Jeremy Rosen
False Messiahs
Summary
Messianism is a concept found in various religions, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, all of which share the idea of making the world a better place. However, in Judaism, the concept of the Messiah is different. The term “Messiah” in Judaism simply means to anoint someone with oil, signifying the bestowing of status. As time passed, the influence of the Greeks, who oppressed the Judean tradition, and the subsequent Roman Empire’s foundation, led to religious oppression. In response, the concept of the Messiah evolved into someone who would free the Jewish community from this religious oppression.
Jeremy Rosen
Manchester-born Jeremy Rosen was educated at Cambridge University England and Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He has practiced as an orthodox rabbi, as principal of Carmel College in the UK, and as professor at the Faculty for Comparative Religion in Antwerp, Belgium. He has written and lectured extensively in the UK and the US, where he now resides and was the rabbi of the Persian-Jewish community in Manhattan.
Well, I don’t see it as a threat. If you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, you must believe in Christian theology, then be a Christian. If you want to keep Jewish commands, then by all means do that. There are plenty of Christians who do keep the Sabbath and other festivals, but don’t claim that you are Jewish because Judaism does not recognise that Jesus was a Messiah.
All these changes began to happen during the first century when Judaism went through such a cataclysmic destruction and such upheaval that the idea of a leader coming to solve the problem appealed to lots of people, as it appealed to Christians, as it appealed to Muslims. And so the idea of the Messiah as we have it now is basically a product of the last 2,000 years.
Well, in my opinion, what’s good is He had a very good public relations man. He made a point of making Judaism much more accessible, less complicated, and popularising it for the masses. But it’s also because it was a matter of good fortune. In the third century, it so happened that there were Jews and Christians believing in Jesus around the Roman Empire and they all had equal rights, but it was Constantine who decided to convert to Christianity and make Christianity the only religion of the Christian empire.