Messianic Judaism

The olive tree has long been used as a symbol in Messianic Judaism: "Thou, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them" (Romans 11:17)

Messianic Judaism is a religious movement which:

• regards its members to be committed Jews.
• believes that Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ) is the Messiah spoken of in the Tanakh (Old Testament).
• believes that it following the practices and beliefs of the very early Christian movement.
• follows an Evangelical Christian theology.

They differ from other Jews over their beliefs about the Messiah. Messianic Congregations are made up of people of Jewish and non-Jewish backgrounds, and are distinctly Jewish in culture. All celebrate Jewish Holy Days and support the State of Israel, and most have their main service on the seventh day Sabbath. They believe that all of the Bible, both the Tanakh and the New Testament, is inspired by God, and that the New Testament was written by Jewish writers to announce to the world the arrival of the long awaited Jewish Messiah.

Virtually all other Jewish denominations reject Messianic Judaism on the principle that belief in Yeshua automatically makes them Christian, and therefore outside of the Jewish community. Many view Messianic Judaism as a dangerous and subversive form of apostacy. However, Reform rabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Professor of Jewish Theology at the University of Wales, has pointed out that the Jewish community, and Judaism itself, no longer holds to a single authority to determine correct belief and practice, and as such Messianic Judaism is as valid a form of Judaism as any other.

Early history of Messianic Judaism

Many people wrongly assume that Messianic Judaism originated from Christianity, or that it is a hybrid religion formed comparatively recently by combining Jewish and Christian beliefs and practices. However, Messianic Judaism predates Christianity by several decades, and Christianity evolved from the Messianic Judaism of the first century. Yeshua and his disciples (talmidim) were all Jews, and did not convert to another religion; furthermore, as the Bible clearly states He came to earth to be the prophesied Messiah of Judaism, not to form a new religion.

The first people to be known as Christians were the Gentiles in Antioch (Acts 11:20,21,26) but Christianity was still widely considered to be a sect of Judaism. In 70 AD, the Roman general Titus sacked the city of Jerusalem and the Second Temple was burned down. It is estimated that as many as one million Jews died during the revolt. Many Jews were taken captive and deported to Italy where they were forced to build the Colosseum in Rome. The emperor Vespasian then introduced a tax (the "Fiscus Judaicus") to be paid by all Jews to finance the reconstruction of the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. Even after construction was completed, the tax was still levied, and was used as a measure to deter people from converting to Judaism. Well into the second century, Gentile Christians were also required to pay the fiscus judaicus and persecuted as a sect of Judaism. To escape this persecution, Gentile Christians sought to widen the division between themselves and the Jews, and their practices became less and less Jewish.

The wild olive branch

The church in Rome was begun as a Jewish fellowship, started by those who returned from Pentecost in Jerusalem, not by an apostle. As these Jewish believers evangelized, many Gentile believers joined them. Around 50 AD Claudius banished many Jews from Rome, leaving the church entirely Gentile. Twelve years later Nero invited the Jews back to stimulate trade. However the Gentiles refused to allow the Messianic Jewish believers back into the church, having concluded that Claudius' rejection signified God's rejection, which is probably the first appearance of Replacement Theology.

Paul's letter to the Roman church addresses this matter, and he urges them to remember that they are like a "wild olive tree, grafted in" among the Jews, and warns them against "conceit", particularly as it is the Jewish root which supported their Christian branch. (Romans 11:17,18,25)

However, by the time of the Council of Nicea in 325, Christianity was both anti-Judaic and anti-Semitic. Messianic Judaism was presumed by many to have died out after the Council of Nicea. However, in the records of the Inquisition there are accounts of Jewish believers in Yeshua who were persecuted by the inquisitors well into the 12th and 13th centuries, but as persecution from the Roman church became stronger, Messianic Judaism became almost invisible to history.

Notable Messianic Jews

• Rabbi Alfonso de Zamora
• Johannes Isaac
• Malachi ben Samuel
• Giovanni Jonas
• Esdras Edzard
• John Xeres
• Rabbi Judah Monis
• Rabbi Seelig Bunzlau
• William Herschel
• Joseph von Sonnenfels
• Joseph Samuel Frey
• August Neander (David Mendel)
• Isaac da Costa
• Rabbi Michael Solomon Alexander
• Felix Mendelssohn
• Joachim Raphael Biesenthal
• Carl Paul Caspari
• David Gustav Hertz
• Daniel Landsmann
• Benjamin Disraeli
• Isaac Salkinson
• Joseph Schereschewsky
• Alfred Edersheim
• Joseph Rabinowitz
• Rabbi Leopold Cohn
• Louis Meyer
• David Ginsburg
• Rabbi Max Wertheimer
• Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein (Chief Rabbi of Hungary)
• Arthur Kuldell
• Max Reich
• Niels Bohr
• Henri Bergson
• Hans Herzl (son of Theodore Herzl, founder of modern Zionism)
• Rabbi Haham Ephraim ben Joseph Eliakim
• Sir Leon Levison
• Morris Zeidman
• Rabbi Israel Zolli (Chief Rabbi of Rome)
• Karl Stern
• Dr. Boris Kornfeld
• Ernest Cassutto
• Howard Phillips
• Dr. David Block
• Andrew Mark Barron
• Mortimer Adler
• Bernard Nathanson
• Jay Sekulow
• Lawrence Kudlow
• Richard Wurmbrand

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