman Annals (written between A.D. 115 and 117), mentions that Christ "was executed by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilate in the reign of Tiberius" (Annals, XV. 44). He does not mention Jewish responsibility for the death of Christ. The historical account in Acts also states that the Gentiles share in the guilt of Jesus' death. And "the peoples of Israel" as well. The first century Jewish historian, Josephus, also records a more balanced responsibility between Pilate and the Jews of the first century (Antiquities of the Jews, XVIII.3). Peter, one of the early Jewish believers, says that the first century Jews crucified Jesus "in ignorance" (Acts 3:17).</p>
<h3>Messiah must die</h3>
<p>But without removing human responsibility, it is obvious that God Himself determined that the Messiah must die. Whatever the Romans, the Gentiles, or the peoples of Israel did in the first century, they fulfilled whatever the hand and purpose of God predestined (Acts 4:28). It was divine imperative, the Messiah of Israel must die in order to become the Savior of the world. Isaiah, the prince of our Jewish prophets, predicted such a voluntary death some 700 years before the coming of Jesus the Messiah (Isa.52:13-53:12). It was the Lord who "caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him" (Isa. 53:6). It pleased the Lord "to crush Him, putting Him to grief" (Isa. 53:10). Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah would go to His death willingly, "like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open His mouth" (Isa. 53:7).</p>
<h3>Forgiveness not revenge!</h3>
<p>Jesus Himself made this quite clear when He said, "I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but l lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again" (John 10:17-18). The death of Jesus was not the helpless, morbid charade of a demented first-century Jewish carpenter. It was God's greatest display of mercy and grace for a guilty human race. Jesus died voluntarily for humanity and it is all humanity that must bear the collective guilt for that death. But this guilt is removed from anyone, Jew or Gentile, when he receives the Messiah and His free gift of forgiveness and eternal life.</p>
<p>While admitting that some of those who professed Christ were responsible for the wholesale persecution of the Jewish people, it does not necessarily follow that they were consistent with biblical teaching on this point. In fact, they demonstrated utter inconsistency with that which they supposedly professed. This can be seen in at least three major areas.</p>
<h3>Jesus' attitude toward Jews</h3>
<p>First, antisemitism is totally inconsistent with the stated attitude of Jesus toward the Jews. To believe that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ and then not reflect His attitude toward the Jewish people is the height of hypocrisy, let alone a fallacious inconsistency. Jesus was born a Jew, He lived as a Jew, and He died a Jew, by His choice. Even His resurrection was molded after Jewish expectation. He lived in the midst of His Jewish people and He loved them with a love unparalleled in the annals of Jewish history. Even when it became apparent that a large number of His people had rejected His Messianic claims, Jesus wept over a city that not only missed His arrival, but also a city that would come under the Roman destruction in the very near future. Jerusalem, the golden, would become Jerusalem the ruin (Luke 19:37-44).</p>
<h6>Jesus' dying heart desired forgiveness, not revenge!</h6>
<p>Even in His hour of death, He prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). His dying heart desired forgiveness, not revenge! Is it any wonder that Jesus told His disciples that love would be the one undeniable evidence that they had been with Him (John 13:34-35)? He commanded them, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you" (Matt. 5:44). One can argue against a doctrine and fight against a cause, but when love is felt, the message is heard! The early Jewish believers were known for many things, but none more forcibly than their undying love for their Messiah and their Jewish kinsmen. It is utterly inconsistent to despise those who are so dearly loved by Jesus Himself. Prejudice must fade in the dawn of His love.</p>
<h3>Early Jewish leadership of the Church</h3>
<p>Second, antisemitism is absolutely inconsistent with the attitude and teaching of the Apostles, the early Jewish leaders of the Christian Church. They were not only loyal Jews who had come to believe that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, but they also wrote the documents of the New Testament. They knew Jesus personally and willingly died as martyrs rather than renounce Him. The Apostle Paul, more than any other, carried the good news of the Jewish Messiah to the farthest corners of the earth. And yet, wherever he traveled, he never bypassed the Jews; he always went to them first. God's program begins with the Jews (Romans 1:16). Paul's greatest sorrow was that many of his kinsmen had rejected their Messiah. This great Apostle's love for his Jewish people was so intense that he was willing, if it were possible, to surrender his own salvation and suffer the eternal judgment of God, if they would only come back to Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. "I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from the Messiah for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Romans 9:2-3). His prayers were constantly rising before the throne of God on their behalf: "My heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is their salvation" (Romans 10:1).</p>
<p>Paul realized that Israel's future was anchored in her great heritage. The Jewish people "are beloved for the sake of the fathers" (Romans 11:28). God's covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not broken and irretrievably cast aside. The promises stand firm and secure. Like Jesus before him, Paul foresaw a day in the distant future when Israel would experience all of the Messianic blessings, that glorious day when the nation would turn to Jesus as the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world (Romans 11:25-29). The Apostles would have been appalled at the centuries of antisemitic hatred. It is absolutely inconsistent with not only their love and concern for the Jews, but also with their hope for Israel and her future.</p>
<h3>Antisemitism and the Bible</h3>
<p>Third, antisemitism is utterly inconsistent with the Old Testament portion of the Bible, the only authoritative book of the earliest church. The Jewish Scriptures formed the basis for the early Christian community. Deny these Scriptures, and the foundation of their Christian faith disintegrates. Even when the New Testament documents were completed, the believers still embraced the Jewish Scriptures alongside of them, totally equal in authority and teachings.</p>
<h6>Blessing the Jews brought God's blessing and cursing them brought God's condemnation.</h6>
<h3>A Clause Against Antisemitism</h3>
<p>One of the most significant passages in the Jewish Scriptures, a passage to which the early church undoubtedly adhered (see Galatians 3:8), is Genesis 12:1-3. God called Abraham to follow Him to a place that He would show him. He gave to Abraham certain personal, national, and universal promises. One of these promises contained a clause against antisemitism. God said to Abraham, "And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse" (Genesis 12:3). God committed Himself without reservation to preserving Abraham and his posterity. And His intention to preserve and bless them is expressed in this phrase. The way an individual or a nation treated Abraham and his people would determine the way God would treat them. Blessing the Jews brought God's blessing and cursing them brought God's condemnation.</p>
<p>This stipulation against antisemitism has proved out through both biblical and secular history to this very day. All the great powers, individual or corporate, who attempted to exterminate the Jews, fell sooner or later by the same divine stroke of justice, whether it was Assyria or Babylon of the ancient world or Spain or Germany of the modern world. The divine promise stood secure and inviolate, for God Himself had declared it.</p>
<p>And this same principle still stands secure and inviolate today, as it always will. The promise reflects the character and nature of the promise-giver, who is truthful and unchanging. To believe in Christ is to believe in Christ's Bible. And to believe in His Bible is to believe in God's covenant with Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people. Any attack on God's covenant people is an attack on the God of the covenant, which is antithetical to belief in Christ. For He said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" and "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:34-40). Those guilty of such an attack show by their fruits that they don't follow Christ at all.</p>
<h3>Prejudice, not belief</h3>
<p>Believing in Christ does not produce antisemitism. It may have been the convenient scapegoat for some, perhaps for many. For prejudice runs deep in the core of men's experience. But belief in Christ is not the cause of antisemitism. In fact, one Jewish source claims that modern antisemitism is not religiously motivated at all, "Modern antisemitism is thus built on racial, not religious foundations and the adoption of the prevailing faith no longer provides an escape route for persecuted Jews."<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3">3</a></p>
<p>For a professing Christian to side with the antisemite is to side not only against the Jewish Apostles who penned the Christian New Testament, and against the Jewish Messiah who inspired the Christian New Testament, but it also invites the sternest judgment from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To court God's judgment doesn't seem very rational or logical. But then foolishly blaming all of our troubles on the bicycle riders doesn't either!</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Endnotes</h4>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1">1. </a>Geoffrey Wigoder, ed., "Antisemitism," Encyclopedic Dictionary of Judaica (New York: Leon Amiel Publishers, 1974), p. 33.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2">2. </a>Ibid., pp. 33-34.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3">3. </a>R.J. Werblosky, and Geoffrey Wigoder, eds., "Antisemitism," The Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1965), p. 34.</p>

Is Christianity <nobr>Antisemitic?</nobr>

<h3>Dying for sin: a concept from the Jewish Scriptures</h3>
<p>One of the popular myths about Judaism is that there is no place in Jewish thought for the idea that someone can die for the sins of another person, yet <strong>both the Bible and Jewish tradition have much to say about dying so that another might have forgiveness</strong>.</p>
<h6>The death penalty for the Israelite was averted as the animal went to its fate instead.</h6>
<p>In the <a href="/jewish-resources/messianic-prophecy/the-messiah-is-spoken-of-throughout-the-hebrew-bible/">Hebrew Bible</a>, normally the death of an animal substituted for the death of a person who had sinned. In that way the death penalty for the Israelite was averted as the animal went to its fate instead.</p>
<p>But at times the death of another human being atoned for the sins of the people. Three such biblical passages are Numbers 25:1-8; Exodus 32; and 2 Samuel 21:1-14. In the first, the death of two people by the hand in Phinehas stops a plague against the people; in the second, the death of a large number of Israelites does the same thing; in the third, the impaling of the sons of King Saul again atones for the sins of the people. <strong>Make no mistake: it is the death of people that stops the plague or averts God's wrath</strong>. Rabbi Jacob Milgrom comments:</p>
<blockquote>Phinehas's deed in slaying one Israelite leader suffices to ransom (kipper) Israel; God requires no additional victims. Kipper functions to avert the retribution, to nip it in the bud, to terminate it before it is fully exhausted.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1">1</a></blockquote>
<p>Milgrom mentions two other texts where the death of human beings functions to secure <a href="/publications/issues/issues-v01-n07/a-jewish-believer-and-atonement/">atonement</a>:</p>
