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I have been taught growing up that only Jesus has fulfilled the Old Testament messianic prophecies, and has not contradicted any messianic prophecies.

Which messianic prophecies did Jesus fulfill?

Which messianic prophecies did Jesus not fulfill?

Are there any things he did or did not do that completely rule out Jesus being the messiah according to all Jewish traditions?

A "messianic prophecy" is what is agreed upon by all Jewish traditions.

yters
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    possible duplicate of Why don't Jews think Jesus is the messiah? – Isaac Moses May 02 '14 at 01:03
  • It is similar, but I want to know whether Jesus fulfills the messianic prophecies the best. Which he may do even if Jews by and large do not think he is the messiah. – yters May 02 '14 at 01:06
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    Well, as noted in that other question, he hasn't fulfilled those prophecies. And he's dead now. So you're asking if, hypothetically, a person who failed to fulfill those prophecies could be resurrected and do so in the future? That seems pretty speculative, and there'd be no reason to believe that Jesus would be more likely to do so than Shabbatai Tzvi or my cousin Joe -- every claimant starts at square zero, having not done the job so far. – Monica Cellio May 02 '14 at 01:33
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    Jesus actually satisfied the requirements of a false prophet in that he taught things which go against the Torah. That in addition to not satisfying all the prophecies sort of seals the deal. Did he fulfill ANY is the real question (other than those like "ride a donkey" which were fulfilled by many people). – rosends May 02 '14 at 01:35
  • @yters out of curiosity, do you have an example of any prophecies he did fulfill? – Y     e     z May 02 '14 at 01:44
  • David Ben Gurion fulfilled the most. See here: http://parsha.blogspot.com/2008/07/was-lubavitcher-rebbe-or-david-ben.html – josh waxman May 02 '14 at 02:18
  • To the others, I am not especially well versed in which exactly Jesus purportedly fulfilled. I know that Matthew especially made an effort to show that Jesus fulfilled important prophecies, but I don't have the background to know how important these prophecies were. Off the top of my head they are: virgin birth, born in bethlehem, the similarities with Psalms 22, carrying our sins. I'm not trying to be a missionary with this question, I am genuinely curious. I apologize for any offense caused. – yters May 02 '14 at 02:40
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    @yters I hope you don't take this as hostile (not meant to be), but Matthew didn't "show" anything; the people writing the Jesus story knew their Tanakh and knew what prophecies they had to line up with, but there's no external evidence for any of the claims -- and even people wanting to tell this story didn't manage to address most of the moshiach job requirements. (There comes a point where you can't; if someone had united all the Jews under his rule and built the third temple, we'd know.) BTW, "virgin birth" is a Christian thing based on a false translation; Judaism doesn't have that. – Monica Cellio May 02 '14 at 02:49
  • I see three questions here: which prophecies did Jesus fulfill and/or contradict? and: who has fulfilled the most prophesies? and: does fulfilling the most prophecies make one the best candidate for Messiah? Please pick one question per post and be sure to describe exactly how you quantify "most" and how to define a "messianic prophesy". – Double AA May 02 '14 at 03:49
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    This version of the question requires knowledge of Christian claims (what things Jesus is alleged to have done), which runs afoul of the comparative-religion close reason. You'd need to include a list and ask "what's missing?" or the like if you want to go down that path. Sorry. – Monica Cellio May 02 '14 at 03:57
  • Can I say something like: assume the accuracy of the gospel accounts in the New Testament? – yters May 02 '14 at 04:02
  • Thanks, I really appreciate your time. I am interested, and would look into any books you recommend. – yters May 02 '14 at 04:21
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    I also invite you to read the link posted here on Stack Exchange as to why the Jews don't believe he's the messiah. I cannot recommend any book in particular as I haven't read any anti-missionary works except for one in a larger collection of essays. The subject doesn't interest me all that much, frankly, as I don't have any doubts on the subject. :) – Ploni Almoni May 02 '14 at 04:34
  • Right, that's exactly why I'm asking questions here. If Jews are convinced they are right, I'm very interested to learn why. If you are correct, then I should become a Jew! – yters May 02 '14 at 04:41
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    Another related question I found: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/26938/are-the-jews-today-still-waiting-for-the-messiah-to-come?rq=1 – yters May 02 '14 at 04:52
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    Actually, if we are correct, you have no obligation to become a Jew. You have an obligation to be a Ben Noach. – Ploni Almoni May 02 '14 at 05:01

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For the question of whether Jesus could have been the moshiach (summary: no), see this question.

