Was Judus considered an Apostle?
Apostles
Later in the Gospel narratives the twelve apostles are described as having been commissioned to preach the Gospel to "all the nations", regardless of whether Jew or Gentile. Paul emphasized the important role of the apostles in the church of God when he said that the household of God is "built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone".
Although not one of the apostles commissioned during the life of Jesus, Paul, a Jew named Saul of Tarsus, claimed a special commission from the risen Jesus and is considered "the apostle of the Gentiles", for his missions to spread the gospel message after his conversion. In his writings, the epistles to Christian churches throughout the Levant, Paul did not restrict the term "apostle" to the Twelve, and often refers to his mentor Barnabas as an apostle. The restricted usage appears in the Revelation to John.
Primacy of Peter
Moreover, Peter is always named first in all listings of the Apostles; Judas is invariably mentioned last. In Peter is described as the "first Apostle". It is important to note that Peter was neither the first Apostle in age nor election; therefore, Peter must be the first Apostle in the sense of authority, if you ignore the possibility of him being first in the sense of first in the list of Twelve Apostles. According to , St. Peter was the leader of the early Christian church in Jerusalem. Jesus also instructed St. Peter to strengthen his brethren, i.e., the apostles, according to .
Richard Brothers
In 1793 Brothers declared himself to be the apostle of a new religion. He began to see himself as possessing a special role in the gathering of the Jews back into Palestine, in particular, the "Jews" who were hidden amongst the population of Great Britain. In similarity to modern British Israelists, Brothers asserted that the "hidden Israel" had no notion of its biological lineage and that part of his role would be to teach them of their true identity and lead them to the land of Canaan. Brothers proclaimed himself to be "Prince of the Hebrews", literal descendant of the Biblical House of David, and the "Nephew of the Almighty", who would rule over Israel until the return of Jesus Christ. Brothers declared he would achieve all this using a rod he had fashioned from a wild rosebush, with which he would perform miracles, as Moses had done.
Joseph Barsabbas
In the Acts of the Apostles, Joseph Barsabbas (also known as Justus) is one of two candidates qualified to be chosen for the office of apostle after Judas Iscariot lost his apostleship when he betrayed Jesus and committed suicide. After the casting of lots he was not chosen, the lot instead favoring Matthias to be numbered with the remaining eleven apostles.
Judaism's views on Muhammad
In Judaism, prophets were seen as having attained the highest degree of holiness, scholarship, and closeness to God and set the standards for human perfection. The Talmud reports that there were more than a million prophets, but most of the prophets conveyed messages that were intended solely for their own generation and were not reported in Scripture. The Talmud reports that there were prophets among the gentiles (most notably Balaam, whose story is told in "Numbers" 22, and Job, who is considered a non-Jew by most rabbinical opinions). The prophet Jonah was sent on a mission to speak to the gentiles of the city of Nineveh.
Paul the Apostle and Judaism
Paul also discusses his pre-conversion life in his letter to the Philippians:
Paul made explicit in that he did not discuss with the "Pillars of the Church" after he had received his revelation to be an apostle, that he saw no one except Cephas (Peter) and James, when he was in Jerusalem three years after the revelation and implies he did not explain his gospel to them until 14 years later in a subsequent trip to Jerusalem.
Saint Peter
Peter was considered along with James the Just and John the Apostle as pillars of the Church" (Galatians 2:9)". Paul affirms that Peter had the special charge of being apostle to the Jews, just as he, Paul, was apostle to the Gentiles.
Jewish principles of faith
Orthodox and Conservative Jews hold that the prophecy of Moses is held to be true; he is held to be the chief of all prophets, even of those who came before and after him. This belief was expressed by Maimonides, who wrote that "Moses was superior to all prophets, whether they preceded him or arose afterwards. Moses attained the highest possible human level. He perceived God to a degree surpassing every human that ever existed... God spoke to all other prophets through an intermediary. Moses alone did not need this; this is what the Torah means when God says, "Mouth to mouth, I will speak to him". The great Jewish philosopher Philo understands this type of prophecy to be an extraordinarily high level of philosophical understanding, which had been reached by Moses and which enabled him to write the Torah through his own rational deduction of natural law. Maimonides, in his Commentary to the Mishna (preface to chapter "Chelek", Tractate Sanhedrin), and in his Mishneh Torah, (in the Laws of the foundations of the Torah, ch. 7), describes a similar concept of prophecy, since a voice that did not originate from a body cannot exist, the understanding of Moses was based on his lofty philosophical understandings.
However, this does not imply that the text of the Torah should be understood literally, as according to Karaism. Rabbinic tradition maintains that God conveyed not only the words of the Torah, but the meaning of the Torah. God gave rules as to how the laws were to be understood and implemented, and these were passed down as an oral tradition. This oral law was passed down from generation to generation and ultimately written down almost 2,000 years later in the Mishna and the two Talmuds.
Apostles
In Christian theology and ecclesiology, the apostles (), particularly the Twelve Apostles (also known as the Twelve Disciples or simply the Twelve), were the primary disciples of Jesus, the central figure in Christianity. During the life and ministry of Jesus in the 1st century AD, the apostles were his closest followers and became the primary teachers of the gospel message of Jesus.
Paul the Apostle
Some scholars see Paul (or Saul) as completely in line with 1st-century Judaism (a Pharisee and student of Gamaliel as presented by Acts), others see him as opposed to 1st-century Judaism (see Marcionism), while the majority see him as somewhere in between these two extremes, opposed to "Ritual Laws" (for example the circumcision controversy in early Christianity) but in full agreement on "Divine Law". These views of Paul are paralleled by the views of Biblical law in Christianity.
Christianity and Judaism
Many Jews view Jesus as one in a long list of failed Jewish claimants to be the Messiah, none of whom fulfilled the tests of a prophet specified in the Law of Moses. Others see Jesus as a teacher who worked with the gentiles and ascribe the messianic claims that Jews find objectionable to his later followers. Because much physical and spiritual violence was done to Jews in the name of Jesus and his followers, and because evangelism is still an active aspect of many church's activities, many Jews are uncomfortable with discussing Jesus and treat him as a non-person. In answering the question "What do Jews think of Jesus", philosopher Milton Steinberg claims, for Jews, Jesus cannot be accepted as anything more than a teacher. "In only a few respects did Jesus deviate from the Tradition," Steinberg concludes, "and in all of them, Jews believe, he blundered."
Judaism's views on Muhammad
Natan'el al-Fayyumi, a prominent 12th-century Yemenite rabbi and theologian, and the founder of what is sometimes called "Jewish Ismailism", wrote in his philosophical treatise "Bustan al-Uqul" ("Garden of Wisdom") that God sends prophets to establish religions for other nations, which do not have to conform to the precepts of the Jewish Torah. Nethanel explicitly considered Muhammad a true prophet, who was sent from Heaven with a particular message that applies to the Arabs, but not to the Jews. However, Al-Fayymi's explicit acceptance of Muhammad's prophecy was rare and virtually unknown until recent times beyond his native Yemen.