<blockquote>The first, Exodus 32:26-29, deals with the apostasy of the golden calf where the Levites are called upon to slay the people, even their close relatives, indiscriminately -- to assuage the wrath of God. The second text, 2 Samuel 21:1-14. . .[shows that] the impalement of Saul's sons provided the needed ransom-expiation for ending the drought.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2">2</a></blockquote>
<p>Likewise, in cases of accidental manslaughter, the killer would flee to a "city of refuge," but could not leave until the death of the high priest (Numbers 35:25-32). The high priest's death atoned for the man-slaughterer's sin so that he himself could go free. This interpretation is held not only by Christians but is also found in the Talmud (Makkoth 11b):</p>
<blockquote>If after the slayer has been sentenced as an accidental homicide the high priest dies, he need not go into exile. But is it not the exile that expiates? It is not exile that expiates, but the death of the high priest.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3">3</a></blockquote>
<blockquote>Milgrom comments: "As the High Priest atones for Israel's sins through his cultic service in his lifetime...,so he atones for homicide through his death.<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4">4</a>"</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps the most controversial passage that refers to atonement not just by the death of any human being, but through the sufferings and death of the Messiah, is Isaiah 52:13-53:12. In Talmudic times, this passage was understood to <a href="/jewish-resources/messianic-prophecy/the-messiah-would-be-born-in-bethlehem/">refer to the coming Messiah.</a> In medieval times, especially under the influence of Rashi, the prevailing interpretation applied the passage to the people of Israel, though the messianic interpretation was still held by various sages. The relevant point here is that no one can object that the Isaiah passage is non-Messianic because God forbids human sacrifice. Though He surely forbids pagan sacrifice of human beings, <strong>there are examples where only the death of a guilty human being or the death of the priest can effect full atonement</strong>. Furthermore, the "servant" of Isaiah 53 voluntarily gives us his life; his death is not forced on him. In a later time, Jesus affirmed that his impending death was voluntary. Even though he seemed to go to death by the force of circumstance, he voluntarily placed himself in those circumstances, so that he could say: " lay down my life --only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:17-18). And, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. <strong>Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends</strong>" (John 15:12-13).</p>
<h3>Jewish martyrdom as redemptive</h3>
<p>In Jewish thought, the death of a martyr can be redemptive and atoning.</p>
<blockquote>That martyrdom somehow counteracts the menace of sin and, therefore, has a redemptive quality is decidedly an early rabbinic theme, though not necessarily a central one...."Expiation for the coming world" underlines the significance of the notion for the martyrs themselves. But, the rabbinic conception is not limited to penance for sin...<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5">5</a></blockquote>
<p>Though it includes that conception, when we speak of martyrs, we are speaking of human beings whose death can have atoning value. What then is a martyr? The dictionary on my Mac PowerBook says, “a person who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs.” More broadly, <strong>a martyr can be thought of as someone who dies for a cause</strong>.</p>
<p>Yeshua can be considered a martyr because (1) Rome opposed him because he and his followers believed him to be a king, though not of the kind represented by Caesar; (2) much of the Jewish leadership opposed him because they saw his claims to divinity as blasphemy and his acts as wrong-headed when they contravened certain traditions. Further, he can be thought of as a martyr since he died in the cause of reconciling first Jews and then other nations back to God.</p>
<h6>Jesus—as a Jew—was used as a stand-in for all Jewish martyrdom throughout the ages.</h6>
<p>Jewish painters such as <a href="/publications/issues/issues-v04-n05/akedah/">Marc Chagall</a> and a few Yiddish-language poets used the figure of Jesus to suggest Jewish martyrdom at the hands of Gentiles. In these cases, Jesus—as a Jew—was used as a stand-in for all Jewish martyrdom throughout the ages. Yet his death remained unique among all the other deaths of his coreligionists, because it provided atonement not for an individual or small group, but for the world.</p>
<p><em>This content was adapted from an earlier Jews for Jesus article.<br />
</em></p>
<p>[shortcode type=callout id=93287]</p>
<h4>Endnotes</h4>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1">1.</a> Jacob Milgrom, The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers (Philadelphia; New York: The Jewish Publication Society, 1990), p. 477.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2">2.</a> Ibid., p. 478</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3">3.</a> Translation as given in Jacob Milgrom, Numbers (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), p. 294. See likewise in Gordon J. Wenham, Numbers: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1981), p. 238 n. 2</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4">4.</a> Milgrom, ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5">5.</a> Aharon Agus, The Binding of Isaac and Messiah: Law, Martyrdom and Deliverance in Early Rabbinic Religiosity (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988), pp. 40-41.</p>

Why Did Jesus <nobr>Need to</nobr> “Die for <nobr>Our Sins?”</nobr>

The Messianic Time Table According to Daniel the Prophet

<h3>What are the Jewish people chosen for, anyway?</h3>
<p>Mordecai and I had agreed to meet in order to "exchange our points of view." But both of us knew what we really meant by that phrase: each of us was intent on changing the other one's mind. I wanted to tell him about my faith in Yeshua, and Mordecai wanted to tell me about the joys of living an Orthodox Jewish life.</p>
<p>"Avi, Avi, Avi," Mordecai moaned. "<a href="/publications/issues/issues-v12-n05/why-arent-messianic-jews-accepted-by-the-jewish-community">I look at you, and I see such a tragedy</a>. You're like a man who went searching for treasure. But instead of looking in your own backyard, you decided to dig in the gentiles' yards. Whatever you think you've found, it can't compare with the beauty of what you've left behind." He drew in a mournful breath, then let out a sigh. "Come back, Avi. You're one of God's chosen. Come back."</p>
<p>"Mordecai," I began without trying to match his gravity. "You're right. We're chosen. But why are we chosen?"</p>
<p>It seemed like Mordecai's profound sorrow suddenly evaporated into indifference, tinged perhaps with a little bit of annoyance at what I'd asked. "Who knows why we're chosen," he shrugged. "That's Ha-Shem's business. It's enough to know we're chosen. So come back."</p>
<p>I leaned a bit closer. "Mordecai," I said, grinning like a conspirator, "I know why we're chosen ..."</p>
<h3>Chosen in the Hebrew Scriptures</h3>
<p>When God in the<a href="/jewish-resources/messianic-prophecy/the-messiah-is-spoken-of-throughout-the-hebrew-bible/"> Hebrew Scriptures</a> refers to us Jews as chosen, he's saying that he selected us to serve a specific purpose and to carry out a particular task. Our track record for fulfilling that task has been less than stellar. But because of God's grace and mercy, he has neither rejected the people he chose, nor has he reassigned the national task to somebody else. We're still chosen, and God is still waiting for us to do what he called us to do. But what's the task?</p>
<p>Let's go back to the moment when God revealed in a single phrase our entire reason for existing as a people. Let me take you back to Sinai.</p>
<h3>The divine mandate to be different</h3>
<p>God had brought us out of our bondage to Pharaoh with "a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." He had poured out his plagues upon Egypt. He then<a href="/parsha-weekly-torah-portion/parsha-beshalach/"> brought us through the Red Sea on dry ground while burying our pursuers in the waves</a>. A few weeks later, we camped before Mount Sinai while Moses ascended the mountain to receive further instructions from the Lord. It was there that God told Moses ...</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me <strong>a kingdom of priests</strong> and a holy nation' " (Exodus 19:3-6).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A kingdom of priests? Who were the priests and what did they do? In the ancient world, they instructed people about God and interceded for people before God. Now, if the entire nation of Israel was called to be a kingdom of priests, then what <em>other</em> people were we supposed to instruct and intercede for? Well, who's left? The rest of the nations of the earth. At Sinai, we received more than the Law of Moses; we received a mandate, rooted in God's desire to see his revelation go out to all the families of the earth.</p>
<p>God planned to establish a kingdom of priests so that the rest of the nations might learn who he is and come to worship him. This mandate to be a <a href="/publications/issues/issues-v22-n10/chosen-for-what">community of witnesses</a> runs through our entire history, beginning as far back as the call of Abram.</p>
<h3>Hey Abraham!</h3>
<p>The Lord called Abram with the following words:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gentile friends have told me that thanks to the Jewish people, the world has been blessed with artistic achievement, intellectual accomplishment and scientific advance. But as much as I admire the work of Chagall, Spinoza, and Salk, these and other "Jewish blessings" are really secondary compared to what God had in mind.</p>
<p>Primarily, God selected our people to bless the world with his revelation of himself. Through the Jewish people, God gave the world the Scriptures, and then <a href="/answers/top-40-most-helpful-messianic-prophecies">the Messiah of whom the Scriptures speak.</a></p>
<h3>Let my people go</h3>
<p>Every year we celebrate <a href="/jewish-resources/jewish-holidays/passover">Pesach</a> and remember our miraculous deliverance from Egypt. But when God brought us out of bondage, he was not acting on our behalf alone. According to the Scriptural account, the events surrounding our redemption from Egypt were intertwined with God's desire to reveal to the Egyptians—and in fact, to all the world—that he alone is Almighty God. Through Moses, God spoke to a proud and unyielding Pharaoh:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>" ... for this time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, <strong>so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth </strong>... indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and <strong>in order to proclaim My name through all the earth"</strong> (Exodus 9:14,16).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even today, the people of the nations where the Bible is found know and read the story of God's judgment on the false gods of Egypt. And on the day of our departure from Egypt, the Bible explains that we left with a "mixed multitude" (Exodus 12:38), Egyptians who made the choice to forsake their pagan gods and cleave to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.</p>
<h3>The Torah, the law and the nations</h3>
<p>The Bible tells us that we were given the Law of Moses for many reasons: so that we would not just survive but physically thrive (Deuteronomy 6:3); so that we might be blessed as we lived in the Land (Deuteronomy 28:1-14); to make us distinct from all the nations surrounding us (Exodus 19:5-6); to demonstrate God's holy character (Leviticus 19:2; Deuteronomy 4:8); to <a href="/publications/issues/issues-v09-n08/do-jews-believe-in-sin">convict us of our sins</a>; and to lead us to faith in the Messiah.</p>