In a comment you say that your question isn't a duplicate of that but, rather:

I want to know whether Jesus fulfills the messianic prophecies the best. Which he may do even if Jews by and large do not think he is the messiah.

This doesn't really compute for us, I'm afraid. Since he obviously wasn't the moshiach, and since somebody who's dead can't be the moshiach in the future, it doesn't really matter if he fulfills the prophecies "the best". There's no partial credit; since he's not the moshiach, his claim is no stronger than that of Shabbatai Tzvi, Bar Kokhba, David Ben Gurion, or any of the dozens (hundreds?) of people throughout history who've thought they were the moshiach.1

The proof is in the doing. When somebody gathers all Jews in Israel, unifies the world in believing in God, brings world peace, builds the third temple, etc, we'll know we have a candidate. Until then, matching up on a few points -- without even supporting evidence, only the written testimony of people who wanted to tell that particular story -- doesn't mean anything.

1 I am not saying that Ben Gurion ever made such a claim; I'm only using him as an example of someone who was pretty significant in the political history of Israel. (The article that makes a related claim is not serious.)

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Monica Cellio
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  • Yes, I know Jesus didn't fulfill all the prophecies. My question is whether Jesus fulfilled the most. According to Josh in the comments above Ben Gurion fulfilled the most, which most closely answers my question. Furthermore in his article, he states that dying is not enough to disqualify someone from being a messianic candidate: 'since he was not "neherag" but died, and /or perhaps since tzadikkim are not really, fully "dead," he should still be a good candidate'. So even though Jesus died, that doesn't mean he can't be the messiah. – yters May 02 '14 at 03:11
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    @yters I hate to tell you this, but that article is written tongue in cheek. Standard Judaism for millennia has held death to be a deal-breaker. There have always been some crazies along the way, but it takes all types, right? – Double AA May 02 '14 at 03:20
  • Interesting. There aren't any messianic prophecies or traditions saying the messiah will rise from the dead? For example, the idea of a "messiah son of Joseph" in this missionary article: http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/dead-sea-scroll-says-messiah-to-come-die-and-rise-on-third-day/ – yters May 02 '14 at 03:30
  • I'm not aware of any. In future times all who have died will be resurrected, but the messiah himself has to be there in the flesh on his first round. Edit: Oh, you're asking about moshiach ben Yosef. See some info here. – Monica Cellio May 02 '14 at 03:32
  • Aha! Yes, that's an excellent reference. In Christian circles the two are considered to be the same figure. In Judaism they are considered two distinct persons? And, is there anything that prohibits them from being the same person? – yters May 02 '14 at 04:11
  • While this answer does not answer the totality of my question, you did give me a good pointer with the moshiach ben Yosef reference. And given this question has -3 at the time of writing, I doubt it'll get much more traction on this site. So, I'll award you the answer. – yters May 02 '14 at 05:35
  • Thanks. It was an attempt to answer the first version of your question; it's not so much of a match with your edited one, I'm afraid. – Monica Cellio May 02 '14 at 14:13
  • @yters You asked if there is anything that prevents the mashiach ben Yosef and mashiach be David from being the same person. The answer is yes. Inheritence is only in the unbroken paternal line. Mashiach ben Yosef is from Yosef (Ephraim or Menashe) and mashiach ben David is from the tribe of Yehudah. Thus they cannot be the same person (or related sany closer than that). – sabbahillel Nov 05 '15 at 16:31
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    @sabbahillel Is it clear that MBY must come patrillineally from Yosef? Perhaps he could be from Yosef the way Mordechai is from Yehuda (cf Megillah 12b)? – Double AA Nov 05 '15 at 17:00
  • @DoubleAA From what I have seen, if you want to make that type of claim then it would be from one of the ten tribes that were in malchus Yisrael rather than malchus Yehudah. That is if the reference is like that of the two sticks of Yechezkel. In either case, then it would not be "ben Yosef". Note that Mordechai was haYehudi, not ben Yehudah. – sabbahillel Nov 05 '15 at 17:38