According to writings in Judaism and Christianity, Jesus was a Jew.
Jesus was born of a virgin Jewish mother, the Virgin Mary. Jesus was
circumcised (according to the Gospel of Luke, 2: 21), eight days after his
birth, in keeping with the Jewish Law. All of his friends, associates,
colleagues, disciples, all of them were ethnically Jewish. He regularly
worshiped in Jewish communal worship, what we call synagogues. He preached to
the Jewish people, from Jewish text. He was a Jewish rabbi (teacher of Torah),
who preached his message orally, and was baptized by John the Baptist. He
celebrated the Jewish festivals. He went on pilgrimage to the Jewish Temple in
Jerusalem. He was born, lived, and died as a Jew.
His mother, according to the New Testament, Mary was a Galilean Jewish
woman of Nazareth. The Gospels of Matthew and Luke describe Mary as a virgin
and Christians believe that she conceived her son while a virgin by the Holy
Spirit. This took place when she was already betrothed to Joseph and was
awaiting the concluding rite of marriage. She married Joseph and accompanied
him to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. According to ancient Jewish custom,
Mary could have been betrothed at about 12, however, there is no direct
evidence of Mary’s age at betrothal or in pregnancy.
In the Gospel of Luke 1: 26-37, states:
“In the sixth
month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin
pledge to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's
name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly
favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was
greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with
God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him
the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign
over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this
be”. Mary asked the angel, “Since I am a virgin?”
The angel
answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High
will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she
who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with
God.”
(The Holy
Bible, New International Version, The Bible Society of Singapore, 2011).
Virgin Mary was a Jewish woman of Nazareth. According to the Jewish
writings, Jews are descended from the ancient people of Israel, who settled in
the land of Canaan between the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and the
Jordan River. Ancient Hebrew writings describe the “Children of Israel” as
descendants of common ancestors, including Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac’s
son Jacob. The nomadic travels of the Hebrews centered on Hebron in the first
centuries of the second millennium BCE, apparently leading to the establishment
of the Cave of the Patriarchs as their burial site in Hebron. The Cave
of the Patriarchs, also called the Cave
of Machpelah (The cave of the
double tombs) and known by Muslims as the Sanctuary
of Abraham or the Ibrahimi Mosque located in the heart of the old city
of Hebron in the Hebron Hills. According to tradition that has been
associated with the Holy Books Torah, Bible and the Quran, the cave and
adjoining field were purchased by Abraham as a burial plot. The Hebrew name of
the complex reflects the very old tradition of the double tombs of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah, considered the Patriarchs
and Matriarchs of
the Jewish people, who are all believed to be buried there.
The Children of Israel consisted of twelve tribes, each descended from
one of Jacob’s twelve sons: Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Yissachar, Zevulun,
Dan, Gad, Naftali, Asher, Yosef, and Benyamin.
In the year
1741 BCE, Abraham began his long journey from Haran to Canaan, a journey that
has created the history of most major religions of the world.
In the Gospel of Matthew 1: 1-17, states:
“A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the
son of David, the son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of
Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah
and his brothers,
Judah the father of Perez
and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of
Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of
Amminadab,
Amminadab the father of
Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of
Salmon,
Salmon the father of Boaz,
whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed,
whose mother was Ruth,
Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of
King David.
David was the father of
Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
Solomon the father of
Rehoboam,
Rehoboam the father of
Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa, Asa
the father of Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat the father of
Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of
Uzziah,
Uzziah the father of
Jotham,
Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of
Hezekiah,
Hezekiah the father of
Manasseh,
Manasseh the father of
Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
and Josiah the father of
Jeconiah,
and his brothers at the
time of the exile to Babylon.
After the exile to
Babylon:
Jeconiah was the father of
Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of
Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel the father of
Abiud,
Abiud the father of
Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
Azor the father of Zadok,
Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Eliud,
Eliud the father of
Eleazar,
Eleazar the father of
Matthan,
Matthan the father of
Jacob,
and Jacob the father of
Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born
Jesus, who is called Christ.
Thus there were fourteen
generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to
Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.”
(The Holy
Bible, New International Version, The Bible Society of Singapore, 2011).
Judaism encompasses the religion, philosophy, culture and way of life of the Jewish people. Judaism is an
ancient monotheistic religion, with the Torah as its foundational
text (part of the larger text known as the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible). Judaism is
considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenantal
relationship that God established with the Children
of Israel.
Within Judaism there are a variety of movements, most of which emerged
from “Rabbinic
Judaism”, which holds that God revealed his laws and commandments to Moses on Mount
Sinai in the form of both
the Written and Oral Torah.
