Rejection of Jesus
Encyclopedia
The Canonical Gospels of the New Testament
include some accounts of the rejection of Jesus in the course of his ministry
. Judaism's view of Jesus
, Jesus in Islam, and the view of the Historical Jesus
all differ from Christian views of Jesus
.
Jesus is strongly rejected by the people of his hometown, which Luke specifies as Nazareth
. This incident takes place after the Temptation of Jesus in the Judean desert
.
According to the Synoptics, shortly after Jesus has given his first set of teachings
(and before John the Baptist
is killed), Jesus returns to his hometown. On the sabbath
, he is described as entering a synagogue
and teaching. Luke states that Jesus performed a public reading of scripture
, then claimed he was the fulfillment of a prophecy
at , although the other synoptics do not provide this detail. All the synoptics describe the crowd as negatively questioning the origin of his teachings (see also Mark 3
), and criticising him for being a lowly carpenter
's son (Matthew) or himself a carpenter (Mark).
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 criticising Jesus' quite different behaviour.
Jesus is described as rebuking them (in variations of the same wording in each gospel):
This saying is also mentioned in .
Matthew states that Jesus didn't do many miracles there because of "their lack of faith". In a similar passage Mark says that Jesus was not able to do any miracles there except for healing a few sick people. Luke adds that Jesus recounted a stories about how, during the time of Elijah, only a Sidon
ian 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.
The negative view of Jesus' family may be related to the conflict between Paul of Tarsus
and Jewish Christians
:
"Wilson (1992) has hypothesized that the negative relationship between Jesus and his family was placed in the Gospels (especially in the Gospel of Mark) to dissuade early Christians from following the Jesus cult that was administered by Jesus’ family. Wilson says: “…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 (p. 86).” Butz (2005) 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; Mack, 1988; Painter. 1999)."
.
villages of Chorazin
, Bethsaida
and Capernaum
did not repent in response to Jesus's teaching so Jesus declared their damnation
to Hades
.
village, he was not welcomed, because he was going on to Jerusalem. (There was enmity between Judeans and their Temple in Jerusalem
and Samaritans and their temple on Mount Gerizim
) His disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven
on the village but Jesus reprimanded them and they continued on to another village.
and drink his blood
will remain in him and have eternal life
. In Jesus asks the Twelve Apostles if they also want to leave, but St. Peter responds that they have become believers.
in the Temple, Jesus was arrested
and sent to the Sanhedrin
, who rejected his appeal and sent him to Pontius Pilate
for final disposition.
, converts to Christianity being the exceptions.
Belief in the divinity of any human being, messiah or otherwise, is incompatible with Judaism
:
The accounts of Jewish rejection of Jesus are prominently featured in the New Testament, especially John's gospel. For example, in Jesus moves around in Galilee but avoids Judea, because "the Jews/Judeans" were looking for a chance to kill him. In some said "he is a good man" whereas others said he deceives the people, but these were all "whispers", no one would speak publicly for "fear of the Jews/Judeans". Jewish rejection is also recorded in , , and . 12:42 says many did believe, but they kept it private, for fear the Pharisees
would exclude them from the Synagogue, see also Council of Jamnia
.
According to Jeremy Cohen,
Emil Fackenheim
wrote in 1987:
rejects the Christian view that Jesus was God incarnate
or God the Son
, that he was ever crucified
or resurrected
, or that he ever atoned for the sins of mankind. The Qur'an
says that Jesus himself never claimed any of these things, and it furthermore indicates that Jesus will deny having ever claimed divinity at the Islamic view of the Last Judgment, and God will vindicate him.
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
include some accounts of the rejection of Jesus in the course of his ministry
Ministry of Jesus
In the Christian gospels, the Ministry of Jesus begins with his Baptism in the countryside of Judea, near the River Jordan and ends in Jerusalem, following the Last Supper with his disciples. The Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry...
. Judaism's view of Jesus
Judaism's view of Jesus
Jews have traditionally seen Jesus as one of a number of false messiahs who have appeared throughout history. Jesus is viewed as having been the most influential, and consequently the most damaging, of all false messiahs...
