Are all Jews who believe in Yeshua “Messianic Jews”?
A. Another popular misconception is that any Jew who believes in Yeshua is therefore a “Messianic Jew.” However, there are many types of Jews who believe in Jesus – Jewish Christians, Hebrew-Christians, Jewish Catholics and Messianic Jews. Specifically, a Messianic Jew is a person of Jewish heritage who remains committed to the social and religious values of Judaism and the Jewish people, and willingly believes that Yeshua of Nazareth is the long awaited Jewish Messiah. A Messianic Jew sees their primary community of reference as Jewish. A Jew, then, who converts and assimilates another religion and loses any affiliation with Jewish identity, is therefore not a “Messianic Jew” because they have chosen, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to abandon their culture and their identity outside of Judaism and the wider Jewish community. There is no evidence of nor justification for this from the Hebrew Scriptures.
