My Counter-Argument to Rabbi Shraga Simmons

I need to explain why I chose this title for this post. Recently, someone shared an article by Rabbi Shraga Simmons which is titled: Why Jews Don't Believe In Jesus, For 2,000 years Jews have rejected the Christian idea of Jesus as messiah. Why?  The article was published March 6^th, 2004 on aish.com. I suppose that my argument or case is not so much from a fundamentalist perspective in which I will present direct text that opposes line by line what Rabbi Shraga Simmons is saying; however, I think that I do counter some of the points he makes which I believe are well made. Obviously, the Rabbi’s post was made over ten years ago; however, I only recently discovered it existed. The post by the Rabbi caught my attention because I recently wrote something on my blog that sounds a bit like the opposite of what the Rabbi is saying to an extent, although I will not argue that he makes great points, indeed. Anyhow, my blog is Arango's Apologetics Page, and the article which I wrote on Friday, August 1^st, 2014 is titled: Why Many Believed Jesus was the Messiah since the Very Beginning. I am sure; it is understandable why I say they sound like opposites.

The thing that perhaps needs to be cleared up in my view is that many Jews very early on  did believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, the Second Adam, and perhaps many other things. In the Book of Acts there is documentation of more than 3000 conversions in one day alone. Indeed, some thought he was divine, and some just human. Honestly, the debate over the humanity and divinity of Christ is still going on among some Christian factions, possibly. Jesus was considered the new Adam. For instance, in 1 Corinthians 15:45-47, St. Paul said: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven (RSV Bible)." This previous text was written by Paul around between 53 AD and 57 AD. Jesus was considered a new covenant from God. Paul was a Jew, and would attend both synagogue, and the many churches he planted when visiting the cities in which they were found.  At one point, in early Christianity the debate was whether new converts needed to be circumcised. Anyhow, I don’t really want to dwell in excessive detail to be brief in this reflection. Now, please allow me to get started making some points. 

To start my case, the reason I am a Christian, and believe that Jesus was the Messiah and/or the Son of God, perhaps, is not primarily because of any Old Testament text that seems to refer to Jesus as such. I try to avoid the fundamentalist approach to this argument, as I said previously…lol. Jesus resurrected and we have this documented very well in thousands upon thousands of manuscripts in Greek, Coptic, Syriac, and in Latin, for starters. The RESURRECTION of Jesus is a huge deal in Christianity regardless of whether anyone really knows who Jesus really was. Furthermore, Paul makes the case about the resurrection of Jesus very well in 1 Corinthians 15:1-12.  In fact, the Bishops that came up with the Nicene Creed in 325 AD accepted that Jesus was both human and divine, but in my opinion they probably limited their statements about him greatly. Yes, one can say that "for 2,000 years Jews have rejected the Christian idea of Jesus as messiah." but this is really a half truth because the first Christians were Jews; in fact, Christianity is simply another branch of Judaism…. Peter (Cephas, Simon Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples) made arguments using the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures) in our New Testament. Moreover, if you read my blog post which I aforementioned, I illustrate this directly quoting from the Book of Acts 3:12-26. The Book of Hebrews in the New Testament begins by saying: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power (RSV Bible).” Jesus himself used Hebrew Scriptures to explain who he was in the New Testament: "beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27)." But, let me move on to other ideas….

I personally have nothing against Judaism, if anything, and think it can coexist extremely well with its own sibling, Christianity. I have even heard many people make ignorant arguments such as Paul said things Jesus didn’t say. Okay, just in case you didn’t’ know, the oldest Christian writing is 1^st Thessalonians which was written by Paul, and not the Gospels which contain the words of Jesus. Mark is the oldest Gospel, and he was a student of Paul along with Luke, so trust me, Paul knew what Jesus said…lol. The other two Gospels in our modern canon are Mathew and John, both were supposedly Jesus’ disciples, and were eye witnesses to what he said, although all Scholars may not agree, and say John was the only eyewitness. Ironically, John is the last Gospel written. All the Gospels were written for different audiences, but they are still included in the canon most Christians use today.

I wish to reiterate that it's not accurate to say that Judaism has rejected Jesus as the messiah for 2000 years because Christianity is a branch of Judaism and everything written in the New Testament was written by Jewish people moreover that claims made about Jesus were first made by Jewish people. The person that took Christianity to the gentiles was Paul in the very beginning of the Faith. However, one should not assume that the Hebrew texts are the sole reason for accepting Jesus as Messiah. The Old Testament is one form of apologetics, but probably not the best method if you ask me. In Genesis 22:18, God did tell Abraham "and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast hearkened to My voice (JPS Tanakh)." Many of the 2.18 billion Christians on the planet believe that Jesus is part of that seed from Abraham, and feel very blessed to believe in Jesus and his words, and all of which this entails.

One could say that the Nicene Creed from 325 AD, which is really an affirmation of our faith, perhaps best explains what we basically believe as Christians, and it does not need support of the Hebrew text, but I am sure that perhaps those same Hebrew text are a big deal to some “Sola Scriptura” Evangelicals which do not in any way represent the majority of Christians, only a small faction, and I myself was one once, so I am not being critical of them either, nor the Hebrew text which I also enjoy reading often. Christians, do not really need to question why some scriptures seem attributed to Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures, although they could if they wish. I do strongly believe that Jews should read the New Testament, however, whether they believe Jesus is anything that people have claimed he was throughout history or not, simply because it shows them a great deal within its texts of where Judaism was 2000 years ago, and what they believed, as opposed to modern day Judaism.

In closing, many Christians and I included also do not believe in “replacement theology” with relevance to Jews, so truthfully we should all probably just move on, and get along because this is similar to kicking a dead horse. No one has to convert to anything in my opinion; Jews do not need to become Christians.  The book of Romans chapters 9 to 11 makes this case, perhaps. Let's stop and get in and out of the box of the Scriptures and view Christianity from several perspectives, from all of its variations, and versions, as it has always been. Christianity could even seem psychotic at times but it doesn't mean that it's wrong; for instance, John 6:44 and John 12:32 to me seem to contradict each other, but can actually work together if one thinks about it enough or doesn’t think about it…lol. The accurate statement to make with relevance to Christianity and Judaism would probably be that Judaism and Christianity split up and went in two different directions by comparison to what modern Judaism is today and what modern Christianity is today, but who really knows? As I said before also, I actually think that modern Jews should read the New Testament to have a better understanding of where Judaism was 2000 years ago because you're getting input from a lot of Jews who were living during the first century. Whoever Jesus was, whether the Messiah or anything else we may desire to believe, was obviously pretty amazing. I hope you have enjoyed my arguments. I personally do not know Rabbi Shraga Simmons, but if he is ever in South Florida and wants to get together for breakfast or something, assuming he eats Kosher, I know some amazing Kosher places near my house that we could both enjoy, so Shalom, and blessings to all!

References:

http://www.aish.com/jw/s/48892792.html

JPS Tanakh

RSV Bible

Why Jews Don't Believe In Jesus, why Jews reject Jesus