Antisemitism in Islam
Samuel Rosenblatt opines these incidents were not part of policies directed exclusively against Jews, and Muhammad was more severe with his pagan Arab kinsmen. In addition, Muhammad's conflict with Jews was considered of rather minor importance. According to Lewis, since the clash of Judaism and Islam was resolved and ended during Muhammad's lifetime with Muslim victory, no Muslim unresolved theological dispute fueled antisemitism. There is also a difference between Jewish denial of Christian and Muslim messages, since Muhammad never claimed to be a Messiah or Son of God, although he is referred to as "the Apostle of God". The cause of Muhammad's death is disputable, though the Hadiths tend to suggest he may have eventually succumbed to poison after having been poisoned at Khaybar by one of the surviving Jewish widows.
Judaism
In modern times, Judaism lacks a centralized authority that would dictate an exact religious dogma. Because of this, many different variations on the basic beliefs are considered within the scope of Judaism. Even so, all Jewish religious movements are, to a greater or lesser extent, based on the principles of the Hebrew Bible and various commentaries such as the Talmud and Midrash. Judaism also universally recognizes the Biblical Covenant between God and the Patriarch Abraham as well as the additional aspects of the Covenant revealed to Moses, who is considered Judaism's greatest prophet. In the Mishnah, a core text of Rabbinic Judaism, acceptance of the Divine origins of this covenant is considered an essential aspect of Judaism and those who reject the Covenant forfeit their share in the World to Come.
Islam and other religions
However, this incident does not imply that Jews in general rejected Muhammad's constitution. One Yemenite Jewish document, found in the Cairo Genizah, claims that many Jews had not only accepted Muhammad as a prophet, but even desecrated Sabbath in order to join Muhammad in his struggle; historians suggest that this document, called "Dhimmat an-nabi Muhammad" (Muhammad’s Writ of Protection), may have been fabricated by Yemenite Jews for the purpose of self-defence. Still, some Yemeni Jews considered Muhammad a true prophet, including Natan'el al-Fayyumi, a major 12th century rabbi who incorporated various Shia doctrines into his view of Judaism.
Islamic–Jewish relations
Both regard many people as being prophets with exceptions.
Both teach Eber, Job, and Joseph were prophets. However, according to one sage in Judaism the whole story attributed to Job was an allegory and Job never actually existed. Rashi, a Jewish commentator on the Hebrew Scriptures quotes a text dating to 160 AD, which is also quoted in the Talmud on his commentary on Genesis 10 to show that Eber was a prophet.
Criticism of Jesus
Judaism also holds that Jesus couldn't be the Jewish Messiah, arguing that he had not fulfilled any of the Messianic prophecies foretold in the Tanakh, nor did he embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah foretold by the Prophets. According to Jewish tradition, there were no more prophets after Malachi, who lived centuries before Jesus and delivered his prophecies about 420 BCE. Thus Judaism is critical of Jesus' own claims and allusions about his alleged messiahship and his identification as the "son of God", as presented in the New Testament, and considers Jesus to be just one of many individuals who claimed to be the Messiah, but didn't fulfill any of the Messianic prophecies; therefore, they were all impostors.
Messianic Judaism
Jewish opponents of Messianic Judaism often focus their criticism on the movement's radical ideological separation from traditional Jewish beliefs, stating that the acceptance of Jesus as Messiah creates an insuperable divide between the traditional messianic expectations of Judaism, and Christianity's theological claims. They state that while Judaism is a messianic religion, its messiah is not Jesus, and thus the term is misleading. All denominations of Judaism, as well as national Jewish organizations, reject Messianic Judaism as a form of Judaism. Regarding this divide, Reconstructionist Rabbi Carol Harris-Shapiro observed:To embrace the radioactive core of goyishness—Jesus—violates the final taboo of Jewishness[.] ... Belief in Jesus as Messiah is not simply a heretical belief, as it may have been in the first century; it has become the equivalent to an act of ethno-cultural suicide.
Judas of Galilee
Judas is referred to in Acts of the Apostles, in which a speech by Gamaliel, a member of the Sanhedrin, identifies Theudas and Judas as examples of failed Messianic movements, and suggests that the movement emerging in the name of Jesus of Nazareth could similarly fail.
Jesus at Herod's court
In the Gospel of Luke, after the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus, the Jewish elders ask Pontius Pilate to judge and condemn Jesus in , accusing Jesus of making false claims of being a king. While questioning Jesus about the claim of being the King of the Jews, Pilate realizes that Jesus is a Galilean and therefore under Herod's jurisdiction. Since Herod already happened to be in Jerusalem at that time, Pilate decides to send Jesus to Herod to be tried.
Martin Hengel
Within his studies of Rabbinic Judaism and the origins of Christianity, Hengel explored the perceived dichotomy between Judaism and Hellenism. In his study, "Judentum und Hellenismus", he documented that the designation of the apostle Paul exclusively as either Jewish or Hellenistic is a misunderstanding. Hengel argues in his writings that despite Paul’s controversial rhetoric scholars, along with Jewish and Christian communities, must recognize the historical value of Paul’s epistles and Luke’s account of Paul’s life within the Acts of the Apostles. Hengel recognizes the importance of this awareness because of the multifaceted insight provided about the Second Temple Era and Hellenistic Judaism of the first century within these texts.
Judaism's view of Jesus
In the 12th century, the preeminent Jewish scholar Maimonides codified core principles of Modern Judaism, writing "[God], the Cause of all, is one. This does not mean one as in one of a pair, nor one like a species (which encompasses many individuals), nor one as in an object that is made up of many elements, nor as a single simple object that is infinitely divisible. Rather, God is a unity unlike any other possible unity."
Saint Matthias
Not that they became apostles through being chosen for some distinguished peculiarity of nature, since also Judas was chosen along with them. But they were capable of becoming apostles on being chosen by Him who foresees even ultimate issues. Matthias, accordingly, who was not chosen along with them, on showing himself worthy of becoming an apostle, is substituted for Judas.
Judas Iscariot
Although Judas Iscariot's historical existence is generally widely accepted among secular historians, this relative consensus has not gone entirely unchallenged. The earliest possible allusion to Judas comes from the First Epistle to the Corinthians , in which Paul the Apostle does not mention Judas by name, but uses the passive voice of the Greek word "paradidōmi" (παραδίδωμι), which most Bible translations render as "was betrayed": "...the Lord Jesus on the night when he "was betrayed" took a loaf of bread..." Nonetheless, many biblical scholars argue that the word "paradidōmi" should be translated as "was handed over". This translation could still refer to Judas, but it could also instead refer to God metaphorically "handing Jesus over" to the Romans.
Against the Galileans
Julian spends time discussing how, even after having nominally embraced Jewish traditions, Galileans have really rejected them and only accepted their blasphemy of the gods (238A–B). He criticizes the belief that Jesus is the prophet that was predicted by Moses and Isaiah, as Jesus, supposedly being the son of God, was not descended from Judah, and says that the idea of a god who claims to be the sole God creating a being equal to him (and thus a second God) goes against the monotheistic beliefs of Judaism (253A–B). He points out that Galileans have abandoned many of the central tenets of Judaism, such as the sacrificing of animals (305D) and its dietary restrictions (314C), and criticizes the claim that God has set up a new law for them while Moses so adamantly warned against changing the law (320B).
