Challenging: Barbara Richmond a.k.a. Leah Rafaeli and "Why the Jewish People do not accept Jesus/Yeshua as the Messiah"

Ever wonder what happened to writer and Christian lecturer Barbara Richmond? Some years ago Richmond (a former Catholic nun turned Messianic Jew after discovering that her natural father was supposedly Jewish), decided that Yeshua was a farce, moved to Israel, converted to Orthodox Judaism, and changed her name to Leah Rafaeli. She now is an avid anti-Yeshua, anti-New Testament advocate - and is, of course, writing books about her "latest" beliefs. In 2006, she sent the following article to a friend of The Refiner's Fire, to show why she rejected Messiah and converted to Judaism. We have inserted directly into the article our responses to each of her allegations:

Why the Jewish People do not accept Jesus/Yeshua as the Messiah

By Leah Rafaeli

Behind closed doors they discuss it and shake their heads. Evangelical Christians are frustrated over their failure to ‘convert’ Jews. Millions of dollars have been spent with relatively small results.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

Pure speculation that we are "shaking our heads"! Has Richmond/Rafaeli actually SEEN each and every Christian and Messianic believer "shaking their heads"? Thousands of Jews have come to a saving knowledge of Yeshua, and many more will eventually believe. In the meantime, we KNOW that there will be relatively "small results" when it comes to leading people to Yeshua. Matthew 7:13 tells us that most people of the world will NOT be taking that "narrow gate that leads to life". It's disappointing, to be sure, but it's certainly no surprise. What is more disheartening is to see people such as Richmond/Rafaeli "flip-flopping" and then trying to shove her "latest" belief down the world's collective throat.


True, there is a movement called ‘Messianic Judaism’ which in reality should more accurately be called ‘Christianity with a Jewish dusting.’ These ‘Messianics’ are viewed by the Jewish population at large – both religious and secular – as the most confused people of all. They are clearly not following Judaism’s teachings – for their belief system is antithetical to Torah Judaism. They are not mainstream Christians for their Jewish style worship services and accoutrements are not welcome in most churches.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

We're confused? Most Messianic believers came out of Judaism or Christianity in order to embrace Yeshua and the entire Bible. Richmond/Rafaeli started out as Catholic, then switched to Protestantism after she married, helped her husband plant and pastor several churches before switching to Messianic Judaism, and eventually began heading Bible studies wherein she openly began to deny Yeshua's Deity. And now she's an "Orthodox Jew" - although, whether she truly has a Jewish heritage remains in question....

Messianic Judaism is most definitely not "Christanity with Jewish dusting". Perhaps it was, the way she was practicing it, but to paint all Messianics with the same brush is simply unfair! To find out exactly what Messianic Judaism is, please read The Refiner's Fire's Messianic Judaism page. (Please click on the "BACK" button at the top left in order to return to this page.)


But what of the larger population in Israel and around the world who clearly identify themselves as Jewish? Why do they categorically reject the Jesus/Yeshua of Christianity and messianic Judaism as ‘THE’ Messiah for which they wait?

Messianic Judaism's Response:

Because they're lost and choose to remain blind to the fact that God promised us a New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34); and to the fact that Messiah Yeshua was foreshadowed throughout the entire Tanach ("Old Testament"). See Challenging the Torah Experts.

Traditional Jews would do well to read beyond the Torah heed what YHWH said in the Tanach, because it is there that He tells us He has a SON and mentions the fact that the Father AND the Son both have a name:

Proverbs 30: 4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has cupped the wind in the palms of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know!


Some have tried to propose that hundreds of years of anti-Semitism emanating from the church world and its institutions causes the Jewish people to be highly suspicious and reluctant to consider the so-called ‘merits’ of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

Those holding this opinion argue that 1600 years of persecutions, inquisitions, holocausts and pogroms understandably create an almost insurmountable problem in getting Jews to ‘recognize’ the Christian Messiah as their own.

With all due respect, those who attempt to offer such an emotional/psychological excuse for Jewish lack of belief in Jesus don’t know their Jewish friends very well at all. This author discounts that claim as inaccurate and to a great degree, irrelevant, for the Jewish decision to reject Jesus as ‘The Messiah’ arises from serious and dedicated study of the Scriptures. A people who have endured and survived persecutions and brutalities for hundreds of years are not given to a purely emotional rejection, particularly with regard to a concept as central to Judaism as the expectation of ‘The Messiah’ to come.

The primary reason that the Jewish people reject Jesus/Yeshua as the long awaited Jewish Messiah is biblical; it is not emotional, nor is it psychological.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

No, it's NOT "Biblical". Part of the reason they refuse Messiah is because Christians have turned Him into a Torah-less "Jesus" who bears no resemblance to the actual Torah observant Messiah who walked this Earth and taught man face-to-face about YHWH and His commands, and how to live according to His Word which is Torah. Plus, most traditional Jews are more into the writings and sayings and traditions of their rabbis and sages, than they are into YHWH's Word. They refuse to see that Yeshua was foreshadowed throughout the Tanach. For example:

  • Micah 5:2 says the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem.

  • Isaiah 7:14 speaks of an extraordinary birth for the Messiah that will be a sign to the people.

  • Daniel 9:24-25 indicates the Messiah will be killed before the destruction of the Second Temple and Jerusalem in 70 CE.

  • Isaiah 49:6 declares that the Messiah will come for both Jews and non-Jews.

For more examples, see: Qualifications of Messiah; 48 Dead-on Prophecies; Who Does Messiah Say He Is?; and So, You Don't Believe?.

