What do Jews believe?

Jews believe in the God of Israel: one, the cause of all that exists, not a body, who gave the Torah, who will send the Messiah from the house of David, and who will raise the dead. Maimonides wrote that confession as thirteen principles. Christians share the Shema and the Scriptures he cites, and they confess that Jesus is the Messiah and is God the Son.

Key points

• Deuteronomy 6:4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:Deuteronomy 6:4 · King James Version, King James Version: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (1) Maimonides’ second principle points to that sentence.
• His first principle: there is “a Being complete in all the ways of existence,” the cause of everything else. His third: that Unity “is not a body and not the power of a body.” (2)
• His eighth principle is that the Torah is from heaven. His twelfth is the Messianic era: “to believe and to confirm that he will come and not to think that he is late,” and that Israel’s king is from the house of David alone. (2)
• Mishneh Torah, Kings and Wars 11:4: a king from the house of David who keeps the Written and Oral Law may be considered Mashiach; if he builds the Temple and gathers the dispersed of Israel, “he is definitely the Mashiach.” (3)
• His thirteenth principle is “The Revival of the dead.” A person who believes all thirteen “enters into the category of Israel.” (2)
• John 4:22Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.John 4:22 · King James Version: “salvation is of the Jews.” (5) The Christian confession of the Son is the Trinity. The Messiah test is Why don’t Jews believe Jesus is the Messiah?.

The Shema and the thirteen principles

Deuteronomy 6:4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:Deuteronomy 6:4 · King James Version, King James Version: (1)

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Deuteronomy 6:4 · King James Version

Maimonides, in his commentary on Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:1, Sefaria Community Translation, says the foundational principles “are thirteen principles.” The first: (2)

The first principle To believe in the existence of the Creator, may He be blessed, and that is that there is a Being complete in all the ways of existence. He is the cause of the existence of all other things in existence. Through Him does their existence survive and from Him is their survival.

Maimonides · Sefaria Community Translation

He says this principle is indicated by “I am the Lord, your God” (Exodus 20:2I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.Exodus 20:2 · King James Version). The second:

The second principle The unity of God, may He be blessed, which is to say that we believe that He who is the cause of everything is one. And He is not like one of a pair and not like one of a group and not like one person that can be divided into many [smaller] units and not like a simple body which is numerically one [but] can be infinitely divided. Rather He - God, may He be blessed - is one in a unity that has no unity like it.

Maimonides · Sefaria Community Translation

He indicates it by “Listen Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.” The third:

The third principle Denial of His physicality and that is that we believe that this Unity that we mentioned is not a body and not the power of a body and that actions of a body do not relate to Him, not in His essence and not in His doings.

Maimonides · Sefaria Community Translation

Christians say the Shema with him. The Trinity is the confession that the one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not a pair of gods and not a body that can be divided. Maimonides’ second principle refuses “one of a pair” and “one person that can be divided into many units.” The Christian sentence is neither of those. It is John 1:1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.John 1:1 · King James Version, “the Word was God,” together with Deuteronomy 6:4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:Deuteronomy 6:4 · King James Version. Can God have a Son? is the same question as Muslims ask it.

The commentary then teaches prophecy, the prophecy of Moses, that the Torah is from heaven, that it has been faithfully transmitted, that God knows human actions, and that he rewards and punishes. The eighth opens, “That the Torah is from Heaven.” The twelfth and thirteenth are below.

At the end of the thirteen he writes: “And when a person believes in all of these principles and his faith in them is clarified, he enters into the category of Israel.” If one principle is compromised, “he exits the category of Israel and denies a fundamental.” That is his line between the confession and the person who has left it. It is a theological line in this commentary. It is not a census of who is Jewish by family and people. This page does not invent a count of Jews who are not religiously observant. The religion’s classic confession is these principles. Peoplehood is a wider fact than one man’s definition of “the category of Israel.”

Torah, Messiah, and the dead

The twelfth principle: (2)

The twelfth principle The Messianic era and that is to believe and to confirm that he will come and not to think that he is late. ‘If the tarries, wait for him’ and do not give him a [set] time and do not create analyses from the verses to extrapolate the time of his coming.

And included in this principle is that there should not be a king in Israel except from the House of David alone. And anyone who disputes [the status] of this family, denies the name of God, may He be blessed, and the words of His prophets.

The thirteenth: “The thirteenth principle The Revival of the dead.”

