A JEWISH VIEW OF JESUS

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

 Every year on Dec. 25, most Christians around the world celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus, the founder of their faith, with elaborate religious services, family gatherings, the display of the Christmas tree and various local traditions. I grew up in Turkey, a Muslim country. I remember the Greek Orthodox of our community celebrating the birth of Jesus with much singing and colorful rituals within their churches. Outside, however, life went on, without much fanfare.

For centuries, scholars have been debating the question of who was Jesus, the individual? In reality, we know very little about his life. As I wrote in my Modern Judaism (Cognella, 2013, p. 182), “There is no contemporary evidence of Jesus that refers to him or to his activities. It is presumed that he was a Galilean (Jew), born in Nazareth around 4 BCE, and killed by the Romans around 30 CE….From all we know, he was a Pharisee, and most likely belonged to a group of visionaries who predicted the end of the Roman Empire, causing the ire of the Roman authorities in Palestine.”

          The problem is compounded by the fact that the Gospel accounts in the New Testament, which tell the story of Jesus, were written many centuries after his death and are in many places contradictory, such as the time of his crucifixion (Mark 15:25, at 9 am vs. John 19:14, at noon), his healing of blind people (Mark 10:46, one person vs. Matt 20: 30, two men), and many others. Most New Testaments scholars agree that the Gospels reflect the piety of the Church regarding Jesus more than they reflect the individual Jesus.

          Throughout the years, Jewish researchers have developed various images of Jesus. According to the historian Heinrich Graetz (19^th cent), he was an “Essene” (namely a member of one of the Jewish sects that emerged in the first century CE); Abraham Geiger (d. in 1874) , a German Rabbi and scholar, viewed him as a Pharisee with “Galilean coloring.” The British thinker, Claude Montefiore (d. in 1938) considered him a prophet; Joseph Klausner (d.1958), an historian, portrayed him as a great teacher of morality and an artist of parables; the philosopher Martin Buber (d. 1965) called him “my great brother.” Samuel Sandmel, an expert in the New Testament, (d.1979) thought “he had gifts of leadership and was something of a  teacher.”  

In reality, it was Paul, the apostle, who brought Jesus to the attention of the gentiles in Asia Minor. Consequently, Christianity grew and became a different religion from Judaism , stressing the concepts of salvation, Jesus as the intermediary between God and the people ,and not only as a prophet who predicted the fall of Rome, but also as the long awaited Messiah, even the son of God. Many early Christians also believed that Jesus, who died at the cross, will come back again in the future.

Muslims, too, have high respect for Jesus: they believe that, born of the virgin Mary (Sura, 19:20), he was a messenger of God (Sura 4: 171), but not divine. Mohammad also maintained that he was not crucified, as another man was made to resemble him but that Allah took him to Himself (Sura 4: 157).

          For me, Jesus stands as a Jewish teacher and a preacher of antiquity, who opened the door to a new understanding of the human existence. He appears to be a person of piety and kindness, but not a divine being. This makes for a wonderful dialogue between Jews, Moslems and Christians.