Jude the Apostle
Most modern translations (including the New International Version, Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version), identify him as "Jude the son of James", and not the same person as the author of the Epistle of Jude. Protestant scholar Darrell L. Bock writes that it must mean "son" not "brother", because when "brother" is intended, the Greek word for "brother" (adelphos) is present. Bock also says that means he was not the brother of Jesus.
Messianic Judaism
Messianic Jews generally consider the entire Christian Bible to be sacred scripture. Theologian David H. Stern in his "Jewish New Testament Commentary" argues that the writings and teachings of Paul the Apostle are fully congruent with Messianic Judaism, and that the New Testament is to be taken by Messianic Jews as the inspired Word of God.
Chief Apostle
The following are other views on chief apostles and the religions that therefore must flow out of those beliefs. One system in common use today is used by Messianic apostles who believe James "the Just" was Chief Apostle, in Jerusalem, following Jesus (they use the Hebrew form of his name, Y'shua, in various spellings) return to his Father in Heaven. A similar system is used by Catholic churches worldwide, varying from Roman Catholics, to Anglican Catholics, to Coptic, Russian etc. Each with a differing view on who is, or was, a Chief Apostle originally, and sometimes, even now.
Rejection of Jesus
Jesus is rejected in Judaism as a failed Jewish Messiah claimant and a false prophet by most Jewish denominations. However, Messianic Jewish congregations like Jews for Jesus have made the case that he is the Messiah promised by the Torah and the Prophets. On the Jewish side, the accounts of Jewish rejection of Jesus are prominently featured in the Birkat haMinim of the Amidah and the Talmud. The Talmud indicates that Rabbi Gamaliel II directed Samuel ha-Katan to write another paragraph for the central Amidah-prayer, inveighing against (early Christian) informers and heretics, which was inserted as the twelfth paragraph in modern sequence (Birkat haMinim).
Joshua
Joshua also holds a position of respect among Muslims. According to Islamic tradition, he was, along with Caleb, one of the two believing spies whom Moses had sent to spy the land of Canaan. Muslims also see Joshua as the leader of the Israelites, following the death of Moses. Some Muslims also believe Joshua to be the "attendant" of Moses mentioned in the Quran, before Moses meets Khidr and Joshua plays a significant role in Islamic literature with significant narration in the Hadith, therefore he is a point of study in comparative religion, see Joshua in Islam.
Jude the Apostle
A further complication is the fact that the name "Judas" was tarnished by Judas Iscariot. It has been argued that for this reason it is unsurprising that Mark and Matthew refer to him by an alternate name.
Judas (manga)
Mizuki conversing with Sorahito about where people go when they die with him responding "no they go to Eden".
Eden becomes a referring place during the course of the Manga and finally introduces Eve the character whom Judas is attached to. Judas is The spirit of Death and apostle who betrayed Jesus. His curse is to kill 666 people so he may gain his humanity it is implied that they have been together for some time and have taken many lives. When Sorahito becomes obsessed with finding "Eden" he tries making Mizuki join him so they can go to "Eden" together. Eve who is really a boy and confused to be a girl all the time including Judas which is explained that when they first met Judas confused Eve for a girl so now he makes him wear girls' clothes, confronts Sorahito and tries changing his mind but Sorahito tries killing Eve. In response Judas is summoned and combine their powers and kill Sorahito. Later Mizuiki meets Dr. Hibuki who is a doctor and becomes desperate for Eden too. Hibuki is visited secretly by a bald man who gives him power. When Hibuki is killed a strange necklace is found where Judas says "Damn Peter! What the hell is he creating me? The hell!!". Later Mizuki meanwhile has been researching on what Eden actually is and the "Holy Council" when she asks Judas about it Judas only says "Do not interfere". Eve then tells Mizuki of a man whom Judas was attached to and who may hold the answers to everything. This man is in New York. The FBI arrive to arrest him but the man kills all of the agents including destroying the helicopters. The man, revealed to be Zero Maschaitto then talks about "opening the doors to Paradise".
Acts of the Apostles
Luke–Acts is an attempt to answer a theological problem, namely how the Messiah promised to the Jews came to have an overwhelmingly non-Jewish church; the answer it provides, and its central theme, is that the message of Christ was sent to the Gentiles because the Jews rejected it. This theme is introduced at the opening of the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus, rejected in Nazareth, recalls that the prophets were rejected by Israel and accepted by Gentiles; at the end of the gospel he commands his disciples to preach his message to all nations, "beginning from Jerusalem." He repeats the command in Acts, telling them to preach "in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the Earth." They then proceed to do so, in the order outlined: first Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, then the entire (Roman) world.
Epistle of James
The writer of the letter of James identifying himself as "a servant/slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" is much the same as the author of the Epistle of Jude did by calling himself "a slave of Jesus Christ, but a brother of James" (Jas 1:1; Jude 1). Furthermore, the salutation of his letter concludes with the term “greetings" (Greek χαίρειν), much like the letter on circumcision that was sent to the congregations. In the latter instance it was apparently Jesus's brother, James, who spoke prominently in the assembly of "the apostles and the older men" at Jerusalem. Some have said the authorship of this epistle points to James, the brother of Jesus, to whom Jesus evidently had made a special appearance after his resurrection described in the New Testament as this James was prominent among the disciples.
Rejection of Jesus
According to Jeremy Cohen,
"[e]ven before the Gospels appeared, the apostle Paul (or, more probably, one of his disciples) portrayed the Jews as Christ's killers ... But though the New Testament clearly looks to the Jews as responsible for the death of Jesus, Paul and the evangelists did not yet condemn all Jews, by the very fact of their Jewishness, as murderers of God and his messiah. That condemnation, however, was soon to come."
Messianic Judaism
Messianic Jews understand (as suggested by some recent scholars) that Paul the Apostle (who is often referred to as Sha'ul, his Hebrew name) remained a Jewish Pharisee even as a believer until his death (see Paul the Apostle and Judaism). This is based on Acts 23:6, detailing events after Paul's acceptance of Jesus as Messiah. "But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men [and] brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question."
Ahmadiyya–Jewish relations
Ahmadis believe Jesus Christ was the true Jewish messiah who had been prophesied by the earlier prophets. He came to guide Jews in the period of misguidance. Jews differ from this belief and they do not believe Jesus as their messiah. Contrary to the Jewish (as well as Christian) belief that Jesus died on the cross, Ahmadi Muslims believe that he was indeed put on the cross but survived crucifixion to die a natural death after having left Judea for the east to complete his mission to the remaining Israelite tribes residing beyond it.
Jude the Apostle
Some Biblical scholars reject this theory, however, holding that Jude and Thaddeus did not represent the same person. Scholars have proposed alternative theories to explain the discrepancy: an unrecorded replacement of one for the other during the ministry of Jesus because of apostasy or death; the possibility that "twelve" was a symbolic number and an estimation; or simply that the names were not recorded perfectly by the early church.
