Ten ‘Jewish Facts’ You Need to Know About the New Testament

As a new believer in Yeshua (Jesus), I assumed I was no longer Jewish—that believing in this Jewish man had nothing in common with Jewishness. However, after reading the New Testament, I was shocked to find out that it was a Jewish book, telling a Jewish story in Israel about Jewish people. Almost everyone is Jewish!

What I discovered is that the New Testament was ethnically cleansed of its Jewishness.

Check out these 10 facts:

1. Jesus’ actual name is Yeshua.

Yeshua comes from the Hebrew noun Yeshu-á, which means salvation. When Joseph was visited by the Angel, he was told that he must give the child the name Yeshua, because He would be Yeshu-á for His people! (Matt. 1:21) You miss this powerful prophetic wordplay in Greek and English.

2. His mother’s name was not Mary or even Maria.

Mary is actually Miriam, and it is the same name as the sister of Moses. She was not Catholic or born in Rome. She was an Israelite who lived long before the Vatican even existed. When Jewish people hear of Miriam, they hear a Jewish story ... Mary, not so much.

3. John was not a Baptist.

No disrespect to my Baptist friends, but John was the last and greatest of the Hebrew prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. He prophesied the coming of the Jewish Messiah. He, too, was an Israelite calling the Jewish people to get ready for the appearance of the Lamb of God.

4. Baptism is not unique to the New Testament.

Jews, believe it or not, used water immersion for centuries before John began to baptize his Jewish followers. One of the reasons they did not resist was because it was familiar to their culture. Next to the Temple, archaeologists have discovered more than 50 immersion tanks (Mikvot) for those coming to be ritually cleansed before making their sacrifice at the Temple.

In the New Testament, thousands of Jewish people were baptized as followers of Yeshua. However, it was scandalous when the first Gentiles were baptized in Acts 10. Today, it is the opposite. Because of centuries of forced baptism of Jews by the Catholic Church, it is considered an act of betrayal against the Jewish people. But it was not like that in the beginning.

5. Peter was not the first Pope!

Peter, a Jew, was only the leader of the first Jewish believers for a few years. He turned over the reigns to Jacob (we will talk about him in a minute), the brother of Yeshua, and began to travel, sharing the message of salvation through Yeshua.

There is zero evidence that Peter was the Bishop of Rome (or Pope) or that he passed down such a mantle to anyone else.  He was a Jewish fisherman who became one of the greatest communicators of Yeshua’s message of salvation. He never stopped living as a Jew, and certainly never referred to himself as Catholic.

Oh, and the Bible states very clearly that Peter had a mother-in-law, which would lead me to believe he had a wife. For some strange reason, Catholic priests (including the Pope) are forbidden to wed.

6. James is not the name of the fellow who wrote the Book of James or who led the first Jewish believers in Acts 15.

James would have been a great name for a butler or chauffeur or even a king…but not a Jew in the first century. James is actually Jacob! The Latin for James and Jacob are very close, and because of linguistic confusion, James became the English for Ya’akov (Jacob) in the New Covenant. While it may have been an innocent mistake, it further made the New Testament appear non-Jewish. Like Miriam, Jacob sounds Jewish. James does not.

7. Yeshua died on Passover, rose from the dead on the Jewish Feast of Firstfruits, and the Holy Spirit was poured out on Jerusalem on the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot).

These are three of the most significant days in history, and God caused each of them to happen on the three most significant days to Jews during the spring of 30 CE. The chances of that happening by chance are in the millions! It wasn't by chance. It is as if God was saying, “Hey, don’t forget that this started with the Jews in Jerusalem!” And still, the Church sadly forgot.

Yeshua is the Passover lamb (1 Cor 5:7), who rose as the "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor 15:20). And Jerusalem was turned upside down on the Day of Shavuot 30 CE.

8. Paul never changed his name.

The Bible never says that Paul changed his name. It merely mentions that Saul "was also called Paul" (Acts 13:9). Like most Jews in the Roman Empire, he had a name that was common to the people where he lived and a Hebrew name. The idea that he got rid of his Jewish name is unbiblical and frankly ignorant. I too was given an English name when I was born, Ron, and a Hebrew one, Chaim. And there is no one named "John Mark" in the Bible. There was a disciple whose Hebrew name was John and whose Roman name was Mark (Acts 12:12).

9. The entire New Testament was written by Jews.

While many assume Luke was a Gentile, his knowledge of Judaism throughout Luke and Acts is extensive, leading new scholarship [1] to believe he may have been Jewish. But even if you don’t think Luke was a Jew, he would be the only non-Jewish writer in the New Testament. In other words, the New Testament is a Jewish book.

10. Communion was instituted at a Passover Seder.

Yeshua picked up the Afikomen, a special piece of matzah (unleavened bread) used during the Passover Seder, as he lifted the third cup of wine of four blessed during the Passover meal, the Cup of Redemption, and asked that his Jewish disciples continue this Jewish tradition.

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[1] Matthew Thiessen, Jesus and the Forces of Death, (Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 2020), 40-41, Kindle Edition.