Judaism begins with ethical monotheism: the belief that God is one and
is concerned with the actions of humankind. According to the “Tanakh” (Hebrew
Bible), God promised Abraham to make of his offspring a great nation. Many generations later, he commanded
the nation of Israel “to love and worship only one God”; that is, the Jewish nation
is to reciprocate God's concern for the world. He also commanded “the Jewish people
to love one another”; that is, Jews are to imitate God's love for people. These commandments are but two of a
large corpus of commandments and laws that constitute this covenant, which is the
substance of Judaism.
Judaism is considered one of the oldest monotheistic religions. The Hebrews/ Israelite were already referred to as "Jews" in later books,
with the term Jews replacing the title "Children of Israel". Judaism's texts, traditions and values
strongly influenced on the later Abrahamic religions, the Christianity and Islam. In fact, Jesus has reaffirmed of his struggle to
continue the message of Torah, the Law of Moses.
In the Gospel of Matthew 5: 17, states:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the
Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”.
(The Holy
Bible, New International Version, The Bible Society of Singapore, 2011).
Jesus’ ministry, teaching,
and traveling throughout Israel lasted for about three years from the time of
his baptism until his resurrection. Jesus chose his closest followers, and
trained them. They were the people he trusted to send out his message and to
continue his struggle. While Jesus was on earth, his twelve closest followers
were called “disciples”. After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, they were
then referred to as “the twelve apostles”. The twelve apostles are:
i.
Simon Peter (brother of Andrew) – Bible writer;
ii.
James (son of Zebedee and older brother of John), later he
was executed by Herod – Bible writer;
iii.
John (son of Zebedee and brother of James) – Bible writer;
iv.
Andrew (brother of Simon Peter);
v.
Philip of Bethsaida;
vi.
Thomas (Didymus);
vii.
Bartholomew (Nathaniel);
viii.
Matthew (Levi) of Capernaum;
ix.
James (son of Alphaeus) – Bible writer;
x.
Simon the Zealot (the Canaanite);
xi.
Thaddaeus-Judas (Lebbaeus) – brother of James son of Alphaeus
and brother of Matthew Levi of Capernaum;
xii.
Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus (and then killed himself).
In 70 CE, Second Temple
Judaism came to an abrupt and traumatic end, with the destruction of the Temple
and the enslavement of many leading Jews.
The period of the First
Temple ended in 586 BCE, when the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar captured
Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple of Solomon, and deported the elite of the
population to Babylon (the “Babylonian exile”).
The Second Temple Judaism is
Judaism between the construction of the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem in
515 BCE, and its destruction by the Roman in 70 CE. The development of the
Hebrew Bible canon, the synagogue, Jewish apocalyptic expectations for the
future, and Christianity, all developed in Second temple times.
Second Temple Judaism can
now be seen as a transition period in which the sectarianism and apocalypticism
of the period gradually gave way to “Rabbinic Judaism”, on the one hand, and
“Christianity”, on the other. Indeed, is now clear that the Second Temple
period was a kind of sorting out process.
Some historians suggested that, before his death, Jesus created amongst his believers such
certainty that the Kingdom of God and the resurrection of the dead were at
hand. With few exceptions when they saw him shortly after his execution, they
had no doubt that he had been resurrected, and that the restoration of the
Kingdom and resurrection of the dead were at hand. In the following years the
restoration of the Kingdom, as Jews expected it, failed to occur. Some of Jesus
followers began to believe instead that Jesus, rather than simply being the
Jewish messiah, was “God made flesh” who died for the sins of humanity, marking
the beginning of Christology.
Judaism as a religion is
defined primarily by its observance of the Torah or Law of Moses, and of the
body of rabbinical law that has grown up around the Law of Moses. By declaring
that the followers of Jesus need not observe the Law of Moses and that
accompanying rabbinical laws that are binding upon Jews, the early Apostles, and following them as a whole, decisively split from Judaism and became a whole
new religion rather than a sect of Judaism.
And Allah knows the
best.
References:
References:
1. “The Holy Bible”, New International Version, The Bible Society
of Singapore, 2011.
2.
Alister E. Mc Grath, “Christian Theology: An Introduction”,
Fifth Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, United Kingdom, 2011.
3.
Eli
Birnbaum, “The History of the Jewish People”, http://www.jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?file=intro2.htm
9.
Wikipedia
The Free Encyclopedia, “Origins of Christianity”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_Christianity
10. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia, “Mary
(Mother of Jesus)”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_(mother_of_Jesus)
11. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia,
“Second Temple Judaism”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Temple_Judaism
12. Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia,
“History of Early Christianity”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_early_Christianity
NOTE: This article is rearranged from some
authorized writings on Judaism and Christianity.
