Why is it that so many Jews did not recognize Jesus as their Messiah?

For people who live in the 21st chapter the large majority of the texts mentioned in the previous chapter are obvious references to the life and the actions of Jesus. But the reason may well be that from our point of view this life and these actions of Jesus lie in the past and are known to us. The people who lived in the centuries preceding the coming of Jesus and the people who lived in the days of Jesus Himself did not know anything about Jesus’ life and Jesus’ actions yet. They read the texts mentioned in the previous chapter in the midst of a large number of other texts and in most cases they had no reason to pay any special attention to them. Because most of the texts mentioned in the previous chapter do not tell the reader at al whom they refer to people living in the centuries before Jesus could not know that it would turn out later that they referred to the Messiah.

An example: When we in the 21st century read Isaiah chapter 53, this text immediately strikes us as a text which, centuries before these things really happened, clearly explained to the readers why the Messiah would have to suffer and to die and what that suffering and that dying would look like. And we find it hard to understand that Jesus’ apostles did not see things coming long before they really happened. Let alone that we understand why, when Jesus was actually made to suffer and made to die, the apostles were not thoroughly aware of the deep meaning of all this.

But people in our century who read Isaiah chapter 53 critically will soon discover that the chapter talks about a human who suffers and dies because of the sins of other people, but nowhere is it made clear who this human is. Nowhere in the text can people read that that human is the Messiah. Or that that human is the Son of God or that the name of the human is Jesus.

But if you read the text well you see that it does not tell us at all who is the person who is paid the thirty silver pieces, nor what the service is he has rendered, nor who the people are who pay him the money. In short: people who read Zechariah 11:12 in the centuries preceding the coming of Christ or in the days of Jesus Himself had no reason at all to see a Messianic prophecy in this text.

Another important fact:

The Jewish people who lived in the centuries preceding Jesus and in the days of Jesus Himself had no books as we know them today. Neither did they have a Bible as we know it today.

Up to and including the days of Jesus texts and books were not printed, but they were written by hand. On pieces of paper (made from the papyrus plant). The size of a piece of paper in those days was roughly 23 by 28 centimeters. They were written on with ink. To prevent staining the letters could not be too small and as a result there were only relatively few letters on a piece of paper.

The pieces of paper were only written on on one side. Several pieces of paper were glued together and then rolled around a cylinder. In this way you got a scroll.

Most scrolls were not thicker than about 20 pieces of paper.

The gospel of Mark required a scroll of about 24 pieces of paper which had been glued together and which had a total length of about 6 meters.

The gospel of Luke required about 40 pieces of paper glued together with a total length of about 10 meters, but that would make one scroll extremely thick. This makes it likely that the gospel of Mark usually consisted of two scrolls.

All this means that a book like Genesis in the centuries preceding Jesus and in the days of Jesus Himself consisted of 17 or 18 meters of pieces of paper glued together which were probably rolled in three or four parts around three or four cylinders. This means that the book of Genesis already consisted of a number of scrolls.

In the centuries preceding Jesus and in the days of Jesus Himself the holy Hebrew Scriptures, consisting of very many pieces of paper glued together, may have had a total length of some 300 meters. Probably some 60 separate scrolls.

All written by hand, glued together by hand and rolled around cylinders by hand.

The copying of all Hebrew Scriptures in those days must have taken a professional copyist at least half a year of hard work. This means that up to and including the days of Jesus scrolls cost a lot of money. If in those days a professional copyist earned twice as much as a carpenter or a fisherman, then a carpenter or a fisherman had to pay a complete year’s salary to be able to buy all fifty or so scrolls containing the complete Hebrew Scriptures. After his purchase he came home to his little house with a square meter of scrolls.

Taking all this into consideration it is very improbable that in the centuries preceding Jesus and in the days of Jesus Himself ordinary people possessed the Hebrew Scriptures and had them in their homes. It seems likely that only very rich people and priests had their own private scrolls with parts of the Scriptures in their homes which they could read and study as often as they liked.

Ordinary people received their knowledge of the Scriptures on the Saturdays in the synagogues, where all the scrolls which together formed the Hebrew Scriptures were present in sufficiently large quantities and where people were thoroughly instructed.

But the masses only knew the Scriptures as a result of oral instruction, not as a result of reading and studying texts themselves.

In this context it is good that people of the 21st century understand how difficult it must have been in those days to practice critical Bible study. Realize how hard it must have been to find a passage that one wanted to read. It is really very much easier to look up a text in a book in which all the pages follow each other and are neatly numbered than in a series of, let us say, 50 scrolls which, when a person is looking for a text, must be taken up one by one, must be opened one by one, must be rolled down, must be rolled up, must be closed, must be put away.

Considering the state of affairs mentioned above it is remarkable that in the days when the Hebrew Scriptures were written most people could obviously read and write. Many of the Bible-writers were simple people. Also Jesus Himself and most of the apostles and other authors of the Greek Scriptures were ordinary people who had not received more education than was standard for the masses in those days. It seems likely that in those centuries education in reading and writing was something that society offered to every child.

As a matter of fact: for ordinary common texts people did not use paper in those days. People wrote on clay tablets, on porous stones and on wood with a layer of wax on it.

It is sure that education, also education for the masses, in those days must have been very good. In the Bible book Acts, chapter 4 verse 13, it can be read that the great apostles and Bible authors Peter and John were generally considered unlettered, simple people. But Jesus Himself and His ordinary unlettered apostles could refer to hundreds of texts from the Hebrew Scriptures and quote from the Hebrew Scriptures very frequently.

As a 12 year old boy Jesus already had such a thorough knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures that, during a visit to the temple in Jerusalem, He was able to argue with the scribes at the highest possible level for hours on end.

This means that as boy Jesus had already received a very thorough education in the Scriptures on the Saturdays. But probably He Himself and everybody who was interested had access to the scrolls which were present in the synagogue and which everybody could use as often as one wanted.
But still: It may be true that in Jesus’ days everybody could read an write well and that every Saturday there were excellent lessons about the Scriptures in the synagogues. It may also be true that everybody who wanted to could go and read the sacred scrolls in the synagogues for himself. But even then we in the 21st century should not forget that most people in the days of Jesus, including His apostles, knew the Scriptures mainly from oral instruction by priests in the synagogues and not from daily Bible study in their own homes.

When we know this and acknowledge this we find it less difficult to understand why so many Jews have not identified Jesus as the Messiah, in spite of the many Messianic prophecies at so many places in the Holy Scriptures. Then we also understand better how it could happen that the apostles were obviously so unable to interpret the suffering and the death of Jesus in the light of the many prophecies and statements about that suffering and death, which in our view are so easy to find in the Hebrew Scriptures.