In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Mark there is an account of a visit by Jesus to his hometown together with his followers. On the Sabbath, he enters a synagogue and begins to teach. The account says that many who heard him were “astounded” and offended, and they asked him, “Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary?” It adds that he could do no “deeds of power there” except to heal a few sick people. Amazed at the community’s lack of belief in him, Jesus observes that “prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown and among their own kin and in their own house.” (Mark 6:1-6)
The account which is given in the Gospel of Matthew differs from this account by having those in the synagogue describe Jesus as the “son of the carpenter” and stating that he could not do many deeds of power (rather than no deeds).[1] (Matthew 13:54-58)
In Matthew and Mark, the crowd is also described as referring to Jesus as being the brother of James, Simon, Joseph, and Judas (in Mark they also mention, but do not name, Jesus’s sisters) in a manner suggesting that the crowd regards them as just ordinary people and criticizes Jesus’s quite different behavior.
Luke adds that Jesus recounted stories about how, during the time of Elijah, only a Sidonian woman was saved and how, during the time of Elisha, though there were many lepers in Israel, only a Syrian was cleansed. This, according to Luke, caused the people to attack Jesus and chase him to the top of a hill in order to try to throw Jesus off, though Jesus slips away. Some scholars conclude that the historical accuracy of Luke’s version is questionable, in this particular case citing that there is no cliff face in Nazareth.[3] There are, however, several sharp precipices in close vicinity. One in particular, Mount Precipice, is often marked as the place in folklore
The negative view of Jesus’ family may be related to the conflict between Paul the Apostle and Jewish Christians. Critical biographer A. N. Wilson suggests that the negative relationship between Jesus and his family was placed in the Gospels (especially in the Gospel of Mark, for example, Mark 3:20–21 and Mark 3:31–35) to dissuade early Christians from following the Jesus cult that was administered by Jesus’ family: “… it would not be surprising if other parts of the church, particularly the Gentiles, liked telling stories about Jesus as a man who had no sympathy or support from his family. “[5] Jeffrey Bütz[6] is more succinct: “… by the time Mark was writing in the late 60s, the Gentile churches outside of Israel were beginning to resent the authority wielded by Jerusalem, where James and the apostles were leaders, thus providing the motive for Mark’s antifamily stance …” (p. 44). Other prominent scholars agree (e.g., Crosson, 1973;[7] Mack, 1988;[8] Painter, 1999)
For almost 2,000 years, both Judaism and Christianity have promulgated the lie that the Jewish People rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Bernis often tells about his upbringing in a Jewish home.
I was raised as a child in a Jewish home with the understanding that I was born a Jew, that I was to die a Jew, and anyone who wasn’t Jewish was a Christian or a Gentile. I also understood that Jewish identity meant one thing: Jews don’t believe in Jesus.
But that is a lie—the Jews have not rejected Jesus. The entire New Testament story took place in the Land of Israel—the Land of the Jews. Jesus was a Jew. He declared Himself the Messiah of Israel. All of His followers were Jews. The disciples were all Jews, as were the 120 in the Upper Room. The 3,000 that came to faith on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, or Pentecost, “grew to about 5,000,” according to Acts 4:4. So there is a record of thousands of Jewish Believers in the promised Messiah of Israel, and they took the Gospel around the world.
The Bible attests to what some refer to as a Jewish Christianity in which Jewish people believe in Yeshua (Jesus) as the promised Messiah of the Hebrew Scriptures.
With warmth and transparency, Jewish Voice’s own Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Bernis shares a compelling case for Jesus as Messiah and presents overwhelming evidence that can be traced to the Torah itself.