, Jesus in Islam, and the view of the Historical Jesus
Historical Jesus
The term historical Jesus refers to scholarly reconstructions of the 1st-century figure Jesus of Nazareth. These reconstructions are based upon historical methods including critical analysis of gospel texts as the primary source for his biography, along with consideration of the historical and...
all differ from Christian views of Jesus
Christian views of Jesus
Christian views of Jesus are based on the teachings and beliefs outlined in the Canonical gospels, New Testament letters, and the Christian creeds. These outline the key beliefs held by Christian about Jesus, including his divinity, humanity, and earthly life. Generally speaking, adhering to the...
.
Hometown rejection
In an account recorded in the Synoptic GospelsSynoptic Gospels
The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes exactly the same wording. This degree of parallelism in content, narrative arrangement, language, and sentence structures can only be...
Jesus is strongly rejected by the people of his hometown, which Luke specifies as Nazareth
Nazareth
Nazareth is the largest city in the North District of Israel. Known as "the Arab capital of Israel," the population is made up predominantly of Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel...
. This incident takes place after the Temptation of Jesus in the Judean desert
Judean desert
The Judaean Desert is a desert in Israel and the West Bank that lies east of Jerusalem and descends to the Dead Sea. It stretches from the northeastern Negev to the east of Beit El, and is marked by terraces with escarpments. It ends in a steep escarpment dropping to the Dead Sea and the Jordan...
.
According to the Synoptics, shortly after Jesus has given his first set of teachings
Ministry of Jesus
In the Christian gospels, the Ministry of Jesus begins with his Baptism in the countryside of Judea, near the River Jordan and ends in Jerusalem, following the Last Supper with his disciples. The Gospel of Luke states that Jesus was "about 30 years of age" at the start of his ministry...
(and before John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
is killed), Jesus returns to his hometown. On the sabbath
Biblical Sabbath
Sabbath in the Bible is usually a weekly day of rest and time of worship. The Sabbath is first mentioned in the Genesis creation narrative. The seventh day is there set aside as a day of rest—the Sabbath. It is observed differently in Judaism and Christianity and informs a similar occasion in...
, he is described as entering a synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
and teaching. Luke states that Jesus performed a public reading of scripture
Lection
A lection is a reading, in this context, from Scripture.The custom of reading the books of Moses in the synagogues on the Sabbath day was a very ancient one. The addition of lections from the prophetic books had been made afterwards and was in existence at the time of Jesus, as may be gathered...
, then claimed he was the fulfillment of a prophecy
Prophecy
Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
at , although the other synoptics do not provide this detail. All the synoptics describe the crowd as negatively questioning the origin of his teachings (see also Mark 3
Mark 3
Mark 3 is the third chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It contains a conflict over healing on the Sabbath, Jesus' calling of the Twelve Apostles, and his conflicts with some scribes and his own family.- Healings :...
), and criticising him for being a lowly carpenter
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
's son (Matthew) or himself a carpenter (Mark).
In Matthew and Mark the crowd is also described as referring to Jesus as being the brother of James
James the Just
James , first Bishop of Jerusalem, who died in 62 AD, was an important figure in Early Christianity...
, Simon, Joseph, and Judas
Jude, brother of Jesus
Jude was the brother of Jesus, according to the New Testament. He is traditionally identified as the author of the Epistle of Jude, a short epistle which is reckoned among the seven General epistles of the New Testament and considered canonical by Christians.-Sources: and write of Jesus family:...
(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 criticising Jesus' quite different behaviour.
Jesus is described as rebuking them (in variations of the same wording in each gospel):
- a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house -
This saying is also mentioned in .
