Jesus is a Jew
“I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star”
– Revelation 22:16
By Mike Wingfield
A few weeks ago, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the former pastor of our president, openly declared at a massive gathering in Washington D.C. that Jesus was a “Palestinian.” This is nothing new! For several years, the Palestinian leadership, while speaking to Christian tourists in Manger Square in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, has declared that Jesus was a Palestinian freedom fighter. Those who know the Word of God realize this is an absolute lie!
We are living at a time when the world rejects the truth about the Biblical Jesus. Many people have created their own version of Jesus. We live in a culture with a secular, consumer-oriented mindset that celebrates diversity instead of truth. Thus, it is very attractive for people to create a Jesus that meets their needs and desires. This mindset is expressed in a very popular contemporary song we hear at Christmas, entitled “Some Children See Him.” The lyrics are: “Some children see Him lily white, the baby Jesus born that night. Some children see Him bronzed and brown, the Lord of heaven to earth come down. Some children see Him almond-eyed, this Savior whom we kneel beside. Some children see Him as dark as they, sweet Mary’s Son, to whom we pray. …” This is not a song that true believers should sing or celebrate. Clearly, the Biblical Jesus is not everything to everybody in every culture. He is the sinless and eternal incarnate God-Man, who must be identified as the Jewish Lamb of God!
The denial of Jesus’ Jewish incarnation is part of a very devious and rapidly growing global movement aimed at destroying Biblical Christianity. This movement is motivated by a hatred for the Jewish people in general and the nation of Israel in particular.
This hatred of Jews and Israel has always existed within certain strains of the professing church. The denial of Jesus’ Jewishness is the ultimate extension of the dangerous doctrine of “Replacement Theology,” which teaches that God has permanently divorced the Jewish people as His chosen people. Those who proclaim this message say the church has replaced Israel as God’s chosen people. This teaching is a part of the dangerous apostasy of the last days. It has permeated churches in America. It is reported that approximately 67 percent of the pastors in the U.S. are teaching this! Therefore, it is very important that we know what the Bible teaches and are able to expose this lie about our Lord and Savior. What we think and believe about Jesus is at the very heart and foundation of our faith.
As we begin to examine the evidence that Jesus is a Jew, we must not forget the context of the entire Bible. The Bible is a divine revelation by the Holy One of Israel, given through the prophets and apostles of Israel. Many of the names of the God of the Bible directly connect Him with the Jewish people. The message about the Messiah and Redeemer of the Bible is immersed in the land, history, customs, and language of the Jewish people. Jesus declared to the Samaritan woman at the well: “Salvation is of the Jews.” (John 4:22) Therefore, the attempt to alter the Jewish identity of Jesus ignores the very divine fabric of the sovereign plan of God for all of mankind.
Let us begin to examine the Biblical evidence of the Jewish identity of Jesus. I pray that this brief overview of this Biblical truth will strengthen your faith and enable you to defend the truth about our Savior. As we shall discover, to err on this truth leads to dangerous and deadly consequences.
His Past: Jesus’ Incarnation and Earthly Ministry as a Jew
The New Testament begins with a clear statement about the Jewish identity of Jesus. “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1) The Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Matthew to begin the New Testament with the genealogy of Jesus Christ through His legal father, Joseph. Matthew 1:1-17 traces the ancestry of Joseph through King David to Abraham. It is absolutely necessary to demonstrate that Jesus has the legal right to the throne of David. (2 Samuel 7:12-16) If Jesus is not a Jewish descendent of King David, then He could not be the Messiah and rule over Israel during the future millennial kingdom! (Luke 1:31-33) Obviously, this is a major teaching of the Scriptures. Not only is Jesus the legal descendent of King David, but through His mother, Mary, He is also a physical descendent of King David. Luke 3:12-38 traces the physical ancestry of Mary through King David and Abraham to Adam. Therefore, it is biblically indisputable that Jesus was legally and physically born a Jew.
