Brief List Of Most Famous Messianic Jews

Interesting list with a lot of interesting names.

Their definition of a Messianic Jew is a little different right?

awe come on....why aren't the Chernoff's on that list?

Pray4Isrel said:

Heh, everyone's definition of Messianic is different!

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That's true

you know the popular saying? Ask two rabbi's and you'll get three answers.

Zayit said:

Makes you rethink what Y'SHUA said about two or more agreeing on earth about something.

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Zayit awesome thought! Never seen it quite like that. Ask the teachers...and when your all done getting their responses.....use Yeshua's lol.

Thanks Zayit! This is an awesome list.

I did not know Franz Delitzsch was a Messianic...His translation of the Brit haHadasha is one of the most favored by scholars in Israel. I'm super glad to discover it is online here.

where is it recorded that Hilel the 2nd believed in Yeshuah as Mashiach ben Yosef?

Zayit said:

Some of these names date back hundreds of years, thus there was only Judaism and Christianity then, and Rome wasn't teaching it OK at the time to remain Jewish. You can see by their name changes, to Christian ones, just the opposite of what happened when the Zionists moved to Palestine in hopes of it being their homeland once again, they then choose to call themselves by Hebrew names.

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Its just that by using "messianic jews" some people might mistake these to be also torah observant which is the common inclination when people come across this term. But its no biggy.

Under Constantine also the Jewish patriarch Hillel was converted and baptized by the missionary bishop who bore the title of Tiberias but resided elsewhere (P.G., XLI, 409-29).
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14716a.htm

This isn't accurate at all.
There was no Sage that converted to Christianity.
The only sage that was suspected of being a Nazarean during times that christianity had risen to be a heretical group to Judaism was the Sage Rabbi Eliezer.
Yet, he made sure to give the most teachings in the talmud- because much of it comes from him.
However, it is clear that Eliezer remained a Jew, a Rabbi, A sage and was not a christian- Yet, it is CLEAR that the talmud will not hide anything.

Cool list! Although as others have pointed out the definition seems to be any Jewish person who accepts Christ as the Messiah, not necessarily someone who holds to the beliefs of most Messianic Jews. Which means I guess if I were famous I could be on this list. I especially liked seeing those on the list who were Orthodox Christians; I didn't know that all of those listed were Jewish in origin.

In IC XC,
Marjorie

Hey Zayit! Feel free to call me by my Hebrew name, Leah, if you want. (My older sister's name is Rachel-- her Hebrew name is Mazel Rach'el-- and my rabbi thought it would be hilarious to have my Hebrew name be Leah *shakes head*)

Well, first of all, don't take this in a confrontational way but calling an Orthodox Christian a Catholic is like calling a messianic a Christian... the Orthodox Church is not part of the Catholic Church and historically has not been part of the Catholic/Protestant dichotomy... in fact it is very distinct from both Catholicism and Protestantism. Orthodox Christians believe that the Roman Patriarchate broke off from the Church in the 11th century and has not been in communion with the Church since then. I'm not mad, just for future reference!!!

I will admit that, sadly, in many Christian countries following Constantine embracing one's Jewish identity was not encouraged or downright forbidden. What is most encouraging for me is reading stories of those who became part of the Church but kept their Jewish identity (I am reading a book on this right now called Doubly Chosen.) My Jewish identity is very important to me and I still do Shabbat dinner with my family (they always ask me to do the blessings, which I think is some sort of recognition that I'm the only one who actually wants to do Shabbat dinner and also the only one who definitely believes in God) and practice my Hebrew as much as possible, etc. When I am in church I always take note of the Jewish origins of this or that practice (such as the Royal Doors, or the Menorah on the altar-- there is one in every Orthodox church-- or the readings from the Scriptures, etc.) One website that I really like (http://liturgica.com) talks about the liturgies of Judaism, Orthodoxy, Catholicism and classical Protestantism in their historical context.

It's true that some of the people on the list simply chose between what they viewed as two options (Judaism/Christianity), but some are more recent... such as Elizabeth Behr-Siegel or Fr. Alexander Men, who were well-aware of different Jewish-Christian interpretations.

Anyway thank you for the welcome, and again for the great list! I truly feel surrounded by a "great cloud of witnesses" whilst reading it.

!שלום
לאה

So you are a Leah too? Shalom!

Yes my family is Jewish... I wouldn't so far as to say nominal Jews as they are actively Jewish, just more in praxis than belief. My mom converted to Judaism before she met my dad, when she was in her early thirties. She grew up Catholic. Her reasons for conversion were less religious than philosophical, and I believe she just admired Jewish ethics and rituals more than anything else. My dad is also practicing but I do not think he has any strong religious convictions. When we were growing up we attended a Reform synagogue but now we belong to a Reconstructionist synagogue... I much preferred the Reform synagogue.

Because my mother is an ex-Catholic there are Christians in her family, but only a few who are very committed. My dad's cousins both are Christians-- they were not brought up very religious and one converted for marriage and one converted out of true conviction.

I have been a believer in Yahshua (if you'd rather me refer to him as Jesus as I am not a Messianic I understand, just tell me) for about two years, when he dragged me out of paganism, polytheism and gnosticism. I cannot tell you why I started becoming interested in this strange man, this crucified messiah... only that my pagan spirituality had not prepared me at all for meeting the Risen Lord face-to-face. I struggled for a long time with my gnostic spirituality and Yahshua's Jewishness and eventually found an answer in the Orthodox Church, which is-- even if not all its members realize it-- very Jewish in its theological, ecclesiological, and liturgical origins without being blindsighted by the cosmic consequences of the Incarnation. (Orthodox Christians also view Christ as not only the answer to Jewish prophecy but to all erroneous pagan philosophies, as he is the answer to all mankind's searching.)

My conversion was largely a love affair with Yahshua mixed with a conflict between pagan convictions and a Jewish messiah. I believe that Orthodoxy is the answer for all of this, but I am not preaching and hope this will not get into a debate... it is just hard to talk about how I came to the Church without mentioning that because that was a large part of it.

My conversion story in a longer form is on the TAW conversion thread...

I don't really have that many thoughts in regards to Zionism. I know what I was taught to believe in Hebrew school... I don't really know enough about the issue to make a judgment on it, however. However hopefully it is not presumptuous to pray for both the Israelis and the Palestinians, both created by HaShem, the one true God.

In IC XC,
Marjorie