Matthew states that Jesus didn't do many miracles there because of "their lack of faith". In a similar passage Mark says that Jesus was not able to do any miracles there except for healing a few sick people. Luke adds that Jesus recounted a stories about how, during the time of Elijah, only a Sidon
Sidon
Sidon or Saïda is the third-largest city in Lebanon. It is located in the South Governorate of Lebanon, on the Mediterranean coast, about 40 km north of Tyre and 40 km south of the capital Beirut. In Genesis, Sidon is the son of Canaan the grandson of Noah...
ian woman was saved, and how, during the time of Elisha
Elisha
Elisha is a prophet mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and the Qur'an. His name is commonly transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, or Alyasa via Arabic.-Biblical biography:...
, 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.
The negative view of Jesus' family may be related to the conflict between Paul of Tarsus
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
and Jewish Christians
Jewish Christians
Jewish Christians is a term which appears in historical texts contrasting Christians of Jewish origin with Gentile Christians, both in discussion of the New Testament church and the second and following centuries....
:
"Wilson (1992) has hypothesized that the negative relationship between Jesus and his family was placed in the Gospels (especially in the Gospel of Mark) to dissuade early Christians from following the Jesus cult that was administered by Jesus’ family. Wilson says: “…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 (p. 86).” Butz (2005) 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; Mack, 1988; Painter. 1999)."
Rejection of the cornerstone
, and talk of Jesus as the stone which the builders (or "husbandmen") rejected. discusses this rejection of Jesus. Theologians suggest that rejection does not diminish Jesus but rather diminishes those who reject him. "Rejection of the cornerstone" is also referenced in which has similar wording and is referenced by SupersessionismSupersessionism
Supersessionism is a term for the dominant Christian view of the Old Covenant, also called fulfillment theology and replacement theology, though the latter term is disputed...
.
Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum
According to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the GalileanGalilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
villages of Chorazin
Chorazin
Chorazin was a village in northern Galilee, two and a half miles from Capernaum on a hill above the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee.-Biblical references:...
, Bethsaida
Bethsaida
Bethsaida is a place mentioned in the New Testament.- Bethsaida Julias :...
and Capernaum
Capernaum
Capernaum was a fishing village in the time of the Hasmoneans. Located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had a population of about 1,500. Archaeological excavations have revealed two ancient synagogues built one over the other...
did not repent in response to Jesus's teaching so Jesus declared their damnation
Damnation
Damnation is the concept of everlasting divine punishment and/or disgrace, especially the punishment for sin as threatened by God . A damned being "in damnation" is said to be either in Hell, or living in a state wherein they are divorced from Heaven and/or in a state of disgrace from God's favor...
to Hades
Hades in Christianity
According to various Christian faiths, Hades is "the place or state of departed spirits".-Hades in the Old Testament:In the Septuagint , the Greek term "ᾅδης" is used to translate the Hebrew term "שׁאול" in, for example,...
.
Not welcomed in a Samaritan village
According to , when Jesus entered a SamaritanSamaritan
The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism...
village, he was not welcomed, because he was going on to Jerusalem. (There was enmity between Judeans and their Temple in Jerusalem
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
and Samaritans and their temple on Mount Gerizim
Mount Gerizim
Mount Gerizim is one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the West Bank city of Nablus , and forms the southern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated,...
) His disciples wanted to call down fire from heaven
Heaven (Christianity)
Traditionally, Christianity has taught Heaven as a place of eternal life and the dwelling place of Angels and the Throne of God, and a kingdom to which all the elect will be admitted...
on the village but Jesus reprimanded them and they continued on to another village.
Many disciples leave
records "many disciples" leaving Jesus after he said that those who eat his bodyBody of Christ
In Christian theology, the term Body of Christ has two separate connotations: it may refer to Jesus's statement about the Eucharist at the Last Supper that "This is my body" in , or the explicit usage of the term by the Apostle Paul in to refer to the Christian Church.Although in general usage the...
and drink his blood
Blood of Christ
The Blood of Christ in Christian theology refers to the physical blood actually shed by Jesus Christ on the Cross, and the salvation which Christianity teaches was accomplished thereby; and the sacramental blood present in the Eucharist, which is considered by Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and...
will remain in him and have eternal life
Eternal life (Christianity)
In Christianity the term eternal life traditionally refers to continued life after death, rather than immortality. While scholars such as John H. Leith assert that...
