Rabbi, teacher, myth: Jewish ideas of Jesus

More views of Jesus

There is no "official Jewish view" of Jesus of Nazareth, according to Rabbi Bernard Bloom of Schenectady.

"Many Jews may regard Jesus as a remarkable person, a great spiritual leader -- perhaps even a prophet, but not the Messiah whose coming was anticipated in the Old Testament," he said in a recent interview with The Evangelist.

"The great dividing line between Christianity and Judaism is that Christians believe Jesus was God who entered and took on human form while Jews believe that God is pure spirit. Incarnation is impossible in keeping with Jewish teaching," explained Rabbi Bloom, who retired from Temple Gates of Heaven in Schenectady.

Jewish belief

"We have no equivalent of the pope or the Vatican to promote official beliefs," said Rabbi Bloom, who adheres to the Reform branch of Judaism. "The closest we have to a widely accepted view of who or what the Messiah [meaning 'one who is anointed'] will be comes from Moses Maimonides, who was born in Spain and taught in Egypt around 1200 A.D.

"He taught that a flesh-and-blood member of the Davidic dynasty will come to restore Jewish independence and the Jews will once again live under God's law rather than foreign law."

In other words, the Messiah awaited by those who profess Judaism will be a human being rather than a divine being, but Rabbi Bloom said Jewish people are "strongly discouraged from speculating" about the exact date and time of the Messiah's arrival.

Not the savior

The Jews living 2,000 years ago relied upon what had been spoken by the prophets, and Jesus simply failed to live up to their expectations, said Rabbi Bloom.

"Back at the time of Jesus, the belief in the Messiah had to do with the Old Testament teaching that the kingship of the Family of David, which had come to an end at the time of the Babylonian conquest of the Jews in 586 B.C., would be restored. Since the Bible describes God's promise of eternal kingship to David's dynasty, the belief persisted that God's promise would be fulfilled, that a descendant of David would arise to lead the Jews to independence and victory over whoever was ruling them at that time.

"They were confident that the Messiah would re-establish the Kingdom of God," he continued, "by which they meant that instead of being ruled by a foreign conquerer, the Jews would once again be ruled by God's law as expressed in the Bible and supervised by God's anointed king."

Since Jesus did not bring about this liberation and militarily defeat the Romans who were in power, "for the vast majority of Jews, this disqualified him from being recognized as the Messiah," Rabbi Bloom said.

Many views

Like Rabbi Bloom, Dr. Peter Zaas said Catholics need to understand that there is no "one official Jewish view" of Jesus; that there is no "official Jewish view" of anything, not even of Judaism. Dr. Zaas is director of the Institute for Jewish-Christian Studies at Siena College in Loudonville, a Jewish New Testament scholar and co-author of a book titled "Who Was Jesus?"

"Jewish people tend to focus on the Torah, our central body of teachings," he said, "but since contemporary Jews have no pope to dictate their beliefs, you might say they are rather on their own. They are certainly entitled to a much wider range of beliefs than one might think given the stereotypes that exist about Jews and Judaism.

"Being a Christian means one who affirms Jesus as the Christ, or Messiah, and embraces his teachings. If you deny Jesus Christ and his teachings, can you justifiably regard yourself as a Christian? As a Jew, I can stop practicing Judaism, but I would not stop being a Jew. I could embrace another faith, but I would not stop being a Jew. There are even some Jews who affirm the Messiahship of Jesus, but they are still Jewish. Many other Jews would certainly find their beliefs abhorrent, but they would still be Jewish."

'Man of wisdom'

Dr. Zaas said he views Jesus as "a man of remarkable wisdom with an incredible sense of history who showed admirable concern for the poor and other outcasts."

On the question of Jesus being the Messiah, Dr. Zaas said: "That is one question that is absolutely settled in my mind. Jesus was not the Messiah [because] he failed to fulfill the Jewish expectations of a Messiah."

Had Jesus been the Messiah, Dr. Zaas believes there would have been "a final judgment, a cosmic battle" and that other prophecies concerning the end of the world would have come to fruition.

SIDEBAR:

Rabbi Jonathan Rubenstein, from Temple Sinai in Saratoga Springs, notes that "some Jews believe Jesus was a religious leader, prophet, rabbi or teacher whose views were in keeping with some of the trends in the rabbinic Judaism of his time. Others feel that the accounts of his life and career in the New Testament are fabrications. Many Jews are simply not concerned with who he was or whether he existed because such questions do not figure in our tradition.

"The greatest misconception may be that there is such a thing as THE Jewish view of Jesus," he continued. "While individual Jews may formulate their own personal views of Jesus as a response to their interaction with Christianity, questions about Jesus lie outside the framework of Jewish religious thought and practice."

The context of Jesus' life, he believes, is often ignored by Christians. "In my experience," he told The Evangelist, "many Christians are not aware that the life of Jesus and the events at the beginning of Christianity took place during a time of great upheaval and transition in the Jewish world, with many competing sects and ideologies. From the Jewish point of view, the emerging Christian movement was one among many."

(03-27-97)

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