<p>But there was at least one more reason that God gave us the Law. Moses explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"So keep and do them [God's ordinances], for that is your wisdom and your understanding <strong>in the sight of the peoples </strong>who will hear all these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it, as the LORD our God whenever we call on Him?" (Deuteronomy 4:6-7)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The word for "peoples" in this passage is the Hebrew word<em> goyim,</em> and in this context, it refers to anyone who is not a Jew. God gave us the Law as a story to the nations surrounding us.</p>
<p>God wanted every sphere of our existence—our worship, social relations, business dealings—to shine as a light to the nations. He wanted the goyim to understand that <em>our</em> God is real, near to us, and answers when we call to him. He wanted them to turn from their idols and serve only him, the true and living God.</p>
<h3>A history of disobedience</h3>
<p>How better to do this than by being the example for them to emulate? Instead, history records our persistent disobedience to the One who chose us. Our disregard for the covenant not only demonstrated our profound ingratitude toward God for all that he had done for us; it compromised his story to the nations that he wanted to reach.</p>
<p>We claimed to be God's special possession, but didn't live in a special way that distinguished us from the rest of the world. We spurned his love and provided less than a stellar story to the nations. The peoples surrounding us took note of the chasm between <a href="/publications/issues/issues-v01-n06/circumcision-of-the-heart">the claims of our lips and the conduct of our lives.</a> As a result, instead of causing the nations to desire and bless the Lord, our conduct gave them the excuse to mock and blaspheme his holy name.</p>
<p>What an irony, and what a tragedy.</p>
<p>Over and over again, the Scriptures recorded God pleading for us to keep his ways. He cried out against our faithless behavior and called us to return. But finally, his justice compelled him to execute judgment. So he expelled us from the Land and drove us into captivity in Babylon for seventy years. It was as though he were saying, "Because you would not live in the Land as a light to the nations, I am driving you out of the Land, and you will live in darkness and serve the nations and the false gods that they revere."</p>
<h3>Using the Bad for Good</h3>
<p>Yet our expulsion served as a witness to the world! Speaking through the prophet Ezekiel of the judgment that waited at our door, God declared:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"So it will be a reproach, a reviling, a warning and an object of horror <strong>to the nations who surround you</strong> when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath and raging rebukes. I, the LORD, have spoken" (Ezekiel 5:15).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>By viewing our punishment, the nations were given an opportunity to understand that <a href="/answers/why-did-jesus-need-to-die-for-our-sins/">God holds men and women accountable</a>, that he acts righteously, rewards those who keep his covenant and punishes those who forsake and ignore his ways.</p>
<p>And just as our expulsion served as a witness to the world, so our restoration would serve as a story to the faithfulness of the God who chastises, cleans, preserves and reinstates the people who have been called by his name. Again through Ezekiel, the Lord declared ...</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"<strong>Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,</strong>" declares the Lord GOD, "when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land" (Ezekiel 36:23-24).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And now, after nearly two thousand years, <a href="/publications/havurah/havurah-v14-n02/the-aliyah-question">many of our people <em>are</em> back in the Land.</a> But are we fulfilling our destiny?</p>
<h3>Our Broken World</h3>
<p>Something is very wrong with the world. We Jews have always known it, and we've tried to do something about it. But whether through science or social philosophy, politics or poetry, our efforts to reform the world have always failed, because the evils in society are just the outworking of the illness that's inside of every one of us. The Bible—our Bible—calls that illness sin.</p>
<p>God knew what a mess we would make of our lives, and he set in motion a plan of restoration. He promised to send <a href="/jewish-resources/messianic-prophecy/the-messiah-would-be-the-suffering-servant">a Messiah who would suffer the judgment that all of us deserve</a> by dying as the payment for our sins and then rising from the dead. And he chose a people to bring that Messiah into the world and to make sure that his message went out to our people first and then to everyone else.</p>
<p>In light of all the tragic events that have befallen us, any number of us has been tempted to suggest (like Tevye the milkman), "Maybe You could choose somebody else for a change." God is not going to change his mind; we're chosen. But none of our history makes any sense unless we understand <em>why</em> we have been chosen.</p>
<h3>Meaning through calling</h3>
<p>If we understand that we were chosen to fulfill a holy calling, then we can understand why forces hostile to our God have sought to put an end to our existence. If we'd perished before the start of the Common Era (CE), the Messiah never would have come to die for our sins, just as the prophet Isaiah said that he would: "He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due" (Isaiah 53:8). If we'd perished sometime during these past two thousand years, then the Messiah would not be able to return, because we Jews have to be here in order to <a href="/jewish-resources/messianic-prophecy/the-messiah-would-be-pierced/">fulfill the words found in the book of Zechariah</a>. "They [our Jewish people] will look on Me [the Messiah] whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him" (Zechariah 12:10).</p>
<p>If we understand why we were chosen, then we can also understand why God hasn't stepped in sooner to stop all our calamities. Sometimes those calamities were meant to serve as warnings, to cause us to look to him for help instead of to ourselves. Our predicament at the Red Sea is a good case in point. At other times, our troubles came as a specific judgment, the tragic consequence of our unwillingness to turn back to God. The destruction of both the first and second temples are examples of this.</p>
<p>And even though God has used calamities to serve as judgments for our sin, the fact that he loves us and has called us explains why he has never put an end to our existence. If we understand why we were chosen, then we can understand why God has always protected us from annihilation and severely punished—and sometimes even destroyed—the nations whom he first used as the instruments of our chastisement. God has allowed the annihilation of <em>other</em> nations, but he has never allowed <em>us </em>to be destroyed, and he never will.</p>
<p>If we don't understand the reason that God chose us, then our history is at best an absurd puzzle, and at worst, a malevolent joke. We are either adrift in a meaningless, nihilistic sea or at the mercy of a hateful deified "Cat" who toys with us, his cornered "mice," by heaping fresh sufferings upon us with each new generation.</p>
<p>But there's a third option, better than nihilism or the notion of a malevolent God.</p>
<h3>A divine plan for every person</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>"I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>God has a plan and a purpose for us. Yeshua (Jesus) declared, "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). But that abundant life can only be found when we've been <a href="/publications/issues/issues-v10-n01/jewish-and-christian-can-it-be">restored to a correct relationship with the One who chose us</a>. That restoration happens when we openly acknowledge that Yeshua died as the payment for our sins and <a href="/publications/issues/issues-v11-n06/did-he-or-didnt-he-jewish-views-of-the-resurrection-of-jesus">rose from the dead</a>, just as the prophet Isaiah said:</p>
<blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;">
<p>He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but he LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon Him (Isaiah 53:5-6).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The choice before us isn't just whether or not to listen to our Scriptures and place our faith in Yeshua. The choice is whether or not to have any meaning and fulfillment in our lives. That's why Moses told us, shortly before we entered the promised land, "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19).</p>
<p>You are chosen. Will you heed the call?</p>
<p><em>This content was adapted from an earlier Jews for Jesus article.</em></p>

Why Are the Jewish People Called the "Chosen People"?

<p>Words and deeds are the primary windows into a person's character. The words and deeds of Jesus are recorded in accounts known as "the gospels." They are the best records we have of the events that took place in the time of Jesus, and the most accurate renderings of his words. Critics charge that the gospels are not accurate historical records, just as they challenge other sacred writings. But for the sake of fairness we need to take the gospels at face value, if only because they are the best first-century sources we have.</p>
<h3>Yeshua claimed to be the Messiah</h3>
<p>Some people describe Jesus as a good man who was not the Messiah, asserting that Jesus never claimed to be the Messiah. The gospels clearly state otherwise.</p>
<h6>Yeshua was careful to distinguish himself from other teachers who would come and go.</h6>
<p>Before the time of Jesus, Israel had already beheld many great leaders and teachers; some were even miracle-workers, people who claimed to be the Messiah and captured the attention of the public. So the people naturally questioned Yeshua's identity. Yeshua was careful to distinguish himself from other teachers who would come and go. Sometimes he made statements about himself in the context of asking questions. For example, once he asked his disciples who people were saying he was:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>They replied, "Some say John the Baptist [a first-century prophet, and a contemporary of Jesus]; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"</p>
<p>Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."</p>
<p>Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven." (Matthew 16:14-17)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He also made startling statements about his identity in the course of conversation. While he was traveling alone north of Judea, Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman at Sychar. She said to him,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us."Then Jesus declared, "I who speak to you am he." (John 4:25-26)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yeshua even asserted his messiahship directly to those who were seeking to discredit him. When asked by some of his critics,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"How long will You keep us in suspense? If You are the [Messiah], tell us plainly."Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe…" (John 10:24-25)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yeshua clearly claimed to be Israel's Messiah. This raises another question: What would drive a man to declare that he was the Messiah to a religious leadership who would certainly oppose him for making such a claim? Was he deluded? Was he simply a liar? If he was a liar or a lunatic, he was not a man to be respected, for who would esteem someone who was trying to fool people, or someone who was not of sound mind?</p>
<h3>Yeshua claimed to have authority equal to God's</h3>
<p>Yeshua was a master teacher. In a passage of Scripture in the gospel of Matthew, known as the "sermon on the mount" since it took place on a hillside, Yeshua began teaching the multitudes who were following him words of comfort, blessing and hope. Yeshua is the source of quotes such as, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5) and "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Matthew 5:7). These were welcome words to a people under Roman rule looking forward to a better day. But then Yeshua continued with some serious statements unlike any the people had heard before. They knew the Ten Commandments. They knew they should not engage in murder, adultery and swearing false oaths, but Yeshua told the people that even to hate someone in your heart is as bad as murder. Merely looking upon a woman with lust is as bad as committing the act of adultery. These statements were revolutionary in themselves, but Yeshua delivered these lessons along with an incredible phrase: "But I tell you…"</p>
