... Jewish Position on Jesus ...

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Our postion is that it is the Christians who must prove their case, not the Jews. The Jewish religion existed for thousands of years before Christianity, and Christianity accepts the truth of the Torah and other Jewish Scriptures as Divinely revealed truth. As such, there is no need to enter into any debate regarding the truth of Judaism per se when dealing with Christians. However, Christians maintain that their god, Jesus, came to the world and annulled the laws of the Torah, replacing them with a "New Covenant" that demands belief in Jesus. This is an extraordinary and untenable claim on several grounds:

1. The claim that a human being is actually G-d, or part of G-d, is clearly a very serious claim. Most of us, if presented with such a claim, would reject it out of hand as an utter absurdity, even bordering on madness. Yet, Christianity claims that Jesus, a human being, is G-d. Obviously they have to prove this before we should be expected to accept it. But what do they actually offer us as proof? They offer a few miracle tales written by his disciples. Yet, despite the rather dramatic claims made by these few followers, we find little or no mention of Jesus in any of the historical sources from the period he supposedly lived in. Every religious movement makes such claims about its founder, yet obviously they cannot all be true. Why should we pick the stories of Jesus over the stories of Krishna, Buddha, Mohammed, or any other such legendary figure?

   Just as an aside, some may respond that the same accusation could be leveled at Judaism. However, this is incorrect. Judaism, alone among all religions, is based upon events that happened in the presence of hundreds of thousands of eyewitnesses, primarily the Exodus and the Sinai Revelation. These events, which are the foundation stones of Judaism, were witnessed by the entire Jewish people and qualify as objective historical events. No other religion claims to have had similar experiences, because such claims would be obviously false. The Jews, however, can make this claim because these events really happened (as any Christian or Muslim will agree).

2. The idea that G-d would take physical form (as in the physical form of Jesus) is clearly repugnant to the Bible, as we see from Deuteronomy 4:15-16 and innumerable other places. It is this concept, which is the basis of the prohibition against idolatry, one of the worst sins. If we would accept the premise that G-d could or would take physical form, then any form of idolatry could be justified by its followers as legitimate and the prohibition against idolatry would be meaningless.

3. The Torah, which Christians believe to be G-d's word, states in several places that the laws of the Torah are eternal. See, for example, Deuteronomy 4:2, 29:13-14, and 29:28. In particular, see Deuteronomy 13:1-6 where we are taught that we are not permitted to add to or detract from G-d's laws, and that if a prophet arises who teaches us to worship a new god we may not listen to him, even if he performs miracles. Yet, Christians believe that Jesus declared himself to be G-d, and that the laws of the Torah are no longer binding. How can Christianity claim to accept the Torah (the "Old" Testament) while rejecting its most basic principle?

With regard to Jesus coming to annul the laws of the Torah, we have the following evidence that he had no such intention:

Matthew 5:
17 ... Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

18 ... For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19 ... Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Mark 12:
29 ... And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord.

30 ... And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31 ... And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Christians claim that Jesus was the Messiah which the Torah tells will someday come. Yet, contrary to the claims of Christianity, Jesus never fulfilled any of these prophecies. Briefly, these are:

• He will return all Jews to the service of G-d in all its details.
• He will rebuild the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
• He will gather in the dispersed Jews to the land of Israel.
• He will bring the entire world to serve G-d in unity.

Clearly, Jesus did not accomplish any of these things. In the past I have encountered Christians who have argued that Jesus has not failed to fulfill these conditions since he will fulfill them at the time of the "Second Coming". This is a meaningless argument. As the conditions clearly have not been fulfilled, there is no reason to assume he is the Messiah simply because some of his followers say he will do so at some undetermined point in the future. I could as easily make the same argument for myself, I will fulfill the conditions in the future so believe I am the Messiah now.

