what is the Jewish opinion on Jesus

Jesus is viewed as having been the most influential and, consequently, the most damaging of all false prophets

Adherents of Judaism do not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the messiah or a prophet, nor do they believe he was the Son of God. In the Jewish perspective, it is … Wikipedia

Wikipedia

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Jewish views on Jesus - Wikipedia

October 11, 2026 - Boteach authored Kosher Jesus in 2012, in which he depicts Jesus as "a Jewish patriot murdered by Rome for his struggle on behalf of his people." Opinions of the merits of the book differ, with Israeli-American Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, President of the International Fellowship of Christians ...

Background Jesus as the Jewish Messiah Jesus in rabbinical literature In Karaite Judaism As a Nazarene Positive historical re-evaluations

My Jewish Learning

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What Do Jews Believe About Jesus? | My Jewish Learning

January 14, 2026 - Crucifixion was a Roman form of execution, not a Jewish one. For most of Christian history, Jews were held responsible for the death of Jesus. This is because the New Testament tends to place the blame specifically on the Temple leadership and more generally on Jewish people.

Discussions

What do Jews think of Jesus?

Like all things in Judaism, there are many different opinions. However all Jews agree that Jesus was not the messiah, a prophet, or God incarnate. Because Jesus did not fulfill any of the Jewish messianic prophecies (bring world peace, fill the Earth with knowledge of God, gather the diaspora to Israel, rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, restore Jewish sovereignty in our homeland, etc.) Jews do not see any reason to view Jesus as the messiah. Traditionally, Jesus is often seen as a heretic who led people to idolatry, though for some he is seen as having helped to introduce the notion of ethical monotheism to the wider world. In modern times though, since Christian institutions no longer persecute Jews, Jewish opinions on Jesus have become more favorable, with some Jews viewing him as a wise rabbi, an ethical teacher, or even a failed messiah (not a false messiah, but someone who could have been the messiah but ultimately failed in his mission). Many Jews dismiss Jesus's miracles as simply legendary tales, though some Jews do acknowledge that Jesus performed miracles. However nothing in Biblical literature indicates that miracle-working is a sign of the messiah, and it is believed that many people in those times could perform miracles (including Jesus's contemporary, Honi HaMe'agel). Additionally, the Bible clearly states that even idolaters and false prophets can perform miracles (in Exodus 7 and Deuteronomy 13). There is also no indication in the Hebrew Bible that the Messiah will be resurrected or that he will have to return for a "second coming", so tales of Jesus's resurrection are understood in Judaism (as they are generally understood in Biblical academia) as narratives made up by Jesus's followers to explain how the person they wholeheartedly believed was the messiah had been crucified and failed to bring about any of the messianic prophecies. Lastly, Jews don't believe that any crucifixion is justified. It is a horrific, tortuous form of execution used by the Romans; no Jewish court had the authority to crucify anyone nor the power to pressure the Romans to do so, let alone someone as harsh and oppressive as Pontius Pilate. More on reddit.com

r/religion

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October 15, 2021

Why do we accept Jesus as messiah but Jews don't? What is evidence in our favor?

Christians: Psalms are prophecies.

Jews: No they are not.

Christians: Jewish law has been fulfilled so we don't have to follow it.

Jews: No such thing. Jewish law only ever applied to Jews, and is eternal.

Christians: Sacrifice is unnecessary because of Jesus.

Jews: No, sacrifice is not possible because there is no physical temple.

etc., etc.

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Like all things in Judaism, there are many different opinions. However all Jews agree that Jesus was not the messiah, a prophet, or God incarnate. Because Jesus did not fulfill any of the Jewish messianic prophecies (bring world peace, fill the Earth with knowledge of God, gather the diaspora to Israel, rebuild the Jerusalem Temple, restore Jewish sovereignty in our homeland, etc.) Jews do not see any reason to view Jesus as the messiah. Traditionally, Jesus is often seen as a heretic who led people to idolatry, though for some he is seen as having helped to introduce the notion of ethical monotheism to the wider world. In modern times though, since Christian institutions no longer persecute Jews, Jewish opinions on Jesus have become more favorable, with some Jews viewing him as a wise rabbi, an ethical teacher, or even a failed messiah (not a false messiah, but someone who could have been the messiah but ultimately failed in his mission). Many Jews dismiss Jesus's miracles as simply legendary tales, though some Jews do acknowledge that Jesus performed miracles. However nothing in Biblical literature indicates that miracle-working is a sign of the messiah, and it is believed that many people in those times could perform miracles (including Jesus's contemporary, Honi HaMe'agel). Additionally, the Bible clearly states that even idolaters and false prophets can perform miracles (in Exodus 7 and Deuteronomy 13). There is also no indication in the Hebrew Bible that the Messiah will be resurrected or that he will have to return for a "second coming", so tales of Jesus's resurrection are understood in Judaism (as they are generally understood in Biblical academia) as narratives made up by Jesus's followers to explain how the person they wholeheartedly believed was the messiah had been crucified and failed to bring about any of the messianic prophecies. Lastly, Jews don't believe that any crucifixion is justified. It is a horrific, tortuous form of execution used by the Romans; no Jewish court had the authority to crucify anyone nor the power to pressure the Romans to do so, let alone someone as harsh and oppressive as Pontius Pilate.

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Jesus to us is essentially a non-entity. The character of Jesus presented in the Gospels is not our messiah, and regardless of whether or not these narratives are historically accurate this personage was not our messiah. We likewise have no opinion on his supposed miracles. The performance of miracles does not ipso facto make a person a legitimate prophet, as the Torah warns us that false prophets may perform miracles to test our faith. We have no opinion on his crucifixion. Crucifixion is not a Jewish punishment, but a Roman one, and the question is thus whether or not the Roman system of government felt whether or not this person deserved that punishment or not. As a sidenote, there are some who claim that Jesus is mentioned in the Talmud, but this is not necessarily true. The man's name is a common one, and would-be messiahs from that era were a dime a dozen, so the reference in the Talmud is ambiguous.