<p>For example, Yeshua told the people, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' <strong>But I tell you</strong> not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also…" (Matthew 5:38,39).</p>
<p>In those days, no religious teacher would have dared to utter these words, "But <i>I</i> tell you." To do so would be to take God's authority on himself. Rather, teaching was viewed as a compendium of the best of what had already been taught on a subject. A religious teacher would search from among both living and dead masters, and teach in this manner, "So-and-so says this, but so-and-so says that." Yeshua departed from this method and said, "But <i>I</i> tell you." No wonder when he finished his message, "The crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law" (Matthew 7:28, 29). His method was intended to convey something special to his audience: He had the right to teach with such authority.</p>
<p>To demonstrate the scope of his authority, Yeshua performed miracles. A clear example of this took place when Yeshua healed a man who was paralyzed. Before he healed him, he said to him, "Your sins are forgiven" (Matthew 9:2). The religious leaders present were ready to accuse Yeshua of blasphemy. After all, only God forgives sins. Yeshua claimed to have the same authority as God.</p>
<h3>Yeshua claimed to be divine</h3>
<p>Along with his claim to be the long-awaited Messiah, Jesus also declared his deity to both his disciples and his dissenters.</p>
<p>The leaders of the day continually questioned Yeshua. One day they said to him,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died too; whom do You make Yourself out to be?"Jesus answered, "…Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad."</p>
<p>So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?"</p>
<p>Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."</p>
<p>Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him…(John 8:53-59)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yeshua was saying that he had supernatural knowledge of things in the past because he existed before Abraham. And as if that weren't enough, right then and there he invoked the name "I Am" for himself, the same name that God calls himself in Exodus 3:14.</p>
<p>If Yeshua wanted to avoid certain danger, it is reasonable to assume that he would have dropped the subject of his deity. But again, to the dismay of the Jewish leaders of the day, in John 10:30, Yeshua reiterated, "I and the Father are one." Even when pressed by the Sanhedrin, his claim remained the same:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>…The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the [Messiah], the Son of God.""Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."</p>
<p>Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy.</p>
<p>What do you think?" "He is worthy of death," they answered. (Matthew 26:63-66)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Jesus wasn't just saying he was a son of God or a child of God, like many do today—he claimed to be <i>the</i> son of God. He took Daniel 7:13 and applied it to himself. Yeshua identified himself as the "son of man" who would take a seat at the right hand of God. What sort of a "man" could sit at the right hand of the Mighty One? This was considered blasphemy. Yeshua had gone "too far." His claims to be divine caused many to seek his death. Again, we must ask the question, was Yeshua out of his mind to say such things? Was he lying before the high court?</p>
<p>There were many who were convinced that he was neither crazy nor lying. Consider this: Would the writers of the gospels have included Yeshua's words regarding his deity in their accounts if there were not sufficient evidence to back up Jesus' outstanding claims? Otherwise, wouldn't the inclusion of such claims do more to discredit him than support him?</p>
<h3>Yeshua claimed to be an atonement for the sins of the world</h3>
<p>At the midpoint of his public life, Yeshua declared to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and be killed—but he would be raised to life within three days' time (Matthew 16:21). Even those who were his devoted followers found this difficult to accept. If they had had their way, their Messiah would be a grand conqueror, bringing in the kingdom of peace and restoring Israel to the status of exalted nation among the nations.<a href="#_edn8" name="_ednref8">8</a> But the type of peace Yeshua came to bring was a supernatural peace between a sinful humanity and a holy God. He said that he did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). His purpose was to be a sacrificial atonement for the things we do that are wrong.</p>
<p>According to the account of John, there was much about Yeshua's teaching that even his closest disciples found difficult to believe…until he appeared alive to many of his followers after his death and burial. Jesus' resurrection signified that he was able to overcome even death itself. This is why Yeshua called himself, "the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25). He said that he was unique, that belief in him was the only way for people to be reconciled with God: "No one comes to the Father but by me" (John 14:6). How many "great teachers" or "good men" were not only willing to suffer like Yeshua, but also proclaimed that the suffering itself was their chief purpose? How many have risen from the dead?</p>
<h3>How one Jewish writer reacted</h3>
<p>Writer Sholem Asch was a frequent contributor to New York's Yiddish newspaper, <i>Forward</i>, during the 1930s. He also wrote a number of historical novels such as Moses," "Mary" and "The Prophet." But when "The Nazarene,"<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1">1</a> his study of Jesus the Jew amidst his Jewish community in Israel, was published in 1939, the <i>Forward</i> openly attacked Sholem Asch as a heretic, and accused him of preaching Christianity. This prolific and popular Jewish writer found his ties to many in the Jewish community severed.</p>
<p>Asch later defended himself, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I couldn't help writing on Jesus. Since I first met him, he has held my mind and heart.…Everything he ever said or did has value for us today, and that is something you can say of no other man, alive or dead.…He became the Light of the world. Why shouldn't I, a Jew, be proud of it?<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2">2</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>As eloquent a defense as his may have been, it was not enough to convince his critics that he should be exonerated for penning such a controversial book.</p>
<h3>The Enlightenment</h3>
<p>There was a time when many of our rabbis and prominent figures refused to discuss the subject of Jesus unless it was to refute his claims. That attitude began to shift with the Enlightenment or the "Age of Reason." As people began to choose autonomy over authority, and champion rationalism over dogmatism, the way was paved for well-known people in the Jewish community to openly show interest in the person of Yeshua. From philosopher Martin Buber's startling statement, "I have found in Jesus my great brother,"<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3">3</a> to physicist Albert Einstein, who declared, "I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene,"<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4">4</a> to rabbis like Stephen S. Wise, founder of the Jewish Institute of Religion, who called Jesus, "the Jew of Jews,"<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5">5</a> Jewish thinkers began to temper their criticism of Jesus.<a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6">6</a> Rabbi Hyman Enelow, past president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis said the following:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Jesus has become the most popular, the most studied, the most influential figure in the religious history of mankind.…No sensible Jew can be indifferent to the fact that a Jew should have had such a tremendous part in the religious education and direction of the human race.…Who can compute all that Jesus has meant to humanity? The love he has inspired, the solace he has given, the good he has engendered, the hope and joy he has kindled—all that is unequalled in human history.…The Jew cannot help glorying in what Jesus has meant to the world…<a href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7">7</a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Academic Jewish study of Jesus' claims</h3>
<p>In recent days countless Jewish writers and thinkers have approached the subject of Jesus, giving respect to his life and his teachings. How have they been able to do this and still remain under the umbrella of acceptable Jewish thought?</p>
<p>A close look at the writings and sayings of these prominent Jewish figures reveals that they chose to view Jesus through a "filter." In other words, as each read more about Yeshua, they separated what they could feel comfortable with, from what tradition and consensus would not allow them to accept. Many assented to the fact that Jesus was a major historical figure, or that he was an observant Jew, or that his teachings were revolutionary, yet at the same time they summarily dismissed the accounts of his miracles or his claims to be the Messiah, the one and only Son of God.</p>
<p>Today, many people, Jews and Gentiles, have adopted this perspective. They claim to respect Jesus' place in history and some of his teachings, but brush aside his claims to be Messiah. Jesus is often described as "a great rabbi" or a "good man" or perhaps even "a prophet," but "certainly not the son of God."</p>
<p>But is this selective approach a fair way to consider the life and teachings of Yeshua? In light of Yeshua's own words and deeds, does it make sense to say that he was a great rabbi, or a good man, but nothing more?</p>
<h3>The one thing Yeshua didn't claim to be was a "good man"</h3>
<p>The more we read the claims Yeshua made regarding himself, the more extraordinary his claims become. We are faced with the same decision as the people who heard these claims firsthand. How did they respond? We know from history that some recognized the incredible claims and asserted that these were not the words of a liar or a demented person—rather, Yeshua was indeed the prophet, the Messiah, for whom people were waiting (John 7:40, 41). Others vehemently argued about who he was. But Yeshua was impossible to ignore or dismiss. Nobody at the time of Jesus said, "Well, Yeshua is a great teacher, perhaps a little misguided, but a good man." Today, this has become an acceptable conclusion.</p>
<p>But to conclude that Jesus is anything other than who he claimed to be is to ignore his words and actions. Is this a sign of high regard? If we truly respect Yeshua as a good teacher or a good man, then we ought to pay attention to what he said.</p>
<p>One can see by reading the words of Yeshua that he doesn't just offer a guide, a moral compass, or an example to follow. Yeshua's words and actions are not merely those of a good man or a great teacher; they have changed people's lives for more than two millennia.</p>
<h3>"You either accept or you reject."</h3>
<p>When it comes to the person of Yeshua, eventually we all arrive at a point where we realize, as Sholem Asch once stated, "There is no easy middle ground to stroll upon. You either accept Jesus or reject him. You can analyze Mohammed and…Buddha, but don't try it with him. You either accept or you reject."<a href="#_edn9" name="_ednref9">9</a></p>
<p>It seems far more difficult to consider all of Yeshua's actions and words regarding his messiahship and his deity, and still maintain that he was "basically just a good man" or a "good teacher" than it is to accept that he is who he said he was. Rather than filtering his words through a sieve of tradition, why not investigate the claims of Jesus for yourself?</p>
<p><em>This content was adapted from an earlier Jews for Jesus article.</em></p>