Apostle
In Islam, an apostle or messenger () is a prophet sent by God. According to the Qur'an, God has sent many prophets to mankind. The five universally acknowledged messengers in Islam are Ibrahim, Mūsa, Dāwūd, Īsā and Muhammad, as each is believed to have been sent with a scripture. Muslim tradition also maintains that Adam received scrolls as did some of the other patriarchs of the Generations of Adam. The term apostle or messenger is also applied to prophets sent to preach to specific areas; the Qur'an mentions Yunus, Elijah, Ismail, Shuaib and other prophets as being messengers as well.
Jude the Apostle
Jude, also known as Judas Thaddaeus, (; ; Syriac/Aramaic: ܝܗܘܕܐ ܫܠܝܚܐ) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He is generally identified with Thaddeus, and is also variously called Jude of James, Jude Thaddaeus, Judas Thaddaeus or Lebbaeus. He is sometimes identified with Jude, the brother of Jesus, but is clearly distinguished from Judas Iscariot, the apostle who betrayed Jesus prior to his crucifixion. Catholic writer Michal Hunt suggests that Judas Thaddaeus became known as Jude after early translators of the New Testament from Greek into English sought to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot and subsequently abbreviated his forename. Most versions of the New Testament in languages other than English and French refer to Judas and Jude by the same name.
Gospel of Judas
The initial translation of the Gospel of Judas was widely publicized but simply confirmed the account that was written in Irenaeus and known Gnostic beliefs, leading some scholars to simply summarize the discovery as nothing new. However, it is argued that a closer reading of the existent text, as presented in October 2006, shows Christianity in a new light. According to Elaine Pagels, for instance, Judas is portrayed as having a mission to hand Jesus over to the soldiers. She says that Bible translators have mistranslated the Greek word for "handing over" to "betrayal".
Paul the Apostle and Judaism
The relationship between Paul the Apostle and Second Temple Judaism continues to be the subject of much scholarly research, as it is thought that Paul played an important role in the relationship between Christianity and Judaism as a whole. Paul's influence on Christian thinking is said to be more significant than any other New Testament author.
Muslims
The Qur'an describes many prophets and messengers within Judaism and Christianity, and their respective followers, as Muslim: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Jacob, Moses, and Jesus and his apostles are all considered to be Muslims in the Qur'an. The Qur'an states that these men were Muslims because they submitted to God, preached His message and upheld His values, which included praying, charity, fasting and pilgrimage. Thus, in Surah 3:52 of the Qur'an, Jesus' disciples tell him, "We believe in God; and you be our witness that we are Muslims ("wa-shahad be anna muslimūn")." In Muslim belief, before the Qur'an, God had given the Tawrat (Torah) to Moses, the Zabur (Psalms) to David and the Injil (Gospel) to Jesus, who are all considered important Muslim prophets.
Prophet
Traditionally, four prophets are believed to have been sent holy books: the Torah ("Tawrat") to Moses, the Psalms ("Zābūr") to David, the Gospel to Jesus, and the Quran to Muhammad; those prophets are considered "Messengers" or "rasūl". Other main prophets are considered messengers or "nabī", even if they didn't receive a Book from God. Examples include the messenger-prophet Aaron| ("Hārūn"), the messenger-prophet Ishmael ("Ismāʿīl")) and the messenger-prophet Joseph ("Yūsuf").
Bartholomew the Apostle
Bartholomew (; ; ) was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus from ancient Judea. He has also been identified as Nathanael or Nathaniel, who appears in the Gospel of John when introduced to Jesus by Philip (who would also become an apostle), although many modern commentators reject the identification of Nathanael with Bartholomew.
E. P. Sanders
Sanders' next major book was "Jesus and Judaism", published in 1985. In this work he argued that Jesus began as a follower of John the Baptist and was a prophet of the restoration of Israel. Sanders saw Jesus as creating an eschatological Jewish movement through his appointment of the Apostles and through his preaching and actions. After his execution (the trigger for which was Jesus overthrowing the tables in the temple court of Herod's Temple, thereby antagonizing the political authorities) his followers continued the movement, expecting his return to restore Israel. One consequence of this return would involve Gentiles worshiping the god of Israel. Sanders could find no substantial points of opposition between Jesus and the Pharisees, and he viewed Jesus as abiding by Jewish law and the disciples as continuing to keep it (cf. e.g., Acts 3:1; 21:23–26, for their worship in the Temple). Sanders also argues that Jesus' sayings did not entirely determine Early Christian behavior and attitudes, as is shown by Paul's discussion of divorce (1 Cor. 7:10–16) where the latter quotes Jesus' sayings and then gives his own independent ruling. In one interview, Sanders stated that Paul felt that ""he" was the model to his churches."
Jude, brother of Jesus
Jude (alternatively Judas or Judah) is believed by some to be one of the brothers of Jesus
() according to the New Testament. He is traditionally identified as the author of the Epistle of Jude, a short epistle which is reckoned among the seven general epistles of the New Testament—placed after Paul's epistles and before the Book of Revelation—and considered canonical by Christians. Catholics believe this Jude is the same person as Jude the Apostle and that Jude was perhaps a cousin, but not a brother, of Jesus.
Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament
While John's Gospel emphasizes Jesus as the Son of God, the Gospel of Luke depicts him as a prophet above all else, attributing that title to Jesus more often than even Mark. A prophet is not someone who merely preaches, but claims divine revelation through God. In following his hometown rejection episode, Jesus remarks that as a prophet he is not welcome in his own hometown. Elsewhere, in the Jews again doubt that Jesus is a prophet. The view of Jesus as a prophet is used in the concept of threefold office which sees his 3 roles as "Prophet, Priest and King". While during early Christianity there were people claiming to be prophets, there are no records of anyone else claiming to be a prophet during the life of Jesus.
Paul the Apostle and Judaism
Within the last three decades, a number of theologians have put forward other "new perspectives" on Paul's doctrine of justification, and even more specifically on what he says about justification by faith. According to Simon Gathercole, "Justification by faith" means God accepts Gentiles in addition to Jews, since both believe in God. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith". Faith is the central component of Paul's doctrine of justification — meaning that Gentiles don't need to become Israelites when they convert to Christianity, because God is not just the God of one nation, but Gentile and Jew alike.
Apostles
Paul the Apostle in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, appears to give the first historical reference to the twelve apostles:
In his writings, Paul the Apostle, although not one of the original twelve, described himself as an "apostle", one "born out of due time" (e.g., , 1 Corinthians 15:8 and other letters). He was called by the resurrected Jesus himself during his Road to Damascus vision and given the name "Paul". With Barnabas, he was allotted the role of apostle in the church. He referred to himself as the "apostle of the Gentiles."
Judas Iscariot
Despite his notorious role in the gospel narratives, Judas remains a controversial figure in Christian history. For instance, Judas's betrayal is seen as setting in motion the events that led to Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection, which, according to traditional Christian theology, brought salvation to humanity. The Gnostic Gospel of Judas – rejected by the mainstream Church as heretical – praises Judas for his role in triggering humanity's salvation and exalts Judas as the best of the apostles. Since the Middle Ages, Judas has sometimes been portrayed as a personification of the Jewish people and his betrayal has been used to justify Christian antisemitism.
