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Answering Jewish objections to JesusOur King is kosherANSWERING JEWISH OBJECTIONS TO JESUS It has been justly written that if Jesus is not the promised Messiah of the Jewish people, then neither is he qualified to be the Saviour of anyone else. On the other hand, if he is the true Jewish Messiah, then everyone, whether Jew or Gentile, should believe in him. It follows that perhaps the first task of the Christian apologist is to deal with specifically Jewish objections to Jesus. These are many and varied; serious Jewish questions deserve serious answers; yet tackling them can seem a daunting task. American Messianic Jew Michael Brown is well-qualified to assist. Having come to faith in Jesus as a teenager, he found himself encountering scholarly, devout, ultra-orthodox rabbis able to read the Scriptures in Hebrew, with a host of seemingly plausible arguments against the Messiahship of Jesus. Brown set himself to studying Hebrew and other Semitic languages, and to answering Jewish objections to the gospel with truth as well as love. His four volumes (eventually to be five) represent the fruit of his many years of scholarship. Volume 1 tackles General and Historical Objections. The General Objections range from the short and relatively simple (‘Jews don’t believe in Jesus’, ‘No religious or educated Jew would ever believe in Jesus’) to the challenging and profound (‘What would happen to a Nazi murderer who believed in Jesus before he died? Would he go to heaven, while the Jewish men, women and children he killed, many of whom were God-fearing people, would go to hell?’). The Historical Objections include: ‘The origins of anti-Semitism can be traced back to the New Testament’ and ‘If Jesus is really the Messiah, why isn’t there peace on earth?’ Volume 2 moves on to Theological Objections, such as ‘God doesn’t have a son’, ‘Jews don’t believe in the Trinity’, ‘Jews don’t believe in a suffering Messiah’, and a range of questions concerning the necessity of sacrifices. Volume 3 looks at Messianic Prophecy Objections in great detail, such as ‘Isaiah 7.14 does not prophesy a virgin birth’ and ‘Isaiah 53 cannot refer to Jesus because it says the servant of the Lord would see seed, an expression always meaning physical descendants when used in the Hebrew Bible’. Volume 4 (currently unread!) deals with New Testament Objections such as: ‘The genealogies of Jesus given by Matthew and Luke are hopelessly contradictory’, ‘Paul abolished the Law’, and ‘Matthew 2.23 says that when Jesus moved to the town of Nazareth, this “fulfilled what was said through the prophets: ‘He will be called a Nazarene’.” There’s only one problem. The prophets never said this! Matthew actually made it up.’ So far, Brown has dealt with 136 Jewish objections to Jesus. A planned fifth and final volume will deal with Objections based on Traditional Judaism, covering the objection that Judaism is sufficient for Jews, and also looking at the place of the oral tradition. Each volume follows a similar format. Brown states the objection, followed by a concise answer, followed by a longer answer including citations of key sources, and considerations of possible objections to his answers. Substantial endnotes are also provided. The great strength of Brown’s work is its sheer breadth and thoroughness: he interacts with the biblical texts and languages; with Talmudic and other traditional Jewish literature; the objections of modern rabbis such as Tovia Singer; and a range of other sources. It would be fair to say he leaves no stone unturned! He also writes with clarity and sensitivity. Conversely, his sheer thoroughness means that the books are probably more suitable as a resource for believers than for lending to all but the more determined non-Messianic Jewish friend: recommended alternatives include Stan Telchin’s Betrayed (Zondervan), Walter Riggans’ Yeshua ben David (Monarch), and Richard Gibson’s forthcoming compilation of Jewish testimonies, The Unusual Suspects. Nevertheless, Brown’s books should be on the shelves of every Messianic Jew and of every Gentile Christian who wishes to have serious answers to the questions of their Jewish friends. However, the scope is much wider, since many non-Jewish people (notably Muslims) raise similar objections regarding the coherence of the Old and New Testaments, and indeed the coherence of the teachings of Jesus and Paul. Brown provides thorough, scholarly yet readable answers to these questions, which will benefit the serious student and the casual reader alike. James Mendelsohn,
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