>>22300
I greatly appreciate the info and for corrections where I was mistaken. Nevertheless, you misunderstand me in some areas. For example:
>Messianic Jews who believed Christ to be the >messiah became known as "Christians"
>Could be wrong. feel free to disagree.
When I say Messianic Jews, I'm not talking about the 1st century Jews who were the first Christians. I am referring to current day adherents to the modern religion of Messianic Judaism (who actively prefer to not be called "Christian."):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messianic_Judaism
Also my main central question remains unanswered.
Especially in current day Israel, but also all around the world, if someone refers to themself as "Jewish," 9.9 times out of 10, they do not believe in Jesus as the Messiah, and are somewhere on the spectrum of Talmudic Judaism. Whether it be full blown Ultraorthodox Jews, or Secularists who engage in Jewish holidays, rituals and traditions for the sake of cultural identity.
However, if you were to ask me to point out an individual or community of Jews who believe in Christ and are Christians in the traditional sense of the term, who are directly descended from the original 1st century Jewish Christians, I would be at a total loss. Where are they? What happened to them? Are they in small obscure gatherings that I am ignorant of? Or did they essentially intermarry into the Gentile populations around them, and thus no longer exist as a distinct group?