Messianic Judaism

A Critical Anthology

Dan Cohn-Sherbok

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780567004376
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

Who are the Messianic Jews? What do they believe and practice? What is the Jewish community's reaction to the development of Messianic Judaism? In this pioneering study, Dan Cohn-Sherbok traces the development of the Messianic movement from ancient times to its transformation after World War II. Focusing on the nature of the movement today, the volume continues with a detailed examination of Messianic practices, and the place of Messianic Judaism within the contemporary Jewish community.

PART I

History and beliefs of Messianic Judaism

In the view of Messianic Jews, the first Messianic congregation originated in Jerusalem after the ascension of Yeshua. This group was initially a sect within Judaism. Living in the Holy Land, these Jewish believers lived a Jewish lifestyle while trusting in Yeshua as their Messiah and Lord. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, they were perceived as outsiders. Fleeing to the city of Pella in Transjordan, they remained loyal to Yeshua until the Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans in the second century. In the following centuries Messianic Jews were overwhelmed by the Gentile Church. In the view of the Christian community, only those in the Church could be saved; as a consequence, Church leaders became bitter opponents of Judaism, and Jewish believers were compelled to conform to the Gentile-oriented Church.

In subsequent centuries only rare individuals sought to remain faithful to the Jewish tradition while accepting Yeshua as Saviour. During the nineteenth century, however, an awakening took place among the Jewish people. From the middle of the century numerous missionary organizations sought to draw Jewish believers to Yeshua. In Europe such figures as Joseph Rabinowitz paved the way for the rebirth of Messianic Judaism among the Jewish people. Others within the Hebrew Christian movement attempted to draw Jewish believers into the Christian fold. As a result, a number of congregations were formed to serve the needs of the Hebrew Christian community.

Following the Six Day War, a major shift took place among Hebrew Christians. Increasingly, Jewish believers were anxious to form Messianic Jewish congregations where they worshipped Yeshua in a Jewish manner. Emerging out of their Hebrew Christian beginnings, Messianic Jews saw themselves as living fulfilled Jewish lives. Today there are over 150 Messianic congregations worldwide, with approximately 250,000 adherents. There are currently three major organizations which serve as the overarching structure for the Messianic community: the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC), the International Alliance of Messianic Congregations and Synagogues (IAMCS), and the Fellowship of Messianic Congregations (FMC), as well as two minor groups, the Association of Torah-Observant Messianics and the International Federation of Messianic Jews. Together these bodies unite Messianic Jews in dedication to Messiah Yeshua.

1 Early Jewish Christianity

The disciples of Jesus

Following Jesus’ death, his messiahship was proclaimed by Jewish followers, the Nazarenes, who continued to follow a Jewish lifestyle. Together with fellow Jews they worshipped in the synagogue and kept the law. According to Acts, these believers resided in Jerusalem. Under Simon bar Yona (Peter), this group proclaimed the arrival of the long-awaited deliverer of the nation. It appears that several parnasim or deacons were appointed to distribute alms – possibly this led to the creation of a Nazarene synagogue. In time, however, the Jerusalem community scattered so that they preached the Gospel everywhere. As a result, new adherents of the faith were drawn from Samaritans and provincial Jews. Other disciples went as far as Phenice, Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the faith. Paul, too, was called from Tarsus by Barnabas and resided in Antioch, where the Nazarenes were called Christians. As a result of their success, the civil authorities joined with the religious establishment to suppress the movement. One of their leaders, James the son of Zebedee, was seized by Herod Agrippa and beheaded. Although Peter was imprisoned, he managed to escape.

During this period, it appears there was no division between the Nazarenes and the Jewish community. As with mainstream Judaism, the Nazarenes established an organizational structure including officials, a president, deacons, and a precentor; three of these individuals formed a tribunal for judging legal cases. This local council was responsible to the higher court in Jerusalem, to which serious cases were referred. This structure also provided for itinerant preachers who were empowered to spread the Good News. During this period James was regarded as the chief functionary, who ruled over the Hebrew Christians as well as the churches that had been founded to spread the Good News.

