Epigraph: “And remember when Jesus, son of Mary, said, ‘O children of Israel, surely I am Allah’s Messenger unto you, fulfilling that which is before me of the Torah, and giving glad tidings of a Messenger who will come after me. His name will be Ahmad.’ And when he came to them with clear proofs, they said, ‘This is clear enchantment.’” (Al Quran 61:7)
Temple Mount Jerusalem. Temple of Solomon was destroyed by the Romans in 60-70 AD
Source: The Huffington Post
By Bernard Starr: Psychologist/journalist/college professor
When I interviewed Christians and Jews for my book “Jesus Uncensored: Restoring the Authentic Jew,” I heard over and over “everyone knows Jesus was Jewish.” But when I dug a little deeper I discovered that “everyone knows he was Jewish” really means “he used to be Jewish.” Then I found that many still believe that Jesus was born Christian and that he launched a new religion.
For example, Jane, educated in Catholic grade schools, agreed that Jesus was Jewish. But when I followed up with, “Did he remain Jewish throughout his life?” she said, “Oh, no. He became a Christian and started Christianity.” “When did that happen?” I asked. “When he was baptized by John the Baptist,” she answered confidently. “It says so right in the Bible.”
Noah, a young Jewish college student, who attends a small New England college, asked his Christian fraternity brothers, “What was Jesus’ religion?” They stared at him as if he were an idiot. He pressed for an answer. Unanimously they declared, “Christian, of course.”
The fact is, Jesus was born into a family of practicing Jews dedicated to Judaism. As prescribed in the Torah, he was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. Throughout his life he was thoroughly committed to Judaism, the Torah and Jewish practices. He prayed in synagogues and taught Torah to “multitudes” of fellow Jews. And John the Baptist only baptized Jews to purify them for the expected arrival of the Jewish Messiah. All this is stated clearly in the Gospels; Jane’s quote is not.
Christians are astonished when I inform them that the word “Jew” appears 202 times in the New Testament and 82 times in the Gospels, while “Christian” does not show up at all in the Gospels and is mentioned only three times in later parts of the New Testament — the first mention is when Paul is preaching in Antioch years after the crucifixion (Acts 11:26). Why is “Christian” absent from the Gospels, which span Jesus’ life and ministry? Because there was no Christianity during Jesus’ life.
Categories: Belief, Catholicism, Church, Europe, Uncategorized
A very interesting article. This is something that is not known commonly. People believe Jesus started a whole new religion, which is not true.
“The fact is, Jesus was born into a family of practicing Jews dedicated to Judaism. As prescribed in the Torah, he was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth. Throughout his life he was thoroughly committed to Judaism, the Torah and Jewish practices. He prayed in synagogues and taught Torah to “multitudes” of fellow Jews. And John the Baptist only baptized Jews to purify them for the expected arrival of the Jewish Messiah. All this is stated clearly in the Gospels; Jane’s quote is not.”
The above is 100 % correct. Not only Jesus was a Jew but his mother and all disciples were Jews. Jesus did not preach to any non-Jew because it could harm him under the roman rule. Any body could complain to the rulers. He was very careful. His job was very difficult but he did very well.
Jesus never said or did anything against the Jewish teachings.
He never wanted to start any new religion. He only wanted some reforms of practice in the teachings of Torah. The elders of Jews who were corrupt at that time were put into much difficulty due to Jesus.
Jesus wanted to bring the Jews out of misery (subjugation) and many Jews followed him. He had a great gathering around him but eventually he was caught up by his enemies. The gospels explain all about these things.
Whatever the case, Jesus was a Jew, belonged to the Jews. It is up to Jews to accept him even now or keep on rejecting him. It is their business and their man, however they want to deal with him. The Jews may claim Jesus for themselves as a good or bad man. He was their man and he had nothing to do with present day Christianity.
It is noteworthy that the present day church has also disowned the teachings of Jesus. The church disowning the law as a curse is well known. The Christians do not circumcise male children. They consume flesh of swine happily. They do not observe the Sabath. Jesus used to do all these things. He never told any one to do away with those rituals.
If the Muslims and the Jews and the Christians understood Jesus properly, many problems of these world religions could be solved.
Great post and I would like to add that there are many Christians and Christian groups who accept the Jewish roots of Jesus of Nazareth. The Catholic Focolare is one example. Jesus of Nazareth promoted “The Golden Rule” which is a basic belief shared by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Very informative article about the Jesus and his faith. As a matter of facts all messengers of God stand on one and only one platform and Conway same message to believe on one God the creator of this universe. If you looked in the history, you will find that the Prophet or Messengers of God initially follow the true aspects of same religion prevailing at his time, Until he receive revelation from Allah the True teachings giving by Allah to Conway for the people. As Jesus said that he came to rejuvenate the teaching of Torah. In early days the Christianity was given the name to differentiate among Jewish that this is the only group of people who follow the true teaching of Torah under guidance of God Almighty.
