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History

This section aims to collect and present the recorded history of Messianic Judaism, starting with evidence for it in the first century

Biblical Period (0-300AD)

Messianic Judaism and the Early Church

Messianic believers often cite the fact that Jesus and all his disciples were originally Jewish. They argue that Gentiles had a place within the the Jewish context of the faith, evidenced by the recorded biblical debate of having the new Gentile converts follow Jewish law and the decision by the Jerusalem Council to forego the requirement of proslyte conversion for Gentiles to be included in the faith.

Messianics further argue that as a result of persecution, the Early Church adopted a minimalist perspective to win converts so as to survive, and in so doing, had inadvertently minimized the importance of converts following Apostolic law, and the importance of the Jewishness of the faith, evidenced by the reducing of the Passover Seder to a simple service of flat bread and wine, removal of the understanding of mikvah (baptism) in conversions, and by the later adoption of pagan customs in the worship practices of the new adherents. They argue that followers of Christianity were erroneously anti-semetic in their approach to Judaism, well before Constatine came to power and legalized the approach of the Gentilized church, and cementing the Jewish-Christian split.

Intermediate Period (300-1800AD)

During this period the view that Christianity and Judaism are

Jews rejected the messianic claims of Jesus

Christians saw their mission as being to convert the world.

This was frequently mixed up in politics

Replacement theology

Forcible conversions.

Despite the fact that

This

Jews rejected the messianic claims of Jesus. Christianity and belief in Jesus was seen as mutually incompatible with being Jewish.

The attitude of "I was born a Jew, I will die a Jew, why should I need to become anything else?".

Judaism teaches that the Jews are God's chosen people who have been given particular responsibilities.

Jews as an ethnic group and Judaism as a religion were inseparable.

The idea of a Jew converting to a different religion was anathema.

Jews who chose another religion were regarded as being no longer Jewish.

Families sometimes held a mock funerals for members who had become Christians.

Those Jewish people who believed in Jesus became assimilated into Christianity and invariably ceased to identify as Jews or practice Judaism.

Modern Period

Sources for this subsection are xxx

1800-1945

Overview

The roots of modern Messianic Judaism began in the 1800s.

Many events happened in parallel.

Although there were several "Messianic synagogues" -- traditional Synagogues whose rabbis became Believers and thus taught Yeshua from their pulpites (see the case of Isaac Lichtenschtein) -- in the late 1800s with little or no connection to it, the Messianic Judaism of today grew out of Hebrew Christian movement 1800's.

In the 1800s, Jewish Christian congregations began to emerge, in England; the first of these was Beni Abraham, in London, which was founded by forty-one Jewish Christians. This led to a more general awareness of the Jewish identity of Christians with a Jewish background.

Evangelical Awakening

• Missionary era
• "To The Jew First"

Kishineff

• Joseph Rabbinovich was a Jewish teacher and lawyer from Kishineff, capital of Bessarabia
• 1850s - intense Russian persecution of Jews
• Rabbinovich concluded that Jews needed a safe haven in the land of their forefathers
• Visited the Holy Land and read the New Testament as a guidebook
• Became convinced the Jesus was the Messiah
• Returned to Kishineff and shared his new faith with other Jews
• Founded a Messianic Jewish community
• Influence throughout Russia
• Completely separate from the church - totally indigenous

Hebrew Christian Alliances

In 1866 the Hebrew Christian Alliance of Great Britain was organized with branches in several European countries and the United States. A similar group, The Hebrew Christian (HCAA) was organized in the U.S. in 1915. The International Hebrew Christian Alliance (IHCA) was organized in 1925 (later becoming the International Messianic Jewish Alliance). Additional groups were formed during subsequent decades.

Zionist Movement

The late 1800s saw the birth of the Zionist movement.

Fundamentalism

Early 1900s - setback. See Jewish Roots.

1945-1970

Most sources, whilst acknowledging the work of earlier Jewish believers in Jesus, consider that a unique combination of circumstances in west-coast america gave birth to the modern messianic Jewish movement in the late 1960s.

Five factors were significant:

Firstly (cultural), the trend for minority empowerment. Ethnic groups were celebrating and asserting their distinct identities, and obtaining freedom from discrimination and prejudice (for example, Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement among african americans).

