1) First Century Judaism was preoccupied with concepts of Messiah as King-Deliverer. Roman occupation provided the "perfect storm" for which to see Messiah as only a Rescuer. Their "apocalyptic consciousness" caused them to be inundated with thoughts of deliverance and even how to inaugurate that deliverance, therefore, they missed the office of Messiah as Suffering servant and sin-bearer.
2) First Century Judaism found no place for the priestly office of Messiah. As rabbinic tradition teaches, it is completely within the power of each to wholly overcome sin and gain eternal life by study and good works. Original-Sin and the Total Depravity of the human nature are not in Jewish thought processes. Whatever happened in the garden, say the rabbis, was not bad enough to warrant the need for a "Second Adam" to come and undo what the first Adam could not. If our condition is not that bad, than "Savior" terminology makes no sense in Jewish thinking. Original sin and the sinfulness of our whole nature is a fundamental difference between rabbinic Judaism and Scripture.
3) The problem of rabbinic authority: the claim of the rabbis to establish their own authority by stating that the Oral Law goes back to Moses so that the Oral Law has more authority than the Written Law. Rabbinical authority supersedes the authority of the Word of God, so when the Spirit convicts or brings enlightenment to the original meaning of the text it is dismissed in favor of halachic ruling.
~ Rabbi Nathan Puro