Veneration of Judas Thaddaeus in Mexico
Judas Thaddaeus (or San Judas Tadeo in Spanish) was one of the Twelve Apostles. A relative of Jesus, he was one of his first followers and after Christ's death, became an evangelizer. He was martyred along with Simon the Zealot, by decapitation with a hatchet. Depictions of this saint, especially in Mexico, include a medallion on the chest with Christ’s image (representing evangelism), a staff and a hatchet (reminder of martyrdom). He is considered to be a direct intercessor to Jesus Christ as a saint to appeal to in difficult and desperate situations and is credited with many miracles. Petitions often include help with personal problems, legal problems, work issues and family. He is also invoked to help find lost objects. Sometimes the petition can simply be that the situation does not get worse.
Judaism's view of Jesus
Judaism's idea of the messiah differs substantially from the Christian idea of the Messiah. In Orthodox Judaism, the messiah's task is to bring in the Messianic Age, a one-time event, and a presumed messiah who is killed before completing the task (i.e. compelling all of Israel to walk in the way of Torah, repairing the breaches in observance, fighting the wars of God, building the Temple in its place, gathering in the dispersed exiles of Israel) is not the messiah. Maimonides states, 
Jews believe that the messiah will fulfill the messianic prophecies of the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. According to Isaiah, the messiah will be a paternal descendant of King David. He is expected to return the Jews to their homeland and rebuild the Temple, reign as King, and usher in an era of peace and understanding where "the knowledge of God" fills the earth, leading the nations to "end up recognizing the wrongs they did Israel". Ezekiel states the messiah will redeem the Jews.
Jude the Apostle
According to tradition, after his martyrdom, pilgrims came to his grave to pray and many of them experienced the powerful intercessions of St. Jude. Thus the title, 'The Saint for the Hopeless and the Despaired'. St. Bridget of Sweden and St. Bernard had visions from God asking each to accept St. Jude as 'The Patron Saint of the Impossible'.
Paul the Apostle and Judaism
Messianics understand that Paul the Apostle (who is often referred to as Sha’ul, his Hebrew name) remained a Jewish Pharisee even as a believer until his death. This is based on , detailing events after Paul's acceptance of Jesus as Messiah. "But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men [and] brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question."
Acts of the Apostles
Luke–Acts is an attempt to answer a theological problem, namely how the Messiah of the Jews came to have an overwhelmingly non-Jewish church; the answer it provides, and its central theme, is that the message of Christ was sent to the Gentiles because the Jews rejected it. Luke–Acts can be also seen as a defense of (or "apology" for) the Jesus movement addressed to the Jews: the bulk of the speeches and sermons in Acts are addressed to Jewish audiences, with the Romans serving as external arbiters on disputes concerning Jewish customs and law. On the one hand, Luke portrays the Christians as a sect of the Jews, and therefore entitled to legal protection as a recognised religion; on the other, Luke seems unclear as to the future God intends for Jews and Christians, celebrating the Jewishness of Jesus and his immediate followers while also stressing how the Jews had rejected God's promised Messiah.
Judaism and Mormonism
With regard to the question of Jesus as the messiah, there have been many claimants to the title in Jewish history, and none are regarded as having fulfilled the requirements of that role. Jesus is not considered differently from any of the others. What individual Jews think of Jesus ranges from "irrelevant," to "actually Mithras," to "Jesus claimed to be messiah yet he believed against God's word which does not make him qualified as a messiah ." In any case, however, the Jewish messiah was never expected to be, or described as, anything but an ordinary person.
Against the Galileans
Along with abandoning Jewish teachings, Julian also charges the Galileans with abandoning those of the original apostles (327A). He claims that no apostle claimed that Jesus was God until John, and he probably only did so to clarify an important dispute within a disunited church (327A). Galileans also disobey the words of Jesus, as they revere tombs and the dead, while Jesus referred to gravesites as places of impurity (335B). Julian then brings up other Jewish practices abandoned by Galileans such as circumcision and the celebration of Passover, wondering why they have abandoned such practices when they were assigned such importance in the Jewish law (351A), going so far as to claim that the religious practices of Moses and Abraham are far closer to the religious practices of the Greeks than those of the Galileans (356C).
Apostle
The term only occurs once in the Septuagint. But Walter Bauer in his "Greek-English Lexicon of the NT" relates the term to the rabbinical idea of a Shaliah, or agent; "…Judaism had an office known as apostle (שליח)". The "Friberg Greek Lexicon" gives a broad definition as one who is sent on a mission, a commissioned representative of a congregation, a messenger for God, a person who has the special task of founding and establishing churches. The "UBS Greek Dictionary" also describes an apostle broadly as a messenger. The "Louw-Nida Lexicon" gives a very narrow definition of a special messenger, generally restricted to the immediate followers of Jesus, or extended to some others like Paul or other early Christians active in proclaiming the gospel.
Judas Iscariot
The name "Judas" (Ὶούδας) is a Greek rendering of the Hebrew name Judah (יהודה, Yhûdâh, Hebrew for "God is praised"), which was an extremely common name for Jewish men during the first century AD, due to the renowned hero Judas Maccabeus. Consequently, numerous other figures with this name are mentioned throughout the New Testament. In the Gospel of Mark , the earliest of all the gospels, which was written in the mid 60s or early 70s AD, Judas Iscariot is the only apostle named "Judas". follows this portrayal. The Gospel of Luke , however, replaces the apostle whom Mark and Matthew call "Thaddeus" with "Judas son of James". Peter Stanford suggests that this renaming may represent an effort by the author of the Gospel of Luke to create a "good Judas" in contrast to the betrayer Judas Iscariot.
Judaism's view of Jesus
Among followers of Judaism, Jesus is viewed as having been the most influential and, consequently, the most damaging of all false messiahs. However, since the traditional Jewish belief is that the messiah has not yet come and the Messianic Age is not yet present, the total rejection of Jesus as either messiah or deity has never been a central issue for Judaism.
Ahmadiyya–Jewish relations
Ahmadis consider Muhammad as the greatest prophet. They believe in the finality of prophethood with Sharia as final divine law. Prophets can come after Muhammad as his disciples from among his followers. Jews reject Muhammad's message.
Saint Matthias
There is no mention of a Matthias among the lists of disciples or followers of Jesus in the three synoptic gospels, but according to "Acts", he had been with Jesus from his baptism by John until his Ascension. In the days following, Peter proposed that the assembled disciples, who numbered about one hundred-twenty, nominate two men to replace Judas. They chose Joseph called Barsabas (whose surname was Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, "Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all "[men]", shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place." Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
Banu Abs
On Khalid's status, the Muslims have historically been divided. Other Arab tribes had either suffered false prophets, as the Asad suffered Tulayha; or, like the 'Ad and the Thamud, they received the preachings of their Prophets, disbelieved, and were destroyed (although some living tribes have claimed a rebirth from those dead tribes' surviving prophets, as Yemenis claim of Hud). Also if the bedouin Khalid were accepted as a prophet between Jesus and Muhammad this is constrained by Q. 12:109, which insists that Apostles must come from the towns.