Secondly (political), the founding of the state of Israel. For the Jewish people worldwide, centuries of persecution, culminating in the genocide of World War 2, had all but destroyed their collective self-esteem. However, rapid development of Israel into a modern country with a growing economy gave a huge psychological boost to almost all Jews. They could now take pride that, after nearly 2000 years of exile, they had regained their "promised land" and were living in relative safety.

Thirdly (military), Israel's victory over vastly superior forces in the six-day war of 1967. This further enhanced Jewish pride, but also had a far wider impact.

Fourthly (social), the youth rebellion of the 1960s. This was the time of the hippy movement. Large numbers of young Jews were amongst those who had chosen to "drop out" of regular society and live an alternative communal lifestyle. Interestingly, the summer of love, widely considered to be the highest point of the hippy movement, also happened in 1967.

Fifthly (religious), the Jesus Movement resulted in considerable numbers of hippies (including many Jews) coming to faith in Jesus.

The young Jewish believers were integrated into Christian churches, a situation which they increasingly found undesirable. The five factors had combined to produce proud Jews who believed in Jesus and wanted celebrate their identity, but were willing to question the establishment. They thought along the following lines:

• We're Jewish
• We believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah
• Jesus wants us to stay Jewish to witness to our friends and family
• We need to live and worship in a Jewish manner
• We can't do that in a church!

The relatively large numbers of Jewish believers, and their sense of community resulting from both Jewish and hippy backgrounds, meant that Messianic Jewish congregations were soon formed.

This challenged both the traditional Jewish and Christian positions, curiously for the same two reasons, faith and identity.

The Jewish view was that you can't be Jewish and believe in Jesus. Jews who did had become Christians and effectively left the "commonwealth of israel". They were regarded as apostates and rejected by their families. For Jewish believers in Jesus to insist that they were still Jewish, and demonstrate this by a continued commitment to live and worship in a Jewish manner caused a double measure of offence to the wider Jewish world.

The Christian view was also that a person with faith in Jesus was a Christian, and their identity should also be as Christian, within a branch of the church.

(Hippy jews were from secular backgrounds and lacked knowledge of Judaism. Did this made them more receptive to faith in Jesus? Did this influence the practices of the messianic movement?)

1970-present

The 1970s began with two distinct groups in the HCAA. The older believers, who identified as Hebrew Christians and the younger ones, who regarded themselves as Messianic Jews.

In June of 1973, a motion was made to change the name of the HCAA to the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (MJAA), and the name was officially changed in June of 1975. The name change was significant as more than just a "semantical expression;" as Rausch states, "it represented an evolution in the thought processes and religious and philosophical outlook toward a more fervent expression of Jewish identity."

A major shift in the movement occurred when Martin Chernoff became the President of the HCAA (1971-1975).

Identity

This section is designed to present a common list of identifiers often given by adherents within Messianic Judaism. Disputes to their usage are varied, and even within Messianic Judaism self-identification with one term or another can contradict each other. The contributors to this article are doing their best to extrapolate the heart of the matter and present a clear list based on a rough consensus within Messianic Judaism. Objections are noted, and appropriate places are given to them.

Adherents to Messianic Judaism are simply called Messianic believers or Messianics for short. Further distinctions between Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles are presented further in this section. The term Messianic has various meanings outside of Messianic Judaism, for more information, please see Messianic.

In Messianic Judaism, a Messianic believer is usually a self-appointed term, and almost always describes someone who has accepted the essential salvific doctrines of Christianity, but also adopts in part or in full a Jewish expression of that faith.

Traditionally, a Messianic believer is one who believes Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, along with the belief that he died and rose to life again for their sins so that they may receive eternal life in the world to come, by which they also now attempt to walk in a Torah observant lifestyle free from its condemnation, but in service to its blessing.

Universally, Messianics are identified as Christians , however Messianics themselves would dispute the application of such a term, because Messianic Judaism was coined by its followers as a term to in fact help clarify the separation of their important religious practices (which they view as biblically-derived), apart from those of Christians and most of their important religious practices (which they view as pagan-derived). It is a term that has been adopted by the vast majority of Messianic believers in order to clarify their faith and religious practices apart from those of the Christian church which, in their view, has erroneously separated itself from the Jewish roots of Early Christianity.

For Jewish objections to the term Messianic Judaism please see the sub-topic Jewish Objections below.

Issues regarding Gentile inclusion within Messianic Judaism is discussed in the Theology section of this article.