I am delighted to see this post.
As a pastor involved in starting a congregation at this point, the fundamental truth that I learned, was indeed the Jewish “DNA” that is intrinsic to the Gospel and its message.
In my studies over the last 25 years that propelled me into the ministry, I saw clearly the same evidence as the author. And now, there is a groundswell of activity in previously “Christian” circles to embrace the spirit of the early church that was unashamedly Jewish in both practice and expression.
More than this, my own personal journey began in the early 1980’s, when I first interacted with Jewish people in Southern California. Immediately, Armenians, Jewish, Israeli nationals residing in the USA, and people of Arab descent all inquired of me if I was Jewish. The aforementioned Israeli national I met came out and flatly asked me what Temple congregation I attended. I gave him an interesting answer of “Temple Lion of Judah!”
I would later ask my father about this, and he laughed and said, “David, I have been accused of this my entire life! However, we are not”… His voice suspiciously trailed off on the latter part. 12 years later, he would pass away, and in his personal effects, I would find 2 rather unique yarmulkas and other items.
It would later become apparent that great measures were taken to conceal our Jewish identity, and and my experience with traditional Christianity and Roman Catholicism (hereafter RCC) was awkward at best. In his final years, my dad would admit the same thing to me, without qualification. Once I found these items and recalled the stories where he would “claim” to be a goy while interacting with fellow Jews, the truth became clear to me.
My journey took me to Bible College, and there I met a professor who was clearly pro-Israel, and pro-Jewish, and encouraged me greatly to pursue all of these tangents, and tie them together. And that is why I have delayed in bringing forth a congregation for so long.
This journey of truth that I have been on, has been to find the AUTHENTIC Jesus (Hereafter “Yeshua”) on His own merits, Who is not distilled through a Euro-centric, and dare I say, implied anti-semitic undertone in its traditions over the centuries and these last two millennia.
One of my revelations at Bible College, was a metaphorical statement/question I presented to my colleagues at the time: “During the days of the Roman Empire, did Rome have Israel in its hands, or did Adonai through Israel have Rome in HIS hands?
From my readings of Augustine of Hippo, and the post-Constantine evolution of the church, did the Jewish DNA seem to disappear from what I would call a “purely Christian” sequestration of beliefs that center on the death, burial and resurrection of Messiah Yeshua.
Indeed, my completely sacramental Catholic upbringing honed this to a polished precision that made no mention of Judaism as having legitimacy. What I DID see, however, is the all the hallmarks and representations of “Replacement Theology,” in which the RCC calls its spiritual leadership “priests,” and celebrate the “daily sacrifice” of Jesus and his “atoning” death.
I would also notice in my Biblical studies, an inherent weakness in what I read, that I could not put a finger on at the time. It was not until just this past 2 years, that I discovered why.
As part of what I believe is that implied anti-semitic bent of disavowing any Jewish authorship of what most Christians call the “New Testament,” it has been widely disseminated that the original “autographs” of this Scripture portion was written in Koin Greek, considered to be the lingua Franca of the day.
In reality, post-Babylonian exile Aramaic and Hebrew is the original autographs, which Orthodox Jews have maintained just as scrupulously as the Tanakh. This strikes a stinging blow to the King James Only crowd that believe the only uncorrupted and legitimate text to read was the “Textus Receptus,” which is a collation of Greek textual writings taken from the original autographs.
Once I was able to read the Orthodox Bible, or other spin-offs such as the Complete Jewish Bible, My world was overturned as radically as the Gospel account of Yeshua overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple.
In reading these as translations DIRECTLY from what was the autographs of Scripture, there is a seamless and unbroken connection that is embarrassing to the Greek-defined “New Testament.”
Paul made reference to Yeshua being a living representation of the Torah. And from the beginning, the Torah reveals Yeshua. There is not a single contradiction I can find, there is no “out with old, in with the new.”
Instead, I see the the completeness of all things, just as Paul declared, “in, through, and by Him (Yeshua). The Law of the Torah was not abolished at all. Paul, like Yeshua, denounced the CORRUPTION of the practices that were rampant at the time, and if anything, this first century CE reformation of Judaism included the message of the Messiah as an essential element.
The early “Church” of the book of Acts was still in the Synagogues, celebrating the feasts, and carrying on with much of Jewish life as stated by the author, as correctly stated until the 4th Century.
What follows now, is an epic mountain to climb, which I believe as a modern “pioneer” of sorts, is to bring this uniquely different (and I will surely be labeled, oddly enough as “Unorthodox” Christianity) back to its Jewish roots that were never intended to be severed. I believe this is the truly “Orthodox” Church, if you will.
Paul’s letter to the Romans in chapter 11 gives considerable insight to this, and also to his devotion to Israel and the prophetic announcement of Israel receiving her Messiah and the coming salvation to the Jews.
Thank you, Bernard Starr, for your insights and sharing the truth!
