Do Jews believe in Jesus?

Why Judaism holds this view

The question is not about Jesus as a person – he was a Jew who lived in the Land of Israel in the first century – but about the claims later made about him. Two of them conflict with basic Jewish teaching. The first is the idea that God took human form. The central verse of Jewish prayer, recited twice a day, is “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Maimonides opens his code of law by stating that God has no body and no physical form, and that this is a foundation of the faith.

The second is the claim that the Messiah has already come. In Jewish sources the Messiah (mashiach, “anointed one”) is a king from the line of David who will lead the Jewish people back to Torah, gather the exiles, rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and bring an era of peace in which “nation shall not lift up sword against nation” (Isaiah 2:4). Maimonides writes that someone who does these things is the Messiah; someone who did not achieve them is not. Since the world has not yet seen that era, Judaism continues to wait.

Respect without agreement

Saying that Judaism does not accept these beliefs is not a judgement of Christians. Many medieval rabbis, Maimonides among them, wrote that Christianity helped spread knowledge of the Hebrew Bible and its moral teachings across the world. Jews and Christians share the Hebrew Scriptures, read them differently, and can discuss those differences with mutual respect.

Jewish tradition also does not seek converts or ask others to adopt its beliefs. Non-Jews who live by the basic moral laws given to all humanity have, according to the Talmud, a share in the world to come.