Jesus presumably observed Yom Kippur for 20 years (I don’t know if he went to the Temple or not).
Every Jew must attempt to atone for himself (and his family, and, if High Priest, for the nation) before God on this day.
Jesus, as we know–I think–is the only man/Man ever without sin, in Christian theology.
Thought of this tonight on Kol Nidrei.
Forty days alone in the desert and not once did he think to call his poor mother.
Well, if Jews atone for their family, Jesus certainly had a family.
Plus, if the High Priest atones for all, and Christians see Jesus as the perfect High Priest, from a Christian point of view it all hangs together rather nicely, doesn’t it?
But the point is perhaps moot. The scriptures don’t record that he ever did observe Yom Kippur. We can conjecture that he did, but then we end up conjecturing about the significance of a conjectured event.
According to Christian scripture, Jesus was sent to atone for all of humanity.
Does that answer the question?
Moderator Note
Please hold off on the less serious answers in the General Questions forum until the OP has been factually addressed.
Yes Jesus has a human family:
[QUOTE=Math 12:50]
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”
[/QUOTE]
And it is a lot bigger then his bio-family, and Jesus did it as one of His last things before leaving his Physical body:
[QUOTE=Luke 23:34 ]
Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.
[/QUOTE]
Important note, most likely a correction:
In OP, when I said “[attempts to atone] for his family and the nation” I was winging it from my memory of the liturgy/text of the Bible where the Temple ritual is described (and which is read aloud in modern-day synagogue), and, like many things in OPs, might need to be corrected as well.
Not only am I not a Christian theologian, but am not particularly well equipped to pose the question in light of 1st century Jewish practice.
See, it’s Yom Kippur today an I am atoning… Who knew? 
Considering that Jesus was God and he came to Earth to redeem original sin, perhaps he was atoning for his decision to impose original sin in the first place.
To the best of my knowledge, there is no indication in the New Testament that Jesus observed Yom Kippur. What Jesus might have repented or atoned for in general, or whether he needed to do so at all, will vary between interpretations of Christian theology. Therefore this is probably better suited to GD.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
So forgive my uneducated question: Was Jesus without sin? I know Mary was conceived without original sin (immaculate conception) to be a holy vessel for Jesus, and Jesus was born without original sin. But as God incarnate, was he without human failings?
We Jews define sin differently than Christian theology does, so can we assume Jesus as a young man never did the things we Jews are actually antoning for (such as hurtful language, being mean-spirited etc). Was he that different as a child, teen, young man?
In the Gospel accounts, the Pharisees repeatedly attack Jesus for deviating from what they considered proper religious behavior. Surely the subject of failure to observe Yom Kippur would have come up rather prominently if that were the case.
I realize the pitfalls of arguing from a negative, but this seems like a fairly strong “curious incident of the dog in the night-time” argument to me.
Usually the christian definition of sin, AIUI is to act against the will of God. The christian denominations that believe in the triune god therefore tend to declare Christ sinless as to be otherwise he would have had to act against his own will.
The Bible flat out says he never sinned (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Which did not preclude theologians from debating at lengths on whether he possibly *could *have, presumably because medieval winters were very long and there was nothing good on the telly :).
From a cursory google search, apparently it depends on the congregation. Some churches/pastors hold that he was god so perfect and thus couldn’t sin ; others say that he was also totally man and therefore must have been capable of sin (else he wouldn’t have been a real man). Finally some seem to opine that while he never technically sinned he’s reported as being tempted to do so on occasion, inferring that he must have been able to sin because a temptation you can’t possibly answer isn’t a temptation at all, more like a naggingly persistent telemarketer :p.
The most prominent example isJesus being tempted three times by Satan while fasting in the desert.
Did Jews in Jesus’ time observe Yom Kippur? It’s been many years since my “History of Judaism” class back in college, but I seem to recall Rabbi Larry teaching that the first century C.E. was when sacerdotal, Temple-based Judaism was evolving into rabbinic Judaism, a tendency furthered after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.
According to this article in Haaretz, Yom Kippur was primarily about purifying the Temple, and the main ceremonies were performed by the High Priest, Yom Kippur being the only day he was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies itself. An article in says that ordinary Jews were merely expected to fast, abstain from sex, anointing themselves with oil, and wearing sandals.
Doesn’t sound like Yom Kippur was observed the way modern Jews do so until after Jesus’ time. So JC praying on Yom Kippur? Maybe yes, maybe no.
No mention in the Bible that Jesus observed Yom Kippur, so the point is moot. However, he did participate in John’s baptism of repentance. which raises the same question. The traditional answer is that he was baptized to show solidarity with the rest of humankind.
I suspect that He repented of all of his sins. Since there were none, it was a quick repentance session.
Step 2…
And the man Himself said: “Let’s do this thing for the sake of righteousness”, while John observed that he was the one who needed Jesus, not the other way around (and Jesus didn’t argue the point).
Similarly, “It is right to observe the Yom Kippur repentance” would cover it handily.
No, the average Jew did not celebrate Yom Kippur in Jesus’ time as they do today. As you’ve correctly noted, the main rituals of Yom Kippur were performed in the Temple. However, that being said, while Yom Kippur was not one of the festivals for which one had to ascend to the Temple, the Talmud reports that there were crowds there. Certainly a great many of the Jews in and around Jerusalem went to the Temple on Yom Kippur.
As for the remainder of the Jews, they had to observe the restrictions of the day (in addition to the above mentioned ones, they also could not work - just like on the Sabbath). Given that they could not work that day, I would not find it surprising that they spent at least part of the day in prayer and supplication. But they certainly did not have the same prayer service that we have today.
Zev Steinhardt
But he was also Jewish. Not sinning is no excuse not to feel guilt.