Even if we would reduce the claim for the legitimacy of Jesus from that of deity to that of a prophet, we would still be faced with a serious problem. The Torah lays out clear guidelines for determining who is a prophet. Jesus never qualified according to these rules, particularly since one of these laws is that a prophet cannot claim to abrogate G-d's laws and Jesus sought to do just this. It is for this reason that Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides, one of the greatest leaders of the Jewish people, applied to Jesus the verse in Daniel 7:25, "He will speak words against the Most High, and he will wear down the saints of the Most High, attempting to change the seasons and the Law" (Igeres Teiman).

For all these reasons, and others as well, Judaism cannot accept the claims of Christianity. As these opinions are all firmly based in the Bible, which Christians claim to believe in, it is upon them to prove beyond a doubt that their god is a true god and not simply an idol. They have never done this because it cannot be done. It was always clear to us that Jesus was not G-d, not the Messiah, and not a prophet.

Nevertheless, the opinion of most historical scholars, including religious Jews, is that Jesus was an actual historical personage though he may not have lived at the time the New Testament claims. In any event, whether he ever lived is very secondary, the tales told of him in the New Testament are almost certainly all fictional and are completely unsupported by any other historical text from that period.

Rationalists say the entire story of the Jesus is supported by hearsay. Christians believe it because people whom they find convincing (the Church hierarchy) believe it and say it is true (stories which was really passed down to them). The stories prove nothing. There are millions of stories in the world that have been passed down with similar authority and hearsay. The entire story of the Jesus is supported by hearsay. There are enough "pieces of the true cross" to build a full-scale model of the Titanic; evidence has been faked systematically for centuries.

The above picture is not posted to be insulting but rather to make the following point. It is traditional among Jewish people to not make any images of divinity or of any of our early ancestors (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob [and their many wives], Joseph, Moses, etc.) ... those you might see are usually printed in children's books.

This is done because we really don't know what anyone really looked like, it's done out of respect, and it's done to avert any possibility of falling into the worship of graven images. As an aside, this is also the reason there are so few important "artists" in our history.

The picture above, as an example ... is this what Jesus really looked like? Do Black children see him this way? Is this a role model for Asian children? Is it important for the Church to show any pictures (or statues) at all? Is the Church saying that adults need pictures and feelie/touchie things to understand a concept?

Well, these are just some personal thoughts, and now a moment of levity:

A woman from Chicago decided to go on vacation to Miami in the 1920s. Upon trying to check into a nice hotel, the concierge told her, "Sorry, there's no vacancy."
Just then, a man checked out. The woman then exclaimed, "Good, now you have a room."
"Sorry", the man behind the counter replied, "this hotel is restricted."
"And what does that mean?" she asked him.
"Jews aren't allowed here."
"Well what makes you think I'm Jewish?" she shot back.
"I know you are."
"Well, I'm not, I'm a Catholic." she insisted.
"So tell me," the man replied, "Did G-d have a son?"
"Sure."
"What was his name?"
"Jesus."
"And where was he born?"
"In Bethlehem, in a stable."
"And WHY was he born in a stable?"
"Because a schmuck like you wouldn't rent his parents a room."

I don't know if this is the proper place to cite this Catholic girl's prayer; well, here goes: "Oh Mary mother of G-d who conceived without sinning, please help me to sin without conceiving." ... prayer inserted only for levity.

Finally, speaking of "Cripes" and paraphrasing Andy Rooney (sometimes the best part of CBS's "60 Minutes") ... Very nice people in the Midwest, very wholesome (note that Rooney's wife is from the Midwest). They use words like 'Cripes'. 'For Cripe's sake.' Who would that be, Jesus Cripe's? Is he the son of 'Gosh' of the church of 'Holy Moly'? I'm not making fun of it. You think I wanna burn in 'Heck'?

And if this page bothers you ... ... I'm very willing to listen.
I know it's a most delicate issue, so I welcome all comments.
I could be very wrong; and if so, I'll admit it and correct or retract the page.

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