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Matthew 26:63-64 NIV:

The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” “You have said so,” Jesus replied.

So do Jews believe that the Messiah is to be the Son of God or is it a later Christian invention?

Jews tend to think that christians commit idolatry. However, merely believing that Jesus is the messiah is not idolatry. Rabbi Akiva did that too to someone else.

The question is about the idea whether messiah is the Son of God or not. If even the high priest, and Peter, believed that, then it'll be very interesting. Peter, a jew, also equated Son of God with Messiah when Jesus asked "Who do you think I am?"

This question is not about divinity of Jesus. That will be a different question. The question is whether the idea that messiah is a Son of God (perhaps in some lesser sense) originate out of judaism.

user4951
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    I think this belongs on Judaism.SE, it's a question about Judaism not Christianity. – Waggers Nov 17 '11 at 07:02
  • @Waggers I'm not sure, though, since it references a New Testament passage. – Narnian Nov 17 '11 at 13:08
  • A good question. It's not about what the high priest thought about Jesus, but what his understanding of the person The Messiah was. – Niel de Wet Nov 18 '11 at 08:43
  • Please don't ask more than one question at a time. I removed your "I also want to know" bit because it would really need to be addressed in another question to possibly a different audience. – Caleb Nov 19 '11 at 19:39
  • I vote for moving it to Judaism.SE too. –  Nov 19 '11 at 20:39
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    Judaism is the wrong place for this. It would be the right place to ask what the general Jewish beliefs about the Messiah were in 33AD, but not for a specific interpretation of the Christian scripture. – DJClayworth Nov 19 '11 at 22:19
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    @DJClayworth That's why I think it should go to Judiasm.SE because I'm under the impression that the OP wants the historical Jewish perspective. –  Nov 20 '11 at 02:36
  • I think it belongs to both christianity and judaism. I would ask the jews too but they're about as "sensitive" about their core faith as the christians. Jews think that Christians commit idolatry. However, they too sometimes equate humans (namely themselves) to God though in a much lesser sense http://www.kabbalahmadeeasy.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19:-israel-the-torah-and-god-are-all-one&catid=13:beginners-course&Itemid=26 Maybe Jesus is a Son of God in some "sense" too. Who knows? – user4951 Dec 14 '11 at 11:23
  • Equating ones' own self with God is actually what most people did. Why else "God" wants what we want and hate what we hate? It's as if He's a reflection of our ego. But that would be philosophy and politic. Not christianity. – user4951 Dec 14 '11 at 11:24
  • Nice question, not just the High priest and Peter, but also Nathanael too. Upon first meeting Jesus, Nathanael remarked "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! the King of Israel!" (John 1:49). I believe the concept that the Messiah is the son of God was widespread, through the Jews at the time did not understand the true significance of its meaning. – Beestocks Feb 19 '15 at 04:37
  • After all, prophecy did specify that a virgin would give birth to a son called Immanuel, meaning God with us (Isaiah 7:14). – Beestocks Feb 19 '15 at 04:45

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Several Second Temple documents — and not just the Christian tradition — reflect the hope that God will re-establish the Israelite monarchy. This was often based on the promises God makes to David in 2 Sam 7, which state that his son Solomon:

  1. Will build the Temple.
  2. Will become God's son.
  3. Will have a throne established forever.

This makes excellent sense of the fact that the High Priest, in the passage you are asking about, moves directly from questions about Jesus's relationship to the Temple to a question about whether Jesus is God's son: both questions were attempts to determine whether Jesus saw himself as a fulfillment of 2 Sam 7. So when the High Priest asked if Jesus was God's son, he meant, “do you think God has adopted you as a son to rule over his people Israel, like he adopted Solomon as his son?”

Brandon Rhodes
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  • Interesting. So the idea that Messiah is Son of God (even though adopted) is actually jewish. The difference between christians and jews are not that big then. – user4951 Nov 19 '11 at 14:26
  • I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. 15 But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. - Doesn't look like Christians' Jesus to me. – user4951 Nov 19 '11 at 14:28
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    Solomon throne is finished though. So are the ancient unified Israel kingdom. Should I make a question why God's promise fail? If 2 Samuel 7 refer to Messiah, then what's about the punishment and does wrong stuff? – user4951 Nov 19 '11 at 14:32
  • Or perhaps God's promise fail simply because he didn't wrote the scripture. Then we shoehorn what we know to the theory that somehow it's all related. – user4951 Dec 14 '11 at 14:46
  • When I read High priest asking that is Jesus Christ, the Son of living God, I immediately think about doctrine of trinity and Christ is messianic(denoting to OT messianic prophecies) title for Jesus. I have not thought that what High priest was trying to ask was that whether Jesus is son of God like Salomon was son of God. – alvoutila Sep 10 '14 at 19:59