Jesus’ godly parents raised Jesus under the law of Moses and followed all of the Jewish traditions and customs of their day. Jesus was circumcised according to the law on the eighth day. (Leviticus 12:1-3; Luke 2:21) He was redeemed with the payment of five shekels according to the Jewish law. (Numbers 18:15-16; Luke 2:22-23) Joseph and Mary took Jesus up to Jerusalem every year to keep the feast of the Passover. (Luke 2:41) The account of Jesus sitting with the experts of the law at the temple when He was only 12, certainly illustrates that He was diligently schooled in the Old Testament Scriptures. Luke 2:47 states “And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.”
All of Jesus’ names and titles are Jewish. The angel told Joseph that the baby Mary was to deliver was to be called “JESUS; for he shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) The name “Jesus” was a common Jewish name, the same as the Old Testament name of Joshua.
Hundreds of times in the New Testament, the name Jesus is accompanied by the title “Christ.” The Greek word (the language of the original New Testament) “Christ” is the translation of the Hebrew word (the original language of the Old Testament) “Messiah,” which means “anointed one.” Literally, the name Jesus Christ means “Jesus the Messiah.” Obviously, in the larger context of the Bible, it is understood that Jesus was recognized by the New Testament writers as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. Therefore, when a person refers to Jesus as Christ, they are openly recognizing that Jesus is a Jew.
Jesus was also called “the King of the Jews” (John 19:19), “the King of Israel” (John 12:13), “the son of David” (Mark 10:47), “the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1), “Rabbi” (John 3:2), and “Jesus of Nazareth” (John 19:19). All of these titles indicate that Jesus was a Jew.
Jesus proclaimed Himself to be the Jewish Messiah and the God of Israel in the Old Testament. While speaking to a Jewish audience in John 8, Jesus declared that He lived at the time of Abraham. He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58) Many times in His earthly ministry Jesus said “I am…” Jesus knew that His people would connect these “I am” statements to the appearance of God to Moses at the burning bush, when He identified Himself as the “I AM THAT I AM.” (Exodus 3:14) In the very next verse, God instructed Moses to tell the children of Israel that the “I AM” is “The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 3:15) Therefore, in all of His “I am” statements, Jesus was claiming to be the eternal God of Israel that revealed Himself to Moses and to Abraham. Jesus taught His followers that He was the direct and literal fulfillment of all of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah. (Luke 24:26-27, 44-47)
The New Testament teaches that Jesus is the redemptive fulfillment of all of the Jewish sacrifices in the Old Testament. (Hebrews 9:11-10:14) Most perfectly, He is the ultimate Passover Lamb. (Luke 22:14-20; 1 Corinthians 5:7) When Jesus was introduced to His generation at His baptism, John said: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Throughout the book of Revelation, Jesus is called “the Lamb.” (Revelation 5:6, 12, 13; 7:9; 12:11; 14:4; 19:7, 9; 21:14, 22-23, 27; 22:3) Certainly, this unique title of Jesus within the context of the Bible speaks of His Jewish identity.
According to the gospels, Jesus practiced and taught about the Jewish customs in His time, and kept the Biblical traditions of His day. He observed the Feasts of Israel and visited the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem frequently.
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www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/09/christianity-judaism
This artist’s portrayal of what Jesus may have looked like is probably more accurate than the more famous images that in many ways deny or ignore Jesus’ Jewish identity.
