Question: Why did the Jews reject Jesus as the Messiah? Is it because of the abominations that this “so called servants of Jesus” did in “his name” that Jews can not love and receive him as Messiah?

Answer: A bit of introduction: Although people think of Judaism as being a religion, that description is not at all accurate. While the Torah does speak of God and prayer, it is clear that the Torah is the constitution of a nation-state, a “Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation” (Exodus 19). The founding members of the nation were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whom God took out of Egyptian slavery. The purpose of the law of this nation-state was to provide opportunities for the members of the nation to grow and earn spiritual reward in every facet of their lives.

This national law sets up an infrastructure of laws relating to property law, civil law, criminal law as extensive as any current national Law Code. This Law also sets up a political system consisting of regional and central courts given the jurisdiction to resolve any conflicts and interpret any apparently ambiguous section of the Torah. The Jews are commanded to obey the directives of this Supreme Court, located in the place “where God’s name dwells” AKA Jerusalem. The Torah also prohibits any Jew from interpreting the Torah and applying it in a way contrary to
the court’s decision.

The Torah also provides for a king to lead the nation when the Jews request one. The laws governing his appointment and powers are delineated in the Torah as well.

This facet of a court system is indispensable in any legal system in the world. Without an agreed upon authority to interpret what the Laws means, the laws are meaningless, since anyone could choose to interpret the laws in any way he wished. While this might not be considered so terrible in a personal religion, it is impossible for this situation to exist in a nation with binding laws. For example, how could the Torah impose a death penalty for working on the Sabbath if anyone could make up their own definition of what constituted “work”?

Included in the jurisdiction of this “Supreme Court” is the power to determine doctrine, especially when this doctrine has legal and political repercussions, such as determining the legitimacy of a monarch. These judges, known as “Pharisees” in the Christian Bible, rejected the claims of Jesus of Nazareth on several grounds. For detailed discussions on the real meanings of the various Biblical verses that Christians claim support Jesus’ stature as messiah and deity, I invite you to visit www.outreachjudaism.org. But that is not even my point. The fact that the Pharisees, as the official arbiters of Biblical Law and Doctrine, rejected him is enough to refute his claims or the claims of his followers.

To use a modern analogy; If the Supreme Court of the USA rules that an official is not constitutionally entitled to a political office, their ruling is binding and is the law of the land. (It is thus no wonder that the Christian Bible maligns the Pharisees to the extent it does. After all, it was the Pharisees’ rejection of Jesus as messiah that caused his rejection by the vast majority of Jews in the Land of Israel at the time.)