Role of Jesus

Answer 1

The person known as "Jesus" has no role in Judaism. Actually known most likely as "Yeshu" he lived in the Jewish Kingdom of Judea during the later part of the second Temple era prior to its destruction by the Romans and the dispersal of most of the lands indigenous Jewish population in 70C.E. (AD). Jesus was a member of the Pharisees or early rabbis. Many of his teachings are derivations of the teachings of the school of Hillel an early sage. In the time of Jesus Judea and the Jews were occupied and severely oppressed by the Roman Empire. Many Jews held fervently to a belief in the coming of a mashiach (messiah) that would lead the Jews to redemption casting out the Romans and their priestly Jewish stooges (the Saducees) and re-establish a Torah true Jewish kingdom. This messiah would be able to trace his ancestry to King David therefore giving him legitimacy as a king of Israel. The term "mashiach or messiah simply means "anointed" a reference to the ceremony of pouring olive oil upon the head of a new king during his coronation.

Jesus was an anti-establishment radical who advocated stretching the legal interpretations of his fellow Pharisees and like other of his sort had a small following who believed that he was the hoped for messiah. And like many other messiah candidates of his time Jesus met a violent end. The Romans tended to kill trouble makers. In other cases the death of their leader would prove to the surviving followers that their revered holy man was actually not the messiah. Such was the case with the charismatic leader Shimon Bar Kochbah who even the great sage Rabbi Akiva believed to be the messiah until Bar Kochbah's untimely death at the hands of the Romans. Jesus' followers developed a radically new theology at the time of his death that allowed them to continue as a sect. They came up with the concept of a "second coming". This belief kept their sect going but now they became Jewish heretics and outcasts to the greater community. This was a first step in the development of Christianity as a separate religion. Soon the sect abandoned the most important Jewish religious practices such as kashrut, circumcision, and Shabbat. Because of this the new convert now being brought in from the surrounding Roman/Hellenic world (a more successful source of converts then the Jews) would not become Jews and have no understanding of their new faiths roots at all. Many pagan beliefs from the Greco-Roman world now entered the theology of the new religion. Jesus was now not just believed to be the messiah (with a second coming) but the term messiah now was distorted to mean God in human form born from a virgin birth (which would of course negate his claim of decent from King David nullifying his claim to kingship). In a few generations the "Christians" would not even have the background or concepts to understand the polemics behind much of their own "New Testament" causing them to hate the "Christ killers" and leading to their ironic persecution of the Jews. "Jesus" would be horrified to know what kind of religion was created in his name.

Answer 2

He was sent into this world to take away our sins.

Answer:

From the Jewish perspective, Jesus plays no role whatsoever. The above answer was written by a Christian and actually refers to concepts that completely go against the teachings of Judaism and the Tanach (Jewish Bible)

Answer 3

Judaism says very little about Jesus. According to our tradition, the vast majority of the Jews at the time didn't hear of him. The Torah-sages (Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel, Chanina ben Dosa, Bava ben Buta, Shimon ben Hillel, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Akiva, and hundreds of others) were active at that time and their yeshivot (Torah-academies) were flourishing. Their tens of thousands of disciples and hundeds of thousands of sympathizers were active in the Jewish world in that generation; they were the leaders and the forefront of Judaism. As Josephus (Antiquities book 18) writes, "the cities give great attestations to them." The great majority of Jews loved their sages and their Torah.

The unlearned class of the Amei-haaretz (ignoramuses) was a small fringe of society, but even they would and did lay down their lives in order not to violate anything of the Torah. As one ancient historian famously wrote:

Hecateus declares again, "what regard we (Jews) have for our laws; and we resolve to endure anything rather than transgress them." And he adds: "They [Jews] may be stripped on this account, and have torments inflicted upon them, and be brought to the most terrible kinds of death, but they meet these tortures after an extraordinary manner, beyond all other people, and will not renounce the religion of their forefathers."

No one (even any who did hear of Jesus) - would have given heed to what was and is considered unacceptable for us. The few who came in contact with him soon lost interest, and the early Christians felt the need to turn to non-Jewish centers of population in order to gain adherents, while the Jews remained Jews.

Rather, you might prefer to ask "What does Judaism not say" about Jesus. And the answer is that we do not believe that he is or was anything other than a regular human being. We may also note that according to our tradition, prophecy ceased about 340 years before the birth of Jesus; and public miracles stopped even earlier.