<h4>Endnotes</h4>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1">1.</a> Sholem Asch, <i>The Nazarene</i>, Maurice Samuel, tr. (New York: G. Putnam Sons, 1939).</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2">2.</a> Sholem Asch, <i>One Destiny</i> (New York: Putnam Publishing Company, 1945).</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3">3.</a> Buber, Martin, <i>Two Types of Faith</i>, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1951, p. 12.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4">4.</a> Quoted from an interview by George Sylvester Viereck, "What Life Means to Einstein," <i>The Saturday Evening Post</i>, October 26, 1929, Curtis Publishing Company.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5">5.</a> Stephen S. Wise, "The Life and Teaching of Jesus the Jew," <i>The Outlook</i>, June 7, 1913.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6">6.</a> See A.W. Kac, <i>The Messiahship of Jesus: What Jews and Jewish Christians Say</i> (Chicago: Moody Press, 1981) for a lengthy list of what present day Jews say concerning Yeshua.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref7" name="_edn7">7.</a> Hyman Enelow, <i>A Jewish View of Jesus</i> (New York: MacMillan, 1920), 4-5.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref8" name="_edn8">8.</a> The concept of two Messiahs, Messiah son of Joseph who is to die on the field of battle, fighting Israel's enemies, and Messiah son of David who will come to bring in the kingdom did not become prevalent until the 200s, during the period of the Gemarah (200-500).</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref9" name="_edn9">9.</a> Ben Siegel, <i>The Controversial Sholem Asch: An Introduction to His Fiction</i> (Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1976), p. 148, quoting an interview with Asch by Frank S. Mead in <i>The Christian Herald</i> in 1944.</p>
<p>Above quotations courtesy <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20061027061641/http://www.shema.com/modules.php?name=News&amp;file=article&amp;sid=109">https://web.archive.org/web/20061027061641/http://www.shema.com/modules.php?name=News&amp;file=article&amp;sid=109</a></p>

The Claims of Jesus

<h3>About Resurrection</h3>
<blockquote>
<p>All who have fallen asleep in hope of Him shall rise again. -- <em>Apocrypha: II Baruch, 30.2 </em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>New Agers have popularized the idea of afterlife, out of body experiences and reincarnation. There is a plethora of material for those who want to know more about what happens on the other side of the grave. A significant number of people dabble in spiritism with seances and others resort to crystals to commune with the spirit world.</p>
<p>Yet our 20th century conditioning dictates that we approach such things with a kind of reasoning which says: the sum of a person's being is no more than its physical parts, and when the body ceases to live the person no longer exists outside of the memory of those still alive." Modern science or as some call the belief, scientism, can only come to that kind of conclusion based on ruling out all but empirical evidence.</p>
<p>At the same time, we do wrestle with the mysteries of life and death. What is true about life after death? Is reincarnation a bunch of superstitious nonsense? Was resurrection of the dead just an empty hope for our ancestors? Can anyone really know? All religions teach something about an afterlife and the Jewish tradition is no exception. While most modern Jews have not really grappled with the issue of life after death and much of contemporary Jewish preaching would lead us to believe in the conclusions of scientism, there is a well established Jewish doctrine of <strong>Afterlife</strong> and the <strong>World to Come</strong>.</p>
<h3>Resurrection in Jewish Tradition</h3>
<p>Historically, Jewish belief in a bodily resurrection from the dead has received a split decision. Even Jews who agree that resurrection is real disagree on such details as, "Who will bring about the resurrection?" "From what material will the new bodies be constructed?" "Which people will return from their graves?" "What condition will they be in when they return?" and "Will they come back naked or clothed?" Questions and more questions, and some of the answers are just as fanciful. Among the more poetic ancient Jewish theories on resurrection is the idea that "drops of perspiration from God's head will come down to earth, and when they fall, the dead will rise from the dust."<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1">1</a></p>
<p>One of the earliest extra-biblical writings which mentions belief in reesurrection is found in II Maccabees (150 B.C.E.). In the midst of torture a Jew tells his captors:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Tis meet for those who perish at men's hands to cherish hope divine that they shall be raised up by God again but thou…shalt have no resurrection to life." (II Maccabees vii 14)<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2">2</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Belief in a bodily resurrection inspired the Jewish guerrilla fighters in their revolt against the Persian king, Antiochus. They viewed the resurrection as a reward which would certainly be granted to those who sacrificed their lives to regain the Temple for God.</p>
<p>The Maccabees were not the only Jews who saw resurrection as a reward. Midrash Rabbah LVI.2 tells of Rabbi Isaac who taught that Torah was given as a reward for worship, as was the return of the exiles, and the building of the Temple. Therefore, he reasoned, "The dead will come to life again only as a reward for worshiping."</p>
<p>Other rabbis taught that everyone would be resurrected, whether good or bad, and that God would pronounce judgment on each one at that time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The righteous and wicked alike will be resurrected, not only that the faithful Jews who died in exile amidst suffering and martyrdom may now enjoy the glory of Redemption, but also that the wicked who persecuted Israel during the years of exile may now receive punishment.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3">3</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The doctrine of resurrection of the dead was a highly debated issue in the first century, when the two prominent sects of Jews were the Pharisees, who believed in a bodily resurrection, and the Sadducees, who did not. Rabbi Gamaliel set forth the Pharisaic arguments by quoting sources his opponents could respect.<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4">4</a> Gamaliel cited the Torah, "And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up'." (Deut. 31:16) He also quoted the Prophets, "Thy dead shall live, thy dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast forth the dead." (Isaiah 26:19) And he quoted from the Hagiographa (Greek for the Hebrew <i>Ketuvim</i> or Writings). Finally, he selected Song of Songs 7:9, "And thy palate like the best wine, that goeth down smoothly for my beloved, causing the lips of those who are asleep to speak."</p>
<p>The <i>Midrash Rabbah</i><a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5">5</a> is replete with reference to the resurrection. One needs to look no further than the Midrash on Genesis. The commentary on Genesis 14:7 tells about R. Isaac who taught that if a potter could fix an earthen vessel he made, the Creator of the universe could repair (i.e. bring to life again) a human vessel he had formed. Commenting on the Genesis 3:19 passage "For dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return," Rabbi Simeon B. Yohai said, "Here the Scripture hints at resurrection, for it does not say 'For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou go', but 'shalt thou return'."</p>
<p>Moses Maimonides believed so strongly in the doctrine of resurrection that he wrote a supplement to the Mishnah called <i>Treatise on Ressurection</i>. But one need not be an expert on the Mishnah to know that the last of Maimonides' Thirteen Articles of Faith is: "I believe with perfect faith that there will be a revival of the dead at the time when it shall please the Creator, blessed be his Name and exalted be his Name for ever and ever."<a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6">6</a></p>
<p>The late Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, said: "Many people find Resurrection incredible; yet it is not more of a mystery than birth, or the stupendous miracle of the annual resurrection of plant-life after winter."<a href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7">7</a></p>
<h3>Biblical Examples of Resurrection</h3>
<p>The Hebrew Scriptures report three separate instances of physical resurrection. Elijah had enjoyed the hospitality of a widow who was commanded by God to provide for the prophet's needs. When her son died, Elijah prayed, stretched himself upon the child three times and life returned to the boy. (I Kings 17:17-22)</p>
<p>Then Elisha had a similar encounter recorded in 2 Kings 4:32-35, where God used him to bring another boy back to life.</p>
<p>Even more amazing is the resurrection in which Elisha played a part…after he (the prophet) was dead! While a man was being buried, marauders from Moab came. Fearing they had no time to finish, those in charge of the burial threw the body into the grave of Elisha. When the corpse touched the bones of Elisha, the man was brought back to life. (2 Kings 13:21)</p>
<p>What do these three Bible accounts of resurrection have in common? Each lacks an explanation as to what occurred <strong>after</strong> the resurrection. There is no description of the people who came back to life, nor are there any clues that they had "earned" their resurrection. In the first two instances the prophets had prayed to the Lord to bring the children back to life. Neither Elisha nor Elijah claimed any credit or power except the power of God. In the third account, there was no prayer or petition from anyone.</p>
<p>These examples point out that the Creator of the universe has power over death. It is his power, to exercise as he chooses, and sometimes the witnesses are left without the benefit of an explanation. But then, God has not deigned to explain everything to those involved in a miracle.</p>
<p>It also seems that the second chance at life in these cases was not earned or awarded, but freely given. Why? The Scriptures do not say. In the cases of the two boys, it seems as though the resurrection was as much for the parents' sake as for the children. In the last case the Bible story does not even hint at a reason.</p>
<p>Because Jews were to look to Scripture as authoritative, and because the Jewish Scriptures do speak of resurrection, the Mishna gives a stern warning: "He who maintains that the resurrection is not a biblical doctrine has no share in the world to come." (Sanhedrin 10.1.)</p>
<h3>Yeshua and Resurrection</h3>
<p>The portion of the Bible called "the New Testament" also refers to resurrection. In the book of Hebrews (11:17-19) there is an interesting midrash on the binding of Isaac. The author of Hebrews points out that Abraham had the faith to believe that God could raise the dead. That faith empowered Abraham to take Isaac up Mount Moriah fully ready to offer him as a sacrifice. Isaac, his beloved son, the one through whom God's promise that Abraham would become the father of many nations would be fulfilled, was freely offered because Abraham had faith that God could and would raise him from the dead.<a href="#_edn8" name="_ednref8">8</a></p>
<p>It is in the New Testament that the Jewish idea of the raising of the dead becomes more fully developed. The first example of resurrection in the ministry of Yeshua (Jesus) took place in the city of Nain. As Yeshua entered the city, he saw a funeral procession. A widow's son had died and Yeshua felt compassion for her. "He came up and touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And he (Yeshua) said, 'Young man, I say to you, arise!'" The boy arose and the people reacted by glorifying God. They knew that Yeshua was a great prophet and that God had visited his people. (Luke 7:11-17)</p>