Jesus’ earthly ministry was distinctly Jewish. Some people think that because Jesus is the cornerstone of the church (Ephesians 2:20) that His ministry was a Christian ministry. Therefore, they conclude that He was a Christian, not a Jew. However, we must remember that Jesus always spoke of the church in the future tense (Matthew 16:18) because the church was not born until the Feast of Pentecost after Jesus had ascended back to heaven. (Acts 2) Jesus never preached in a church. He preached in Jewish synagogues throughout Israel. (Mark 1:39) Furthermore, it is a mistake to think that a Jew cannot be a Christian. All of the early church believers from Acts 1-9 were Jewish. A Jew is a person who has a physical ancestry that is traced back to one of the 12 tribes of Israel. However, a Christian is a person who has spiritually entered into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Spiritual salvation is “of the Jews.” (John 4:22) The gospel of Christ is the “power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first.” (Romans 1:16) Therefore, while Jesus is the cornerstone of the church, and the church is built upon Him, in the strictest sense, Jesus was not a Christian, but a Jew. As explained by the Apostle Paul, the life of the church comes from its Jewish roots in Jesus Christ and the Jewish Scriptures. (Romans 11:11-24)
All of Jesus’ associates in His ministry were Jewish. His disciples were Jewish. (Mark 1:16-20) His audience was almost exclusively Jewish. (Matthew 10:5-6) His opponents were the Jewish Pharisees and Sadducees. (Matthew 22:15-40) His message consisted of an offer of the kingdom of God to Israel. (Matthew 10:7; Luke 8:1) While identifying with the Jewish law and prophets, and proclaiming a kingdom message, Jesus appeared with Moses and Elijah in His transfiguration. (Luke 9:28-36)
Furthermore, Jesus’ earthly ministry took place within the land of Israel. He was born in Bethlehem, and grew up in Nazareth. He was tempted in the Judean wilderness. Jesus’ ministry was centered in Galilee. He fulfilled many prophecies about Himself in Jerusalem. He preached in Israel’s cities and villages. He visited Jacob’s well at Sychar. He performed miracles throughout Israel. He was buried in a Jewish tomb, and ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives. Jesus was recognized as a Jew by His historical contemporaries. The Jewish people called Jesus rabbi, the Son of David, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Galilee, a prophet of Israel, and Messiah. All of these names and titles would clearly mark Him as a Jew. When Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of water from Jacob’s well at Sychar, she responded: “How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?” for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.” (John 4:9)
During His ministry, Jesus identified with the Jewish people, calling them “my brethren.” (Matthew 25:40; 28:10) Those who hate Jews should remember that Jesus is Jewish and that the Jewish people are His people. Those who hate or harm the Jewish people are touching “the apple of his eye.” (Zechariah 2:8)
His Present: Jesus is the Jewish God-Man in Heaven
The same Jesus who appeared to the disciples as the resurrected Jewish Messiah, is the same Jesus who is in heaven today. Several years after the ascension, Jesus spoke to Saul (who later became the Apostle Paul) on the road to Damascus in the language of the Jews, Hebrew. (Acts 26:14) Today, Jesus functions as our Jewish High Priest in heaven. Hebrews 2:16-17 declares: “For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” In Revelation 5:5, Jesus is called “the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David.” Therefore, we must conclude that Jesus is the eternally glorified Jewish God-Man in heaven. His Jewish robe of flesh that He began to wear during His earthly incarnation will continue to be the nature of His divine revelation in His state of eternal glorification. This was certainly the declared truth of the two angels to the disciples on the Mount of Olives at Jesus’ ascension to heaven. They said: “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11)
His Future: Jesus will return to earth as the Jewish King of Kings
When Jesus bodily returns to this earth in His awesome revelation at the end of the Tribulation Period, He will have the same resurrected body that He ascended to heaven with almost two thousand years ago. The ancient prophet of Zechariah wrote that when Jesus returns, His people will mourn when they recognize that their Messiah is the One that was crucified outside the ancient walls of Jerusalem in 30 A.D. Zechariah wrote: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. … And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” (Zechariah 12:10; 13:6)
When Jesus returns as the Jewish “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Revelation 19:16), He will return first to the Mount of Olives. (Zechariah 14:4) He will judge the surviving Gentile nations on the basis of how they have treated His Jewish brethren. (Matthew 25:40) He will establish His kingdom of peace upon all of the earth, ruling from the “holy hill of Zion.” (Psalm 2:6) As promised to His apostles in the Upper Room at His last Passover, He will once again celebrate the Passover with all of the redeemed nation of Israel in Jerusalem. (Matthew 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18) It is emphatically clear from Scripture that the kingdom over which Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, will reign will be a Jewish kingdom. (Isaiah 2:1-5; 60:1-22; Zechariah 14:16-21)
