What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Jewishness of Jesus by Rabbi Evan Moffic

What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Jewishness of Jesus by Rabbi Evan Moffic ISBN-13: 9781426791581 Paperback: 224 pages Publisher: Abingdon Press Released: Feb. 2, 2016

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Walking through Jesus' life from birth to death, Rabbi Evan Moffic provides Christians with a new way to look at familiar teachings and practices that are rooted in the Jewish faith. Moffic gives fresh insight on how Jesus' contemporaries understood him, explores how Jesus' Jewishness shaped him, offers a new perspective on the Lord's Prayer, and provides renewed appreciation for Jesus' miracles.


My Review:
What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Jewishness of Jesus looks at Rabbinic Judaism and Jewish legends to better understand Jesus' teachings in their Jewish context. The author compared and contrasted Jesus' teachings and teaching methods to other rabbis of that time period.

He also covered topics like rabbis, discipleship, circumcision, Jewish ritual immersion, bat kol (divine voice), fasting, the Shema, the Lord's Prayer, and how 1st century Jews viewed miracles, resurrection, and the messiah. He also drew parallels between Jesus' life and Old Testament events involving Joseph, Moses, and others.

The author is a Reform Judaism rabbi who has clearly spent a lot of time talking with Christians. I appreciate his efforts to educate Christians (and Jews), and he was respectful about Christian beliefs. While he brought insights into things of Jewish significance, he understandably (due to the variation in beliefs among Christians) didn't always understand my Christian viewpoint on things.

I've read some excellent books by Christian authors that cover the same topics and provide deeper insights for Christian faith, so I'd probably recommend them before this one. But this book did provide some good information and was interesting.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.