Why dont Jews believe in a trinity?
Many do. When we think of Jews today, we are really thinking of Pharisees, not Jews who become Christians. Jews that become Christians, are still Jews, just as Jesus is still a Jew. Today, hundreds of thousands of Jews believe in the Trinity. They are Messanic Jews or Jewish Christians. In the first century, there were a lot of Jews of this persuasion as well.
Most people don't realize that there were around 15,000 scrolls and fragments found in Judean caves in the mid-20th century presumabley saved by the "sons of light" - The Essenes . These are commonly refrerred to as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Most remain privatelty held and unpublished. Dr. Ken Johnson has been collecting copies of as many as he can and has published a number of his findings in several books. He has even reconstructed the Essene solar callendar. The Essenes claim this was the original callendar used by Adam and that the apostate Jews (Pharisees) adopted a lunar callendar after the Babylonian captivity.
According to Dr. Ken Johnson the Jews today represent what was left of the Pharisees, the dominant group around the time of Jesus. He claims that the prophetic theology of another Jewish sect - the Essenes was essentially the same as new testament theology.
Essene Prophecies - The following list was developed from videos by Dr. Ken Johnson (biblefacts.org) about his discoveries in translating the Dead Sea Scrolls.
1. They prophesied that the Messiah would come to earth and somehow reconcile humanity back to God.
2. They prophesied that the Messiah would be born of a virgin and that he would be God incarnate (God and man) - not just a man and not an angel.
3. They prophesied that the name of the Messiah would be Yeshua (the Hebrew name given to Jesus). When Jesus was born, 1 out of every 5 Jewish boys was named Yeshua (which means Salvation). The number of boys given this name shows the popularity of the Essene’s beliefs. The people were looking for the Messiah to be born.
4.They prophesied that the Jews would completely abandon the original, solar calendar (which God ordained) for the pagan, lunar calendar. This happened after the Babylonian captivity.
5.They prophesied that the Pharisees would leave the true faith before the birth of the Messiah.
6. They prophesied that the Messiah would ‘come’ (or be made known) 1 shemitah, after the 9th Jubilee of their Age (which was around the year 3925 (on their calendar) and was around the year 32 AD (give or take a year). This was also the approximate time prophesied by Daniel’s 70th week and is how the Wise Men knew they had seen the Messiah’s star.
7. They prophesied that the Messiah would be born 70 generations after Enoch. The genealogy of Jesus is documented in Luke, Chapter 3 and show that Jesus was born 70 generations after Enoch.
8. They prophesied that someone from their ‘order’ (their school of prophets) would be the ‘voice crying in the wilderness’ (Isaiah 40). This was John the Baptist and Dr. Ken Johnson says they are 90% sure that John the Baptist was an Essene and that he helped to run the ‘School of the Prophets’.
9. The location where John the Baptist preached was only 8 miles from Qumran, where the Essenes lived (near the Dead Sea).
10. They prophesied that the Messiah would die but then be resurrected (which is why they believed in a bodily resurrection).
11. They prophesied that the Teacher of Lies (the false high priest) would put the Messiah to death and then lie about the resurrection.
12. They prophesied that the Messiah would come two times; the first time to die for our sins (32 AD) and the second time to set up his earthly reign. The Essenes had a prophecy about a ‘Benjaminite’ who would appear after the Messiah came and he would explain the scriptures and how they relate to the Messiah. Paul wrote in Phillipians 3:5 that he was from the tribe of Benjamin - to show that he fulfilled this Essene prophecy, which Paul apparently knew about.
13. For more information concerning the Essenes, I recommend Dr. Ken Johnson; his website is http://biblefacts.org and his YouTube channel is called ‘Ken Johnson’. Dr. Johnson is one of the few people in the world who has copies of the Dead Sea Scrolls and he is in the process of translating these scrolls into English. Above list by N. G. Carraway - www.ngcarraway.com.
If all this is true, it would certainly explain why the Essenes disappeared from history after the Resurrection. Since much of their theology was essentially new testament, when Jesus resurrected himself from the dead, they were ready for it. They probably reasoned en masse that nothing closer to their views would be closer than Jesus; and they simply became Christians. It would account for some of the mass Christian baptisms listed in ACTS of the Apostles where 3000 men were baptised as Christians as well as women and children.
Today, there are hundreds of thousands of Jewish people who believe Christ is the Lord and died for them personally to provide a blood covering for their sin.
The Armstrong Institute of Biblical archeology has this to say about one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Cave 11, officialy named 11QMelchizedek:
Analysis
It’s quite astonishing how closely this first-century b.c.e. document aligns with the first-century c.e. New Testament assessment of Melchizedek. This is aptly summed up in The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (1996):
The author [of 11QMelch] … understands the jubilee year remission of debts as referring not merely to prosaic matters of money, but to the forgiveness of sin. The author declares that the agent of this salvation is to be none other than Melchizedek, a mysterious figure mentioned only twice in the [Hebrew] Bible, in Genesis 14 and Psalm 110. For our author Melchizedek is an enormously exalted divine being, to whom are applied names that are generally reserved for God alone, the Hebrew names El and Elohim. In the author’s citation of Isaiah 61:2, which speaks of ‘the year of the Lord’s favor,’ ‘Melchizedek’ is substituted even for the most holy name of Israel’s God, Yahweh. Yet more remarkably, Melchizedek is said to atone for the sins of the righteous and to execute judgment upon the wicked—actions usually associated with God himself. By the power of Melchizedek, dominion on earth shall pass from Satan (here called Belial) to the righteous Sons of Light. …
