Did 1st Century Jews Expect the Messiah to be God or His Son?

[Windsor]

Did 1st Century Jews Expect the Messiah to be Divine?

One of the reasons I see mentioned by Jews today who reject Jesus as the Messiah is that the Messiah has to be a non divine human being. However, Peter had no trouble with the concept of the Messiah as God's Son as we see in Matthew 16:16.

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

The rest of the disciples believed likewise.

And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!” Matthew 14:33

Also in the gospels you will find people rejecting Jesus because they knew who His family was, and hence they believed He could NOT be the Messiah.

This does not coincide with current Jewish belief however. So what was the "official" opinion of first century Jewish religious leaders?

[phkrause]

They were so brain washed by the religious leaders to believe that the Messiah would save them from there oppressors rather than there sins. That's why originally they had no problem crowning him King because they thought he'd start a revolt against there Roman oppressors and over throw them. At first the Disciples really didn't figure it out. But as time went by, as you mentioned, Peter and the others except for Judas, figured it out.

[Kevin H]

Depends on which sub-group of Judaism. Of the two major groups, the school of Hillel believed that the Messiah was to be a perfect man and the most blessed of God who would deliver the world. On the other hand the school of Shammai believed that the Messiah was a pre-existant and divine coming to earth to deliver us from our sins.

Both had portions of the truth, but both used their portion of the truth to fight the rest of the truth and ended up rejecting Jesus. Paul's theology was in a lot of ways making a oneness of these two schools of thought.