Jews for Jesus

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What Do Jews Believe about Jesus? - Jews for Jesus

July 28, 2026 - Here is a fact which rests on so firm a foundation that no philosophy can shake it: Jesus of Nazareth is a historical personality.13 · Gottlieb Klein Chief Rabbi of Stockholm 1852–1914 · The times of Jesus were ripe for a social upheaval, for the Messianic Age, when the proud will be brought low, and the humble will be lifted up. Jesus, the most lowly of all men, the despised, beyond comparison, of the despised Jewish nation, has ascended the world’s throne to become the Great King of the whole earth.14

BBC

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BBC - The Passion - Articles - Jesus from a Jewish perspective

While the Gospels record disputes about Jesus' interpretation of a few of these, the notion of a Christian Jesus, who did not live by Torah or only by its ethical values, does not fit historical reality. There is no official Jewish view of Jesus but in one respect Jews are agreed in their attitude ...

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Council of Center on Jewish-Christian Relations

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Jesus - a Jewish perspective

There is no official Jewish view of Jesus but the vast majority of Jews are united in their rejection of the tremendous claim, which is made for Jesus by Christians, that he is the Lord Christ, God Incarnate, the very Son of God the Father.

Appleofhiseye

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Jewish Views of Jesus

In the past 40 years has there been a resurgence of Jewish believers in Jesus in greater numbers than many generations. Together, we confess the words of the Messianic Apostles Creed: I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Y’shua the Messiah, his ...

Factually

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What Do Jews Commonly Believe About Jesus?

May 11, 2026 - Jews, as a rule across denominations, do not accept Jesus as the Messiah or the Son of God and regard belief in his divinity as incompatible with core Jewish monotheism (the Shema) [1] [2]. At the same time, Jewish responses range from indifference to historical interest to wary respect for ...

Jew in the City

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How Do Orthodox Jews View Jesus? - Jew in the City

February 26, 2026 - I would be hard-pressed to tell you how many times in the course of my “day job” a non-Jewish reader has written me asking, “What do Jews think of Jesus?” Sometimes they just can’t accept the honest answer: Generally speaking, we don’t think about him at all. Full stop. The reason they can’t accept this is because Jesus is the central figure in their religion.

Letters to Josep

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What Do Jews REALLY Think About Jesus?! - Letters to Josep

April 9, 2017 - Jewish opinions on this range from the most generous: “He was a kind teacher who was misguided in his teachings, but they brought the world to an awareness of One God, more or less, and for that we can be grateful” to “He was a horrible ...

Beliefnet

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What Do Jews Believe About Jesus? - Beliefnet

June 20, 2025 - Jesus was the center of the Christian faith, but many Jews saw Him as a failed or deceitful prophet, a heretic or an idolator. He was not divine, and He was not worthy of worship in their minds.

Learn Religions

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What is Judaism's View of Jesus?

February 15, 2019 - Jews do not believe that Jesus was divine or the "son of God," or the Messiah prophesied in Jewish scripture. He is seen as a "false messiah," meaning someone who claimed (or whose followers claimed for him) the mantle of the Messiah but who ...

Sefaria

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What do Jews Believe about Jesus? | Voices on Sefaria

But isn’t it taught in a baraita: On Passover Eve they hung the corpse of Jesus the Nazarene after they killed him by way of stoning. And a crier went out before him for forty days, publicly proclaiming: Jesus the Nazarene is going out to be stoned because he practiced sorcery, incited people to idol worship, and led the Jewish people astray.

Acjna

acjna.org › articles › a-jewish-view-of-jesus

A Jewish View of Jesus | The American Council for Judaism

Before modern times, the historical Jesus and the theological Christ were generally deemed to be inseparable, and since Jews were bound to reject the one, they naturally tended to think negatively, or not at all, about both. That some leading Jewish thinkers of the Middle Ages, like Maimonides, nevertheless referred positively to Jesus, as preparing the way for the messianic age, is due, not to their appraisal of his person but to their perception that Christianity, in spite of its un-Hebraic aspects, has, as a matter of historical fact, purveyed many of the moral values of Hebraism to a previously pagan civilisation.

Jews for Jesus

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Jewish Views of the Resurrection of Jesus - Jews for Jesus

July 28, 2026 - The love of Jesus and the academic interest in him and his impact were implanted in me by Jewish teachers like Joseph Klausner, for whom Jesus was “the most Jewish of all Jews,” Martin Buber, who perceived him as “his great brother,” and Leo Baeck, the last luminary of the German school of rabbis, who in the year 1938 at the time of the Nazi Kristallnacht managed to write of him: “We see before us a man who according to all the signs of his personality discloses the Jewish character, in whom the purity and worth of Judaism is so specially and so clearly revealed.”1 · The main area

U.S. Catholic

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Do Jews believe in Jesus? - U.S. Catholic

March 18, 2024 - He will build the temple and gather the dispersed Israel.” Jewish groups that believe in the coming of the messiah usually hold that this figure will do several things: unify the Jewish people, reestablish the Temple, and act as a sovereign over a free Jewish state. These predictions are subject to interpretation, but all exclude Jesus.

Blessedapp

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What Do Jewish People Believe About Jesus? - Blessed App

February 2, 2025 - Jewish people traditionally do not accept Jesus as the Messiah or the Son of God. While some Jewish individuals have embraced Christianity and accepted Jesus as the Messiah, the majority of Jews believe that the true Messiah is yet to come and will bring peace and restoration to the world.