Do Jews believe that all the prophesies of the Old Testament have been fulfilled?

Answer 1

Supervisor's Note: there is no one thing that ALL Jews believe. Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and all other denominations teach that it is okay for Jews have an infinite number of opinions. The first answer was written by a Christian though, and contains some terminology mistakes that have been edited.

The following are all valid opinions.

Answer

No. Many Jews believe in the Old Testament Hebrew Bible or ("Tanakh") and that eventually all of the prophecies in it will be fulfilled, but they do not believe that all the prophesies have already been fulfilled.

The most obvious one is that Christians believe that Jesus came to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament Hebrew Bible. Some Jews are still waiting on the Saviour Messiah.

Clarification Regarding the previous answer, that which is "Saviour" to the Christian, is "Messiah" to the Jewish. Meaning of which is entirely different.

In Judaism, the Messiah (מָשִׁיחַ) initially meant any person who was anointed to a certain position among the ancient Israelites, at first that of High priest, later that of King and also that of a prophet. In English today, in religious contexts, it is used in two major contexts: the anticipated savior of the Jews, which has to come in the future to bring ultimate peace on earth; and secondly, the one who is anticipated as, regarded as, or professes to be a saviour or liberator. Jews, however, do not generally use the word "saviour" in reference to the messiah, primarily because of the Christian connotation of the word "saviour," and the sense in which that word is used by Christianity.

In Judaism, only God is the Saviour (not the Messiah).

Answer

Jewish Argument Against Jesus As Messiah (author unknown) quoted from John E. Remsberg The Christ, page 362

We do not find in the present comparatively imperfect stage of human progress the realization of that blessed condition of mankind which the prophet Isaiah associates with the era when Messiah is to appear. And as our Hebrew Scriptures speak of one Messianic advent only, and not of two advents; and as the inspired Book does not preach Messiah's kingdom as a matter of faith, but distinctly identifies it with matters of fact which are to be made evident to the senses, we cling to the plain inference to be drawn from the text of the Bible, and we deny that Messiah has yet appeared, and upon the following grounds: First, because of the three distinctive facts which the inspired seer of Judah inseparably connects with the advent of the Messiah, vis., (1) the cessation of war and the uninterrupted reign of peace, (2) the prevalence of a perfect concord of opinion on all matters bearing upon the worship of the one and only God, and (3) the ingathering of the remnant of Judah and of the dispersed ten tribes of Israel -- not one has, up to the present time, been accomplished. Second, we dissent from the proposition that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah announced by the prophets, because the church which he founded, and which his successors developed, has offered, during a succession of centuries, most singular contrast to what is described by the Hebrew scriptures as the immediate consequence of Messiah's advent, and of his glorious kingdom. The prophet Isaiah declares that when the Messiah appears, peace, love, and union will be permanently established; and every candid man must admit that the world has not realized the accomplishment of this prophecy. Again, in the days of Messiah, all men, as Scripture saith, "are to serve God with one accord"; and yet it is very certain that since the appearance of him whom Christians believe to be Messiah, mankind has been split into more hostile divisions on the ground of religious belief, and more antagonistic sects have sprung up, than in any historic age before Christianity was preached.

Answer

Reform, Reconstructionist, and the majority of Conservative Jews do not necessarily believe literally in prophecy or that the Messiah will be an actual person. Reform and Reconstructionist prayerbooks have removed messianic references. Conservative prayerbooks maintain these references, but allow for meaningful discussion on the topic.

Answer 2

Answer 1

Many Jews at his time were calling Jesus a teacher or Rabbi. However, most Jews today do not believe that the Messiah has arrived yet. The one exception is Messianic Jews, who believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

Answer 2

Not even close. Jesus is regarded by most Jewish scholars as having been a false Messiah, like many other false Messiahs (one seems to crop up every 100-150 years). There have been a number of false Messiahs such as Jesus of Nazareth, Shabbatai Tzvi, and Menahem Mendel Schneersohn (although a minority of Jews still regard the latter as a quasi-Messiah). Jesus failed to fulfill a number of prophecies or reversed them.

Some of the most common Jewish arguments against accepting Jesus as the Messiah are the following:

1) Firstly, Jesus did not perform or take part in the most important prophecies that the Old Testament ascribes to the Messiah. He did not establish the Kingdom of God on Earth (otherwise God would actually oversee the world on a day-to-day basis).

2) He did not end all wars; in fact, after his death, numerous wars were fought in the name of Christianity, religious divisions in Christianity, and attempts to Christianize non-Christians. If anything, it is a reversal of the prophecy.

3) He failed to fulfill the prophecy of the lion and the lamb, where the lion and the lamb are supposed to live harmoniously without predation. Any scientist studying wildlife will tell you that the increase of invasive species, adaptive nature of animals, and the incredible inhumanity that many animals exhibit would be clear proof that Jesus did not fulfill this prophecy.

4) The Messiah is also supposed to make the Temple at Jerusalem a beacon for all of the nations, not portend its destruction, another prophetic reversal.

5) Finally, the Messiah is supposed to accompany the resurrection of the dead en masse (not just himself and a few random people who had been dead for a few days). The entire world is to be resurrected (except the wicked) and brought to the Kingdom of God. In this, Jesus also failed.

Of course, there is the one exception of Messianic Jews, who believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but these people are shunned by most of the remaining Jewish community for expressly that belief.

Answer 3

All of them? Not yet. Many prophecies have been fulfilled. A few examples:

• The vast empires of the Caucasian peoples (Genesis 9:27), including the empires of Alexander, the Romans, Russia and America.
• The fact that Abraham is revered to this day, close to 4,000 years after his lifetime (Genesis 12:2).
  

Link: About Abraham

• God having fulfilled his promise (Genesis 35:12) to give Israel (Canaan) to Jacob's descendants.
• The fact that the Arabs are very numerous (Genesis 17:20).
  
• The Edumeans having been subjugated by the Israelites (see Genesis 25:23 and 1 Kings 22:48).
  
• The fact that Edom (Petra) is today an uninhabited desert (Jeremiah 49:17-18).
• The existence of the Davidic dynasty (Genesis 49:8-10) and its splitting (1 Kings 11:11-13).
  

Link: About King David

• The destruction of the Temple (1 Kings 9:7).
  

Link: The Destruction

• The scattering of the Jews (Deuteronomy 4:27).
  
• The destruction of Babylon (Isaiah 13:19).
• The hatred against the Jews, and the canards that have been hurled at them (Deuteronomy 28:37).
  
• The fact that the Jews continue to exist despite their exile (Leviticus 26:44).
  

Link: Eternity of the Jews

• The fact that billions of people have come under the influence of the Abrahamic belief, with the Greek, Norse and Roman gods now long-defunct. This is an (as yet) partial fulfillment of Isaiah 2:18.

Other prophecies are being fulfilled even now. A couple of examples are the mass return of Jews to Israel (Deuteronomy 30:3-5), and the fact that Israel is considered a significant force in the Middle East, with a number of victories (see Micah 5:7).

See also the other Related Links.

Link: Reliability of the Hebrew Bible

Link: Israelite prophecy

Answer 4

While Jews believe that some of the Old Testament prophecies have been fulfilled (please see Expert Dan Galilee's list), these have been fulfilled through the passage of time and history. Judaism rejects the Christian claim that Jesus was the complete fulfillment of the law and prophecies of the Old Testament and further rejects that he was the fulfillment of any law or prophecy from the Old Testament.