It appears that traditional Jews refuse to believe God already gave them a New Covenant in the form of Yeshua who fulfilled a myriad Old Testament prophecies and performed dozens of miracles before witnesses including walking on water, raising the dead, and healing the blind and deaf - yet they have no problem believing that a rabbi who died several years ago is the messiah. They've been waiting on Rabbi Schneerson to rise from the dead since the mid-nineties! As of this writing, this man who supposedly fulfills SOME of the qualifications of messiah, is still laid up in his coffin, dead as a doornail! See Is the Lubavitcher Rebbe the Messiah?


The Meaning of ‘Messiah’

Before anyone can recognize the messiah, one must know what this word means. The Hebrew word ‘mashiach’ simply means ‘anointed’ and denotes someone anointed with oil for a particular divinely appointed task. Every king of Israel and every High Priest was anointed and therefore each one of them can be called a ‘messiah’. We see that in I Samuel 26, Saul is called G-d’s messiah. Cyrus receives the same appellation in Isaiah 45. It is imperative to understand that the word ‘mashiach’ is generally used in the Hebrew Bible to refer to anyone who was anointed.

It will be surprising to some that in the Hebrew Bible the words ‘Ha Mashiach’ or ‘The’ Messiah’ only appear as part of the phrase "HaCohen HaMashiach", the anointed Priest or the High Priest. (see Leviticus 4:3, 5, 16; 6:15)...However, these are not about "The Messiah". So, while the word HaMashiach does actually appear, it does so in a context outside the discussion of the Messiah.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

Okay, then what about the following Scriptures that tell us YHWH's "Messiah" was:

  • the Son He promised to send us (Isaiah 9:6-7).

  • to be God within a man (Zechariah 12:10-11);

  • to die before the 2nd Temple was destroyed (Daniel 9:24-27);

  • to bring salvation to the world (Isaiah 59:16-20);

  • to perform miracles (Isaiah 35:5-6);

  • and to be raised from the dead (Psalm 16:10, Isaiah 53:10) to name just a few.

Yeshua THE Messiah accomplished all those things!


A future period of universal peace and worldwide recognition of G-d is very much a theme of Bible Prophecy and is described in Isaiah 2:1-3, in Zephaniah 3 and in many other references. Among the hundreds of prophetic scriptures speaking about this future age, there are several in which an individual who will sit on the throne of Israel in that future time is mentioned. Significant things are said about him in the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others. Since every king of Israel was anointed and therefore is a ‘messiah’, the Jewish people refer to the future King who will rule in this future age of peace as ‘THE’ Messiah.

Since no person thus far in history has fulfilled the conditions laid out in the Scriptures for recognizing ‘The’ Messiah, all those who have laid claim to that title thus far have been rejected. Jewish people still await his appearance with eagerness and pray to merit a place in the Kingdom to come.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

It is simply amazing that someone who "used to be" a Messianic Jew, could "do a 180" in order to go BACKWARDS! Richmond/Rafaeli KNOWS (if not in her heart, then at least in her head) that, that "future King" was Messiah Yeshua - who MET each and every one of the "qualifications" to be THE Messiah!

By David Brown, AMF International, provides the following:

To determine what the Messiah should be and do, we must look beyond Tradition to the Sacred Scriptures themselves. What matters is not what the Rabbis said, but what God said.

For example, what does the prophet Isaiah say?

  • 42:6, 49:8 - He will be a Covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles

  • 53:2, 52:14 - Messiah will have no physical appeal, many will be appalled at him (Isaiah 52:14)

  • 53:3-5. - he will be despised and rejected, unappreciated, a man of sorrows

It is often claimed that there is no need of an intercessor in Judaism, but Isaiah says:

  • 53:6 - Messiah would carry away our iniquities.

  • 53:8. - he would die childless for the transgressions of Israel

  • 53:12 - he would pour out his life unto death to intercede for transgressors

  • 53:10 - His life would be a guilt offering

If the Messiah is yet to come, the Messiah is yet to be rejected and to die! And yet,

  • 53:11 -- he would be raised from the dead. (Furthermore, the four gospels, the letters of Paul, Peter, James, Hebrews, and Revelation were independently written and all testify to the resurrection. Most of the disciples died for their faith in Yeshua's resurrection, never recanting under pressure.)

This is exactly what we have in Yeshua: a rejected Messiah who died and rose again!


Does the Bible claim or suggest that Messiah must be divine? Isn't he just a man?

See Isaiah 59:17, 63:5, 43:11, 49:26. God himself provides salvation, as only he is able. No ordinary man is up to the task. Could it be that God Himself would chose to be "born" as a man, in order to fulfill the Messianic prophecies and bring about the salvation of Israel and the world?

Now what of those things they say Yeshua has not accomplished? Isn't Messiah supposed to bring about a new order of world peace and bring all Israel to the Promised Land to dwell in safety? Yes, undeniably the Bible is full of such predictions. We believe Yeshua will fulfill them all when he comes again, but the other was necessary first. Clearly, if the Messiah is to be rejected and die and also to reign over New Jerusalem, the rejection must come first.

