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 6th,
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 1st, 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 1st
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:
JPS Tanakh
RSV Bible
Why Jews Don't Believe In Jesus, why Jews reject Jesus
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