I'm just really curious because should He have been a Christian? I mean Jews don't even believe in Jesus and so how could He even be considered one? Although some things in the Bible aren't clear for me, it's pretty obvious that Jesus knew He was the Son of God.
Good question, and I hope some of us can help you clear up some confusion and misunderstandings you have.
Where to start.... ....
Christ is the Greek word for the Jewish word Messiah. Jesus was born a Jew from the line of Judah. Who is Judah you might ask? Judah was the son of Jacob who we read about in the book of Genesis. You may remember one of Judahs brother named Joseph. He was the guy who got the really cool colored coat and his brothers sold him into slavery, and then he became 2nd in command and saved all of his brothers.
King David was from Judah, so you could say King David was a great, great, great grandpa to Jesus.
The Jewish prophets wrote about the coming Messiah, and that's how we know Jesus is the Messiah, or in the Greek, Jesus is the Christ. And no, Christ is not the last name of Jesus, lol. Hey, some people think it is. That would kind of be like saying President Trump has the first name President and last name Trump.
In Jewish tradition, a teacher of the Bible would be called a Rabbi. Jesus was a teacher of the Bible, and was considered a Rabbi. Students of any Rabbi would follow the teachings of their Rabbi by knowing their Rabbi and doing what their Rabbi did. A great example of this is when Peter stepped out of the boat. He saw his Rabbi doing it, and wanting to be like his Rabbi, he also did it.
We first see the word Christian in Acts 11. In short, Christian means those who follow the teaching of the Messiah. And we know the Messiah was Jewish, and came from the line of Judah. Actually, the word Jew actually derives out of the word Judah... but we won't bore you with that. I can't resist a plug for Baptism here, but Jesus started his ministry by being baptized. If we follow the pattern of Jesus, our ministry also starts at baptism.
When we look at the first Christians, we have to look at the Apostles. All of them followed the Christ. In Acts 2, those were the same Jews who put Jesus on the cross, but they repented and followed Jesus, the Christ.
So yes, Jesus was very much a Jew, as were his followers. Us Gentiles have been grafted in, as Paul puts it.
And yes, many Jews, even today believe Jesus is the Messiah, and follow Christ.
Please do not mix faith with nationality. Jews can be Christians as easily as Russians or Americans... because following Christ is simply a matter of faith.
God bless.