The Refiner's Fire Addendum: He has made Himself known through a "burning bush", a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night, "three men" at the Oaks of Mamre, and He spoke through a donkey. Traditional Jews are willing to believe that, yet they refuse to believe that He would reveal His "SON" in the form of a man in order to enable us to better identify with, and to understand the things of God via a Person who was unlike any other rabbi they'd ever known! A Person who spoke with authority, dared to challenge the rabbis and their "rabbinical stuff", and who performed MIRACLES as only GOD could have! Yeshua didn't replace YHWH in anyway; He was simply an "arm" of YHWH, doing His Father's will through a human body and his qnoma, or "underlying substance." The relationship between Father and Son needs to be understood more like the relationship of limbs of a body to the mind (Exodus 6:6, Isaiah 53:1). Limbs are directed according the will of the mind. The divine side of the Son is not separate from YHWH; "he" is the arm of YHWH, and the Word that YHWH directed (spoke) to create the universe. This is further clarified in a footnote to John 5:18 from The Netzari Aramaic English Interlinear, to be published in April 2008:

To consider oneself "equal" to YHWH is a very serious matter. Y'shua spoke of himself as being about his Father's business, of coming in his Father's Name; he spoke and taught with authority and performed healings which made him a formidable opponent to religious tradition. The charge here of Y'shua making himself equal to YHWH is simply Pharisee tradition projecting itself onto Y'shua. The Ruach haKodesh in Mashiyach is "equal" to YHWH, but the Pharisees supposed that Y'shua and his followers equated his humanity with YHWH; they didn't understand Isaiah 11:1-2, that Mashiyach has the Ruach haKodesh (another name for YHWH - Psalm 51:1-11, Isaiah 63:1-11) within him. YHWH spoke through the Spirit of Mashiyach, rather than through his human component! Y'shua maintained that his nefesh (soul) would die, but that YHWH would resurrect it! Y'shua believed his own nefesh was mortal. Zechariah 12:10 the Spirit of YHWH is "pierced" but they mourn for him (Y'shua) as an only begotten son. YHWH cannot literally be "pierced"; there, this refers to Mashiyach who has the Spirit of YHWH in him. The matter of the Father raising the dead is confirmed in verse 21, but we also see in this verse that the Son takes on the role of His Father as His Firstborn, for both Resurrection Power and Judgment.


Another fact that is certainly surprising to many Christians is that the Hebrew Bible never speaks about ‘believing’ in the messiah. There is no commandment anywhere that declares salvation to be dependent on ‘believing’ in the messiah and since Christian theology typically claims that the New Testament explains prophecies found in the Old Testament (the Hebrew scriptures), this point is extremely crucial. In addition, there is also no commandment anywhere that enjoins us to know the identity of the messiah before he appears on the scene.

Let me explain it this way.

No one today ‘believes’ that Ariel Sharon is Prime Minister of Israel. They know he is. It is a verifiable fact; it is not an article of faith.

In the same way, ‘the’ messiah will be recognized and verified when the biblical conditions are met which testify to his presence on the earth. It will be a historical and observable reality that under his leadership, the world will be at peace, the Temple will be rebuilt, the Jewish people will be gathered to their homeland, all men everywhere will believe in the true G-d and all idolatry will be swept away. This is precisely why the Jewish people reject Jesus/Yeshua as ‘the’ messiah. He never reigned as king; the world was not at peace during his lifetime; the Jewish people were not gathered to their homeland; and though the Temple stood at that time, it was destroyed a few decades afterward as Rome trampled down Jerusalem. Therefore, he was not ‘the’ messiah according to the Hebrew scriptures.

Christian evangelicals will quickly resort to the argument that Jesus/Yeshua will accomplish these things at his second coming. However, there is no basis whatsoever in the Hebrew scriptures for the concept that ‘the’ messiah appears once, dies in ignominy and then returns to fulfill the conditions which will merit his acceptance as ‘the’ messiah. It’s simply not in the text anywhere. From the perspective of the Hebrew scriptures, the theory of a second coming is precisely that – a theory. In addition, the second coming theory adds no credibility to a first coming.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

Today's Jews have never SEEN YHWH, either, yet they BELIEVE in Him! So, what's the difference? Adam and Eve saw Him; Moshe (Moses) and the Israelites he brought out of Egypt experienced God's power and were able to view Him as a pillar of cloud and of fire, but they never actually saw HIM! Yet, they BELIEVED!

Since traditional Jews "believe" in YHWH and His prophets, then they also "believe" in the vision of Ezekiel, specifically Ezekiel 1:26-29 which says:

26 Above the dome that was over their heads was something like a throne that looked like a sapphire. On it, above it, was what appeared to be a person. 27 I saw what looked like gleaming, amber-colored fire radiating from what appeared to be his waist upward. Downward from what appeared to be his waist, I saw what looked like fire, giving a brilliant light all around him. 28 This brilliance around him looked like a rainbow on a cloud on a rainy day. This was how the appearance of the glory of ADONAI looked. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of someone speaking.

Ezekiel 2 then continues with Ezekiel's vision: 1 He said to me, "Human being! Stand up! I want to speak with you!" 2 As he spoke to me, a spirit entered me and put me on my feet, and I heard him who was speaking to me.

Imagine that: God, looking very much like a "person"! For more information, please see our article, The Uncertainty Principle.

Perhaps the Hebrew Bible doesn't per se speak of "'believing’ in the messiah" but John 3 certainly does - And since the Brit Chadashah (New Testament) is a continuation of God's Word since it contains His promised New Covenant in Messiah, we MUST adhere to it!

John 3: 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only and unique Son, so that everyone who trusts (some versions say "believe") in him may have eternal life, instead of being utterly destroyed. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but rather so that through him, the world might be saved. 18 Those who trust in him are not judged; those who do not trust have been judged already, in that they have no trusted in the one who is God's only and unique Son.

