You are forgetting that Yahshua and the disciples were Jews. Also, they had a large following of Jewish believers. It was the Hellenistic priesthood that rejected him as the messiah.
First of all, it wasn't just the Hellenistic priesthood that rejected Jesus as Messiah. Remember the crowd yelling "Crucify him!".
Secondly, Judaism has always rejected Jesus as Messiah. Remember, once the "Jewish believers" became believers, they ceased being Jews and became Christians. The majority of them abandoned the observance of Jewish ceremonial law in favor of embracing the law of Christ. Those that did continue to observe it observed it for entirely different reasons than they had when Jews - because of the Messiah!
Again I say, it is laughable to hold up Orthodox Jews as the standard for understanding the nature of God since they reject the Messiah their own scriptures told them to expect.