Mishneh Torah, Kings and Wars, Eliyahu Touger’s translation, the paragraph Sefaria gives as 11:4: (3)

In the future, the Messianic king will arise and renew the Davidic dynasty, restoring it to its initial sovereignty. He will build the Temple and gather the dispersed of Israel.

Mishneh Torah · Eliyahu Touger

If a king will arise from the House of David who diligently contemplates the Torah and observes its mitzvot as prescribed by the Written Law and the Oral Law as David, his ancestor, will compel all of Israel to walk in (the way of the Torah) and rectify the breaches in its observance, and fight the wars of God, we may, with assurance, consider him Mashiach.

Mishneh Torah · Eliyahu Touger

If he succeeds in the above, builds the Temple in its place, and gathers the dispersed of Israel, he is definitely the Mashiach.

Mishneh Torah · Eliyahu Touger

He will then improve the entire world, motivating all the nations to serve God together, as Tzephaniah 3:9 states: ‘I will transform the peoples to a purer language that they all will call upon the name of God and serve Him with one purpose.’

Mishneh Torah · Eliyahu Touger

That is the Jewish hope in his words: a Davidic king, the Torah kept, the Temple rebuilt, Israel gathered, the nations turned to the God of Israel. What does Messiah mean? is the word Mashiach. Why don’t Jews believe Jesus is the Messiah? is why, on this test, Jesus is not that king yet, and why Christians say he is.

2 Samuel 7:12–16^7:12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. ^7:13 He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. ^7:14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: ^7:15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. ^7:16 And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.2 Samuel 7:12–16 · King James Version is the promise Maimonides is reading: a seed of David, and a throne established forever. Christians read the same promise. They say Jesus is that seed. Matthew 1:1The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.Matthew 1:1 · King James Version: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

The Sabbath is part of the Torah he says the Messianic king will uphold. Is the Sabbath Saturday or Sunday? is Exodus 20:8–11^20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. ^20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: ^20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: ^20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.Exodus 20:8–11 · King James Version and the question of whether the church must keep that day.

What Christians share, and what they add

John 4:22Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.John 4:22 · King James Version, King James Version: “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.” (5)

Jesus says that to a Samaritan woman. Salvation comes through Israel’s Scriptures and Israel’s Messiah, not around them. Christians worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They also say, with Thomas, “My LORD and my God,” to the risen Jesus in John 20:28And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God.John 20:28 · King James Version. That second sentence is the difference. What is the difference between Judaism and Christianity? sets the two confessions next to each other.

Jews and Christians share the Hebrew Scriptures, the Shema, the hope of a son of David, and the hope that the dead are raised. They do not share the confession that Jesus is that king and that he is God, or that his death and resurrection are already the atonement. Maimonides’ “definitely the Mashiach” still waits for the Temple and the ingathering. Christians say the crucified and risen Son of David is already the Messiah, and that the public gathering of all things is still ahead at his coming.

Frequently asked questions

What are the core beliefs of Judaism?

In this commentary they are thirteen: the Creator’s existence, his unity, the denial that he is a body, his preexistence, that he alone is worshipped, prophecy, the prophecy of Moses, the Torah from heaven, its faithful transmission, God’s knowledge of human actions, reward and punishment, the Messianic era, and the revival of the dead. (2) The Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:Deuteronomy 6:4 · King James Version is the unity principle’s own verse.

What is Judaism?

Judaism is the religion of the God of Israel, the Torah, and the hope of the Messiah and the resurrection, as those principles state it. What is the difference between Judaism and Christianity? is the comparison.

Do Jews believe in God?

Maimonides’ first principle is belief in the Creator, the cause of everything else. (2) Deuteronomy 6:4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:Deuteronomy 6:4 · King James Version addresses Israel as people who have that God.

Are all Jews believers in this confession?

His commentary says a person who holds the thirteen principles “enters into the category of Israel,” and that compromising a principle puts a person outside that category. (2) Jewish peoplehood is wider than that sentence. This page states the confession. It does not count how many Jews affirm every principle.

How are Jews different from Christians?

Both confess the God of the Shema and read the Hebrew Scriptures. Christians confess that Jesus is the Messiah and is God the Son, and that his cross and resurrection are salvation. The pages for that difference and for the Messiah are linked above.

Keep reading

• Why don’t Jews believe Jesus is the Messiah?
• What does Messiah mean?
• What is the difference between Judaism and Christianity?
• Is the Sabbath Saturday or Sunday?
• The Trinity
• Is Jesus God?