Why is all of this so relevant and significant to our faith? According to the gospel, our faith is firmly anchored in the person of the biblical Jesus! Our faith must be grounded in the historical Jesus whom the apostles portrayed in the gospels. To change anything about His spiritual or physical identity as determined by the eternal “counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23), is to reject the Lamb of God! Rejecting God’s Lamb is the same as rejecting God’s salvation. They are one and the same. Jesus said to His Jewish disciples as they celebrated the Passover, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)
Contrary to what many believe, God has not divorced the Jewish people from His calling as a people set apart unto Himself for His eternal purposes. The Lord said to Israel through His servant Moses: “For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people. But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he hath sworn unto your fathers…“ (Deuteronomy 7:6-8) God’s choice of Israel as His chosen people is not based upon their performance, but upon His unconditional promises and unchanging character. It is not based upon Israel’s accomplishments, but God’s faithfulness. At the end of the Old Testament, even after all of Israel’s rebellion against Him, the Lord declared: “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Malachi 3:6)
God’s blessings upon the nation of Israel in the last days is not because of their faithfulness to Him. Concerning the last days and the supernatural return of the Jewish people back to the land of Israel, Ezekiel wrote: “Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes; O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.” (Ezekiel 36:22)
The question of God’s divorcement of Israel was being considered in the early days of the Church Age. When the Apostle Paul wrote his epistle to the church at Rome in 56 A.D., he was directed by the Holy Spirit to deal with this matter. He wrote: “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.” (Romans 11:1-2) Later in this same chapter, Paul explained that the very spiritual life of the predominately Gentile church flows out of believing Israel. Using the analogy of Israel as a domesticated olive tree and the Gentiles as a wild olive tree, Paul explains that the Gentile believers in Jesus Christ have been grafted into the Jewish faith, both of which have the same Jewish roots. (Romans 11:11-24) The predominately Gentile church enjoys the life and fruit of God because of its connection to the Jewish roots of faith. (Romans 11:18) This text explains that the Gentile church has not replaced the Jewish salvation through a Jewish Savior and a Jewish revelation, the Word of God. Believing Gentiles have been grafted in, but the Jewish roots have not been altered! To take away the Jewish identity of Jesus is to kill the Jewish roots and would thus kill the true church which receives its life from the Jewish roots.
Therefore, anyone who willfully rejects the Jewish identity of Jesus and hates the Jewish people has been deceived and is in opposition to God. According to Psalm 83:2-4, those who hate Israel also hate God and are the enemies of God. The rejection of a Jewish Jesus and the hatred for Israel are one and the same! This fact is illustrated in the life of Adolf Hitler. On April 12, 1922, Hitler said: “My feelings as a Christian point me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded only by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before in the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross.”
Hitler arrived at his conclusions because of the writings of a German pastor, Martin Luther. While Martin Luther was instrumental in bringing about the reformation, he failed to fully grasp the entire revelation of God. Unfortunately, Luther was trapped in the false teachings of Replacement Theology that had preceded him in Catholicism. His anti-Semitic writings and statements clearly illustrate this. His anti-Semitic teachings ultimately led Hitler and the Germans to brutally murder one-half of the world’s Jewish population in the Holocaust.
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A member of Westboro Baptist Church during a public rally
The statements of Jesus (Matthew 10:22; 24:9), and the context of the prophetic Scriptures (Revelation 12) indicate that at the end of this age there will be a great revival of hatred for Jews and for Israel. At this very hour we are witnessing an incredible resurgence of hatred being directed toward the Jewish population in Israel. Even here in the United States, anti-Semitism is growing out of control. As in Nazi Germany, this movement toward socialism and a godless agenda is being fueled by a professing church that rejects a Jewish Jesus and openly adopts replacement theology. These parallels are very frightening!
We continue to hear that the fastest growing religion in the world and in America is Islam. Islam teaches that Jesus was not Jewish, but is a Muslim. They believe that when their Islamic messiah arrives he will be accompanied by Jesus, who they say will destroy churches, break crosses, and kill anyone who will not convert to Islam. Obviously, underlining all of this is the Islamic hatred for Israel and the Jewish people. The most dangerous and venomous hatred for Israel and the Jews is propagated within Islamic circles around the world. The reason Islam is growing so rapidly around the world is because it proclaims a message that the godless world wants to hear and mimic. A part of that attractive message is a hatred for Jews, Israel, and the church.
The war that ISIS is waging in the Middle East is based upon their view of a Muslim Jesus, which is traced back to the teachings and lifestyle of their founding prophet, Mohammed. This is why ISIS is decapitating and crucifying Christians. ISIS continues to state that their ultimate goal is to capture Jerusalem and kill all of the Jews in Israel. This is exactly what the Antichrist and his armies will do on a global scale during the Tribulation Period.
