What do Jewish people think about Jesus?

It seems they had never believed this. The great stumbling block with the Jew is yet, "He made Himself God." Again and again we are being asked by them, "Can God have a Son?" Many of the Jews acknowledge Jesus today as a reformer and a good man, but never as Son of God. They will know Him when He comes, and the nation will fall at His pierced feet and worship Him as the King and Son of the Living God.

The tenth and eleventh verses show clearly that the prophecy is yet to be fulfilled and can be only fulfilled in the coming of the Son of Man in His glory. One of the reasons why modern Judaism rejects Jesus of Nazareth, and does not believe Him to be the promised Redeemer, is in this prophecy. Rabbi F. De Sola Mendes, of New York, brings in a little book, "A Hebrew's Reply to the Missionaries," the following argument: "We reject Jesus of Nazareth as our Messiah on account of His deeds. He says of Himself, 'Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace but a sword,' etc. But we find that our prophets ascribed to the true Messiah quite different actions. Zechariah says (9:10), He shall speak peace to the nations. Jesus says He came to send the sword on the earth; whereas, Isaiah says of the true Messianic time, 'They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.'"

We give but one illustration of this fact. Jews deny that the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is a Messianic prophecy; the servant of Jehovah is explained to mean the nation Israel and not the Christ of God. This infidel view is held today by many preachers and teachers in various evangelical denominations, in spite of the fact that the New Testament tells us that it is Christ of whom Isaiah spoke. Rejecting Isaiah 7:14, the prophecy concerning the virgin birth, they reject the virgin birth itself, and brazenly utter the greatest blasphemy which human lips can utter, that Christ was born like any other man. They speak of Him as a great leader and teacher, as having divinity in Himself, in a degree higher than found in the rest of the race. His absolute deity is not believed; that He is the propitiation for sins is sneered at, that He will ever appear again in His glorified humanity in a second visible and glorious manifestation is ridiculed.

As to the fact, there are testimonies not only in the famous passage in Josephus, but Celsus does not attempt to deny them, but attributes them to magic learned in Egypt, and the Jews said He got into the temple and stole the Shem hammaphoresh, the ineffable name, hiding it in his thigh, and wrought them by it. But all this is nothing compared to God's revelation of Himself.

[*These testimonies are of comparatively late date. They are in the Gemaras, not the Mishna; but this rather confirms the truth. If we receive the Christian records, the Jews were forced to own notable undeniable miracles done before the eyes of the multitude. Comparatively speaking, contemporary hostile accounts are silent on the subject (I speak of Jewish doctors), and later ones do not dream of denying them, admit the facts, and attribute them to magic. Celsus (a heathen author, who lived some fifty years after St. John, as quoted by Origen) does not deny the miracles, but ascribes them also to magic. The Talmudists speak of instantaneous cures wrought by the name of Jesus. The passages are quoted by all the authors and commentators who have treated this subject at any length. Lightfoot is the usual book of reference for the English reader.]

But here we must say a word as to Chapter 53. It is the despair of the Jewish expositors. It so plainly prophesies a suffering Messiah to come, whereas the Jewish nation waited for a mighty conquering Messiah, who would lift their little nation to the topmost place among the nations of the world. Their outlook was material and carnal. So hard put to it were Jewish expositors to explain away this Scripture, that when the prophecy of Isaiah was being read Sabbath by Sabbath, the minister would read Isaiah 52 one Sabbath, and the succeeding Sabbath he would read Isaiah 54, thus ignoring altogether Isaiah 53. We consider there can be no greater compliment paid to the plain surface meaning of this chapter than this omission.

Isaiah also wrote, seven centuries before the death of Christ, a full and exhaustive prophecy as to that great event. The Jews were willing to have a glorious triumphant Messiah, who should put their little nation at the head of all the nations, and set up a world-wide dominion, a condition of things that their carnal flesh could glory in. They could not and would not entertain the thought of a suffering Messiah. Chapter 53 presents this so vividly that there is no mistaking its meaning. It is the despair of the Jewish theologians, of the rabbis of their synagogues. Their only way out of the difficulty is to ignore it. So when they read consecutively in their roll of the Scriptures, they read Isaiah 52, and then pass on to chapter 54, and ignore chapter 53. But it cannot be ignored, as they will find out in due course to their sorrow.

The Jews refuse a suffering Messiah and with carnal expectation look for One who shall restore the land of Israel to a position of glory and supremacy. They look for a Messiah with military genius and brilliant statesmanship. They do not look for the meek inheriting the earth. They do not realise that the sufferings of Christ of necessity must precede the glory of the Kingdom. The crown of thorns must come before the crown of glory.

Judaism then is insufficient to supply even the first need of a soul awakened to feel the burden of its sins. The Jew must either stifle his conscience by denying that he has sins, or abandon the law of Jehovah by pretending to an atonement for his soul without blood. Thus the modern Jew really gives up the hopes and promises of his forefathers. He looks for no daysman, he trusts in no kinsman-redeemer, he requires no intercession, but, like any other unbeliever, he pretends to have direct access to God Himself. And no wonder; for they have refused in unbelief their own Messiah, who, though God over all blessed for ever, came in flesh to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. How then can you any longer say that yours was the religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Moses, Elijah, and Daniel? (p. 8) You say, "Regard with religious awe our preservation and the preservation of our religion! Seek not to disturb it! Honour the religion of the Jew, if only because it was the religion of Jesus, whom you claim as the Founder of your religion." But as well might one be told to regard with religious awe Lot's wife when she became a pillar of salt. Doubtless the Messiah was born of the virgin, and of David's house; but how can one honour the religion of those who all cried, "Not this man, but Barabbas." … "We have no king but Caesar"? The truth is that the law for sinful man is but a cavern, however magnificent, of darkness and death till Messiah (in hope or actual accomplishment) bring in light and life: then only is all lit up with a brightness which bespeaks itself divine.

To a Jewish mind, the thought of the Messiah going to the cross would be abhorrent. Their idea of bringing the kingdom in was more by power and glory, not by going to a cross.