{"id":1307,"date":"2025-12-24T13:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T13:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/?p=1307"},"modified":"2026-03-02T11:28:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:28:27","slug":"the-jewishness-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/the-jewishness-of-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Jewishness of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Good News (Luke 2:1-20)<\/h1>\n\n\n
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When the angel appeared to the shepherds that night in the fields of Israel, surrounded by the glory of the Lord that shone around them, a great fear fell on them. The angel told them not to fear because they were chosen to be the first ones to receive the good news of the great joy of the Messiah\u2019s birth. It would be for all people. (Luke 2:5-10) The good news (good tidings) is that God so loved all the people of the world that He gave His only begotten Son, to be born of a virgin in Beth Lehem, in the land of Judea, Israel, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish (a just sentence of death for their sins) but have everlasting (eternal) life.

The angel announced to them that the Savior of the world, the Lord Messiah (Christ) would be born that day. He is the fulfillment of the prophecies in the Hebrew bible about the redeemer, the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sins of the world that humanity inherited from the first man, Adam, who was cursed with the sentence of death because of his sin of disobedience against God, Who created him.

According to the apostle John\u2019s account, the Word of Father God was with God in the very beginning. He was actually God (God the Son) Who became flesh and blood (Human), sent to dwell among men for this purpose, to die for the sins of humanity. He came first to His own, the people of Israel. He was born to a Jewish mother, Miriam (known as Mary), and an adoptive Jewish father, Yoseph (known as Joseph) in the land of Israel (the city of the Jewish King David, Beth Lehem, the house of bread in Hebrew).
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Sadly, He was rejected as the Messiah by His own, even though many of His people did receive Him, believe in Him, and follow Him. His disciples were Jewish, He spoke to them in Hebrew.
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He went around the Land of Israel, healed many of His own people, and did many miracles among them. He lived and died in the Promised Land, the Land of Israel.

After Messiah\u2019s death and resurrection, His Jewish disciples went to the world to preach to the nations the \u201cGood News\u201d of salvation, the Gospel of Messiah Yeshua, known as Jesus Christ the Lord.

The Jewish shepherds who were the first to hear the good news of the Savior\u2019s birth were amazed to see the host of angels who appeared after the announcement of His birth, praising God and saying: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGlory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests!\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was truly good tidings of great joy for all people.

Our calling is to <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cgo rather to the\u00a0lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach (the good news of salvation,) saying,\u00a0\u2018The Kingdom of Heaven\u00a0is at hand.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>
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Jewish People Do Not Recognize the Jewishness of the Good News Because It is Dressed in a Foreign Religion<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

One of the most serious obstacles for Jews to believe in Messiah Yeshua is religion. They immediately associate faith in Yeshua with the Christian religion.\u00a0Christianity, to them, is Roman Catholicism, created in the 3rd century, which completely denied any connection to the roots of biblical Judaism.
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Most Jews in Israel and around the world reject the idea that Christmas has anything to do with the Jews. As far as they are concerned, Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of someone they don\u2019t believe to be the Jewish Messiah and is in direct opposition to their Jewish faith.\u00a0
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Many Holocaust survivors claim that Hitler and the Nazis were Christians and that the Christian church is anti-Semitic; that in the Name of Jesus, the Church persecuted Jews as \u201cChrist-killers.\u201d

Even non-Jews around the world who celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day do not realize that, as well as being the savior of the world, He is also the Messiah of Israel.

