Jews for Jesus South Africa

15/06/2026

That can sound like an oxymoron to many people. Wouldn’t believing in Jesus negate being Jewish? After all, in medieval times when the Church forced Jews to convert under pain of death, the idea was for them to renounce their Jewishness, not to reinforce it! But that was a complete misunderstanding of what Jesus means for Jewish people. Many Jews who have come to believe in Jesus find a renewed interest in their Jewish identity. Jewish literature, films, and art acquire a greater interest because the teachings of Jesus give us a fresh perspective on what it means to be Jewish. Our holidays and many of our religious traditions also take on deeper meanings. At Passover, for example, not only are we celebrating how our ancestors were saved from slavery through faith in God’s deliverance, but we are celebrating how we have been saved from sin and death through faith in Jesus.

12/06/2026

Given Jesus’ deep-rooted Jewish identity, it is a tragic irony of history that antisemitism worked its way into the Christian church. Antisemitism had long existed in pagan-Gentile culture. And as faith in Jesus grew rapidly among the Gentiles over the first five centuries, those attitudes, unfortunately began to be imported into Christian thought.

That is very concerning. But we should keep in mind two counterpoints:

• First, antisemitism is not the whole story of the Gentile-Christian church. There are also many historical clues that show there was ongoing friendship between many early Gentile followers of Jesus and their Jewish neighbors. And you’ll still find many Gentile Christians today who have a special love for our people because of Jesus.

• Second, if we refuse to believe in Jesus because of the history of antisemitism, we let the antisemites win, and thus, we surrender our understanding of the New Testament to those who have tried to distort it. Never let antisemites be the final interpreters of Scripture or history.

In short, the fact that some people have misused the New Testament does not make the New Testament wrong.

10/06/2026

Sinai, Spirit, and Fire: The Shavuot Connection to Pentecost

Most people think of Shavuot as Jewish and Pentecost as Christian. ...

08/06/2026

If we dig into the New Testament and understand it in all of its true Jewish
character, we will find that it’s a very different kind of book than we
had imagined.

It is not an alternative set of “Scriptures for Gentiles.” It is not an attempted
replacement of the Hebrew Scriptures. Instead, it is written as a highly
affirmative capstone to the Tanakh, written by Jewish authors for a heavily
Jewish audience. Their central claim is that Jesus as the Messiah affirmed
and fulfilled the promises of God to Israel in the Scriptures.

Recognizing this in recent years, Jewish scholars and institutions have
started including the New Testament as a Jewish document worthy of
discussion. For example, see the recent Jewish Annotated New Testament
by a team of Jewish writers and scholars.

Rabbis have written books on the New Testament. In fact, a positive appreciation of the New Testament among Jewish authors dates back to the nineteenth century.

05/06/2026

Though you might not guess it from looking at a lot of Gentile-Christian art, Jesus was a first-century Jewish person. If you met him on the street today, you’d likely guess that he was a Sephardic Jew. He grew up in Israel in a Jewish family, went to synagogue, taught Torah, and gathered an entirely Jewish group of followers. That’s why the first words of the New Testament are a long genealogy that traces Jesus’ roots back through David to Abraham. Jesus was Jewish, and he loved his people. The Gentiles call him Christ Jesus, which is a translation of what his people would have called him: Mashiach Yeshua (Messiah Jesus).

03/06/2026

I Was Consumed by Anger, Until JESUS Did THIS...

Please consider donating towards our ministry 👉 https://www.mission...

01/06/2026

How can you be Jewish and believe in Jesus?

Over the next few weeks, we will take you through a series of reasons for why being Jewish and believing in Jesus has helped us connect more deeply with our Jewish heritage, proof that He is the long-awaited Messiah and that the journey to faith in Him is worth it.



https://jewsforjesus.org/12-reasons

29/05/2026

We hope you're taking the time to slow down and cultivate stillness, peace, and rest this Shabbat. Shabbat Shalom, friends.

27/05/2026

Jewish Atheist Changes Her Mind After Hearing the Gospel

Jeff met a Jewish woman in Israel who identified as an atheist, but everything changed when they talked about God and Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. She went f...

25/05/2026

When God appeared to Moses through the burning bush, Moses asked God for His name. Though Moses needed to be reintroduced, God knew Moses deeply. He knows each of us deeply.

Speaking to the Israelites, He said through the prophet Isaiah, "But now, thus says Adonai—the One who created you, O Jacob, the One who formed you, O Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are Mine'" (43:1).