Question on my mind about Judaism

[Sandy Pines]

There has been a question that has been on my mind lately. In the Bible it says that Jesus was of the Jewish faith. If Jesus was Jewish, why don't all of us Christians turn to the Jewish faith? What's the difference between Christianity and Judaism? What do the Jews even believe in?

[Josh]

Oct 7, 2009 16:45:17 GMT -8 Sandy Pines said:

There has been a question that has been on my mind lately. In the Bible it says that Jesus was of the Jewish faith. If Jesus was Jewish, why don't all of us Christians turn to the Jewish faith?

Great question.

First off, Jesus, of course, was a Jew and grew up in the faith of his Jewish fathers, but the Judaism of His day was comprised of many divergent viewpoints and perspectives, some of which he would have agreed with and some which he decidedly disagreed with. Modern Judaism is also considerably different than any version of Judaism that existed in Jesus' lifetime.

So one problem is simply defining what is meant by "Judaism" in the first place.

In a very real sense the faith of Christian is equivalent to the "Jewish faith" as understood by Jesus' disciples. The early Christians didn't see a hard and fast dividing line between the two faiths. Rather, they saw, as we still can today, Christianity as a later stage in the development of God's plan for Israel.

Paul described those who belong to Christ as the true Israel.

[Josh]

What's the difference between Christianity and Judaism? What do the Jews even believe in?

This question is difficult because there are various branches with different beliefs among both Jews and Christians. This is especially true of modern Judaism. Many modern Jews deny most of the basic historical tenets of their faith (Messiah as an individual, the Resurrection, the historicity of the events of the Hebrew scriptures). Probably the modern Jewish group closest to the Jews of Jesus' day are Orthodox Jews, but they are still worlds apart from the kind of Judaism that existed when the Temple still stood and the sacrificial system was still in place.

But a simple dividing line between Judaism-since-Jesus and Christianity is simply what is believed about Jesus himself.

Historically Judaism has seen Jesus as a false prophet and more recently as merely a "good teacher"- but certainly not the Messiah and Redeemer promised in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Of course, there are today those of Jewish descent who do believe in Jesus (Yeshua) yet still maintain many or most of their traditional Jewish practices. Some of them call themselves "Messianic Jews"- other prefer other titles.

Yeshuafreak (on these forums) is a follower of Jesus who attempts to follow Jewish customs and traditions and the written and oral law. If you dig around you'll probably notice that we have some disagreements about the significance of Old Testament law in the life of a modern believer in Jesus, yet we are both united in our faith in Yeshua.