What Religions Do Not Believe Jesus Is God: Judaism, Christianity & Islam Compared

Judaism does not believe Jesus is God — and never has. The Hebrew Bible presents God as absolutely one and indivisible, a conviction so central that it's encoded in the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4). The idea that a human being could be God is considered not merely wrong but a form of idolatry in classical Jewish thought. Scholars like Joseph Klausner (writing in 1925) and more recently Amy-Jill Levine have noted that first-century Jews, including Jesus's own contemporaries, were deeply divided about who he was John 9:16.

Jewish theology holds that the messiah will be a human leader who fulfills specific historical tasks — rebuilding the Temple, gathering the exiles, ushering in universal peace — none of which Jesus completed. Maimonides codified this in his Thirteen Principles of Faith in the 12th century. The Pharisees in John's Gospel reflect this skepticism directly, questioning whether Jesus could even be from God John 9:16. Judaism's rejection of Jesus's divinity isn't incidental; it's structurally required by its monotheism.

It's worth noting that some modern Jewish scholars, like Daniel Boyarin, argue that the concept of a divine or semi-divine messiah wasn't entirely foreign to Second Temple Judaism — but even Boyarin stops well short of endorsing Christian claims. The mainstream Jewish position remains: God is one, God is not human, and Jesus is not God Romans 3:29.

Mainstream Christianity — Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestant traditions — teaches that Jesus is fully God and fully human, the second person of the Trinity. This doctrine was formally defined at the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and reaffirmed at Chalcedon in 451 CE. Theologians like Athanasius of Alexandria staked their careers and reputations on the formula homoousios — that Jesus is of the same substance as the Father.

That said, Christianity's own scriptures contain passages that complicate a simple equation of Jesus with God. When Jesus is called 'good,' he deflects the title: 'Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God' Mark 10:18. Similarly in Luke, the same exchange occurs Luke 18:19. Some theologians, like Bart Ehrman in his 2014 work How Jesus Became God, argue these verses reflect an earlier, lower Christology before full divine status was attributed to Jesus. Others, like N.T. Wright, counter that such statements are rhetorical rather than theological disclaimers.

Non-Trinitarian Christian groups — including Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarians, and Christadelphians — also do not believe Jesus is God, placing them closer to Jewish and Islamic positions. They cite verses like John 9:35, where Jesus refers to himself as 'the Son of God' rather than God himself John 9:35, as evidence that Jesus held a subordinate divine role. The faith of believers in Jesus as the Christ is affirmed in 1 John 5:1, but that verse doesn't itself equate Jesus with God 1 John 5:1.

So Christianity is not monolithic here. The majority tradition affirms Jesus's divinity; a significant minority within Christianity does not. The disagreement is real and has been ongoing since at least the 2nd century.

Islam is unambiguous: Jesus (known as Isa in Arabic) is one of the greatest prophets, born of a virgin, capable of miracles, and deeply honored — but he is not God and was never crucified or resurrected in the way Christians claim. The Quran devotes an entire chapter (Surah Maryam) to his birth and mission. Saying God has a son or partner is called shirk — the gravest sin in Islam — and the Quran explicitly rejects it in multiple verses (e.g., Surah 4:171, Surah 5:72).

Islamic theology emphasizes that Jesus himself honored God above all else and never claimed divinity. This resonates with the Gospel of John, where Jesus says, 'I have not a devil; but I honour my Father' John 8:49 — a verse Muslim scholars like Ahmed Deedat have long cited as evidence that Jesus subordinated himself to God rather than identifying as God. Islam sees the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as a later corruption of Jesus's original monotheistic message.

It's important to acknowledge that Muslim and Christian scholars disagree sharply on the interpretation of Gospel texts. Christian theologians argue that Jesus's honor toward the Father is consistent with Trinitarian theology — the Son honors the Father within a relational Godhead. Muslim scholars reject this framing entirely. What both agree on is that Jesus was a remarkable, Spirit-empowered figure; where they part ways is on whether he shared God's divine essence John 9:35.