What were the beginnings of Messianic Judaism? This episode begins the story with the Persian King Cyrus' decree sending 42,600 exiles back to Jerusalem and continues to show how events following Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem created the social and political world into which Yeshua was born. 

What were the days of Yeshua like? What were the religious thoughts and movements of his day? As we come to grips with the world that Messianic Judaism was brought into, we take a look at the political and social movements of his day and how they variously contributed to political unrest and Messianic expectation.

In the year Yeshua was born, what were people saying about Messiah? What were they learning about him? What were they reading, and what were their hopes and what were their stories?

Amidst all the complexity of Jewish life in Israel, religious and political ferment combined to produce a Messianic hope. Thus the first century witnessed “a remarkable outburst of Messianic emotionalism.”[1] That was the expectation of a Messiah, an anointed one, who would fulfill many expectations and hopes raised by the predictions of the prophets and Israel’s desire for freedom from foreign oppression. 

Today, Jewish and Christian scholars disagree about the kind of Messiah that Yeshua declared Himself to be, or even that He declared Himself to be the Messiah. The question that begs to be asked however, is whether Yeshua was the kind of Messiah that the people of His day were hoping for. 

[1] Abba Hillel Silver, A History of Messianic Speculation in Israel (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1926), 5.

What was the world like for normal people, and for Yeshua's family in the year that he was born? What were they thinking and what were their politics? This episode will tell the story of life for Miriam and Joseph in the year Messiah was born.

In this episode we tell the untold story of Yeshua's youth - a thoroughly Jewish and somewhat devout one. We also look at some interesting aspects of that. His toddlerhood in Alexandria, his youth in Nazareth, and his fascinating interaction with the teachers of His day in Jerusalem. Were they Hillel, Shammai, or Gamliel? We may never know! In all of this the history of Messianic Judaism begins to roll. 

How did the movement Yeshua led begin, how did it grow? How did it mature? Even more importantly, what were the seeds for what the movement would become? We have to step aside from 2,000 years of Christian theologizing and thinking, and see him as he was. We also need to look with the eyes of hindsight, and seeing him in his context we can see the deliberate steps he was taking to proclaim, establish, and ensure the perpetuation of the kingdom of God.

Coming into the final days of Yeshua’s life, who was he? Who did he say he was? Who did people think he was? Did he die as a revolutionary? Did he die because he questioned the religious establishment? Was there something in his teaching that was so objectionable that he had to be crucified? Did he die as a blasphemer? And who was it really who bore the responsibility for his crucifixion, and what happened to his followers after his death? 

Today we survey the pivotal days following Yeshua’s death that turned his followers from a defeated, introspective and scattered selection of individuals into an impassioned, outgoing and unified movement. 

Following the death of Yeshua, The movement that he had started went through a critical phase. It isn't just that the movement lost its founder. After all, the Essenes had lost their teacher of righteousness, and yet they were a significant force in Jewish Society, particularly in and around Jerusalem and in the wilderness of Judea. Messianic movements led by messianic pretenders who fostered rebellion against Rome were repeatedly extinguished, yet continually kept rising to the surface showing that there was a groundswell of support for them that would not be dissuaded by the death of any would-be Messiah and his followers. 

Without delving into an apology for the movement, we can ask: 
What were the key events that led to the crystallization of the Messianic, "Yeshuic," movement after Yeshua’s death? 
Why did Yeshua’s resurrection have such an impact on his followers?
How did the new movement get its start?