Paradox Of Judaism

Jesus is probably one of the most recognizable figures in human history. He is an important figure to Christianity, which has 2.2 billion followers (Chappell). Although Jesus never set out to create a new religion, he was the catalyst that started Christianity. Many people do not realize that Jesus was actually Jewish and was never Christian. Jesus was a reformer and never set out to create a new religion. If he was always a Jewish man then why do Jews have little regard for him? How can one man be so important to a faith that he was never apart of? At most Jews acknowledge Jesus and nothing more and this is very important. Judaism has little regard for Jesus because of religious and societal pressures have pushed him out of the minds of Jews. The Jewish view of Jesus is like a paradox. Jesus was born to Jewish parents, practiced Jewish traditions, lived with his fellow Jews, and even his followers were Jewish (Kessler). He is probably the most influential Jew to walk this Earth, but his legacy is carried out by a completely different religion. Christians hold Jesus in the highest regard as the Son of God and that is where the disconnect lies. Jews cannot believe Jesus is the Son of Go, which is central to Christian religious belief. In other words, “Jews believe that all share the divine spirit and are stamped with the divine image and no …show more content…
Christians and Jews interacted with each other often into the first century; however competition for converts led to bad blood. In fact, “These conflicts had a negative impact on the writers of certain parts of the New Testament especially the author of the gospel of John which was compiled about this time” (Pawlikowski). The gospel of John makes severeal references of Jews being associated with darkness or with the devil (Pawlikowski). Christian persecution is a reason Jesus is so conflicting for the Jews because Christians have condemned Judaism in his