Jewish views on Jesus

[10]In the 12th century, the preeminent Jewish scholar Maimonides codified core principles of Modern Judaism, writing "[God], the Cause of all, is one.

Maimonides states, But if he did not succeed in all this or was killed, he is definitely not the Mashiach promised in the Torah... and God only appointed him in order to test the masses.

[24] He is expected to return the Jews to their homeland and rebuild the Temple, reign as king, and usher in an era of peace[3] and understanding where "the knowledge of God" fills the earth,[4] leading the nations to "end up recognizing the wrongs they did Israel".

Being conceived via the Holy Spirit (as espoused by orthodox Christian doctrine), it would be impossible for Jesus to be a patrilineal bloodline descendant of King David.

This was the view adopted by Jesus' contemporaries, as according to rabbinical tradition as stated in the Talmud (Sotah 48b) "when Malachi died the Prophecy departed from Israel."

Furthermore, the Bible itself includes an example of a prophet who could speak directly with God and could work miracles but was "evil",[37] in the form of Balaam.

[40] Christian authorities in Europe were largely unaware of possible references to Jesus in the Talmud until 1236, when a convert from Judaism, Nicholas Donin, laid thirty-five formal charges against the Talmud before Pope Gregory IX, and these charges were brought upon rabbi Yechiel of Paris to defend at the Disputation of Paris in 1240.

[48] The Vatican's papal bull issued in 1554 censored the Talmud and other Jewish texts,[citation needed] resulting in the removal of references to Yeshu.

No known manuscript of the Jerusalem Talmud makes mention of the name, although one translation (Herford) has added it to Avodah Zarah 2:2 to align it with similar text of Chullin 2:22 in the Tosefta.

Student,[49] Zindler and McKinsey[50] Ha-Notzri is not found in other early pre-censorship partial manuscripts (the Florence, Hamburg and Karlsruhe) where these cover the passages in question.

For example, by 1180 CE the term Yeshu Ha-Notzri can be found in the Maimonides' Mishneh Torah (Hilchos Melachim 11:4, uncensored version).

[52] Maimonides lamented the pains that Jews felt as a result of new faiths that attempted to supplant Judaism, specifically Christianity and Islam.

)Jesus is mentioned in Maimonides' Epistle to Yemen, written about 1172 to Rabbi Jacob ben Netan'el al-Fayyumi, head of the Yemenite community: Ever since the time of Revelation, every despot or slave that has attained to power, be he violent or ignoble, has made it his first aim and his final purpose to destroy our law, and to vitiate our religion, by means of the sword, by violence, or by brute force, such as Amalek, Sisera, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Titus, Hadrian, may their bones be ground to dust, and others like them.

It, therefore, resolved to lay claim to prophecy and to found a new faith, contrary to our Divine religion, and to contend that it was equally God-given.

Thereby it hoped to raise doubts and to create confusion, since one is opposed to the other and both supposedly emanate from a Divine source, which would lead to the destruction of both religions.

He will strive to kill his enemy and to save his own life, but when he finds it impossible to attain his objective, he will devise a scheme whereby they both will be slain.

He impelled people to believe that he was a prophet sent by God to clarify perplexities in the Torah, and that he was the Messiah that was predicted by each and every seer.

He interpreted the Torah and its precepts in such a fashion as to lead to their total annulment, to the abolition of all its commandments and to the violation of its prohibitions.

The sages, of blessed memory, having become aware of his plans before his reputation spread among our people, meted out fitting punishment to him.

They continue being recognized as Jews, and believe Jesus lived around 130 or 140 CE and was conflated with Neoplatonic beliefs into what became the New Testament.

Among historic Orthodox rabbis holding these views are Jacob Emden,[58][59] Eliyahu Soloveitchik, and Elijah Benamozegh.

[62] A positive view of Jesus is fairly represented among modern Jews[63] in the currents of Reform (Emil G. Hirsch and Kaufmann Kohler), Conservative (Milton Steinberg and Byron Sherwin,[64]), and Jewish Renewal (Zalman Schachter-Shalomi).

"[67] Opinions of the merits of the book differ, with Israeli-American Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, President of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, praising it as "courageous and thought-provoking".

[68] Boteach said that the book "traces the teachings of Jesus to their original sources: the Torah, the Talmud and rabbinic literature".