I will add one more item that is crucial:
Nearly 10 years ago, I began writing the foundations for a book about the topic of reconciliation. What I have just shared above is focused on this tenet in a very tangible way, especially because of the long-standing rift between Jews and Christians.
I understand the lack of trust or faith by Jews with many Christians, because of their treatment historically, and especially the still-unabated prejudice to renounce any legitimacy to their existence, culture, etc.
This is shocking to me, in light of the overwhelming ocean of evidence to the contrary. My visit to Israel 17 months ago for several weeks opened my eyes even further, and once again fueled my passion to bring reform and reconciliation that will serve as a foundation of ambassadorship between me, the Jews and Israeli people as long as I live.
For me, there is no wall of separation, there is no separate heritage. If anything, I was denied my true heritage by my father and preceding family’s lack of courage to embrace our true birthright honestly.
Yeshua the Messiah was the Reconciler, and not one to marginalize, condemn, and isolate the Jews. What He did do, is point out that sin does that on its own from our Creator. He only warned those in His day, of what would take place if they did not heed His warnings.
The Gospel message and the Scripture following is preserved, I believe in part, because Yeshua was indeed a prophet in His day, and His words came true. 70 CE And the Roman armies under Titus stand as a record for one of the most pivotal prophecies Yeshua would pronounce. The Arch of Titus in Rome depicts this epic moment in history.
No one–Christians, Jews, Muslims, or anyone else–can regard His words with sacred or secular significance, as false. History again records this clearly, and remains intact for all to see and read for themselves.
it is my prayer that my words, along with those of Mr. Starr, will bring a spirit of reconciliation to all who stand beneath the banner of Christianity and Judaism, and embrace one another as brothers once again, never to be torn from rightful fellowship and mutual worship of Hashem!
Thanks Mr. Castelli for your comments. Just wondering why exclude Muslims from your religious sense of brotherhood. After all both Moses and Yeshua foretold of MOhammad (Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Exclusion can never lead of real happiness. What do you think?
Very interesting to read this from a Christian brother!
Hello Abdul,
I actually did include a comment at the end of my comments in my second note above, when I said this:
“No one–Christians, Jews, Muslims, or anyone else–can regard His words with sacred or secular significance, as false. History again records this clearly, and remains intact for all to see and read for themselves.”
Yeshua, as I said in the paragraph preceding this, was a Reconciler. Scripture acribes to Him the title, Prince of Peace. When the storm raged on the Sea of Galilee, His words invoked the storm by saying, “PEACE, be still!”.
Matthew’s Gospel account depicts Yeshua’s zeal for driving out corrupt money changers from the temple courtyards by saying, “it is written (From the book of Isaiah), that My house shall be a house of prayer for ALL NATIONS.”
Nations is not political entities, but ethnic groups, tribes, klans, families, etc. In other words, ALL-inclusive. Yeshua, in reading II Corinthians 5:18-21, became the progenitor of reconciliation as a service to all, and became our righteousness before Adonai, and as Romans 10:4 declares, this would be unto the fulfilling of the Law as pertaining to righteousness.
His Righteousness was intended then, to be a universal standard for all-Jew, Christian, Muslim, Gentile/Goy, etc. to receive as their own, and to live out accordingly. NO ONE is left out. In John’s Gospel, first chapter, John asserts this truth: To as many who believed(and/or received) in Him (Yeshua), He gave them the right to be called (as a legal description) the son’s (or heirs) of Adonai” as to the covenant blessings previously given only to Israel.
John would later have the “Revelation” of Yeshua while on the island of Patmos, and while doing so, transcribed that vision, where he saw “A great multitude, which no man can number, worshiping the Lamb that sat upon the throne, from every tribe, nation (people or ethnic group), kindred and tongue, singing ‘worthy is the Lamb’.”
Again, NO ONE is excluded. I stressed that point previously and now again. There is more to be done and said to this end, But now you see clearly from Scripture what the standard is, and the outcome that standard will produce in time.
There is still much more for me to discover, to study, and to learn, but this is where I am today. I am a work in progress, Abdul. I welcome your input, and all others, and to find the places we can come together, and find that common ground, in the same manner that Mohammed stated in the Quran to show respect for the “Children of the Book,” and the common ancestry of Abraham to us all.
Genesis declares openly that the Sons of Ishmael would be blessed, become a strong nation, and not forsaken. Time has proven this to be true. And so the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the same G-d of Ishmael who reached out in mercy to him and his mother in the wilderness.
I have heard arguments for decades that the argument or rivalry between Isaac and Ishmael was over a birthright or heritage. If you read the promises Adonai made to Abraham in Genesis 17, each has a separate calling, covenant, and blessing to fulfill.
One was not forsaken on account of the other. Ishmael did indeed receive his full inheritance, as did Isaac. Anything less is a dishonest skewing of the truth which Scripture asserts.
Blessings and Shalom to all,
David Castelli