Messiah Jesus Is Not a Term Paper

For the Jewish people, Jesus did not satisfy any of the aforementioned messianic prophecies. Christians believe that Jesus will satisfy all of these prophecies in the Second Coming, but Jewish people believe that the Messiah will fulfill these prophecies outright, and no concept of a second coming can be believed (Scholem 1995).

According to Jewish beliefs, Jesus was not a prophet because prophecy can only exist in Israel when the land is populated by a majority of Jews. During the time of Ezra -- circa 300 BCE -- when the majority of Jews resisted moving from Babylon to Israel, prophecy ended upon the death of the last prophets -- Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi. For Jews, this would put Jesus on the scene approximately 350 years after prophecy ended (Simple to Remember 2010).

According to Jewish sources, the Messiah will be born of human parents and possess normal human attributes like any other person. He will not be half God and he won't have any paranormal characteristics. The Messiah must also be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1). Christians believe that Jesus' mother was a virgin, which means that he didn't have a father so he could not have fulfilled the messianic obligation of being descended on his father's side from King David (Simple to Remember 2010).Finally, the Messiah will offer the Jewish people a full observance of the Torah. The Torah says that all mitzvoth (commandments) are obligatory forever, and anyone coming to alter the Torah will be seen as a false prophet (Deuteronomy 13:1-4) (2010).

The idea of a Messiah or Mashiach is an ancient thought in Judaism and a Messiah would have been a great leader -- such as King David -- but the Messiah would not have been a savior, so in the eyes of Jewish people, Jesus is not the Messiah nor could he ever have been because he lacked so many of the prerequisites. There is a lot of contemplation and speculation when it comes to the Messianic age in terms of when it will take place. Interestingly enough, the Messiah or mashiach is not mentioned overtly in the Torah since the Torah was written so that all people could understand it, and the very theoretical concept of a far away, mystical reward was beyond the comprehension of most people. The Torah does, however, have various references to the "End of Days" -- the time of the Messiah.

Bibliography

Brown, Michael L. What Do Jewish People Think About Jesus?: And Other Questions

Christians Ask About Jewish Beliefs. Chosen: 2007.

Scholem,….....