Judaism's view of Jesus
The belief that Jesus is God, the Son of God, or a person of the Trinity, is incompatible with Jewish theology. Jews believe Jesus of Nazareth did not fulfill messianic prophecies that establish the criteria for the coming of the messiah. Judaism rejects Jesus as God, Divine Being, intermediary between humans and God, messiah or holy. Belief in the Trinity is also held to be incompatible with Judaism, as are a number of other tenets of Christianity.
Sicarii
Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament, was believed to be a sicarius. This opinion is objected to by modern historians, mainly because Josephus in "The War of the Hebrews" (2:254–7) mentions the appearance of the Sicarii as a new phenomenon during the procuratorships of Felix (52–60 AD), having no apparent relation with the group called Sicarii by Romans at times of Quirinius. The 2nd century compendium of Jewish oral law, the Mishnah ("Makhshirin" 1:6), mentions the word "sikrin" (), perhaps related to Sicarii, and which is explained by the early rabbinic commentators as being related to the (= robbers), and to government personnel involved with implementing the laws of Sicaricon. Maimonides, in his Mishnah Commentary ("Makhshirin" 1:6), explains the same word "sikrin" as meaning "people who harass and who are disposed to being violent."
Gospel of Judas
The Gospel of Judas was condemned by Irenaeus in his anti-Gnostic work "Adversus Haereses" (Against Heresies), written in about 180. Despite this, The Gospel of Judas differs from other non-Nicene Gospels in several ways. Far from arguing that the physical body is a prison which needs to be escaped from, the Gospel of Judas portrays Jesus as able to leave his body at will and take on other forms, appearing to be a child. In the text, Jesus is shown leaving his body, journeying to the imperishable realm and returning to his body. Unlike other non-Nicene Gospels, the Gospel of Judas is Sethian in orientation in that Adam's son Seth is seen as a spiritual ancestor. As in other Sethian documents, Jesus is equated with Seth: "The first is Seth, who is called Christ".
Simon the Zealot
The 2nd century "Epistle of the Apostles" ("Epistula Apostolorum"), a polemic against gnostics, lists him among the apostles purported to be writing the letter (who include Thomas) as Judas Zelotes and certain Old Latin translations of the Gospel of Matthew substitute "Judas the Zealot" for Thaddeus/Lebbaeus in Matthew 10:3. To some readers, this suggests that he may be identical with the "Judas not Iscariot" mentioned in John 14:22: "Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Our Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" As it has been suggested that Jude is identical with the apostle Thomas (see Jude Thomas), an identification of "Simon Zelotes" with Thomas is also possible. Barbara Thiering identified Simon Zelotes with Simon Magus, however this view has received no serious acceptance. The New Testament records nothing more of Simon, aside from this multitude of possible but unlikely pseudonyms. He is buried in the same tomb as St. Jude Thaddeus, in the left transept of the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, under the altar of St. Joseph.
Jude the Apostle
Opinion is divided on whether Jude the apostle was also Jude, brother of Jesus, the traditional author of the Epistle of Jude. Generally, Catholics believe the two Judes are the same person, while Protestants generally do not.
Jesus
After the conversion of Paul the Apostle, he claimed the title of "Apostle to the Gentiles". Paul's influence on Christian thinking is said to be more significant than that of any other New Testament author. By the end of the 1st century, Christianity began to be recognized internally and externally as a separate religion from Judaism which itself was refined and developed further in the centuries after the destruction of the Second Temple.
New Testament
The Epistle of Jude title is written as follows: "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James" (NRSV). The debate has continued over the author's identity as the apostle, the brother of Jesus, both, or neither.
Ahmadiyya and other faiths
Ghulām Ahmad called himself the "reflection of all prophets", and regarded Gautama Buddha as a prophet. According to him, Jesus was both the Jewish Messiah and the Maitreya. Thus, Ghulām Ahmad claimed to have fulfilled the prophecy of the Second Coming of Jesus and, in turn, the prophecy of the Second Coming of the Maitreya as well.
Judaism's views on Muhammad
Very few texts in Judaism refer to or take note of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. Those that do, generally reject Muhammad's proclamation of receiving divine revelations from God and label him instead as a false prophet.
Muhammad's views on Jews
As Muhammad taught of new "Islamic prophets" (such as Lot, and Jesus) and that his message was identical to those of Abraham and Moses, the Jews were furthermore in the position to make some Muslims doubt about his prophethood. Judaism does not list Lot, nor Jesus as Prophets in Judaism, and the Talmud (Sanhedrin 11a) states that Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi were the last prophets, all of whom lived at the end of the 70-year Babylonian exile, and nowadays only the "Bath Kol" (בת קול, lit. "daughter of a voice", "voice of God") exists. The Jews, according to Watt, could argue that "some passages in the Qur'an contradicted their ancient scriptures". Watt also states that many of the Jews had close links with Abd-Allah ibn Ubayy, "the potential prince of Medina" who "is said that but for the arrival of Muhammad, had not become" the chief arbitrator of the community. The Jews may have hoped for greater influence if Ubayy had become a ruler. Watt writes that the Islamic response to these criticisms was:
Paul the Apostle
Paul the Apostle (; ; ; c. 5 – c. 64 or 67), commonly known as Saint Paul and also known by his Jewish name Saul of Tarsus (; ), was an apostle (though not one of the Twelve Apostles) who taught the gospel of Christ to the first-century world.
Gospel of Judas
The Gospel of Judas is a Gnostic gospel whose content consists of conversations between Jesus and Judas Iscariot. It is thought to have been composed in the second century by Gnostic Christians, not by Judas, since it contains late-2nd-century theology. The only copy of it known to exist is a Coptic language text that has been carbon dated to AD 280, plus or minus 60 years. It has been suggested that the text derives from an earlier Greek version. A translation of the text was first published in early 2006 by the National Geographic Society.
The Judas Testament (novel)
The scroll is not the Gospel of Judas but an autobiography of the historical Jesus in his own hand. It is a "Judas Testament" in that its contents betrays the conventional image of Jesus as Christ and instead reveals him to have been a Judean religious figure known as the Teacher of Righteousness. Easterman's ideas in this respect are taken directly from contemptorary scholarship in the quest for the historical Jesus and the debate about whether or not there is a relationship between Jesus and the Judean sect known as the Essenes.
Judas Iscariot
During the 1970s, a Coptic papyrus codex (book) was discovered near Beni Masah, Egypt. It appeared to be a 3rd- or 4th-century-AD copy of a 2nd-century original, relating a series of conversations in which Jesus and Judas interact and discuss the nature of the universe from a Gnostic viewpoint. The discovery was given dramatic international exposure in April 2006 when the US "National Geographic" magazine published a feature article entitled "The Gospel of Judas" with images of the fragile codex and analytical commentary by relevant experts and interested observers (but not a comprehensive translation). The article's introduction stated: "An ancient text lost for 1,700 years says Christ's betrayer was his truest disciple." The article points to some evidence that the original document was extant in the 2nd century: "Around A.D. 180, Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon in what was then Roman Gaul, wrote a massive treatise called "Against Heresies" [in which he attacked] a 'fictitious history,' which 'they style the Gospel of Judas.'"