Christians and Messianic believers don't have to "believe" in Yeshua, either; they KNOW He is Messiah from the moment they "believe" because of the changes He has brought into their lives. "Believers" change from the inside out, and they instantly KNOW that God is Truth, Yeshua is the Messiah, and they are destined to spend eternity with Him.

Leah's assertion is a typical example of someone CHOOSING to ignore God and remain blind to His Truth. Anyone who truly knows the Bible and trusts God to keep His promises, will "believe" that Yeshua is the promised Messiah. Why? Because He has already fulfilled MOST of the Biblical prophecies, with the promise to return again to fulfill the REST of them in God's perfect timing! (See Challenging the Torah Experts.)

Let's discuss THE ODDS of so many prophecies being filled by one Person:

By investigating the Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, we find that hundreds of prophecies were all fulfilled in the life of one individual — Yeshua of Nazareth!

Speaking of just eight key prophecies, Peter Stoner, a mathematician, points out, "We find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled eight of the prophecies is one in 100,000,000,000,000,000" (Science Speaks, Moody Press). And the probability of any one man fulfilling all of these hundreds of prophecies is a number too large to write down.

He also discussed the probabilities of just the 48 prophecies (in our article) being fulfilled in one person is the incredible number 10^157!


Specific Issues Regarding the Identity of the Messiah

There are a number of claims the Christian apologists and evangelists make in order to present their case that Jesus/Yeshua is the long awaited messiah of Israel. What we must understand, however, is that making claims is easy. The real question is this: Are the claims true?

Residents of Jerusalem today routinely run into a large variety of people who walk the streets of Jerusalem claiming they are the messiah, or King David or one of the prophets, including Elijah himself. The fact that they claim such identities does not make them truly the people they claim to be.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

When one actually fulfills ALL the prophecies that Yeshua fulfilled, and has ALL the qualifications that Yeshua had, THEN he can usurp the title of Messiah!


In Malachi 3, it is written that Elijah the prophet will appear before the coming of the messiah. The writers of the New Testament claim that John the Baptist was the Elijah who was to come.

Consider what John said about himself.

In the gospel of John, chapter 1, John the Baptist categorically denies being Elijah. Christian commentators try to get around his statement by saying that he came ‘in the spirit’ of Elijah. However, that is not what the Bible says. There is no promise that one would come ‘in the spirit of Elijah’ but the promise is that Elijah himself would appear. John claimed no association whatsoever with Elijah nor did he fulfill what Malachi prophesied would happen when Elijah does appear.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

It seems you are misinterpreting what the Bible says. Yeshua said that Elijah and all the prophets before John (and including John), were the "spokesmen of God" and that the "spirit of prophecy" is Yeshua, and that they had killed and rejected all of the previous prophets, foretelling of the coming of the Messiah as the Lamb of God, and the Pharisees had rejected them all. John the Baptist knew that the first coming of Messiah would be as the Lamb of God, but that there would be an end days – where Elijah would return again right before the Day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5-6).

Traditional Jews keep misinterpreting the two comings of Messiah in Scripture. Both are preceded by the "spirit of prophecy" – represented by Elijah. The rabbis were looking for the coming of Messiah as the King who would judge the world and destroy Israel’s enemies, but this doesn’t happen until Yeshua returns the second time, so they errantly misinterpret the passages quoted below because they are viewing them "out of context".

In John 1:19-23, John the Baptist is representing himself exactly as such, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: make straight the way of the Lord." (IS 40:3) The Pharisees were astounded when John the Baptist came on the scene because they were sadly aware that the Voice of God through the prophets had been taken away over the last 400 years. Look at Amos 8:11-12 "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it."

Why did God send a famine of His Word upon the land? One would think that any Torah teacher would surely know his own books in the Tanach, but this is obviously not the case with these modern day Pharisees, as it was in the days of Yeshua. God revised His covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah because of their great apostasy and rebellion against God, because they had broken their covenant with God, and this is what Amos 8:11-12 speaks to. You never see these so-called Torah teachers of today acknowledge these things, because it would mean they would have to repent, which in turn means they would have to confess their depravity and the need for a Savior to be an atoning sacrifice in their place (the Lamb of God), because they can never reach God on their on merit! This is the essence of the Gospel and this is precisely what the Pharisees of old and of today refuse to accept.

This is what John the Baptist was trying to get them to do: REPENT. Look at Matthew 3:7-11 "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducess coming to his baptism, he said to them, brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worth of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." John was trying to get the religious leaders to repent, but the voice of prophecy that spoke through him knew they wouldn’t repent, this is why John called them a "brood of vipers", the same language Yeshua would use against them later (Matthew 12:34).

So where did that leave mankind? One could say mankind was "up the creek without a paddle." The Pharisees of Yeshua’s day could not even recognize their own poverty of spirit, that they had reject the Voice of God – His prophets so many times that He took His Voice away. What was the cause of the Diaspora in the 7th Century B.C? Ten of the 12 Tribes would be totally carried off and swallowed up into the gentile nations. Look at the Babylonian captivity of Judah. However, God would preserve a faithful remnant to himself. God did something that totally blew the mind of all creation; He would restore His Covenant with His people through His own Son – Yeshua. Mankind had blown it, so God had to provide the sacrificial Lamb as He had foreshadowed with Abraham being tested by God to offer his son as a sacrifice to God.

