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Is It Jewish To Believe In Jesus?

By ravnate, on ‍‍ה תשרי תשעא - September 13th, 2010

Is it Jewish to believe in Jesus?

To some, the concept of a Jew believing in Yeshua seems to be a contradiction. The reason is, many people have a dichotomy set up in their minds. On the one hand, you have Jews and Judaism and on the other hand, Christians and Christianity.

You are either one or the other…so the thinking goes. But this simple dichotomy is in reality not so simple. If we go back 2,000 years we find that Yeshua was a Jew living in a Jewish land among Jewish people. All the apostles were Jewish as well as the writers of the New Covenant and for many years this faith in Yeshua was strictly a Jewish one.

From the Book of Acts and other historical evidence, many believe that in the first century there were literally hundreds of thousands of Messianic Jews.* In addition, there were Messianic Synagogues scattered throughout the Roman Empire and beyond.** These first-century Messianic Jews remained highly loyal to their land and their people.

Whether it was Jewish to believe in Yeshua was never an issue. Of course it was Jewish! What else could it be? The big question back then was whether Yeshua had been sent for the Gentiles also. When G-d miraculously showed the Messianic Jews that he was the Messiah for both Jew and Gentile alike, then Gentiles from every nation began to pour into this Jewish faith.

Through the years, as the number of Gentile believers increased, they began to predominate in this Messianic faith. With the passing on of the Jewish apostles and the early Messianic Jews, the Jewish roots of the faith were eventually lost. This “De-Judaizing” process continued until in one of the greatest paradoxes in history, it became alien for a Jewish person to believe in Yeshua as his Messiah!

* Act 2:41, 2:47, 4:4, 6:7, 9:31, 21:20 **James 1:1, 2:2

© 2010 – 2011, ravnate. All rights reserved.

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  • Slpopp2

    What a paradox man has established from the centuries past until now, that we 30,000 or so different denominations and the half dozen branches of Judiaism that make the Jewish roots alienated to the gentiles and believing in Yeshua as Messiah as non-Jewish to the Jews. Their is great hope because the Father has pre-destined this all in His master plan when we will all become Qhal Echad. Of course there will be some growing pains, but we as believers are called to be ready as that day and time approaches. Shalom & blessings from HIM.

  • Mirium33

    If only it was such a simple past, I recently read the “rest of the story” in a book called, ‘Restoration Returning the Torah of God to the Disciples of Jesus.’ I had some inklings of church history during my studies at Grace University, but this gentleman D. Thomas Lancaster, put the history together in a succinct and informative timeline. The early church did not just wander away from their roots, they were pushed out because of the stigma surrounding being a believer. The Jewish community did not want anything to do with them because they didn’t want to be accused of heresy toward the Roman government and when Rome burned they adamantly refused to be associated with the Christians, helping to support the notion that the reason Rome burned was due to the group then called Christian. After the Messianic believers were pushed out of the synogoges, the church fathers at the council of nicene established the now known doctrine of christianity. There is much more history to be read and understood about this event, but in essence the Church has implimented and excommunicated everything that is Jewish. To the point of doing and being everything opposite of what it is to be a Messianic Beliver in Yeshua. I have met and do know faithful believers who have no knowledge of the history of the church and are learning to follow Yeshua, but stay close to their denomonation of birth in the Massiah. I recognize we all have a history, and however He does it He uses our history to teach us more about HIM. Spiritually the Church has been on a journey full of trials and tribulations, in reality it has been more.

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