Here is a related topic:

The word "messiah" is the transliterated form of the Hebrew "moshiach." The word moshiach translates to "anointed." The title of moshiach was given to any person who was appropriately anointed with oil as part of their initiation to their service of God. We have had many meshichim (plural) in the form of kings and priests. There is absolutely nothing supernatural about a moshiach.

This being said, there is a prophecy of a future moshiach; however, this is a relatively minor topic in Judaism and the Tanach.

The Jewish requirements of the messiah are:

* Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28)

* Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6)

* Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:4)

* Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world. On that day, God will be One and His Name will be One." (Zechariah 14:9)

* The messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1)

* The messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah-observance. The Torah states that all of its mitzvot (commands) remain binding forever.

Answer 4

In Judaism, Jesus was a regular human being who lived in olden times, and is not part of Jewish religious belief.
According to our tradition, the vast majority of the Jews at the time didn't hear of him. No one (even any of them who did hear of Jesus) - would have given any consideration to what was and is considered unacceptable for us. The few who came in contact with Jesus soon lost interest, and the early Christians felt the need to turn to non-Jewish centers of population in order to gain adherents, while the Jews remained Jews.
The unlearned class of the Amei-haaretz (ignoramuses) was a small fringe of society, but even they would and did lay down their lives in order not to change anything of the Torah.
The Jewish requirements of the messiah have not yet been fulfilled. They are:
* Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
* Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
* Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred and oppression. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4).
* Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. "God will be King over all the world. On that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).
* The messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1).
* The messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah-observance. The Torah states that all of its mitzvot (commands) remain binding forever.

Answer 5

Judaism says very little about Jesus. According to our tradition, the vast majority of the Jews at the time didn't hear of him. The Torah-sages (Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, Rabbi Yonatan ben Uziel, Chanina ben Dosa, Bava ben Buta, Shimon ben Hillel, Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Akiva, and hundreds of others) were active at that time and their yeshivot (Torah-academies) were flourishing. Their tens of thousands of disciples and hundreds of thousands of sympathizers were active in the Jewish world in that generation; they were the leaders and the forefront of Judaism. As Josephus (Antiquities book 18) writes, "the cities give great attestations to them." The great majority of Jews loved their sages and their Torah.
The unlearned class of the Amei-haaretz (ignoramuses) was a small fringe of society, but even they would and did lay down their lives in order not to violate anything of the Torah. As one ancient historian famously wrote:
Hecateus declares again, "what regard we [Jews] have for our laws; and we resolve to endure anything rather than transgress them." And he adds: "They [Jews] may be stripped on this account, and have torments inflicted upon them, and be brought to the most terrible kinds of death, but they meet these tortures after an extraordinary manner, beyond all other people, and will not renounce the religion of their forefathers."

No one (even any of them who did hear of Jesus) - would have given any consideration to what was and is considered unacceptable for us.

• Link: What in Christianity is unacceptable in Judaism?
  

The few who came in contact with Jesus soon lost interest, and the early Christians felt the need to turn to non-Jewish centers of population in order to gain adherents, while the Jews remained Jews.

In Judaism, Jesus was a regular human being who lived in olden times, and is not part of Jewish religious belief.

• Link: What do Jews believe about God?
  

We may also note that according to our tradition, prophecy ceased about 340 years before the birth of Jesus; and public miracles stopped even earlier.

Here is a related topic:
The word "messiah" is the transliterated form of the Hebrew "moshiach." The word moshiach means "anointed." The title of moshiach was given to any person who was appropriately anointed with oil as part of their initiation to their service of God. We have had a number of meshichim (plural) in the form of kings and priests. There need be nothing supernatural about a moshiach.
This being said, there is a prophecy of a future moshiach. However, this is a relatively minor topic in Judaism and the Tanakh.
The Jewish requirements of the messiah have not yet been fulfilled. They are:
* Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
* Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
* Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred and oppression. "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4).
* Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. "God will be King over all the world. On that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).
* The messiah must be descended on his father's side from King David (Genesis 49:10 and Isaiah 11:1).
* The messiah will lead the Jewish people to full Torah-observance. The Torah states that all of its mitzvot (commands) remain binding forever.

Answer 6

Jesus has no relevance whatsoever in Judaism, just as Buddha has no relevence in Christianity. Simply put, Jesus is outside the scope of Judaism.

Answer 7

Jesus has no particular role in Judaism.