At this stage in the history of the Church, the Antioch community sent out a mission consisting of Paul and Barnabas to Asia Minor in order to spread knowledge of Jesus among Jews and Gentiles. Returning to Antioch, they reported that many had been attracted to the faith. Nonetheless, the status of the Gentiles presented a problem. Were they converts to Judaism or half-proselytes obliged to keep only the Noachide laws (laws binding on all human beings)? When the question was referred to Jerusalem, the council presided over by James concluded that God sought to receive Gentiles even though they had not converted to Judaism. It was agreed that James, Peter and John should minister to Jews, whereas Paul and Barnabas should labour among Gentiles. As Acts relates:

The brethren, both the apostles and the elders, to the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greeting. Since we have heard that some persons from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from unchastity. If you keep yourselves from these you will do well. (Acts 15:23–29)

Setting sail on a second journey, Paul created a number of centres of believers declaring that the just shall live by faith. Concerned that Paul was disregarding the law, the Jerusalem Christians warned against forsaking the faith of their ancestors. Aware of such dissension, Paul returned to Jerusalem, landing at Tyre. On his arrival in Jerusalem, the apostles stated:

You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed; they are all zealous for the law, and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or observe the customs. What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; take these men and purify yourself along with them … Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you but that you yourself live in observance of the law. (Acts 21:20–24)

Prior to the destruction of the Temple, most Nazarenes sought refuge in the neighbourhood of Pella. According to Irenaeus, these Jewish Christians practised circumcision, and persevered in the observance of the law.¹ As followers of Christ, they believed that Jesus was the son of Joseph and Mary and was appointed to the office of the Messiah because of his Davidic descent and holy life. This office was confirmed at his baptism by the descent of the Holy Spirit and the declaration: ‘Thou art my son, this day have I begotten you.’ In addition, the early Christians believed that Jesus had laid down his life for the salvation of the nation, was buried, rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and would come again to reign in glory.

Separating themselves from the Gentile Christians who adopted a more supernatural interpretation of Jesus’ life, the Jewish Christians viewed themselves as the true heirs of the Kingdom of God. Calling themselves ‘Ebionites’, they stressed that they were poor in wealth but rich in faith. The Gentile Christians responded that they were poor in knowledge of Christ. Proud of their lineage, the Jewish Christians emphasized their direct relationship with Jesus. As Hegesippus relates, under Domitian’s persecution of the Jewish people, the grandsons of Jude the brother of Jesus were arrested and brought before the emperor: ‘He put the question, whether they were of David’s race, and they confessed that they were. He then asked them what property they had, or how much money they possessed.’²

In the persecution under Trajan, Simon the son of Cleophas, who was a cousin of Jesus and successor to James as president of the Jewish Christian community, died as a martyr. Another Jewish Christian, Justus, succeeded Simon as president, and from the second century CE leadership passed from the relatives of Jesus. Until the Jewish revolt against Rome in the second century CE, thirteen Jewish Christian bishops of Jerusalem are recorded: Justus, Zaccheus, Tobias, Benjamin, John, Matthias, Philip, Seneca, Justus II, Levi, Ephraim, Joseph, and Judas.³

In 133 CE the Jewish nation rebelled against Rome as a result of Hadrian’s policy. Under Simeon bar Kochba, Jewish fighters engaged in a hopeless battle. Jewish Christians, however, refused to take part in this struggle. Refusing to accept Simeon bar Kochba as the long-awaited Messiah, they remained loyal to their faith. Once the Jewish forces were defeated, the Romans decreed that Jerusalem was to become Aelia Capitolina, and all Jews were forbidden to enter the city. Gentile Christians, however, were permitted to reside there, and the Church constituted itself under a Gentile bishop, Marcus. Excluded from their ancient home, the Jewish Christians became a minority sect separated from the Gentile community of believers. Nazarenes were also barred from worshipping in synagogues, and a prayer against heretics was added to the daily liturgy.

The continuing tradition

During the latter half of the second century and continuing into the third century, relations were strained between the Jewish and Gentile Christian communities. The early Church had produced the canon of the New Testament, whereas the Nazarenes remained faithful to their own Hebrew Gospel. Antagonistic to Judaism, a number of Early Church Fathers developed an Adversos Judaeos tradition. In response, Jewish sages recounted scurrilous tales about Jesus. In this conflict both sides cited Scripture to demonstrate the truth of their claims.

Although little is known about the development of Jewish Christianity from the middle of the second century CE until the rise of Islam in the sixth century, Epiphanius records that communities existed throughout Coele-Syria, the Hauran, Batanea, the Decapolis and as far away as Mesopotamia.⁴ He writes further that the Nazarenes had synagogues and elders like the Jews, and engaged in similar religious practices.⁵ However, it appears that they altered the act of circumcision and observed the weekly fasts in a different fashion. Possibly this was due to their exclusion from the Jewish community. Awaiting the return of the Messiah, they worked as agricultural labourers.

By the end of the second century, the Jewish Christian community began to divide into two distinct groups. According to Origen, there were two sects of Ebionites – one believed that Jesus was born of a virgin, whereas the other asserted that he was born like other human beings.⁶ Some of the Jewish Christians, particularly in Syria, were willing to accept some of the dogmas of the Gentile Church. There the Church accepted the antiquity of the Nazarenes and embraced a number of their independent traditions about Christ. Dismayed by this development, other sections of the Jewish Christian community became increasingly exclusivistic, separating themselves from the Christian community.

