I'll even make it easier and post my rebuttal to you here, so that you don't have to go digging for it in the other thread:
Ok Wiggs, here is a retort to your copy and paste material that you posted, notice how I clearly wrote every single word here for you and others to read. No need to copy and paste, just a straight debate:
First off Benjamin Freedman was
NOT an esteemed Jew. He wasn't esteemed by the Jewish Community. In fact, he denounced Judaism and became Roman Catholic and was both an antisemitic and anti-zionist. So please, get your facts straight and stop copying and pasting the first article you find off Google that tries to prove that Jesus wasn't a Jew.
For any members that are actually buying into Wiggs' nonsense, feel free to put in "Jesus was not a Jew" in Google search and notice that the very first result is what Wiggs posted up for an argument supposedly based on facts.I read that argument (here is the website for it:
http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/jesusjew.htm) and
NOTHING that Freedman states is backed by
FACTS.
So before you simply cut and paste bullshit off the internet, at the very least find factual information backed by references that are peer-reviewed.
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Now that your ability to argue anything has been debunked by your own doing, I'll try to refute your notion that Jesus wasn't Jewish by using my own argument (notice it isn't a copy and paste argument, as you so clearly are only capable of doing).
I believe Jesus was Jewish, because the Bible is the only accurate historical reference we have regarding Jesus and it clearly shows us that he was Jewish.
Lets consider a few simple things. First, what is the definition of the term Jew?
Here is what I found (and you can too) in Merriam Webster's dictionary:
A member of the tribe of Judah (site:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jew)
Ok, so for someone to be consider a Jew, they should be a member or descendant of the tribe of Judah. I think that point is clearly established. We also know Judah was the fourth son of both Jacob and Leah, making him a member of the twelve tribes of Israel by lineage alone.
So back to Jesus. In order for someone to be consider a Jew, he needs to be born of a Jewish mother.
So was Mary Jewish and in any way related to Judah?
Let's look at the lineage.
From
Judah comes
David...and from
David comes both
Mary and Joseph and from
Mary comes
Jesus. (For proof of this line of reasoning take a look at Luke 3:23-38)
Here is what Luke 3:23 looks like for those that are interested:
3:23 So Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years old.
He was the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli...
If you keep reading down the long lineage, it gets to this:
3:30 the son of Simeon,
the son of Judah <~~~ There is the direct lineage to Judah.
In order to reinforce the fact that Mary was Jewish and from the line of David and furthermore Judah, this is what Luke 1:32 states:
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest:
and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.
If Jesus is related to David directly, as the father of his lineage, and David comes from Judah, as shown in the lineage found in Luke 3,
then CLEARLY Jesus was JEWISH!
If you go to Luke chapter 3 and read through the lineage, you will clearly see how Mary is directly related by blood to Judah.
So, simply put, if Jesus was born of Mary (who was Jewish), then Jesus by default is also Jewish.
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The genealogies I used were strictly from the New Testament. All of the material presented in the New Testament points to Jesus being a descendant of David, which in turn was a descendant of Judah, thereby making him a Jew.
Likewise, both Mary and Joseph's genealogies can be traced directly to Judah, making them both Jews.
Not to mention that:
Jesus preached from the Torah (Only a Jew would use the Torah)
Got circumcised (A practice used to keep the pact given to Abraham)
Prayed in a synagogue (Why would you do that if you weren't a Jew?)
Was allowed into the temple (which is
VERY IMPORTANT since only Jews were allowed into the temple, gentiles could not enter)
That's as simple as a non-Christian can put it for anyone else to read. No big, fancy and tiresome articles copied and pasted from the internet, just some simple dots that everyone can connect.
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