The prophet Isaiah in chapter 9:6 made this Messianic prophecy to Israel about the Jewish\u00a0Messiah, Who also fulfilled God\u2019s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, that through the Messiah all nations would be blessed. Therefore, the prophecies of the Messiah\u2019s coming, His sacrifice for humanity, His resurrection, and return to earth apply to Israel as well as to all nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe people living in darkness\u00a0have seen a great light;\u00a0upon those living in the land that lies\u00a0in the shadow of death, light has dawned.\u00a0For a child is born to us,\u00a0a son is given to us;\u00a0dominion will rest on His shoulders,\u00a0and He will be given the name\u00a0Pele-Yo\u2018etz (wonderful counselor,) El Gibbor (mighty God,)\u00a0Avi-\u2018Ad (everlasting Father) Sar-Shalom (Prince of Peace)\u201d.<\/em>\u00a0Isaiah 9:6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world celebrates Christmas with cheer, decorated evergreen trees, flickering lights, manger scenes, and baby Jesus, all the while unaware of its Jewish roots and connection. That the story took place in Israel with Israelites and angels who spoke Hebrew seems far away.
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But the fact is that Mary\u2019s original name was Miriam, Joseph was Yoseph, and Jesus was Yeshua \u2013 all Hebrew names. Yeshua (baby Jesus) was born in Beth Lehem (the house of bread in Hebrew), fulfilling the Hebrew prophet Micah\u2019s words as recorded in the Hebrew bible, Micah 5:1:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you, Beth Lehem Ephratah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting days.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Christmas story starts with God\u2019s angel appearing to the priest Zecharya\u00a0(Zechariah in English, which means in Hebrew God remembers), who was chosen by lot to enter the Temple of the God of Israel for the incense offering (Luke 1:9-11).
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This was in accordance with God\u2019s law given to Moses for the priests from the tribe of Levi. Exodus 30:7-8:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAaron must burn fragrant incense\u00a0on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the\u00a0Lord for the generations to come.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The angel announced to Zecharya that his barren wife would conceive and bear a child to fulfill Malachi\u2019s prophecy\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cto go\u00a0as a forerunner\u00a0before Him (the Messiah) in the spirit and power of\u00a0Elijah,\u00a0to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Luke 1:16 -17<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The child\u2019s name would be Yohanan, meaning God pardons (known as John the Baptist in English). A short time later, the angel Gavriel (Gabriel, meaning God is my strength) appeared to Miriam (Mary), announcing that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit of God.\u00a0
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Miriam was a young Jewish virgin from the Jewish village of Natzeret, Israel, engaged to a Jewish man, Yoseph,\u00a0of the house of David.\u00a0
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The angel told her (in Hebrew):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo not be afraid, Miriam; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you\u00a0shall name Him Yeshua<\/em>”\u00a0(meaning Salvation in Hebrew). (Jesus is the Hebrew letters of the name of Yeshua transliterated to English.)
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“He will be great and will be called the Son of\u00a0the Most High, and God will give Him\u00a0the throne of His father David (the Jewish king.) And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever,\u00a0and His kingdom will have no end.\u201d<\/em>
(Luke 1:26-33).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jewish connection is very clear in this account of the birth of Jesua\/Yeshua. It is no coincidence that the Savior of the world would have a Hebrew name and would be born of a Jewish mother in a Jewish town near Jerusalem, the Jewish capital. He is Emmanuel (God with us in Hebrew), Who will sit on King David\u2019s throne forever and rule from Jerusalem. All nations will come to hear the Word of the Lord from Zion (Jerusalem). (Isaiah 2:3.)

When Yoseph (Josheph) learned Miriam was pregnant, he feared she had been unfaithful to him. As a righteous man, he didn\u2019t want to expose Miriam to public disgrace and planned to divorce her in secret. But the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said to him (in Hebrew:)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYoseph,, son of David, do not be afraid to take Miriam as your wife because what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Yeshua (meaning Salvation) because He Yoshia (will save) his people (Israel) from their sins.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet Isaiah 7:14:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel \u2013 which means (in Hebrew); God with us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We present this holiday to our Jewish people in this Jewish setting with Jewish characters, saying that Yeshua is our Jewish Messiah, as well as the Savior of the world, and that He didn\u2019t come to start a new religion. As a matter of fact, Yeshua was against religion as well as man\u2019s traditions.

Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our Jewish friends, family, and neighbors to see that Christmas celebrates the birth of our Jewish Messiah Who came to the world in Israel.

From the first verses in the New Testament, we see how Jewish the New Testament is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is the genealogy of Yeshua the Messiah (a Hebrew word,) the son of David, the son of Abraham” (the father of the Jewish nation).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeshua\u2019s birth and reincarnation WERE prophesied in the Hebrew bible, written in Hebrew, by Hebrew prophets. His Jewish parents took him to the Jewish Holy Temple when He was eight days to be circumcised; how more Jewish can you get?

We wish you a very Merry Holiday of Yeshua\u2019s birth and a very Happy New Year in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Good News (Luke 2:1-20) When the angel appeared to the shepherds that night in the fields of Israel, surrounded by the glory of the Lord that shone around them, a great fear fell on them. The angel told them not to fear because they were chosen to be the first ones to receive the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35,16,17,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-from-the-newsletter","category-holidays","category-israel","category-messianic-issues-in-the-news","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1309,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1307\/revisions\/1309"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yeshuatami.com\/newsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}