Messianic Jews

In Messianic Judaism, a Messianic Jew is a Messianic believer who is also a Jew by definition of either being born of a Jewish mother, or was a proselyte by Jewish conversion before accepting the salvific doctrines of Messianic Judaism and Christianity, but who choose to exercise their beliefs in a setting reminiscent of traditional Judaism.

A small number Messianic congregations promote a proselytic conversion ritual, which according to the community effectively changes the ethnic status of a Gentile to Jew. Such converts are then considered as Jews within that community, and for all intents and purposes within that community are considered Messianic Jews.

Messianic Gentiles

In Messianic Judaism, a Messianic Gentile is a Messianic believer who is not born of a Jewish mother, and who was not a Jewish proselyte before accepting the salvific doctrines of Messianic Judaism and Christianity, but who choose to exercise their beliefs in a setting reminiscent of traditional Judaism.

In recent years, the term "Messianic Gentile" has been heaviliy criticized by both Jewish and non-Jewish Messianics, and it is now received negatively by most non-Jewish believers. Essentially, to be "gentile" is to be "apart or separated from God or God's people." The term "Messianic Gentile" then is semantically contradictory and derogatory towards Messianics who are non-Jewish.

There is debate about whether the beliefs and customs of such individuals should even be considered "Jewish." Some hold that non-Jewish Messianics comprise a brand of Messianism distinct from Messianic Judaism. The fringe group Messianic Israel Alliance as well as other pseudo-Messianic groups identify these non-Jewish Messianics as "Spiritual Ephraim," i.e., the engrafted and restored House of Israel, although mainstream Messianic groups simply refer to them as Messianics or non-Jewish Messianics or Messianic Gerim (Righteous Non-Jews). Some of these non-Jewish Messianics refer to their faith/religion as Isarlaism, the Northern counterpart to Messianic Judaism. These "Isarlaeans" consider themselves to be grafted into the Northern Kingdom of Israel on account of their Torah observance and worship of YHWH, in the same way that a gentile can become Jewish via conversion.

Hebrew Christians or Christian Jews

Another self-appointed term, Hebrew Christians or Christian Jews are Jewish converts to Christianity who often exercise the majority of their Christian faith in a non-Jewish context, but may still retain some of their Jewish cultural identity.

Historically, these terms were used interchangeably to describe the early adherents to the growing Messianic Movement, but has since changed over time to specifically identify ethnic Jews within Christianity that have given up most of their Jewish traditions and expressions of their faith in order to better fellowship with other Christians.

A Hebrew Christian or Christian Jew is not necessarily a Messianic believer by definition within Messianic Judaism. Only when such a person expresses most or all of their Christian faith within a Jewish context does such a person usually adopt the term Messianic Jew.

Objections and Controversies

Messianic Judaism is a controversial movement and has received opposition from both Jews and Christians.

Jewish Objections

Jewish objections to Messianic Judaism often start with the term itself.

Modern messianic Judaism is becoming increasingly indigenous and some within the movement are calling for a degree of separation from Christianity in order to counter the argument that they are Christians in disguise.

Jews for Jesus

High profile organisation Stated aim Identify as Christians Ambivalent attitude to identity Aggressive confrontational tactics

Many in the messianic jewish movement dissociate with J4J

Due to their high profile, in the minds of many jews, J4J=MJ. Many messianic congs put pages on their websites to counter this.

State of Israel

In December 1989, Israel’s Supreme Court set a legal precedent when it denied the right of return to Gary and Shirley Beresford, messianic Jews from South Africa. In rejecting their petition, Supreme Court Justice Menachem Elon cited their belief in Jesus: “In the last two thousand years of history…the Jewish people have decided that messianic Jews do not belong to the Jewish nation…and have no right to force themselves on it,” he wrote, concluding that “those who believe in Jesus, are, in fact Christians.”

Christian Objections

Replacement theology

Christian practices

Shabbat

Torah - keeping the law

Christian objections to Messianic Judaism often start with disputes over applications of the Torah in a believer's life.

The majority of Christians believe that, with the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, the Law of Moses was made obsolete. Although they also have access to the Tanakh, they tend to base much of their beliefs on the New Testament, and list the Tanakh as the Old Testament.

Some Christians believe persons observing Torah do not have faith in the Messiah and are forsaking the gift of grace and mercy that God gave to all people, after the Messiah’s death and subsequent resurrection.

There are some Christian denominations that have what many would consider to be an anti-Semitic view of Messianic Believers because of their attempted alignment with Judaism.