My friend, I hope that you are beginning to see how dangerous and deadly it is to deny that Jesus is a Jew. On the surface it may appear that this is not a serious matter. However, to deny the Jewish identity of Jesus is to unravel the very divine fabric of the Word of God. God’s eternal choice of the Jewish people covers the entire Bible from Genesis 12 to the last chapters of the Bible in the book of Revelation. As a matter of fact, the eternal city in which we will dwell forever is called the “new Jerusalem.” (Revelation 21:2) This city will have 12 gates, on which will be written “the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.” (Revelation 21:12) And, the 12 walls of the city will contain “the names of the twelve [Jewish] apostles of the Lamb.” (Revelation 21:14)
I wish to conclude this article with a quote from biblicalaracheology.org: “To wrench Jesus out of his Jewish world destroys Jesus and destroys Christianity, the religion that grew out of his teachings. Even Jesus’ most familiar role as Christ is a Jewish role. If Christians leave the concrete realities of Jesus’ life and of the history of Israel in favor of a mythic, universal, spiritual Jesus and an otherworldly kingdom of God, they deny their origins in Israel, their history, and the God who has loved and protected Israel and the church. They cease to interpret the actual Jesus sent by God and remake him in their own image and likeness. The dangers are obvious. If Christians violently wrench Jesus out of his natural, ethnic and historical place within the people of Israel, they open the way to doing equal violence to Israel, the place and people of Jesus. This is a lesson of history that haunts us all [as we begin the 21st century].” (www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/was-jesus-a-jew)
Major Oil Discovery in Israel
Several news sources are reporting that a major oil deposit has been discovered by Israel on the Golan Heights near the border with Syria. Those who have completed this exploration indicate that the size of this oil pocket will make Israel energy independent for several years. All of this follows the discovery of massive natural gas deposits off the coast of Israel in the last few years.
These reports are significant because they illustrate that Israel is becoming a major economic player in the Middle East. According to Ezekiel 38:12-13, the nations of the Middle East will join Russia in a war to seize Israel’s wealth. With the military forces of Russia and Iran gathering in Syria to fight against the Sunni radicals that are attempting to overthrow the Syrian government, and this discovery of oil, just a few miles away on the Golan Heights, all of this could be setting the stage for the Gog and Magog invasion of Israel. “Sputnik News, an international news agency wholly owned and operated by the Russian government, is already claiming that the oil belongs to Syria. ‘The oil deposit lies in the Golan Heights, which is internationally recognized as Syrian territory but has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 war between Israel and Arab states.’” (www.breakingisraelnews.com)
Jewish Immigration up by 35 percent
One of the most frequent prophetic promises in the Bible is the return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland- Israel in the last days. The Lord has declared: “I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.” (Jeremiah 30:3) Israel’s population now stands at 8.4 million, of which 6.3 (74.9 percent) are Jewish. In the last Jewish year there was a 35 percent increase in Jewish immigration to Israel over previous years. Most of these Jewish people came from Ukraine (26 percent), France (25 percent), Russia (21 percent), and the United States (9 percent).
I have witnessed this immigration trend during the 30 years I have been traveling to Israel. I remember asking several Israeli Jews why they immigrated to Israel and their response was, “Something inside of me said it was time to come home.” In the 1990s, I remember being in the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv and watching an entire jet load of Russian Jews flood the immigration lines.
The Lord is speaking to the world through this process. In Ezekiel 36:22-24, God said to the returning Jews in the last days: “I do not this for your sakes: O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, … And I will sanctify my great name, … and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.”
The Lord of heaven has married the Jewish people to the land of Israel. (Isaiah 62:4-5) “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Matthew 19:6) The world, and especially the current U.S. administration is attempting to remove the Jewish people from the heartland (the “West Bank”) of what the Lord has promised to His chosen people. The world is at war with God. To God, the inhabitants of the earth are “as grasshoppers.” (Isaiah 40:22) Do you know what happens when the grasshoppers declare war on the God of the universes? “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh.” (Psalm 2:4)