Why Jesus was Not the Messiah

Or for the Purposes of This Article, the Moshiach

S. Landis, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Sep 12, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

As someone who is not Jewish who was raised in a non-Mainstream Christian faith, I often used to think of Judaism's theology as "like Christian theology pretty much, except without Jesus." Before Jews of professional theologians start to scream and shout at me, a little research corrected my misapprehension. Unfortunately, many Christians will happily remain ignorant of the tradition of faith in which their savior came from and still hold this view.

What the word Messiah means to Jews and what the word means to Christians have lost connection with each other over the centuries. So much so that according to the helpful website, jewfaq.org that Jews do not like to use the English word, preferring the Hebrew term, moshiach instead

The first notion Christians must disabuse themselves of is that messiah equals Jesus. The messiah or moshiach as the idea will be referred to in the rest of this article is someone who is yet to come. Much like Christ means anointed on in Greek, Moshiach means the same thing. However, the word does not mean savior.

The Moshiach is expected to reestablish his people in Israel, and to be descended from King David, establish a government in Israel govern both Jews and Gentiles. (Mormons, take note, in this context a gentile is someone who is not Jewish.), rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, and will establish the Jewish law as the law of the land. In some ways, the characteristics will be similar to that of the second coming expected by Christians, but how the moshiach comes about will differ. Some Jewish theologians theorize that in every generation a person is born with the potential to be the moshiach. Because Jesus failed to do any of the above, Jews reject the Christian claim of his being the moshiach, or in Christian terms the messiah.

According to a PDF which can be downloaded or read online at the Jews for Judiasm website, Jesus failed the conditions because he failed to perfect the world. If someone does along who manages to do that, fulfills all other biblical prophecies concerning him, that person will be recognized as the promised anointed one.

Arguing over something that may occur in the future may seem silly to most people, but when it comes to religion, well, let us just say that Christianity's record of treatment of the members of their parent faith, while greatly improved from things like the Inquistion still needs some correction among Conservative Christian sects.

Sources:

http://www.jewfaq.org/moshiach.htm

http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/web/pdf/RealMessiahBookPages_v4ab.pdf

Published by S. Landis

Born early in one February morning in 1977, the world has since graced me with its presence View profile