When someone tells you this Messianic Jewish movement didn’t start until the 20th century, you can smile.

Messianic Judaism is the oldest movement in Judaism, predating rabbinic

Judaism, and even predating Yeshua’s appearance on earth! Ever since Genesis Chapter 3, when

God promised “the seed of the woman” would crush Satan’s head, the world has looked for a

redeemer. God promised the world’s redeemer would come from the lineage of Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob—the founding fathers of the people known today as Jews. The idea of the Messiah has

been around since the book of Genesis. From the very beginning, Judaism was Messianic.

The biggest movement of Messianic Judaism, though, came after the building of the

Second Temple. This was when the Jewish people expected Messiah to come. And he did.

The “official” beginning of Messianic Judaism came almost two thousand years ago on a

day (known by much of the world today as Pentecost) when 120 Jewish disciples of the risen

Jesus came together to celebrate the Jewish festival of Shavuot. The Holy Spirit fell on them, and

they were filled with God’s presence and power. This was the birth of the first Messianic

congregation. Originally, these followers were called Natzarim (a reference to Jesus’s hometown

of Nazareth), Jews who believed in Jesus—they called him by his Hebrew name, Yeshua—as

their Messiah, Savior, and Lord. Messianic Jews. And throughout the book of Acts, they

numbered in the thousands!

The term “Christian” came from Greek (Gentile) followers of Yeshua, much later. We

don’t use this term very much. But Messianic Jews share the essential beliefs of Christianity. We

believe in:

 One God (Echad)

 The Lord Yeshua (Jesus) is our Messiah, Savior, and King.

 The Holy Spirit (in Hebrew, Ruach HaKodesh).

 Water baptism through immersion.

 The Second Coming of the Lord.

 We believe in the same Bible—both Old and New Testament, as a unified

whole.

“Christ” comes from “Cristos,” the Greek word for Messiah, so you can see the idea is

the same. At first, the belief in Yeshua was regarded as another Jewish sect, as Rabbi Sha’ul

(also known as the apostle Paul) said in Acts 24:14. But over the years, the Gentile believers and

the Jewish believers grew apart. In 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple in

Jerusalem along with the entire city, isolating the Jewish believers even more. By 135 AD, there

were only a few Jews in Judea; the rest had been scattered in the “Great Diaspora.” (This was

one reason Rabbi Sha’ul had warned the Gentiles, in Romans chapter 11, not to be

arrogant—because the Jews were still God’s chosen people.)

However, when Roman emperor Constantine—who didn’t like Jews—adopted

Christianity, he forbade any elements of Judaism. Up to then, Jewish believers still followed

Torah. But at the Council of Nicaea, circumcision was forbidden. The Sabbath was changed to

Sunday. Christianity divorced itself from its Jewish foundation, and Messianic Jewish believers

became fewer still. However, there have been Jewish believers throughout history … here are a

few:

 Hegesippus the Nazarene was a Jewish believer who wrote in around 150

AD. While most of his writings have been lost, church father Eusebius quotes him in his

own writings.

 Epiphanius of Salamis (320-403 AD) was a Jewish believer and author of

the book Panerion.

 Julian of Toledo was a Jewish believer in the 600s who became Primate of

Spain.

 Gregory Bar Hebraeus (1225-1286) was a Jewish believer who wrote

theology, philosophy, history, linguistics, and poetry.

 Joseph Frey, a Jewish believer in the early 1800s, began a Messianic

outreach to other Jews in England and America, publishing the first Yiddish New

Testament in 1821. Frey is largely credited with today’s Messianic movement.

 Dr. Carl Schwartz formed the London Hebrew Alliance of Great Britain in

1866.

 In Eastern Europe, Joseph Rabinowitz established a Hebrew Christian

mission in Kishinev, Bessarabia (now called Chisinau, Moldova), in 1884. This was the

first time a congregation called itself “Messianic Jews.”

Modern Messianic Judaism began as an offshoot of the “Jesus movement” of the 1960s

and 1970s. Modern Messianic Jews looked for a return to their Biblical foundation. Joy

Davidman (wife of C.S. Lewis) and Keith Green were a couple of famous Jewish believers.

Today, there are hundreds of thousands of Messianic Jewish believers around the world.

Somehow a belief has crept into Judaism that if a Jew accepts Yeshua as his Messiah and

Savior, he can no longer be Jewish. This is not only profoundly wrong; it is silly. If you were

born a Jew, you will die a Jew—regardless of your beliefs. Just as Jewish atheists are still Jews,

Messianic Jews are still Jews.

For many Jews, the two thousand years of Christianity created another wall—when

replacement theology (the unbiblical belief that the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people)

made it easy for people who called themselves Christians to persecute Jews. This feeling fed into

persecutions and killings, such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, the pogroms of Eastern Europe,

and of course the Holocaust. These times when Jews suffered and died because of the difference

in beliefs only widened the gap between Jews and Christians.

Jewish Messianic Congregation of Jacksonville emphasizes the things Messianic Jews

and Christians have in common. We believe, with Rabbi Sha’ul, that Yeshua destroyed the wall

of separation between Jews and non-Jews. We look for unity with other believers. At JMCJ, we

believe Yeshua is the bridge between humanity and God. We further believe in bridging the gap

not only between believing Jews and Gentiles, but also between believing and nonbelieving

Jews. Will you join us?