Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus: Theological Objections, Vol. 2 Book

First-off, I have to say that the author, Dr. Michael Brown, is such a stand-up guy, who approaches this topic not only with mastery of his field, but with humility and love and good-will. I am not a Christian; I have lived most of my life as an observant Jew, and have studied a lot of Rabbinic literature - and I mean, a lot. I had the tremendous privilege of spending quite an extended time learning Talmud in Israel, full time; Not to mention Jewish Day schools, summer camps, and many, many study groups over the years. I had a wonderful experience in Judaism; I never felt that it was imposed upon me, but it was something I decided to embrace on my own, brought tremendous meaning to my life, and that I have always cherished and been grateful for.

But with that, for some reason that I can't quite remember, several months ago I decided to start reading through the Gospels - not for the first time, but with an interest that I had never had before - and naturally, I had a thousand questions as I read. After doing some research, I came across Dr. Michael Brown, and called his radio show a couple of times to ask him about them. By my second call, he remembered me, and after asking about my background a little bit and finding out that I was raised Jewish, he asked if he could send me this volume; And of course, being a truth seeker, I gratefully agreed.

I received it last week, and have already spent a lot of time with it, and am continually astounded by its breath and depth. He had dedicated several pages worth of explanation to the very question I had asked, along with copious endnotes for further inquiry, and I found to my delight his explanations for dozens of questions that I had already planned to look into eventually.

His structure for this book is to start each section with a "Jewish Objection," followed by a very brief answer on one foot, followed by a much longer answer with an exploration of sources. The longer answer contains endnotes - and lots of them - for anyone interested in going much, much deeper. (To give an example of the depth here; When speaking with him on his show, he told me that I mistranslated a line from Hosea 14. I never had a chance to respond, but at the time, I was thinking; "How dare he tell me I mistranslated! I'm fluent in Hebrew, have been reading TaNaKh in Hebrew my whole life, I know what I'm reading and what it means!" But then, thank-the-Almighty that I found a very humbling endnote in the back of this book talking at length about a strange Hebrew-grammar phenomenon called the "enclitic mem;" Who ever heard of such a thing??? And sure enough, I realized Dr. Brown is the "Pro" for good reason. I mistranslated indeed!)

Sprinkled throughout his explanations are wonderful anecdotes, many of them about Dr. Brown's personal life and journey, which all contribute to the tone of the book feeling very personal and conversational. If you have listened to his show, you can hear his voice come through throughout this book. For example, on page 224, after sharing a particular passage of Talmud, he then digresses to share about a moment when he taught this passage to doctorate students. "As I read and translated with these students, I was suddenly overcome with emotion, barely managing to hold back the tears. Somehow this legendary text became real to me, and I was struck by the Messiah's longing to be revealed, his carefulness to be ready at any moment, and the frustration on the part of my Jewish people that "today" had not yet come... These traditional Jewish texts strike a deep chord in me - and perhaps in you as well." (page 224-225).

On page 154, you'll meet the modern-day Flintstone; a tribal people called the Sawis tribe in New Guinea. A young missionary learned their culture and language so he could share the Gospel with them. And what was their reaction as they heard the story? "The natives were completely insensitive. In fact, when they heard about Judas betraying Jesus, they hooted with joy. Deceit was a virtue in their culture!"

These are two of the many memorable examples.

What's most incredible to me is how much TaNaKh, and thoroughly-Jewish, traditional literature I am learning from this book, Talmud and Midrash included! One of my favorites comes from footnote 84 on page 276, from Sa'adiah Gaon, speaking about the prophecies of Yoel, "The light of the Shekhina will shine on the Temple until the luminaries will be dimmed by its light... so that those who do not know the way to the Temple will go toward that light, because it will be from heaven to earth. Then prophecy will spread in our people until even our children and our servants will prophecy... Until if one of the Children o Israel will go to one of the lands and will say that 'I am of Israel,' they will say to him, 'Tell us what will be tomorrow?'" Wow, how beautiful is this image???

Just for contrast with my praise above, so that no one will read my whole review and conclude that I think this book is not without its faults, here is a comment on page 58 which, at least according to how I am understanding it, I find to be quite silly: "The Holy Spirit is not simply an abstract influence, but rather the essence of God's own being, and now lives in us. That's why it becomes completely "natural" to keep the commandments of God, because he- by his Spirit- lives in our hearts... This glorious experience of the indwelling Holy Spirit has become real to millions around the world through Jesus the Messiah. Once, their very nature was bent on sin, destruction, and selfish satisfaction. Now, they live to give glory to God. Where there was hate, there is love; where there was anger, there is peace; where there was lust, there is self-control; where there was darkness, there is light. That is the effect of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God's people!" (58-59)

If this were in fact true, then why is it that professing believers in Yeshua are just as prone to temptation and moral failing as anyone else? Why would Dr. Brown have had to write a whole volume on the history of the church's virulent hatred and persecution of Jews? (Our Hands are Stained with Blood.) Does this mean that not one of these people were "true" Christians? Seemingly, it would also follow that when there are two people who profess to be Christians but interpret and follow the commandments differently, at least one of them must not be a "true" Christian housing the Holy Spirit - for otherwise, it would be "natural" to keep the law correctly, no? With all fairness to Dr. Brown, I do imagine there is a compelling explanation to it; In the meantime, I will remain puzzled.

All in all, I very highly recommend this book to anyone of Israelite descent who values their relationship with YHWH-Almighty and is therefore in pursuit of truth. It will raise questions which are deserving of serious thought, reflection, and prayer; And what's incredible it is only 1 book in a set of 5! I will spend more time with this one, and then will probably purchase the volume on Messianic Prophecies. I started out on this journey, not due to feeling like I need to make a drastic change to my spiritual life in any way; I am very content with my relationship to YHWH-Almighty; I feel a closeness to him, particularly in light of Psalm 145 - "YHWH is close to ALL who call out to him in sincerity." Nevertheless, I have found myself taking certain claims seriously that I never thought I would entertain in a thousand years. I'm not one to get swept-up in hype and to make life-changing decisions on a whim, and so I do not imagine myself becoming a professing Christian anytime soon (nor even a "non-professing" Christian, for that matter) but I believe wholeheartedly that if Dr. Brown is right about who Yeshua was, I have confidence YHWH will help me to come to this conclusion in due time, as I continue to read with an open heart and mind and turn to YHWH, the El-of-truth to be a light in my life as I seek out how best to be in communion with him.