<p>A resurrection is also recorded in Matthew 9:18-26, and chronicled as well in the gospel accounts of Mark and Luke. Yeshua was on his way to the home of a man named Jairus to heal his daughter. He stopped to heal a sick woman, and while he was still on his way, Jarius' daughter died. The servants told Jairus not to bother Yeshua, but undaunted Jairus continued to lead the teacher to his home, confident of Yeshua's authority. When Yeshua came to the little girl, he took her by the hand and simply told her to, "get up." Mark records that she immediately stood up and walked.</p>
<p>The miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead is set down in John 11:1-46. Yeshua knew that his friend was dying, yet he didn't rush to his side to heal him. He allowed that tragedy to run its course in order to exhibit the power of God: "Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe.…" (John 11:14,15) When Yeshua finally arrived at Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days. Yeshua told the dead man's sister Martha, "Your brother shall rise again."(v.23) Martha replied that she knew Lazarus would rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Yeshua's next comments are very telling:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die."(v.25,26)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unlike any other prophet, Yeshua presented himself as the power behind the miracle. Yeshua commanded that the stone be removed and the tomb opened. Then "He cried out with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth.'"(v.43) Without any physical contact with him, the dead man was revived in full strength and came out of the crypt.</p>
<p>The next occurrence of resurrection reported in the New Testament took place at the moment of Yeshua's own death. "And the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many." (Matthew 27:52, 53)</p>
<p>Yeshua and Elisha, even in their own deaths, were used to raise others from the dead. But unlike Elisha, Yeshua's body had no contact with the bodies of those who were raised. Yeshua's own resurrection was unique because he was not only seen afterwards by many witnessess, but the events following his resurrection are recorded.</p>
<p>In <i>The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective,</i> Rabbi Pincas Lapide views Yeshua's resurrection as an historical fact.<a href="#_edn9" name="_ednref9">9</a> Lapide wrote that the resurrection was important because it inspired the followers of Yeshua in a way his martyrdom alone could not have done.<a href="#_edn10" name="_ednref10">10</a> It is Lapide's opinion that God intended the resurrection to build a following that would bring monotheism to the gentile world.<a href="#_edn11" name="_ednref11">11</a></p>
<p>Yet, Dr. Lapide does not see a need for Jewish people to accept the resurrection of Yeshua as anything more than an historical fact. He seems to believe that while gentiles need the work of Yeshua in order to be right with God, Jewish people do not. This is a curious stance. It is like saying that although we are to be a light to the goyim (nations), God intended for us to turn away from the very light he shone through us.</p>
<p>Every one of Maimonides' 13 principles of faith begins with the phrase, "I believe with perfect faith.…"<a href="#_edn12" name="_ednref12">12</a> Those of us who believe in the redemption bought by Yeshua's death and resurrection know that because of that resurrection we have perfected faith. Humanity in its flawed state is not capable of perfection except through divine intervention. Yet the New Testament teaches that we can be made as perfect as our Messiah. By his touch, he heals us and cleanses us. Just as the two who were dead received the power of God through contact with Elisha's body, those today who have contact with Yeshua receive the power of God to be raised from the dead at the time that he calls.</p>
<p>Yeshua said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life." (John 5:24)</p>
<p><em>This content was adapted from an earlier Jews for Jesus article.</em></p>
<h4>Endnotes</h4>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1">1.</a> Raphael Patai, <i>The Messiah Texts,</i> Wayne State University Press, Detroit, 1979, p. 207.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2">2.</a> Ephraim Elimelech Urbach, <i>The Sages: Their Concepts and Beliefs,</i> translated by Israel Abrahams, Magnes Press, Jerusalem, l975.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3">3.</a> Abba Hillel Silver, <i>Messianic Speculations in Israel,</i> Maccimilian Co, New York 1927, p.123.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4">4.</a> A. Cohen, <i>Everyman's Talmud,</i> Schocken Books, New York, l975, p. 357.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5">5.</a> <i>Midrash Rabbah: in Ten Volumes,</i> translated and edited by Rabbi Dr. H. Freedman and Maurice Simon, Soncino Press, London, l961, p. 115.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6">6.</a> Joseph H. Hertz, <i>The Authorized Daily Prayerbook,</i> Bloch Publishing Company, New York, l985 (18th Printing), p. 255.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref7" name="_edn7">7.</a> Ibid.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref8" name="_edn8">8.</a> Mitch and Zhava Glaser, <i>The Fall Feasts of Israel,</i> Moody Press, Chicago, 1987, p. 72.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref9" name="_edn9">9.</a> Pincas Lapide, <i>The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective,</i> Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, 1983. p. 15.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref10" name="_edn10">10.</a> Op. Cit., p. 16.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref11" name="_edn11">11.</a> Op. Cit., p. 18.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref12" name="_edn12">12.</a> Joseph H. Hertz, Op. Cit., p. 249.</p>

Resurrection: Rabbinic Judaism, Hebrew Scripture and the New Testament

<h3>Is the New Testament Jewish?</h3>
<p>Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein was curious when he observed one of the teachers in his school reading a book printed in German. Asking the teacher what he was reading, the book was passed to him. He leafed casually through the pages until his eye fell upon the name, "Jesus Christ." Realizing that the little book was a New Testament, he sternly rebuked the teacher for having it in his possession. He furiously cast the book across the room. It fell behind some other books on a shelf and lay forgotten for nearly 30 years.</p>
<p>An outbreak of intense anti-Jewish persecution arose some years later in Rabbi Lichtenstein's native Hungary, and he was not surprised that the attacks were carried on in the name of Christianity. In the midst of the pogroms, he was startled to read the writings of men who, in the name of Christ, sternly denounced the antisemites and defended the Jews. Among these were prominent figures such as the honored Biblical scholar Franz Delitzsch, professor at the University of Leipzig. He was intrigued by statements which spoke of the message of Christ as one of love and life to all people.</p>
<h3>Can Jews Read the New Testament?</h3>
<p>At this time, the little New Testament, flung in anger into a dusty corner years ago, was found. For the aging rabbi it had been a closed and hated book which he thought to be the source of venom aimed at his people. <i>Was it really what he had supposed it to be?</i> He opened its pages and began to read.</p>
<p>Rabbi Lichtenstein later wrote in "Two Letters: or What I Really Wish," describing the experience which flowed from his reading of the New Testament:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"I had thought the New Testament to be impure, a source of pride, of overweening selfishness, of hatred, of the worst kind of violence, but as I opened it, I felt myself peculiarly and wonderfully taken possession of. A sudden glory, a light, flashed through my soul. I looked for thorns and gathered roses; 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, salvation, resurrection, heavenly treasure."</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Jewish People Can Discover the New Testament for Themselves</h3>
<p>The story of Rabbi Lichtenstein is true. It epitomizes two poles of experience that Jewish people have had so far as the New Testament is concerned. For the majority, the New Testament is a closed and unfamiliar book because it is identified with the age-long persecution of the Jewish people in the name of Christianity. Because most Jews believe that the New Testament promotes antisemitism, they think there could be nothing in it which could sustain Jewish life and values.</p>
<p><i>Thus, the common Jewish assessment of the New Testament is formed by a preconditioned impression.</i> In many ways, Jewish experience seems to support this assessment. However, the majority of the Jewish people do not feel inclined to verify the assessment by an investigation of the New Testament itself.</p>
<h3>The New Testament Message is Jewish</h3>
<p>Yet there is a growing number of Jews who, like Rabbi Lichtenstein, have been prompted, for one reason or another, to investigate seriously what the New Testament actually contains. This writer is among them. <i>We have come to recognize through careful investigation that the New Testament is something different than we had first supposed.</i></p>
<p><strong>First of all, we have discovered that its authorship and cultural background are Jewish.</strong> The beginning scenes of the New Testament are centered in the land of Israel, then called Palestine, at the time of the Second Temple. Even as the focus widens from the original setting, the action takes place primarily among Jewish communities in the Diaspora. The New Testament writers, with perhaps the exception of Luke, are all Jews. The early Apostles and followers of Jesus are also Jewish.</p>
<h3>Fulfillment of the Jewish Hope in the New Testament</h3>
<p>The basic theme of the New Testament is uniquely a Jewish one: the fulfillment of the messianic hope. This expectation was peculiarly the possession of Israel. An early passage in the Gospel of Matthew portrays Gentile wise men recognizing that the promised deliverer is to be "King of the Jews." In the early stages of the spread of the good news about the Messiah, it is only Jews and those Gentiles who are under the influence of Judaism who are prepared to receive and understand the message about the advent of the long expected Redeemer. The primary centers for the initial preaching of the message are the synagogues in the communities of the Diaspora.</p>
<p>In page after page of the New Testament, by direct quote, by free paraphrase, and by allusion, there is one primary literary treasure that is invested with supreme authority: the Hebrew Scriptures. When Jesus or the New Testament preachers intone, <i>"It is written"</i>, or <i>"Thus saith the Lord"</i>, they rest upon Jewish Holy Writ as the final court of appeal. Jesus challenges the religious leaders with <i>"You search the Scriptures…it is these that bear witness of Me"</i> (John 5:39). Peter proclaims to the Jewish throng: <i>"And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days"</i> (Acts 3:24).…</p>
<p>The initial New Testament proclamations are laced with passages from Moses and the prophets, indicating that what is taking place is the fulfillment of the Jewish hope.</p>
<h3>The New Testament Quotes the Hebrew Bible</h3>
<p>When one investigates the general content of the New Testament, if he is somewhat acquainted with the Hebrew Scriptures, he will find himself in familiar territory. Angelic communications remind one of the experiences of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua and many other ancient Hebrews. Supernatural births recall the nativity of the patriarch, Isaac. Miracles represent God's confirming activity as He reveals Himself, even as they did in the days of the patriarchs, Moses, the prophets and the kings of Israel. They are not capricious acts of arbitrary power, as in pagan mythology, but they bear profound moral connections through which God trains His people in the ways of faith. Also, as in the Hebrew Scriptures, there is prophetic activity and inspired preaching when the Spirit of God enables men to speak His message. None of these occurrences are strange to the spiritual life and heritage of Israel.</p>