In Matthew 17:11-12, "Jesus answered them and said to them, Indeed Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands." Jesus is speaking of two comings of Elijah, the first would precede the coming of the suffering Messiah (IS 58 and Psalm 22), and the second would precede the righteous judge who would judge the world and set up His Kingdom with power (Zechariah 14). In Matthew 17, verse 11, Jesus speaks of Elijah coming in the future tense, who correlates to Malachi 4:5-6. Then in verse 12, He speaks of Elijah having come already, in reference to John the Baptist, but Jesus is speaking in regard to the "voice of prophecy". Jesus is trying to point out in verse 12, that the Prophet Elijah, the "voice of prophecy" already came, and it culminated in final fulfillment with John the Baptist, who the religious leaders rejected as they had all of God’s previous prophets, who foretold the coming of the "suffering Messiah".

In John 1:21, John simply records the response of John the Baptist to the Pharisees: "And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the Prophet? And he answered, no." The Pharisees were asking John the Baptist if he was the Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6, and John the Baptist correctly answered them and stated that he was not. Then in verse 22, the Pharisees probed further: "Then they said to him, who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" He answers them in verse 23 with, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said." John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt (the belt just as Elijah is described in 2 Kings 1:8). John the Baptist had been given Elijah’s mantel just as Elijah had given it to Elisha, and so it was passed down to the Lord’s last prophet prior to the coming of the suffering Messiah. John the Baptist represented the culmination of the first coming of Elijah.

Furthermore, the religious leaders of Jesus' time were looking for the fulfillment of Malachi 3:1 "Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, says the Lord of hosts."; and Malachi 4:5-6 as speaking to the same Elijah, but in fact Malachi 3:1 speaks to all of the prophets up until Yeshua, and Malachi 4:5-6 speaks of the "spirit of prophecy" up until Elijah returns in bodily form prior to the great and terrible day of the Lord following the Abomination that causes Desolation spoken of in Daniel and Revelation.

The Pharisees miss the distinction between the two comings of Elijah, just as they missed the distinction between the "suffering Messiah", and the "judging Messiah". So the Pharisees misinterpret this and claim that the writings of John contradict Matthew. This is nonsense.

So if the modern day Pharisees refuse to acknowledge the prophecy already given to them in IS 53 and Psalm 22, and others, about the "suffering Messiah" who makes atonement for mankind’s sin, then they will never correctly interpret the above passages.

If they acknowledged the "suffering Messiah", then they would look at the rest of John 1, where John the Baptist calls Yeshua "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29, or that he saw "the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him." John 1:32, or that Yeshua is "He who will baptizes with the Holy Spirit." John 1:33. And they therefore are blinded to the connection to Joel 2:28 "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days."


Another problem arises when we examine the lineage of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the gospels against the Scriptural decree that ‘the’ messiah must be a descendant of King David.

The gospels contain two genealogies which attempt to prove that Jesus/Yeshua is qualified to be recognized as ‘the’ messiah. In the genealogy found in the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel, the lineage of Joseph, the husband of Mary, is traced. The first and obvious problem with this ‘proof’ is that Christian theology contradicts itself by then saying that Joseph was not the father of Jesus but that he was the product of a virgin birth. If that were true, then why bother with the genealogy at all? It’s pointless.

Ah, but the apologist hastens to argue, Joseph’s lineage is passed to Jesus by adoption! Not so. There is no indication whatsoever that biblically speaking, tribal lineage can be passed by adoption. If a Levite, for instance, has a son, that son is a Levite. However, if he adopts a boy who is not his natural son, the adopted boy is not a Levite.

But to make the point even more strongly, even if you could pass the tribal lineage through adoption, there is still a major problem with Joseph’s genealogy. The writers of Matthew, in attempting to qualify Jesus, actually disqualified him for the following reason.

Joseph is listed as a descendant of David through a king named Jeconiah. If you turn to Jeremiah 22, you discover that Jeconiah, also called Coniah, is cursed by G-d for his rebellious ways. G-d specifically says that not one of Jeconiah’s descendants shall ever sit on the throne of David. Therefore, neither Joseph nor any of his progeny could ever qualify as King Messiah so the apologist who insists on Jesus being the legal son of Joseph, by his very insistence disqualifies the one whose identity he is trying to prove.

Is the genealogy of Luke any more helpful?

In II Samuel 7 and in I Chronicles 17, we read that the kingly line of David is to be passed down through his son, Solomon. Descendants of David’s other sons do not qualify for the throne of Israel. In Luke’s genealogy, the lineage is listed as coming down through David’s son, Nathan, instead of through Solomon. In addition, two other kings are mentioned in Luke’s genealogy, Shealtiel and Zerubabel, both of whom are descendants of the cursed king, Jeconiah. Their names only further disqualify Jesus/Yeshua as a legal descendant of King David for messianic purposes.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

For an indepth study on this particular subject, please see former anti-missionary Andrew Gabriel Roth's Ruach Qadim: The Gowra.


According to the Bible, adoption in Biblical times WAS an accepted practice. Please read the following from The New Unger's Bible Dictionary:

ADOPTION:

Greek: huiothesia, the "placing" as a "son". The admission of a person to some or all of the privileges of natural kinship. As the practice of adoption was confined almost exclusively to sons - the case of Esther being an exception - it probably had its origin in the natural desire for male offspring. This would be especially true where force, rather than well-observed laws, decided the possession of estates.

Hebrew: Abraham speaks of Eliezer (Gen 15:3), a house-born slave, as his heir, having probably adopted him as his son. Jacob adopted his grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh, and counted them as his sons (48:6), thus enabling him to bestow through them a double portion upon his favorite son, Joseph. Sometimes a man without a son would marry his daughter to a freed slave, the children then being accounted her father's; or the husband himself would be adopted as a son (1 Chron 2:34). Most of the early instances of adoption mentioned in the Bible were the acts of women who, because of barrenness, gave their female slaves to their husbands with the intention of adopting any children they might have. Thus Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham, and the son (Ishmael) was considered the child of Abraham and Sarah (Gen 16:1-15). The childless Rachel gave her maid, Bilhah, to her husband (30:1-7) and was imitated by Leah (30:9-13). In such cases the sons were regarded as fully equal in the right of heritage with those by the legitimate wife. (From The New Unger's Bible Dictionary. Originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois. Copyright (c) 1988.)