. In Jesus asks the Twelve Apostles if they also want to leave, but St. Peter responds that they have become believers.
Sanhedrin trial
After the incident with the money changersJesus and the Money Changers
The narrative of Jesus and the money changers, commonly referred to as the cleansing of the Temple, occurs in all four canonical gospels of the New Testament....
in the Temple, Jesus was arrested
Arrest of Jesus
The arrest of Jesus is a pivotal event recorded in the Canonical gospels. The event ultimately leads, in the Gospel accounts, to Jesus' crucifixion...
and sent to the Sanhedrin
Sanhedrin
The Sanhedrin was an assembly of twenty-three judges appointed in every city in the Biblical Land of Israel.The Great Sanhedrin was the supreme court of ancient Israel made of 71 members...
, who rejected his appeal and sent him to Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...
for final disposition.
Jewish rejection
Jesus was and continues to be rejected by many Jewish people as a failed Jewish Messiah claimantJewish Messiah claimants
The Messiah in Judaism has a number of interpretations, including any king chosen by God; a holy king who will lead Israel; and someone who will usher in an idyllic age of peace and justice...
, converts to Christianity being the exceptions.
Belief in the divinity of any human being, messiah or otherwise, is incompatible with Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
:
- "The point is this: that the whole Christology of the Church - the whole complex of doctrines about the Son of God who died on the Cross to save humanity from sin and death - is incompatible with Judaism, and indeed in discontinuity with the HebraismHebraismHebraism is the identification of a usage, trait, or characteristic of the Hebrew language. By successive extension it is sometimes applied to the Jewish people, their faith, national ideology, or culture.- Idiomatic Hebrew :...
that preceded it." - "Aside from its belief in Jesus as the Messiah, Christianity has altered many of the most fundamental concepts of Judaism." (Kaplan, AryehAryeh KaplanAryeh Moshe Eliyahu Kaplan was a noted American Orthodox rabbi and author known for his "intimate knowledge of both physics and kabbalah." He was lauded as an original thinker and prolific writer, from studies of the Torah, Talmud and mysticism to introductory pamphlets on Jewish beliefs and...
) - "...the doctrine of Christ was and will remain alien to Jewish religious thought."
- "For two thousand years, Jews rejected the claim that Jesus fulfilled the messianic prophecies of the Hebrew Bible, as well as the dogmatic claims about him made by the church fathers - that he was born of a virgin, the son of God, part of a divine Trinity, and was resurrected after his death. ... For two thousand years, a central wish of Christianity was to be the object of desire by Jews, whose conversion would demonstrate their acceptance that Jesus has fulfilled their own biblical prophecies."
- "No Jew accepts Jesus as the Messiah. When someone makes that faith commitment, they become Christian. It is not possible for someone to be both Christian and Jewish."
The accounts of Jewish rejection of Jesus are prominently featured in the New Testament, especially John's gospel. For example, in Jesus moves around in Galilee but avoids Judea, because "the Jews/Judeans" were looking for a chance to kill him. In some said "he is a good man" whereas others said he deceives the people, but these were all "whispers", no one would speak publicly for "fear of the Jews/Judeans". Jewish rejection is also recorded in , , and . 12:42 says many did believe, but they kept it private, for fear the Pharisees
Pharisees
The Pharisees were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews during the Second Temple period beginning under the Hasmonean dynasty in the wake of...
would exclude them from the Synagogue, see also Council of Jamnia
Council of Jamnia
The Council of Jamnia or Council of Yavne is a hypothetical late 1st-century council at which it is postulated the canon of the Hebrew Bible was finalized....
.
"[e]ven before the Gospels appeared, the apostle Paul (or, more probably, one of his disciples) portrayed the Jews as Christ's killers ... But though the New Testament clearly looks to the Jews as responsible for the death of Jesus, Paul and the evangelistsFour EvangelistsIn Christian tradition the Four Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four Gospel accounts in the New Testament that bear the following titles:*Gospel according to Matthew*Gospel according to Mark...
did not yet condemn all Jews, by the very fact of their JewishnessJewish ChristiansJewish Christians is a term which appears in historical texts contrasting Christians of Jewish origin with Gentile Christians, both in discussion of the New Testament church and the second and following centuries....
