Introduction: Returning to the Real Jesus
For centuries, we were taught that Jesus was the founder of Christianity—the spiritual head of a new religion destined to replace Judaism and mark the beginning of a new religious era in the West. However, when we review historical studies, such as those presented by Mario Sabán in his work The Judaism of Jesus (El Judaísmo de Jesús), the reality is much more uncomfortable and provocative: Jesus was never a Christian.
He was born, lived, taught, and died as a Jew, within the cultural, religious, and social framework of 1st-century Judaism. Christianity came later, created by his followers, especially by those who reinterpreted his teachings from different cultural contexts.
Accepting this premise implies breaking with centuries of tradition, dogma, and catechism, but it also invites us to refocus the narrative through the lens of history rather than devotion. Understanding this truth is not an attack on faith; it is an act of historical honesty. It is an attempt to recover the man behind the symbol, the teacher behind the myth, the Jew behind the Christ.
The Historical Context: Jesus in the 1st-Century Jewish World
Jesus was born, lived, and died in a territory deeply marked by Jewish tradition. He grew up in a culture where the Torah, the festivities, community practices, and the figure of the Temple in Jerusalem were the center of spiritual and daily life.
He lived under the occupation of the Roman Empire, in times when various currents coexisted within Judaism: Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots, among others. His voice emerged as that of an itinerant teacher proposing a more human, ethical, and profound reading of the Law. Jesus was a Jewish rabbi, deeply knowledgeable of the Torah and the oral tradition, formed in the Pharisaic tradition. His discourse, his parables, his debates, and his vision of the Kingdom of God were not disconnected from his culture; rather, they emerged from it.
Nothing in his life suggests a rupture with Judaism. On the contrary: Jesus is rooted in it. When we read the Gospels from this perspective, the message changes completely: Jesus did not come to found a new faith, but to renew the spirituality of his own people from within.
The Jewish Practices That Jesus Did Observe
Throughout the Gospels, even in their most theological versions, solid traces of his Jewish identity appear:
He knew the Torah deeply: His teachings are full of references to the books of Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Exodus, and even the prophets. None of this is accidental: Jesus was a popular rabbi before becoming a universal religious figure. He did not question monotheism, nor did he speak of a new religious institution, nor did he create new rites that contradicted the foundations of Judaism.
He observed Shabbat: He participated in synagogues, interpreted Scripture, and discussed the Law, just like any educated Jew of his time. His debates were not to abolish Shabbat, but to return to the spirit of the Torah: life above ritual.
He kept Jewish festivities: Passover (Pesach), Sukkot, and other celebrations appear in his journey. In fact, until the end of his life, he continued to follow the norms, attending Jewish festivals and participating in the spiritual life of his people. He never ceased to be an active part of his religious community.
The Message of Jesus in a Jewish Key
When Jesus preached about the “Kingdom of God,” he was not speaking of a new religion. He was using a deeply Jewish concept that referred to divine sovereignty over the world, social justice, and the call for internal transformation.
His criticism of religious leaders was not an attack on Judaism, as was later interpreted. It was a common tradition among the prophets: to denounce hypocrisy, religious manipulation, and unjust structures. His conflict was not with the Jewish faith, but with certain political and religious interpretations of the elites of his time.
Jesus did not come to “replace” anything: he came to remind us of the essence of the ethical and spiritual message of Judaism, placing love for one’s neighbor at the center. He never broke with Judaism, nor was he expelled from it. He was not a heretic in his time.
So, Who Created Christianity?
The uncomfortable question then arises on its own: how did we go from a Jewish Jesus to a Roman-Christian Christ? The answer lies in history and the cultural transformations of the first centuries.
Christianity, as we know it today, emerged after Jesus, specifically thanks to:
- Paul of Tarsus: Who reinterpreted Jesus for the Greco-Roman world. Sabán and other researchers suggest that Paul, by expanding Jesus’ message among the Gentiles, reinterpreted Jesus’ religious experience in a new theological language—more universalist, less linked to Jewish law, and much more favorable to non-Jewish communities.
- The Gentile Communities: Who did not follow Jewish Law and needed a religious framework adapted to their own culture.
- The Roman Empire: Which institutionalized the faith centuries later. Over time, this reinterpretation became official doctrine, especially after the 4th century with the consolidation of Christianity as the imperial religion.
The result: the historical Jesus was displaced by the theological Christ.
In other words: the religion today called Christian was not founded by Jesus. It was built by those who came after, based on their memories, interpretations, interests, and theological readings.
A Crucial Historical Fact: The Crucifixion Was Roman, Not Jewish
Another key point that history has tended to hide is the nature of Jesus’ death. The crucifixion was not a Jewish religious condemnation: it was a Roman execution, with a political objective, not a theological one. The methods of execution of the Jewish judicial system of the time were completely different. The cross was the instrument of terror of the Roman Empire, used specifically against those considered political threats to the established order.
This detail is not minor: it reveals that Jesus’ final conflict was with imperial power, not with his own faith. However, over time, later narratives shifted the responsibility onto the Jewish people, creating a historical distortion that would have devastating consequences for centuries.
The Questions That Are Almost Never Asked in Churches
That is why it is so necessary to ask ourselves questions that are almost never raised in religious institutions:
- If Jesus was Jewish and never founded Christianity, who actually did?
- Why was the figure of Jesus “de-Judaized” over the centuries?
- How many original teachings were left out because they did not fit the new institutional message?
Answering them does not weaken faith: on the contrary, it purifies it, historicizes it, and liberates it from myths built on silences, omissions, and political conveniences.
Why It Is Important to Recover This Origin
Understanding the Judaism of Jesus does not destroy faith; it makes it more honest and conscious. Studying this reality is not a gratuitous provocation. It is an opportunity to see the Nazarene teacher in his human, cultural, and historical dimension, with his real roots, without makeup. It allows us to:
- See Jesus as a human, profound, and coherent teacher.
- Read his teachings in their original context, without deformations.
- Question later readings used to justify power, control, or dogmas.
- Reconnect with the historical Jesus, not the institutional Jesus.
- Return to his original context to better understand his message, his intention, and his mission.
To “deprogram” is also this: returning to the origin to understand the truth before it was manipulated.
Conclusion: Yeshua, the Jew Who Changed History
Yeshua never asked for worship, temples, dogmas, or global religions. He asked for compassion. He asked for justice. He asked for inner transformation. He asked for love of one’s neighbor.
The rest came later.
We discover that what we call “Christianity” is, largely, the result of later interpretations, and not the religion that Jesus practiced nor the one he taught. And that truth, even if it hurts and challenges, is also liberating and deeply deprogramming.
When we recover the simple but powerful fact that Jesus was a Jew, we discover that his greatness lies not in the myth created about him, but in the human depth of his message. That truth invites us to a more mature faith, more conscious and more rooted in real history, not in versions edited by institutional power.