ADOPTION: The taking of one as a son who is not so by birth. (I) Natural: As Pharaoh's daughter adopted Moses; Mordecai Esther; Abraham Eliezer (as a slave is often in the East adopted as son) (Gen 15:2-3); Sarai the son to be born by Hagar, whom she gave to her husband; Leah and Rachel the children to be born of Zilpah and Bilhah, their handmaids respectively, whom they gave to Jacob their husband. The handmaid at the birth brought forth the child on the knees of the adoptive mother (Gen 30:3); an act representative of the complete appropriation of the sons as equal in rights to those by the legitimate wife. Jacob adopted as his own Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, on the same footing as Reuben and Simeon, his two elder sons (Gen 48:5). Thereby he was able to give Joseph his favorite son more than his single share, with his brothers, of the paternal heritage. The tribes thus were 13, only that Levi had no land division; or Ephraim and Manasseh were regarded as two halves making up but one whole tribe. In 1 Chron 2 Machir gives his daughter to Hezron of Judah; she bore Segub, father of Jair. Jair inherited 23 cities of Gilead in right of his grandmother. Though of Judah by his grandfather, he is (Num 32:41) counted as of Manasseh on account of his inheritance through his grandmother. So Mary, being daughter of Heli, and Joseph her husband being adopted by him on marrying his daughter, an heiress (as appears from her going to Bethlehem to be registered in her pregnancy), Joseph is called in Luke's genealogy son of Heli. (From Fausset's Bible Dictionary, Electronic Database Copyright (c)1998 by Biblesoft)

As for the genealogy of Jeconiah, please see: The Curse of Jeconiah.

AND CHECK THIS OUT:

Mary should be disqualified to transfer the rights of her lineage to her son Yeshua - except for a little known exception to the rule....

In Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38 we are presented with two genealogies of Yeshua. On the surface these different listings would appear to be a contradiction in the scriptures. The genealogy found in Matthew's gospel is the lineage of Jesus' earthly father Joseph, while the genealogy found in Luke's gospel is the lineage of Yeshua's mother Mary. However, many of the people that teach on the genealogies fail to realize or address a major problem associated with the genealogical listing found in Luke's gospel, the lineage of Mary. Once you have established that the line is indeed Mary's you must deal with a second difficulty. The rights of the line are not passed through the mother, only the father. Even though Mary, through her lineage, was of the Davidic bloodline, she should be excluded from being able to pass those rights of the bloodline because of being a female (Deut 21:16). So it is not enough to prove that Mary was an unblemished descendant of David, she had to be a male to transfer the rights. Therefore she would be disqualified to transfer the rights to her son Yeshua, except for a little known exception to the rule.

HOWEVER - In Numbers 26 we are introduced to Zelophehad. Zelophehad, we are told, had no sons, only daughters. In Numbers 27, following the death of Zelophehad, the daughters of Zelophehad came before Moses and argued their plight. Because their father had died with no sons, all of their rights of inheritance were to be lost and they felt this was unfair. So Moses prayed to God and God gave Moses an exception to the rule. The Lord told Moses that the inheritance CAN flow through a female, IF they fulfill two requirements. There must be no male offspring in the family (Num 27:8) and if the female offspring should marry, they must marry within their own tribe (Num 36:6).

Now we come back to Mary. On the surface she should be unable to transfer the rights to her Son. But when you research you find that Mary had NO brothers, AND Mary did indeed marry within her own tribe to Joseph. What an awesome God we serve that set in order the requirements to allow the virgin birth to take place 1,400 years in advance! (From: The Lineage Loophole by Phil Luna.)


What about the miracles?

Many evangelists have raised the issue of the miracles attributed to Jesus/Yeshua as proof of his messiah-ship. This is also problematic for by this standard, everyone who ever worked a miracle could claim the title of messiah. Elijah and Elisha performed miracles in the Hebrew scriptures, as did Moses.

And what about Pharaoh’s magicians who replicated some of the miracles which Moses performed? Are they to be considered suitable candidates for the title of messiah?

Messianic Judaism's Response:

Were Moses, Elijah and Elisha born of an alma? Were they all born in Jerusalem? Did they ride into Yerushalayim on a donkey at the appointed time? Did they walk on water, cure the blind, raise people from the dead or change history like Yeshua did?

As for Pharoah's magicians - Did they replicate the Ten Plagues of Egypt including the death of the firstborns? Did they part the Red Sea and feed millions of Israelites for forty years? Were their "replications" responsible in any way for the first "Passover"?


The only record available of the miracles attributed to Jesus/Yeshua is the New Testament. There are no historical resources that corroborate these accounts and the writers of the New Testament openly acknowledge their motive in writing these reports: "...that you might know (or be convinced)...." In other words, the gospels were written with an agenda – hardly an unbiased source of information.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

One could say the same thing about the Tanach! Unless you BELIEVE in God, and you BELIEVE everything the Tanach says, it's just another book of fables. The Bible tells us there were at least 500 witnesses who saw Yeshua after He died. NOBODY in the history of the world has affected the world as much as Yeshua has. The following well known anonymous composition of the nineteenth century beautifully demonstrates the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World:

One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn’t go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself.