In the fourth century the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. This led to an era of persecution of both the Jewish and Jewish Christian communities. Jews in Palestine fled to Persia and Mesopotamia, and the Jewish academies of Sura and Pumbeditha gained ascendancy over the Palestinian academies located in Tiberias and Sepphoris. The Church regarded Nazarenes as heretics; at this stage a new type of Jewish Christian emerged, having little relationship with the older Nazarene community. Preeminent among these Jewish believers was Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus. Born of Jewish parents in Palestine, he became a Christian, founded a monastery near his native home, and later became bishop. In his Panarion, he denounced a wide range of Christian and Jewish sects.

During the century, Christian persecution of the Jewish community intensified, and all Jewish converts were required to desist from any form of Jewish practice. Before accepting the true faith, a Jew was compelled to denounce the Jewish people and renounce any form of Jewish observance. Either he, or his sponsor if he were a child, was compelled to declare:

I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms, unleavened breads and sacrifice of lambs of the Hebrews, and all the other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspersions, purifications, sanctifications and propitiations, and fasts, and new moons, and Sabbaths, and superstitions, and hymns and chants and observances and synagogues, and the food and drink of the Hebrews; in one word, I renounce absolutely everything Jewish, every law, rite and custom.⁷

As a result of such anti-Jewish attitudes, the Nazarenes were separated from both the Jewish community and Gentile Christians. Influenced by Gnostic theology, they developed a distinct Christology. According to Epiphanius, they believed that:

Jesus was begotten of the seed of man, and was chosen; and so by the choice he was called son of God from the Christ that entered into him from above in the likeness of a dove. And they deny that he was begotten of God the Father, but say that he was created, as one of the archangels, yet greater, and that he is the lord of angels and of all things made by the Almighty.⁸

With the rise of Islam, little is known about the history of the Jewish Christian community, with the exception of various converts. Throughout the Middle Ages, Jews were frequently compelled to convert to Christianity: these forced converts should be distinguished from those Jews who embraced Jesus as their Messiah and Saviour. One of the earliest pious converts to Christianity was Julian, Archbishop of Toledo. Of Jewish origin, he was educated at a religious institution in Toledo, eventually becoming Archdeacon of the Cathedral there. In 680 he was appointed Archbishop of Toledo. Among his writings was De Comprobatione Aetatis Sextae Contra Judaeos, which was composed in 686 at the request of King Ervigio. The aim of this work was to refute the Jewish insistence that the Messiah was not to come until 6,000 years after creation. Julian’s argument was based on the chronology of the Greek Septuagint version of Scripture which was viewed by the Church to be a purer text than that of the Massoretes.

The conquest of Spain by the Moors established peace between Jews and their neighbours. In England, William Rufus convened a meeting of Jewish scholars and Christian bishops in London. Holingshed’s Chronicles of this period illustrate the nature of Jewish Christianity at this juncture:

The king being at Rouen on a time, there came to him divers Jews who inhabited the city, complaining that divers of that nation had renounced their Jewish religion, and were become Christians; wherefore they besought him that, for a certain sum of money which they offered to give, it might please him … to constrain them to abjure Christianity, and to turn to the Jewish Law again. He was content to satisfy their desires. And so, receiving their money, called them before him; and what with threats, and putting them otherwise in fear, he compelled divers of them to forsake Christ, and to turn to their old errors. Hereupon, the father of one Stephen, a Jew converted to the Christian faith, being sore troubled for that his son turned a Christian presented unto him sixty marks of silver conditionally that he should enforce his son to return to his Jewish religion … the young man answered: ‘Your grace doth but jest … Truly I will not do it; but know for certain that if you were a good Christian, you would never have uttered such words; for it is the part of a Christian to reduce them again to Christ which are departed from him, and not to separate them from him which are joined to him by faith.’⁹

Another figure of the early Middle Ages, Moses Sephardi (Petrus Alfonsi), was born in 1062 in Huesca, and baptized in 1106. Among his writings was a work consisting of a series of dialogues between himself before and after his conversion in which he sought to persuade the Jewish people to accept Christ. The Middle Ages witnessed a convert of a different nature, Nicholas Donin of Paris, who laid charges of blasphemy against the Talmud before Pope Gregory IX in 1238. This resulted in a disputation in Paris between Donin and Rabbi Jehiel of Paris, together with several other Jews. As a consequence, copies of the Talmud were seized and burnt.

Later in the century another disputation took place between the convert Pablo Christiani and Nahmanides before...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I: History and beliefs of Messianic Judaism
• Part II: Messianic Jewish observance
• Part III: The authenticity of Messianic Judaism
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Glossary
• Index
• Copyright