Video Transcript
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A lot of times we get questions, why don’t the Jewish people believe in Jesus? So I want to give you three general reasons why the Jewish people do not believe in Jesus or have a hard time believing in Jesus.
1. The first is general objections. A lot of this is, well, Jesus is for the Gentiles, he’s not for Jewish people. And the New Testament is a handbook on how to persecute Jewish people. Or, my family would disown me if I put my faith in Jesus as a Jew. And a lot of times those are pretty well founded. A lot of Jewish people who put their faith in Jesus are disowned by their family, or they really do believe that the New Testament is a handbook on how to persecute Jews because this is what their rabbi has maybe told them or rabbis have told them for centuries. So those are just general objections to Jewish faith in Jesus that need to be worked through relationally.
2. The second are the more technical, theological objections to Jesus. And probably the biggest one is Jesus cannot be God and be man, because we only have one God. And the core prayer of Judaism is found in Deuteronomy 6:4, called the Shema, where it says, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” or Echad. So Jesus can’t be God because God is the Father. He is one. Well, when you look at Genesis 1:5, God says, and there was evening and morning one day. The Hebrew word there is Echad. In Genesis 2, a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife. They shall become one, Echad. This is the same thing. It’s two things put together becoming one. And so when you think about it like this, it’s very reasonable to believe that Jesus can be Echad with God because they are one. We believe in the three in one, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, all fully God, all fully diverse expressions of who God is. So that’s a theological objection to Jesus. And there’s many other ones. And I want to recommend that you go read or view videos from Dr. Michael Brown, who created a website, realmessiah.com, where he goes in depth on each one of these technical theological objections.
3. Now lastly, are the historical objections. And I just have to say that I think mainly these ones that I’m about to share with you are probably the real reason why most Jewish people have a hard time with Jesus. And I’m just going to read you some quotes from different leaders in the church throughout history to present to you an example of why Jewish people historically have objections to putting faith in Jesus. The first is from Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, around 100 AD where he says, “It is wrong to talk about Jesus Christ and live like Jews”. Jerome and Augustine in the late fourth century in a letter back and forth to one another said, “The Jews are cursed forever, and the blessings belong to the church, and the curses belong to the Jews.”
The emperor Constantine at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 said this, “Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd, for we have received our savior a different way.” All 318 bishops that were in attendance agreed with him. Bishop Ambrose of Milan in AD 380 said, “Burning synagogues is pleasing to God.” The second council of Nicaea in 787, one of the seven ecumenical councils, in Canon 8 forbids Jewish believers in Jesus from continuing to live like Jews. And Canon 8 is still on the books in the Roman Catholic Church. So once again, I want to encourage you go to realmessiah.com, read about these objections. But these historical objections live large in the psyche of the Jewish people. And I haven’t even gotten close to covering numerous, more modern examples of Christian antisemitism that create a picture for a Jewish person that you cannot put your faith in Jesus and continue to live a Jewish life.
And with these kind of historical quotes, if you were a Jewish person, why would you want to put your faith in Jesus when you hear things like this coming out of the church? This is where we have an opportunity as followers of Jesus and living in a period of rediscovery of the Hebrew context of the Bible, of the Jewishness of Jesus, of the Jewishness of Paul. We have an opportunity to change the narrative on these historical objections and even on the theological and general objections, and to relationally present to the Jewish community, a more accurate picture of Jesus, of Paul and of the God of Israel who did send his son as one to pay for their sins, to atone for them and to continue on with his covenant to the Jewish people. And we as a church can affirm that Jewish people can continue to live Jewish lives and still be members of the church.