He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.

While He was dying, His executioners gambled for His garments, the only property he had on earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen centuries have come and gone, and today He is the central figure of the human race.

All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life.


As for Pharoah's magicians - Did they replicate the Ten Plagues of Egypt including the death of the firstborns? Did they part the Red Sea and feed millions of Israelites for forty years?


Critical to this discussion regarding miracles is Deuteronomy 13 in which Moses warns the children of Israel: Be careful to observe only that which I enjoin upon you: neither add to it nor take away from it. If there appears among you a prophet or a dream-diviner and he gives you a sign or a portent, saying, "Let us follow and worship another god" -- whom you have not experienced -- even if the sign or portent that he named to you comes true, do not heed the words of that prophet or that dream-diviner. For the Lord your God is testing you to see whether you really love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. Follow none but the Lord your God, and revere none but Him; observe His commandments alone, and heed only His orders; worship none but Him, and hold fast to Him.

In this passage, Moses warns the people that in time to come, G-d himself will allow to arise within Israel some who would work signs and wonders to test the people’s loyalty to the one true G-d. If the signs and wonders caused them to follow after ‘another god’ – the worker of the miracles – they would fail the test. The commandment is clear: follow the Lord your G-d alone! The King of the Universe, the Almighty, the Everlasting One, the Father is G-d alone.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

Yes, He is! He is an "Echad" (plural form of "one"). Traditional Jews like to dispute this fact by saying that, these days, Echad is used to mean "one", period. Maybe so, but back in OT times, Echad was used for the plural form of one (such as one DOZEN eggs), and Yachid was used to mean one unit/singular, such as "one" egg. In the entire Bible, you won't find ONE instance where God refers to Himself, or is ever referred to as "Yachid". He is ECHAD. Not only that, but the name "Elohim" (meaning Powerful and Mighty) is used in Genesis regarding Creation - and it is the plural form of the Hebrew word "Eloha". In several places in the Old Testament, God refers to Himself as "we" or "us". Why is that? See Who is the US God Refers to in the Bible?


It’s worth noting that for the above reasons, the Bible never tells us that we will be able to identify the Messiah by the miracles that he will perform. Matthew 24:24.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

Funny that traditional Jews like to quote from the New Testament whenever they think it proves THEIR point! Question is: DOES it prove their point? Matthew 24:4 says: Yeshua replied: "Watch out! Don't let anyone fool you! And goes on to say, 5 For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Messiah!' and they will lead many astray...."

God gave us PLENTY of signs, as mentioned above, to let us know what we were to look for in Messiah. And Yeshua fulfilled most of them while He walked the earth, and will fulfill the REST when He returns. All has been, and will CONTINUE to be, EXACTLY in GOD'S timing!


Surely the Resurrection proves he is the messiah?

The four gospels give four distinctly different reports on this event considered a cornerstone of Christian faith. To explain the confusion, theologians have likened the differing reports to that of four people who witness a traffic accident and tell the story they way they individually saw it. The problem with this explanation is that none of the gospel writers were “eye witnesses”. It has been conclusively shown that the gospels were not written by the disciples, but by men who wrote many years later, decades after the alleged events were said to take place.

Neither Josephus nor Philo, both recognized historians of the first century, make any reference whatsoever in their works to an event that would have been quite noteworthy in first century Jerusalem. Only later "Christian editions" of the works of Josephus have included a report of the resurrection but it is highly suspicious for it is not found in any of his original works.

Take a look at the following and it will be abundantly clear why Jewish people - as well as other serious students of the Bible - have difficulty believing in the integrity of the New Testament.

In reporting the resurrection, each of the four gospels gives a completely different account.

1) Who first approached the empty tomb?

John says it was Mary Magdalene; Matthew says it was Mary Magdalene and the other woman named Mary; Mark says it was the two Marys and Salome and Luke says it was the two Marys and Joanna. So who was it really?

2) Who did they first see when they came to the tomb?

Matthew says they saw an angel sitting outside the tomb; Luke says they saw two men sitting inside the tomb; Mark says they saw one man sitting inside the Tomb and John says they saw no one at all. So what did they really see?

3) Who first told Mary Magdalene about the resurrection?

Matthew says it was an angel; Mark says it was a man; Luke says it was two men; John says it was Jesus himself.

4) To whom did Jesus first appear?

Matthew says to a joy-filled Mary Magdalene on the road; John says it was to a grief-stricken Mary in the tomb itself. Which was it?

5) What did the women do when they were informed that Jesus had risen?

Mark says they kept the news to themselves out of fear; Luke and Matthew say they rushed to inform the disciples. John doesn’t say. So who has it right?

6) To whom does Jesus first reveal himself as risen?

Matthew and Mark say it was to the 11 disciples in the Galilee; Luke says to the 11 disciples in Jerusalem and John says it was to the 10 disciples in Jerusalem.

One is left to ask: what really did happen back then?

In Matthew, chapter 12, Jesus promised the Pharisees that he would give them a sign of who he was. Certainly to fulfill the promise he had made, one could expect that he would have visited them after the resurrection. However, there is no record that he ever appeared to the Sanhedrin or to the same Pharisees after the resurrection to prove his claim before the Rabbinic authorities which he himself told his disciples to honor. (Matt. 23:1-2)

Christian theology claims that the New Testament is the infallible and inspired Word of G-d. It is the conviction of the Jewish people – as well as other serious students of the Bible - that G-d would hardly make such mistakes. With regard to the resurrection, for the above stated reasons, Jewish people view the story of the resurrection as just that – a story invented by the followers of Jesus to explain away his embarrassing death at the hands of the Romans and to provide cause for believing in a second coming. In this regard, a carefully guarded but historically accurate quote from Pope Leo X strengthens the Jewish position: 'It is well known how profitable this fable of Christ has been to us.'"

