SELECTIVE INTERPRETATIONS OF PROPHECY
The way we see it, there are three categories of prophecy regarding the Messiah.

It is not surprising that Jews and Christians are selective about the scriptures that they consider valid. For each religion, the valid scriptures must be in agreement with other theologies on which the religion is built or else there would be serious disconnects in the fabric of the religion. But such disconnects do exist because all people do not interpret the Bible the same way. And this happens because they interpret it literally and not symbolically.

Because of these literal interpretations, generations of Jewish scholars have adopted the following expectations about the signs that would indicate the real Messiah:

Based on these scriptures and their literal interpretations, Jews expect that the Messiah will have these qualities:

With these expectations in mind, Jews have been fooled several times during the past two thousand years into thinking that the Messiah had actually come. Having been fooled is perhaps one reason why they are especially suspicious about anyone who might claim to be the Messiah. Given this history, most Jews cannot accept Jesus of the New Testament as the Messiah. The signs that were expected were not fulfilled nor did Jesus embody the qualifications they expected. For Jews, the Messiah has not yet come. And when he does come, he will not look like Jesus.

That opinion, of course, places Jews in direct opposition to the beliefs of Christians who have no doubt that Jesus was the predicted Messiah. This opposition exists, in part, because the Messianic prophesies Christians consider do not fully agree with the prophesies Jews consider when framing their expectations about the Messiah.

One belief that Jews and Christians share, however, is in one, unique messiah. They do not understand that everyone God anoints and sends to speak for him is a messiah. That means there are actually many messiahs — not just one. Bible characters identified as prophets, angels, high priests, witnesses and warriors are all messiahs because they speak for God. This is explained in Messiahs.

Aggregating all the prophecies that both Christians and Jews find relevant together, we should logically expect to have all that we need to learn about messiahs. And yet, we still have disagreement and controversy that exists between both religions, but also within the various religious subdivisions found in both Judaism and Christianity.

STUDY TIP: For the benefit of Christians, here is a link that begins to explain the Jewish view of the Messiah. Jews have pretty much made up their minds about Jesus based on what they have come to understand from Christian theologians, so there is no need at this point to try to summarize what the Christians believe to edify the Jews. Nevertheless, for purposes of review, here is a link that summarizes the Christian view of the Messiah.

For lack of agreement on an issue that is so fundamental to both religions, we must conclude that none of the theologies regarding the Messiah are accurate. If it is impossible to say that one is right and the other wrong, we can only conclude that they are both wrong. The only way to explain the differences is that in both religions understanding of the Messiah, like their understanding of God, is a creation of man’s mind based on rigid, literal interpretations of scripture. If the theology of the Messiah truly came from the Spirit of God, there would be no division. Either God is one, or he is not.

While there are many other significant differences between Judaism and Christianity, the expectations and perceptions about the Messiah are the biggest issues that separates the two religions. It is also interesting to note that these issues create division between Christians and Muslims, mainly because Muslims cannot accept that God as they know him had a son.