Portal:Messianic Judaism/Intro
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Messianic Judaism is a religious movement or sect whose adherents believe that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they call Yeshua, is both their savior and the resurrected Jewish Messiah.[1][2] While Messianic Jews practice their faith in a way that they consider to be authentically Torah-observant and culturally Jewish,[2][3][4][5] Jews,[6][7][8] Jewish denominations,[9][10][11][12] and most Christians[13][14] do not consider Messianic Judaism to be a form of Judaism. Messianic Jews are also not considered Jewish under the State of Israel's Law of Return.[15]
By 1993 there were 160,000 adherents of Messianic Judaism in the United States and 350,000 worldwide.[16] By 2003, there were at least 150 Messianic synagogues in the U.S. and over 400 worldwide.[16]
Although words used to identify aspects of Messianic Judaism are frequently disputed and sometimes contradictory, the term itself generally describes a belief that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and that obedience to the Scriptures is the proper expression of faith. Adherents are described as Messianic believers or Messianics for short.[17][18] Messianic Judaism is a relatively new term, coined to help separate the practices of its followers from those of common Christianity as a whole, and in order to more closely align its faith with that of biblical and historical Judaism. However, the term itself appeared as early as 1895.[19]
While Messianics describe Messianic Judaism as being Jewish,[17] Jewish denominations, Jewish groups, national Jewish organizations, and others reject this classification and regard these groups as Christian.[6][10][7][14][12]
Messianics believe that the first followers of Jesus of Nazareth were called Nazarenes (in Hebrew, Notzrim; "נצרים"). Messianics consider their beliefs to be consistent with those of the Nazarenes, and that normative Christianity declared a formal split from the Nazarenes in the Council of Nicea in 325.[20]