Messianic Judaism's Response:

Those who know their Bibles know, without a doubt, that the Gospels do NOT in any way negate each other and are a perfect record to show mankind the TRUTH! Please read the Eight Factors one should consider when evaluating the accuracy and credibility of the New Testament.


Is the New Testament a fulfillment of the Hebrew scriptures?

A frequent approach taken in Christian evangelization of the Jews is that the New Testament bases all of its theology on the Hebrew Bible. Therefore, for a Jew to accept the New Testament as scripture and its central figure, Jesus, as Messiah, is in fact a very "Jewish" thing to do.

Missionaries tell Jews that the Hebrew bible contains hundreds of references to Jesus/Yeshua.

We’ve already seen that the term ‘the Messiah’ never appears in the Hebrew Bible but that the future Ruler to come who will rule Israel during a time of world peace and prosperity is described as ‘the Messiah’ in Judaism. As a king he is anointed and as he is the special one to come in the future, Jews call him ‘the’ messiah.

How then can the Christian missionary be so sure that his 300+ verses, normally employed to convince a Jew that Jesus/Yeshua was the messiah, actually refer to the rabbi from Nazareth? One missionary commented that in fact, it was not certain that any one of those references normally used conclusively pointed to Jesus/Yeshua, but that by putting them all together, a picture emerged. However, 300 x 0 = 0. One cannot pull together weak and inconclusive verses and expect to have a solid revelation emerge. A lot of weak evidence put together doesn’t produce strong evidence, but simply a collection of weak evidences. One commentator suggested that Christian apologetics makes use of the Hebrew bible like a drunken man makes use of a lamp post; not for illumination but for support. Christian theologians do not approach the Hebrew Bible to truly study it for what it says. They approach it with the distinct purpose of finding proof for their pre-conceived opinions or doctrines. If the approach is wrong, the answers will be wrong. It’s that simple.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

NOTHING was "preconceived". In case you've forgotten the "odds": Hundreds of prophecies were all fulfilled in the life of one individual — Yeshua of Nazareth; the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled eight of the prophecies is one in 100,000,000,000,000,000"; and the probability of any one man fulfilling all of these hundreds of prophecies is a number too large to write down. Even the probabilities of Yeshua's fulfilling just the mentioned 48 prophecies in The Refiner's Fire's article, is the incredible number 10^157!


As we continue to research, we find many problems.

For instance, we discover through a careful reading of the New Testament that the writers at times actually invented phrases and attributed an old Testament reference to them for the purpose of persuading the reader to believe. This is the case in Matthew 2 where the writer reports that on the return of the small family from Egypt, Jesus and his family settled in Nazareth to fulfill a prophecy from the Hebrew bible: "He shall be called a Nazarene." If you search the entire Hebrew bible, you will find no such verse anywhere. The city of Nazareth is not even mentioned. This is a verse completely manufactured to prove a pre-conceived point.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

See response by Pastor David Reagan.


In the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, a passage is quoted from the Psalms which is claimed to prove that G-d intended to sacrifice the messiah. "Sacrifice and offering you have not desired; but a body you have prepared for me," is referenced as coming from Psalm 40:7 and we are told that this describes Jesus/Yeshua. However if you take a moment to check, you will find that Psalm 40:7 actually says, "Sacrifice and meal offering you have no delight in; my ears you have opened, burnt offering and sin offering you have not required." Quite different, to say the least. In the Hebrew bible there is no mention of a body being prepared.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

Care to provide which VERSION you got this from? Our version (Stern's Complete Jewish Bible) says NOTHING about a "body"...Our says the same as YOUR version, so what are you trying to prove?

....Richmond's/Rafaeli's article cites several more allegations against Messianic Jews and Christians but, for the sake of space (and the reader's tired eyes!), we have decided to ignore the rest for now. As you can see from our responses above, traditional Judaism doesn't have a leg to stand on in their efforts to debunk Yeshua and the NT. If anyone is interested, please write to The Refiner's Fire for the rest of "Leah's" allegations and we will be happy to respond. For now, we will end with their final words and our response:


To answer the very question posed at the beginning of this article, "Why don’t the Jews accept Jesus/Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah?" serious students of the Bible and of history are discovering that contrary to their former ideas, lo and behold, the Jews do have sound biblical foundation for their position.

Why do the Jewish people reject Jesus/Yeshua as the messiah? It’s very simple: he did not fulfill the biblical criteria. Admittedly the full scope of the issue is not so simple. Volumes can – and have – been written on the topic, far surpassing the insights offered in this brief article.

What must be noted here however is that the Jewish decision to reject Jesus/Yeshua as ‘the’ messiah is a sound and thoughtful biblical decision. To describe it in any other way is an injustice to the integrity and historical scholarship of the Jewish people.

Messianic Judaism's Response:

As you can see from the above, Messianic Jews and Gentiles can easily disprove and challenge all and any allegations the traditional Jews can throw at us. The bottom line is, they CHOOSE to disregard the Word of God and follow MAN'S ideas and limited mindset! The Bible speaks for itself. If traditional Jews don't to accept Yeshua, they can explain their reasoning to God on Judgment Day....

Matthew 7:15 - "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Matthew 24:24 - "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.

1 John 4:1 - Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.