<p><strong>The great themes of the New Testament are the same as those of the Hebrew Scriptures:</strong> God's holiness, righteousness and mercy; man's alienation and estrangement from God through disobedience; God's seeking love, forgiveness and reconciliation. There are also the great themes of faith, sacrifice, redemption, hope, love, peace, joy, the ultimate triumph of God's Kingdom and His judgment and reward. One can read and compare them. There is nothing presented in the former which is not unfolded in the latter. Only the perspective differs. In the Old Covenant, the emphasis is upon promise and in the New Covenant the emphasis is upon fulfillment. The one stresses preparation and the other consummation.</p>
<h3>A Suffering Messiah from Hebrew Scriptures</h3>
<p>At this point, some might object that there are themes central to the New Testament which are non-Jewish. Many contend that the idea of a suffering, dying and resurrected Messiah who is at the same time divine is alien to Jewish belief. It is supposedly traced to pagan Egyptian and Greek sources. In addition, it is alleged that the manner in which the New Testament traces the rise and spread of the Messianic community remolds it into a Gentile phenomenon, ripping it from the Jewish context.</p>
<p>The 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 problem, they developed the idea that there would be two messiahs, Ben Joseph who would suffer and die, and Ben David who would triumph and reign. In the Talmud (Sukkah 52 a and b) there is the suggestion that the passage in Zechariah 12:10, which speaks of a pierced one, gave rise to this explanation.</p>
<p>In the Musaf service for the Day of Atonement, there is an ancient prayer which refers to Moshiach Tzidkenu (Messiah our Righteousness) as one who is "wounded for our transgressions." <strong>The concept of a suffering and dying Messiah is not strange to Jewish lore.</strong></p>
<p>While the resurrection of the Messiah, as declared in the New Testament, seemed to take everyone by surprise, there are passages in Holy Writ which are seen as promising Messiah's resurrection. Psalm 16:10 declares that God will not abandon His Holy One to the grave. Isaiah 53:10,12 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.</p>
<h3>Divinity of Messiah Outlined in the Hebrew Bible</h3>
<p>There are passages in the prophetic writings which give evidence that the Messiah is to be divine. In Isaiah 9:6, the Messianic King is called by the awesome names: <i>Wonderful Counselor; Mighty God; Eternal father; Prince of Peace</i>. In Jeremiah 23:6, the Righteous Branch that is to be raised to David is given the name, "The Lord Our Righteousness." In Micah 5:2, where there is the announcement of Messiah's birthplace, He is spoken of as coming from eternity. In Daniel 7:13-14, Messiah is seen coming in the clouds of Heaven and receiving an eternal dominion over all peoples. The rabbis who developed the mystical lore, such as that contained in the Zohar, observing these and other passages, speculated that the Messiah was to be divine.</p>
<p>Though Jesus Himself declared that "salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22), He also declared that other sheep which are not of the Jewish fold would also be added to the flock of the Messianic Shepherd (John 10:16). This vision is not strange to Jewish expectation. God declared through Isaiah (Isaiah 49:6) that Messiah would be a light to the Gentiles and His salvation would spread to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 60:1-3 proclaims that Gentiles shall come to the light that spreads from Israel through the Messiah.</p>
<p><strong>So the New Testament vision is not a Gentile aberration. It is rather the vision of the ancient Hebrew prophets who proclaimed that God would bring the Gentiles into the blessings of Israel through the Messiah.</strong></p>
<p>In all of these ways, we Jews who have been prompted to investigate the New Testament carefully have come to recognize its basically Jewish character. But we have also discovered something else. <strong>Those passages which allegedly promote anti-jewish sentiment, upon closer investigation, are not really anti-jewish at all.</strong></p>
<h3>A Family Dispute: Is Jesus the Jewish Messiah?</h3>
<p>There is conflict in the New Testament over the Messianic claims of Jesus, but it is mainly conflict between Jews who accept those claims and Jews who do not. In other words, it is a family dispute.</p>
<p>When one looks closely at the ways in which the term, "the Jews," is used, especially in the Gospel of John as well as in some other New Testament writings, it can be seen that it is often used 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 populace.</p>
<p>Certain harsh statements pronounced by Jesus and the New Testament preachers are not vindictive but prophetic rebukes, in the same vein as the words of Isaiah when he calls Israel <i>"offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly!"</i> (Isaiah 1:4). Though antisemites who professed to be Christians have used these seemingly harsh statements as a pretext to persecute Jews, they did so in contradiction to the express teachings of Jesus and the Apostles.</p>
<p>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). The writings of Paul are often cited to show the antisemitic nature of the New Testament. <i>How can this be in light of the fact that Paul taught Gentile believers at Rome that, though many Jews opposed the Gospel, they were loved by God for the sake of the forefathers</i> (Romans 11:28)? Believers are not to be boastful or arrogant against the natural branches (the Jewish people), but they are to make them envious of the Messianic blessings by showing them compassion and kindness (Romans 11:11-12, 17, 30-31). Jesus taught that only the merciful were to receive mercy, only the forgiving could expect forgiveness and that love would be the hallmark of His true disciples.</p>
<h3>Is the New Testament Antisemitic?</h3>
<p><strong>We see nothing in the New Testament that is non-Jewish or anti-Jewish.</strong> It is to the contrary, woven with the warp and woof of Jewish hope and prophetic promise. If one can accept the revelation of Moses and the prophets with utter seriousness, there should be nothing really strange in the New Testament. The real challenge of the New Testament, as we see it, is not about Jewishness, but about faith. It is not a question of "Is it Jewish?" We believe that careful investigation will verify its Jewishness. <strong>The real question is, "Is it true?"</strong> That, as we have stated, is really a question of faith and it holds a challenge for all people, Jew and Gentile alike.</p>
<p><em>This content was adapted from an earlier Jews for Jesus article.</em></p>

The Jewishness of the New Testament

<p>If you find the question whether or not someone can be both Jewish and Christian controversial or confusing, you are not alone! Or maybe you are pretty sure of the answer, but don’t know how to explain it to others. Whether you are exploring for yourself or wanting to explain your beliefs to others, it helps to have objective and accurate definitions of both “Jewish” and “Christian.” Without those, it is easy to make assumptions—and assumptions can get in the way of understanding who is Jewish, who is Christian, and whether it is possible to be both.</p>
<p>For some, the question, “Can a person be Jewish and Christian” is not merely theoretical, but personal. You may be wondering, “Can <em>I</em> be Jewish and Christian?” Maybe you grew up hearing, “Jewish people don’t believe in Jesus!” Yet, you are not so sure if (or why) the two are incompatible.</p>
<p>This article presents a logical look at whether or not a Jewish person can also be a Christian.</p>
<h3>An Important Note About Definitions</h3>
<p>Some say that being Jewish is merely a matter of religion. This definition excludes a huge percentage of people who identify as Jewish: atheistic Jewish people, agnostic Jewish people, and all other Jewish people who are either nonobservant or embrace ideas and beliefs that you won’t find in traditional Judaism.</p>
<p>Others argue that Jewish identity is determined by cultural and sociological (rather than religious) factors. Yet some who use this argument also say that Jewish people “who follow other religions” should be excluded. But how can one use a nonreligious definition to include some people, and then turn and use religion to exclude others? <strong>Definitions must be consistent.</strong></p>
<h3>What Makes Someone Jewish?</h3>
<p>The Hebrew Scriptures are a great place to start exploring Jewish identity. They explain exactly who the Jewish people are, including our origins, as well as how and why we exist. </p>
<h3>Understanding Jewish Identity in the Torah</h3>
<p>Genesis 12:1–3 narrates the beginning of the birth of the Jewish people. To summarize: God told Abraham to leave his country and go to the land that God would show him. There, God promised, Abraham’s descendants would become a great and blessed nation, and through that nation, all the peoples of the earth would be blessed. That nation, of course, is the Jewish people descended from Abraham.</p>
<p>God reiterates this promise to Isaac (Genesis 26:2–5, 24) and again to Jacob (Genesis 28:13–15).</p>
<h6>No human being can revoke God’s promise to our ancestors.</h6>
<p>Biblically, if you’re Jewish, it’s because of God’s promise. That promise concerns the descendants of the people to whom it was made—the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah and Rachel. No human being can revoke God’s promise to our ancestors. But though our Jewishness is inherited, being Jewish should be more than race, religion, or nationhood. <strong>We were meant to be not only a people of promise but also a</strong><a href="/publications/issues/issues-v22-n10/chosen-for-what/"><strong> people of purpose</strong></a>.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1">1</a></p>
<p>That purpose was first outlined in Exodus 19:5–6. After God takes us out of Egypt, He explains that we are to keep His covenant and become a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. God describes His purpose for the Jewish people but allows us to decide if we want to obey Him and participate in that purpose.</p>
<p>Every Jewish person is part of the people of Israel to whom God made certain promises, but some do not know or care what that means. However, neither apathy nor even apostasy will change God’s promises or negate the Jewish identity of any descendant of that promise. The Jewish Scriptures cite case after case of both.</p>
<p>God warned our people of consequences should we step outside the boundaries He set, and the Bible records those consequences. Still, God never withdrew His promise or revoked peoplehood from the descendants of Jacob.</p>
<p>[shortcode type=callout id=98170]</p>
<h3>The Oral Law and Jewish Identity</h3>
<p>From the time of its inception to the digital age, <em>halakhah</em> (the Oral Law, that is, Jewish law that governs the life of religious Jewish people) recognizes that Jewish people never cease to be Jewish, regardless of what they believe or how they choose to live.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Even though a Jew undergoes the rites of admission to another religious faith and formally renounces the Jewish religion, he remains—as far as the <strong>halakhah</strong> is concerned—a Jew, albeit a sinner (Sanhedrin 44a). According to Nahmanides this attitude derives from the fact that the covenant between God and Israel was made “with him that standeth here with us today before the Lord our God and also with him that is not with us here today.”(Deuteronomy 29:14; Nahmanides <em>ad loc.</em><a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2">2</a>)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Those who choose to hide their Jewishness are still Jewish people to God.</p>
<p>Aish.com points out that “a conversion to another religion is ineffective. According to Jewish law, a person is always Jewish—regardless of whether they reject their heritage, ignore it, or practice another religion.”<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3">3</a></p>
<h6>As far as halakhah is concerned, there is no opting out of being Jewish.</h6>
<p>As far as halakhah is concerned, there is no opting out of being Jewish. Yet for centuries, many religious as well as secular Jewish people have struggled to accept that this is true for Jewish people who believe the New Testament claims of Jesus.</p>
<h3>Modern Jewish Scholarship and Messianic Jewish People</h3>
