(was asked this very question when I was on a sales trip in montgomery alabama) “why don’t you believe in JC”
me: why should I.
him: to be saved
me: from what?
him: from eternal damnation
me: why do I have to be saved from that? what did I do to “earn” the trip?
him: the bible says so
me: what bible?
him: cites relevant verses from his scripture
me: thats not written anywhere in my bible – the jewish bible does not contain the books of matthew, luke etc..
him: what do you mean?
me: what is not to understand? those are not part of the jewish bible
him: oh, but it is part of the new testament
me: as a jew, I believe in a “testament”, not a new one or an old one. Just an original.
him: what about jeremiah 31?
me: (thinking, its a good thing I once read the book, you take jesus i’ll take g-d”) first of all, the phrase “bris chadasha” (I had to explain to him those are the hebrew words that were written by the navi who did not speak either greek, latin or the kings english )does not mean a new testament, but rather a new covenant and if you would read the entire chapter, specifically the pesukim (I used the word verses) that preceed and follow this specific phrase, you would see that there is no new covenant either, rather a renewal of the old covenant, but I continued, you can not read much less understand hebrew, so anything I tell you is meaningless. Perhaps you should learn to read and understand hebrew, then we can have an intelligent conversation.
him: oh
him after a silence of perhaps 20 seconds: what do jews believe about the second coming (note the tone change from why not to what do you believe about
me: we dont. there is no such concept in judaism
him. really?
me: really, really.
him: what about isiah 53?
me: what “about” isiah 53?
him: doesnt it say a prophecy of the suffering servant blah blah blah and all werent all those things fulfilled in j?
me: lets assume your interpretation and understanding of the chapter is correct, why assume j is the subject? any one of tens of thousands of jews throughout history fit the subject, he doesnt have a monopoly on being despised and beaten and besides, the chapter is not written in the future tense, it is written in past, future and present tense, oh I forgot, you dont read hebrew.
him: maybe I should learn hebrew.
me: maybe you should. here is my card if you need any help. enjoy your day. good luck.