, as murderers of God and his messiah. That condemnation, however, was soon to come."
Emil Fackenheim
Emil Fackenheim
Emil Ludwig Fackenheim, Ph.D. was a noted Jewish philosopher and Reform rabbi.Born in Halle, Germany, he was arrested by the Nazis on the night of November 9, 1938, known as Kristallnacht...
wrote in 1987:
"... Except in relations with Christians, the Christ of Christianity is not a Jewish issue. There simply can be no dialogue worthy of the name unless Christians accept—nay, treasure—the fact that Jews through the two millennia of Christianity have had an agenda of their own. There can be no Jewish-Christian dialogue worthy of the name unless one Christian activity is abandoned, missions to the Jews. It must be abandoned, moreover, not as a temporary strategy but in principle, as a bimillennial theological mistake. The cost of that mistake in Christian love and Jewish blood one hesitates to contemplate."
Islam
IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
rejects the Christian view that Jesus was God incarnate
Incarnation (Christianity)
The Incarnation in traditional Christianity is the belief that Jesus Christ the second person of the Trinity, also known as God the Son or the Logos , "became flesh" by being conceived in the womb of a woman, the Virgin Mary, also known as the Theotokos .The Incarnation is a fundamental theological...
or God the Son
God the Son
God the Son is the second person of the Trinity in Christian theology. The doctrine of the Trinity identifies Jesus of Nazareth as God the Son, united in essence but distinct in person with regard to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit...
, that he was ever crucified
Crucifixion of Jesus
The crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...
or resurrected
Resurrection of Jesus
The Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus states that Jesus returned to bodily life on the third day following his death by crucifixion. It is a key element of Christian faith and theology and part of the Nicene Creed: "On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures"...
, or that he ever atoned for the sins of mankind. The Qur'an
Qur'an
The Quran , also transliterated Qur'an, Koran, Alcoran, Qur’ān, Coran, Kuran, and al-Qur’ān, is the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God . It is regarded widely as the finest piece of literature in the Arabic language...
says that Jesus himself never claimed any of these things, and it furthermore indicates that Jesus will deny having ever claimed divinity at the Islamic view of the Last Judgment, and God will vindicate him.
See also
- Anti-JudaismAnti-JudaismReligious antisemitism is a form of antisemitism, which is the prejudice against, or hostility toward, the Jewish people based on hostility to Judaism and to Jews as a religious group...
- But to bring a swordBut to bring a sword"I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword" , part of the Lesser Commission, is one of the controversial statements reported of Jesus in the Bible. The saying has been interpreted in several ways...
- Mount PrecipiceMount PrecipiceMount Precipice , also known as Mount of Precipitation, Mount of the Leap of the Lord and Mount Kedumim is located in Lower Galilee, Near the cities of Nazareth and Nazareth Illit....
- Olivet discourseOlivet discourseThe Olivet discourse or Olivet prophecy is a biblical passage found in the Synoptic Gospels of Mark 13, Matthew 24, Luke 21. It is known as the "Little Apocalypse" because it includes Jesus' descriptions of the end times, the use of apocalyptic language, and Jesus' warning to his followers that...
- Passion (Christianity)Passion (Christianity)The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
- Persecution of Christians in the New TestamentPersecution of Christians in the New TestamentThe persecution of Christians in the New Testament is an important part of the Early Christian narrative which depicts the early Church as being persecuted for their heterodox beliefs by an alleged "Jewish establishment" in what was then Roman occupied Iudaea province.The New Testament, especially...
- Physician, heal thyselfPhysician, heal thyselfPhysician, heal thyself is a proverb found in .The usual interpretation of this passage is that, during the Rejection of Jesus, Jesus expected to hear natives of his hometown of Nazareth use this phrase to criticize him....