St. Thaddeus Monastery
According to the tradition of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Saint Thaddeus, also known as Saint Jude, (not to be confused with Judas Iscariot), evangelized the region of Armenia and Persia. Thaddeus suffered martyrdom in Armenia, according to the same tradition, and is revered as an apostle of the Armenian Church. Legend has it that a church dedicated to him was first built on the present site in AD 68.
Gospel of Judas
Like the canonical gospels, the Gospel of Judas portrays the scribes as approaching Judas with the intention of arresting him, and Judas receiving money from them after handing Jesus over to them. But unlike Judas in the canonical gospels, who is portrayed as a villain, and excoriated by Jesus ("Alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born," trans. "The New English Bible") ; , the Judas gospel portrays Judas as a divinely appointed instrument of a grand and predetermined purpose. "In the last days they will curse your ascent to the holy (generation)."
Epistle of Jude
The Epistle of Jude, often shortened to Jude, is the penultimate book of the New Testament and is traditionally attributed to Jude, the servant of Jesus and the brother of James the Just.
Judaism's view of Jesus
Judaism has never accepted any of the claimed fulfillments of prophecy that Christianity attributes to Jesus. Judaism also forbids the worship of a person as a form of idolatry, since the central belief of Judaism is the absolute unity and singularity of God. Jewish eschatology holds that the coming of the Messiah will be associated with a specific series of events that have not yet occurred, including the return of Jews to their homeland and the rebuilding of The Temple, a Messianic Age of peace and understanding during which "the knowledge of God" fills the earth." And since Jews believe that none of these events occurred during the lifetime of Jesus (nor have they occurred afterwards), he was not the Messiah.
Judaism's view of Jesus
Jesus is mentioned in Maimonides' "Epistle to Yemen", written about 1172 to Rabbi Jacob ben Netan'el al-Fayyumi, head of the Yemen Jewish community
In the context of refuting the claims of a contemporary in Yemen purporting to be the Messiah, Maimonides mentions Jesus again:
Considering the historical Jesus, some modern Jewish thinkers have come to hold a more positive view of Jesus, arguing that he himself did not abandon Judaism and/or that he benefited non-Jews. Among historic Orthodox rabbis holding these views are Jacob Emden, Eliyahu Soloveitchik, and Elijah Benamozegh.
Thomas the Apostle
The Nag Hammadi copy of the "Gospel of Thomas" begins: "These are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Didymos, Judas Thomas, recorded." Early Syrian traditions also relate the apostle's full name as Judas Thomas. Some have seen in the "Acts of Thomas" (written in east Syria in the early 3rd century, or perhaps as early as the first half of the 2nd century) an identification of Saint Thomas with the apostle Judas, Son of James, better known in English as Jude. However, the first sentence of the Acts follows the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles in distinguishing the apostle Thomas and the apostle Judas son of James. Others, such as James Tabor, identify him as Judah, the brother of Jesus mentioned by Mark. In the Book of Thomas the Contender, part of the Nag Hammadi, he is alleged to be a twin to Jesus: "Now, since it has been said that you are my twin and true companion, examine yourself…"
Judeo-nazarenism
We see how the opposition to the faith of the Apostles is radical: to them, Jesus is not the savior for himself, so he has nothing divine (because only God can deliver from evil); it is only the Messiah, a super employee of God, miraculously born by the action of the Holy Spirit in Mary - this is exactly the position taken by the Muslims and the Quran, which employs four times the expression "Messiah Jesus "controversy vigorously against the" Jews "who deny the miraculous conception of Mary and treat her as prostitute (actually, it alludes in the Talmud-s and the ToseftaHullin). For example Eusebius (263-339) reports that some "Ebionites" - those who call themselves Nazarenes - "did not deny that the Lord was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit ... [but] they do not confess he was God the Word and Wisdom pre-existing "(Hist. eccl., III, from 27.44 to 45). In fact, the main criticism is to "Jews" they don’t believe and want to kill their Messiah, so be damned. Epiphane in his Panarion 30.7 indicates that Nazôraïoï "are the great enemies of the Jews. Not only Jews children are full of hatred towards them, but in the morning, at noon and night, three times a day, when they gather to pray in their synagogues, they curse them and anathematized saying, God cursed the Nazarenes "
Paul the Apostle and Judaism
The Book of Acts contains an account of Paul's travels and deeds, his conflicts with Greeks and Jews during the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and his interactions with the original apostles. The value of the historical information in "Acts", however, is challenged by some scholars. They believe that it was written from a perspective of reconciliation between Pauline Christianity and its opponents, so portrays Paul as a law-abiding Jew and omits his dispute with Peter, only briefly mentioning the split with Barnabas. Irenaeus in the 2nd century is the first of record to quote "Acts", and he used it against Marcion who rejected the Hebrew Bible. See also Luke–Acts.
Jude the Apostle
Many countries venerate the Apostle Jude and have constructed shrines or churches dedicated to his memory. Such sites include those in Australia, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Cuba, India, Iran, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, the United States and Lebanon. The National Shrine of St. Jude in Chicago, Illinois was founded in 1929 by the Claretian Missionaries. The Nationwide Center of St. Jude Devotions in Baltimore was founded in 1917 by the Pallottines. The National Shrine of Saint Jude Thaddeus in the Philippines was erected by the Archdiocese of Manila in 1954 as Espíritu Santo Chinese Parish. The Shrine holds the saint's novena liturgy every Thursday, and is now under the Society of the Divine Word that also runs the attached Saint Jude Catholic School. The National Shrine of Saint Jude at Faversham in England was founded in 1955.
Apostolic Age
According to modernist higher criticism scholars who emerged since the 18th century in Protestant Europe early Christianity was a Jewish eschatological faith. The Book of Acts reports that the early followers continued daily Temple attendance and traditional Jewish home prayer. Other passages in the New Testament gospels reflect a similar observance of traditional Jewish piety such as fasting, reverence for the Torah (commonly translated as "the Law" in English translations of the Bible) and observance of Jewish holy days. The earliest form of Jesus' religion is best understood in this context. However, there was great diversity in local variations, as each succeeded or failed in different ways. Regardless, Jesus was a pious Jew, worshipping the Jewish God, preaching interpretations of Jewish law and accepted as the Jewish Messiah by his disciples. Proponents of higher criticism claim that regardless of how one interprets the mission of Jesus, that he must be understood in context as a 1st-century Palestinian Jew. Orthodox and Catholic Christianity, including the Church Fathers, on the other hand, tend to place a sharp distinction between Israel (which the Church claims to be the heir of) and the Pharisees (i.e., "Jews", forefathers of modern Judaism), as well as placing a central focus on his divine nature.
