The question of why most Jews do not accept Jesus as the Messiah is a complex one with historical, theological, and cultural factors involved. At the heart of the issue is how different groups have understood the identity and role of the Messiah based on their reading of the Hebrew Bible and subsequent Jewish tradition.
Most Jews do not accept the Christian claim that Jesus was the Messiah because they do not see evidence in the Hebrew Bible that the Messiah was expected to be divine or part of a Trinity. The Messiah is depicted as a human leader who will restore the kingdom of Israel and usher in a new era of peace (Isaiah 11:1-9, Jeremiah 23:5-6). There is no clear prophecy that the Messiah would suffer and die as a sacrifice for sins.
The Hebrew Bible also affirms the oneness of God (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Jewish belief is that God is absolutely one, incomparable and indivisible. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity positing Jesus as God incarnate, part of the godhead, is foreign to traditional Jewish theology. Jews believe associating a human figure as divine is a form of idolatry.
While Christians interpret certain prophetic passages such as Isaiah 53 as referring to a suffering servant Messiah, Jewish scholars have offered alternative explanations. One is that the servant refers to the nation of Israel. Another theory is that it describes faithful Jews who suffered on behalf of the nation. But there is no universal agreement that this chapter points specifically to the Messiah.
The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry do not match common Jewish expectations for what the Messiah was supposed to accomplish. The Messiah was expected to bring in political and military redemption for Israel, defeating her enemies and establishing a Davidic kingdom (Isaiah 2:2-4, Daniel 7:13-14). But Jesus did not lead an armed rebellion against Rome or restore national sovereignty to Israel. He focused instead on spiritual and moral renewal.
While Jesus performed miracles and gathered followers, he did not fulfill the office of Messiah as Jews anticipated based on reading Tanakh, their name for the Old Testament. Since he did not usher in the full messianic kingdom, establish Israel’s national supremacy, or rebuild the Temple, most Jews saw him as only a teacher or prophet.
Jews also rejected the claim that Jesus was resurrected after being crucified. The Jewish belief was that God alone had the power to grant life after death, not any human Messiah. The resurrection claims lacked sufficient proof and were difficult to reconcile with Jewish scripture and theology.
Looking back through history, Jews suffered greatly after Christianity gained prominence in the Roman Empire. Christian anti-Judaism led to discrimination, persecution, and atrocities against Jews in Europe across many centuries. This fostered an attitude of mistrust toward Christian claims about Jesus, including his identity as their expected Messiah.
Modern Judaism solidified after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD. Jews were scattered in the Diaspora and focused on Bible study and synagogue life rather than Temple worship. New institutions like rabbinic Judaism and texts like the Talmud came to define Jewish practice for the centuries that followed.
With this shift, Jewish identity and interpretation of scripture centered on Torah observance and commandments more than future messianic expectation. Jews did not see themselves in exile waiting for a Messiah, but rather carrying out their covenant duties to God in the nations where they lived. Return to the Promised Land was in God’s timing.
Medieval and modern Jewish scholars also critiqued New Testament messianic prophecies, arguing proof-texting or selective citation of Tanakh passages. They saw the Gospels portraying Jesus as the Messiah as reading backwards into the Hebrew Bible rather than organically deriving that conclusion from the original context.
In studying their own scriptures, Jewish rabbis and theologians emphasized passages that seemed to contradict key Christian claims about Jesus. For example, Deuteronomy 13 warns about false prophets trying to lead Israelites astray, while Isaiah 43:11 declares that only God is Israel’s savior.
Many Jews have sought natural rather than supernatural explanations for Jesus’ miracles and resurrection, attributing pagan influence on the origins of Christianity. They contend core Christian doctrines like incarnation, atonement, original sin, and the second coming were unknown to Hebrew scripture and post-biblical Jewish writers.
Most Jews today, whether Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or secular, continue to read the Hebrew Bible and their subsequent faith tradition very differently than Christians read the Old Testament. Jews do not feel bound to New Testament proof-texts and fulfillment claims when deriving their own system of theology.
Jewish faith finds continuity between the covenant with Abraham, the Mosaic Law, the Prophets and Writings. It does not need or accept Jesus as Messiah or God to remain intact. While there are Messianic Jews who follow Jesus, they comprise a very small minority of those who identify culturally or religiously as Jews.
In summary, the major reasons why Jews do not accept Jesus as the Messiah include:
- Lack of clear prophecy about the Messiah as divine or part of the Godhead
- Adherence to strict monotheism which excludes a divine Messiah
- Different interpretations about the identity of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53
- Jesus did not fulfill the common Jewish expectations for the Messiah and his kingdom
- Jews find belief in Jesus’ resurrection theologically problematic and evidentially dubious
- Christianity historically perpetrated discrimination and violence against Jews
- Shift in Jewish tradition and identity after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD
- Rabbinic critiques of Christian messianic proof-texts and fulfillment claims
- Naturalistic explanations offered for Jesus’ miracles and resurrection
- Continuity in Jewish systems of faith and practice apart from Jesus as Messiah
This remains an intricate theological debate. But examining the historical reasons why Jews diverged from Christian interpretations can help explain the core sticking points that have made most Jews unable to accept Jesus as the Messiah.
Further resources on this complex question are available through Jewish and Christian scholarly articles, books, websites and religious organizations. Continuing dialogue between faith traditions about areas of disagreement in an open yet sensitive manner is also valuable for promoting mutual understanding.