<p>More recently, the modern Jewish world has seen a shift regarding Messianic Jewish people—that is, people who were born Jewish and remain intentional about their Jewishness as they follow Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. Thought leaders and scholars have begun to recognize that Messianic Jewish people are indeed Jewish and are entitled to express their identity as such. Yaakov Ariel, professor of Jewish studies at UNC Chapel Hill calls attention to this turning tide:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Messianic Judaism grew and has turned into a permanent feature of the religious and cultural scene in Jewish population centers around the globe, and some Jews began looking at them in a new manner. Articles on Messianic Jews in Jewish periodicals ... presented their case in a surprisingly impartial tone. In 2000, Dan Cohn-Sherbok, a Reform rabbi, published a book on Messianic Judaism, which in essence called for an inclusive definition of Judaism and the acceptance of the movement.<a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4">4</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Simon Rocker a journalist with <em>The Jewish Chronicle</em>, even goes so far as to recognize that we are not just ethnically and culturally Jewish but have also maintained our spiritual heritage. He reviewed <em>The Jewish Gospels</em> in which Daniel Boyarin explains that the concepts from the New Testament, such as the Trinity and divinity of Messiah, were already “deeply embedded” in first-century Judaism at the time of Jesus. This could challenge many in the Jewish community to consider faith in Jesus, not as a rejection of Jewish faith, but a continuation of it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If Boyarin is right, then messianic Jews whose belief in Jesus as messiah puts them currently beyond the Jewish pale might have more claim to be an offshoot of Judaism than we think.<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5">5</a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>What Makes Someone a Christian?</h3>
<p>Would it surprise you to know that someone who goes to a church all of his or her life is not necessarily a Christian? Jewish people are born Jewish because of a promise God made to our ancestors, but people <strong><em>become</em></strong> Christians because of what they <strong>believe about God’s promises, and specifically about Jesus as the fulfillment of those promises</strong>. One cannot be born a Christian since people aren’t born believing in anything. This is an important difference between Jewish people and Christians.</p>
<p>Some people might identify themselves as “Christian” because they grew up in a culture where church going is the norm, and because they do not identify with any other religion. But without an actual life-changing belief in Jesus, they are Christians in name only. The term sometimes used to describe such a person is “nominal Christian.” You might compare it to someone who registers as a member of a particular political party but has never voted or otherwise done anything else to show interest in or allegiance to that party or its candidates.</p>
<h3>What’s the Difference Between Christians and Gentiles?</h3>
<p>“Gentile” is the usual English translation of the Hebrew word <em>goy</em><strong>, </strong>which means “nation,” and it is usually used to denote non-Jewish nations. A goy, or Gentile, is simply anyone who is not Jewish. As with being Jewish, being a Gentile is a matter of birth, as opposed to being a Christian, which is a matter of belief. To say that a Jewish person who believes in Jesus is no longer Jewish is the same as saying he or she became a Gentile—which is impossible. There are no formerly Jewish Gentiles. (Though a Gentile may choose to adopt the Jewish religion and be counted as part of the Jewish people.)</p>
<p>Some Jewish people grew up hearing the words “Christian” and “Gentile” used interchangeably. That mistaken use of words has contributed to the confusion over whether a person can be both Jewish and Christian. Many Messianic Jewish people avoid using the word “Christian” to describe their faith in Jesus for that very reason.</p>
<p>[shortcode type=callout id=95019]</p>
<h3>Haven’t Christians Always Been Gentiles?</h3>
<p>The first Christians were Jewish followers of Jesus, although they were not originally known by the term “Christians.” They described their belief in Jesus and his teachings as “the Way.”<a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6">6</a> Others called them “Nazarenes,” after the town where Jesus and his family lived. These Jewish people saw Jesus as more than a religious idea or a good example; they viewed him as the promised Messiah predicted in Jewish Scriptures like Micah 5:1 and Isaiah 9:5 (JPS). Their faith in him affected how they saw their relationship with God and how they lived.</p>
<p>The first ones to be called “Christians” were probably mostly Gentiles who lived in Antioch. It was not a label they chose for themselves. They were called “Christians” (probably by other Gentiles) because they were always talking about and trying to live out the teaching of Jesus, the Messiah—or “Christ”—which is simply the Greek translation for Messiah. The name might well have been meant to mock them, but it became commonly understood as the term for anyone who followed the teachings of Jesus. </p>
<h6>Christians are about as diverse a group of people as you’ll ever find.</h6>
<p>Christians are a diverse group; they are Jewish people and Gentiles who trust in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, and the one who offered himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world as predicted in Isaiah 53. In fact, Christians are about as diverse a group of people as you’ll ever find; there is plenty of diversity among Jewish believers in Jesus . . . and even more diversity among Gentile believers, since they represent all the nations of the world! God loves diversity, and the gospel welcomes people of all ethnicities.</p>
<p>John 3:16 has often been described as the best summary of Jesus’ message and the hope of those who believe in him. It reads: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Note the words <strong>world</strong> and <strong>whoever</strong>. These universal terms include Jewish people and Gentiles.</p>
<h3>Aren’t “Jewish Christians” Converts?</h3>
<p>Gentile converts of the first century didn’t become Jewish people in order to follow the Jewish Messiah, even though the majority of believers in Jesus then were Jewish. Likewise, Jewish followers of Jesus today don’t become Gentiles, even though the majority of believers now are Gentiles.</p>
<p>Many Jewish followers of Jesus will say “no” when asked if they have converted—because they understand that most people today are not using that word in its original, biblical Jewish sense, but rather, to refer to someone who has abandoned their Jewish identity.</p>
<p>According to Jesus, everyone who turns to God (converts) has a common experience:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:3–6).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rebirth refers to a new life that comes from a different source—a spiritual source. The rebirth that Jesus describes offers a new promise, but does not revoke God’s original promises to the Jewish people; in fact, the new promise is predicted in the Hebrew Scriptures (Jeremiah 31:33ff.). And yet this new promise, first made to the Jewish people, has been offered to Gentiles as well. Since the promise of peace with God that Jesus gives cannot be received at birth, but only by rebirth, being born Jewish or Gentile has no bearing on whether one receives that promise.</p>
<h3>Why Don’t Jewish People Who Believe in Jesus Just Call Themselves Christians?</h3>
<p>The answer is simple: we value our Jewishness; it is part of our past, present, and future. We see no reason to ignore or deny such an important part of who we are. And we believe that every living Jewish person is a testimony to God’s promise-keeping power. As mentioned, some Jewish believers in Jesus do not identify with the term “Christian” because some people misunderstand it as synonymous with Gentile. Most of us who use the term are quick to clarify that we are Jewish <em>and</em> Christian.</p>
<p>Maybe a better question would be, Why would anyone prefer that Jewish believers in Jesus renounce or ignore our Jewish identity? Perhaps some are concerned that if we are seen as Jewish people it might remove a barrier that prevents other Jewish people from considering Jesus. But anyone who wants to label us “no longer Jewish” to protect others from considering Jesus might be overextending themselves. There is plenty of disagreement within the Jewish community about how, or even if, one can know God. Plans to protect people from opposing ideas about knowing God often backfire. <strong>Everyone has a right and a responsibility to ask God to show them how to have a relationship with Him.</strong> Asking God whether Jesus is the way to that relationship is a personal choice that anyone, Jewish or not, has a right to make.</p>
<h6>If Jesus really is the Messiah, becoming his follower would strengthen our Jewish identity, not destroy it.</h6>
<p>Being Jewish or Gentile is an unchangeable fact of birth. Being a Christian is a matter of belief and choice. If Jesus really is who he claimed to be—the Jewish Messiah—becoming his follower would strengthen our Jewish identity, not destroy it.</p>
<h3>So, If You Are Jewish, Is It Okay to Believe in Jesus?</h3>
<p>Yes!</p>
<p>It may sound obvious, but it’s always best to believe the truth. In order to do that, we need to question assumptions. That can be uncomfortable, but many people who have done so discovered that their beliefs were built on what others thought or felt, or even on their own preferences. As important as other people are, and as strongly as we may feel about what we prefer to believe, it takes something more to find the prize: the truth about a relationship with God. If you are willing to explore the claims of Jesus out of a real desire to know whether he truly is the Messiah, the same God who you ask to guide your search for truth will also guard the Jewish identity that He has given you. We believe that through faith in Jesus, we become the kind of Jewish people God always intended us to be: forgiven of sin, believing in the Messiah, being a light to the world.</p>
<p>Maybe you have already looked into this matter and find yourself believing that Jesus probably is the Messiah, but you are holding back. You may have your reasons, and those reasons may weigh heavily on you. If you’d like to discuss them, we are ready to listen.</p>
<p>Or maybe what you just read has settled your last doubt, and you are ready to believe, but wondering how to navigate that as a Jewish person. If so, please let us know so we can connect with you.</p>
<p class="p1">[shortcode type=callout id=93447]</p>
<p><em><br />
This content was adapted from an earlier Jews for Jesus article.</em></p>
<h4>Endnotes</h4>
<p><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1">1.</a> “When Jews Were Proselytizers,” <em>Issues</em>, vol. 9:10.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2">2.</a> <em>Encyclopedia Judaica</em>, vol. 3 (Jerusalem: Keter Publishing House, 1972) 211, 212.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3">3.</a> <a href="https://www.aish.com/atr/Opting_Out_of_Judaism.html">https://www.aish.com/atr/Opting_Out_of_Judaism.html</a>.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4">4.</a> Yaakov Ariel, “A Different Kind of Dialogue? Messianic Judaism and Jewish-Christian Relations,” <em>Crosscurrents</em>, September, 2012, 321–22.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5">5.</a> Simon Rocker, “Why a ‘Divine’ Messiah Was Not Beyond Belief: A New Book by a Leading Jewish Scholar Turns Some of Our Preconceptions about Jesus and the Origins of Christianity on Their Head,” <em>The Jewish Chronicle</em>, April 22, 2013 [review of Daniel Boyarin, <em>The Jewish Gospels</em>], <a href="https://www.thejc.com/judaism/features/why-a-divine-messiah-was-not-beyond-belief-1.44171">https://www.thejc.com/judaism/features/why-a-divine-messiah-was-not-beyond-belief-1.44171</a>.</p>
<p><a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6">6.</a> See Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 24:14, 22. </p>

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