Epistle of Jude
III. Warning against the False Teachers (5-16)
  A. Historical Examples of the Judgement of Apostates (5-7) 
    1. Unbelieving Israel (5) 
    2. Angels who fell (6) 
    3. Sodom and Gomorrah (7) 
  B. Description of the Apostates of Jude's Day (8-16)
    1. Their slanderous speech deplored (8-10) 
    2. Their character graphically portrayed (11-13) 
    3. Their destruction prophesied (14-16)
Jews for Jesus
Belief in Jesus as deity, son of God, or even a non-divine Christ/Messiah or Prophet (as in Islam), is held as incompatible with Judaism by all Jewish religious movements. In a 2013 Pew Forum study, 60% of American Jews said that belief in Jesus as the Messiah was not "compatible with being Jewish", while 34% found it compatible and 4% did not know.
Jude the Apostle
In some Latin manuscripts of Matthew 10:3, Thaddeus is called Judas the Zealot.
Ahmadiyya–Jewish relations
Both Ahmadis and Jews believe him as a prophet of God and show respect for him.
Jesus Justus
Jesus Justus (Greek Ιησούς χω λεγόμενος Ιουστος "Iesous ho legomenos Ioustos") was one of several Jewish Christians in the church at Rome mentioned by Paul the Apostle in the greetings at the end of the Epistle to the Colossians 4:11.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
During the next three years, that Man, Jesus, preaches his gospel around Galilee, and Ben-Hur becomes one of his followers. He notices that Jesus chooses fishermen, farmers, and similar people, considered "lowly", as apostles. Judah has seen Jesus perform miracles, and is now convinced that the Christ really had come.
Judas Iscariot
Ehrman argues that Judas's betrayal "is about as historically certain as anything else in the tradition", pointing out that the betrayal is independently attested in the Gospel of Mark, in the Gospel of John, and in the Book of Acts. Ehrman also contends that it is highly unlikely that early Christians would have made the story of Judas's betrayal up, since it reflects poorly on Jesus's judgement in choosing him as an apostle. Nonetheless, Ehrman argues that what Judas actually told the authorities was not Jesus's location, but rather Jesus's secret teaching that he was the Messiah. This, he holds, explains why the authorities did not try to arrest Jesus prior to Judas's betrayal. John P. Meier sums up the historical consensus, stating, "We only know two basic facts about [Judas]: (1) Jesus chose him as one of the Twelve, and (2) he handed over Jesus to the Jerusalem authorities, thus precipitating Jesus' execution."
Paul the Apostle and Judaism
Jewish interest in Paul is a recent phenomenon. Before the so-called Jewish reclamation of Jesus (as a Jew) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, he had hardly featured in the popular Jewish imagination and little had been written about him by the religious leaders and scholars. Arguably, he is absent from the Talmud and rabbinical literature, although he makes an appearance in some variants of the medieval polemic Toledot Yeshu (as a spy for the rabbis). But with Jesus no longer regarded as the paradigm of gentile Christianity, Paul's position became more important in Jewish historical reconstructions of their religion's relationship with Christianity. He has featured as the key to building barriers (e.g. Heinrich Graetz and Martin Buber) or bridges (e.g. Isaac Mayer Wise and Claude G. Montefiore) in interfaith relations, as part of an intra-Jewish debate about what constitutes Jewish authenticity (e.g. Joseph Klausner and Hans Joachim Schoeps), and, on occasion, as a dialogical partner (e.g. Richard L. Rubenstein and Daniel Boyarin). He features in an oratorio (by Felix Mendelssohn), a painting (by Ludwig Meidner) and a play (by Franz Werfel), and there have been several novels about Paul (by Shalom Asch and Samuel Sandmel). Jewish philosophers (including Baruch Spinoza, Leo Shestov, and Jacob Taubes) and Jewish psychoanalysts (including Sigmund Freud and Hanns Sachs) have engaged with the apostle as one of the most influential figures in Western thought. Scholarly surveys of Jewish interest in Paul include those by Hagner (1980), Meissner (1996), and Langton (2010, 2011).
Revelation
Although the Nevi'im (the books of the Prophets) are considered divine and true, this does not imply that the books of the prophets are always read literally. Jewish tradition has always held that prophets used metaphors and analogies. There exists a wide range of commentaries explaining and elucidating those verses consisting of metaphor. Rabbinic Judaism regards Moses as the greatest of the prophets, and this view is one of the Thirteen Principles of Faith of traditional Judaism. Consistent with the view that revelation to Moses was generally clearer than revelation to other prophets, Orthodox views of revelation to prophets other than Moses have included a range of perspectives as to directness. For example, Maimonides in "The Guide for the Perplexed" said that accounts of revelation in the Nevi'im were not always as literal as in the Torah and that some prophetic accounts reflect allegories rather than literal commands or predictions.
Robert A. J. Gagnon
In his paper "Why the 'Weak' at Rome Cannot Be Non-Christian Jews", Gagnon disputes work by Mark D. Nanos, who argues that Paul the Apostle was a Torah-observant follower of Judaism.
Prophets and messengers in Islam
Muslims believe that the first prophet was also the first human being, Adam (ادم), created by Allah (الله). Many of the revelations delivered by the 48 prophets in Judaism and many prophets of Christianity are mentioned as such in the Quran but usually in slightly different forms. For example, the Jewish Elisha is called Eliyas, Job is Ayyub, Jesus is Isa, etc. The Torah given to Moses (Musa) is called "Tawrat", the Psalms given to David (Dawud) is the "Zabur", the Gospel given to Jesus is "Injil".
Judas Iscariot
Although the canonical gospels frequently disagree on the names of some of the minor apostles, all four of them list Judas Iscariot as one of them. The Synoptic Gospels state that Jesus sent out "the twelve" (including Judas) with power over unclean spirits and with a ministry of preaching and healing: Judas clearly played an active part in this apostolic ministry alongside the other eleven. However, in John's Gospel, Judas's outlook was differentiated - many of Jesus' disciples abandoned him because of the difficulty of accepting his teachings, and Jesus asked the twelve if they would also leave him. Simon Peter spoke for the twelve: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life," but Jesus observed then that although Judas was one of the twelve whom he had chosen, he was "a devil."
Matthew directly states that Judas betrayed Jesus for a bribe of "thirty pieces of silver" by identifying him with a kiss – "the kiss of Judas" – to arresting soldiers of the High Priest Caiaphas, who then turned Jesus over to Pontius Pilate's soldiers.
Islam and other religions
Some Jews generally rejected Muhammad's status as a prophet. According to Watt, "Jews would normally be unwilling to admit that a non-Jew could be a prophet." In the Constitution of Medina, Muhammad demanded the Jews' political loyalty in return for religious and cultural autonomy. In every major battle with the Medinans, two local Jewish tribes were found to be treachous (see ). After Badr and Uhud, the Banu Qainuqa and Banu Nadir (the latter being an ethnic Arab tribe who converted to Judaism, according to the Muslim historian al-Yaqubi), respectively, took up arms against the ummah and were subsequently expelled "with their families and possessions" from Medina.