Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus

by Michael L. Brown

Book Overview

A Jewish person has different objections to Jesus than an atheist, yet most apologetics books are geared toward conversing with non-religious people about the gospel. Michael L. Brown, a Jewish... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801064260
• ISBN13: 9780801064265
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: Baker Books
• Length: 382 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Jewish Objections to Jesus

All four of Brown's Jewish Objections to Jesus are just great. Lot's of insights and explained in easy English and is understandable.

Good Read

Great book, good condition, really helpful in understanding Jews and defending faith in Jesus (Yeshua) as the Messiah

Dealing with objections to the NT

Brown is the foremost Christian expert on Judaism, and I highly recommend this 4-volume set. This volume centers on common objections Jewish believers have with the NT. It can either be read as a reference source (looking up different objections in the book is not hard using the index) or read all the way through. I have chosen the former method, so while I haven't read every page, they're on my shelf whenever a question on Judaism arises. The thing about Judaism is it is so different moving from Orthodox all the way to Reformed. But the general ideas in this book cover all the branches. Every Christian should be able to talk to their Jewish believer friends, family, and co-workers, because the topic is of utmost importance.

Well-written, detailed and accurate, but pointless

This is the fourth volume of a planned 5-volume set. (This review is basically the same as for the previous volumes.) Collectively, the set is a ground-breaking resource of first-rate scholarship. Unfortunately, the subject matter is incredibly arcane. Dr. Brown is the leading expert on responding to objections to Jesus and Christian theology raised by knowledgeable Orthodox Jews. He has a doctorate in Semitic languages, the books are well-researched and well-written and he covers the material in detail, going into Talmudic interpretations, Rashi, Maimonedes, etc. Although such Jewish theologians are unfamiliar to most Christians, their names are as familiar to knowledgeable Jews as Moody and Scofield are to Christians. Although most purchasers are gentile evangelists, material is arranged essentially as dialogues between an Orthodox Jew and a responding Messianic. Unfortunately, the books are rather pointless. Why? See Evangelism Explosion. If a person is not open to the gospel, no amount of arguments will matter. You can see similar debates in Internet newsgroups between Protestants and Catholics, Protestants and Mormons, Messianics and non-messianic Jews, etc. I took Brown's course on Messianic Apologetics in 2003. He started by having two Messianic Jews try evangelizing him and he responded as an Orthodox Jew would, with arguments from his books. One of the evangelists is an Israeli graduate of the Jewish Studies program at Christ for the Nations and a Messianic rabbi experienced at Jewish evangelism in Israel and the U.S. Responding like a non-messianic Orthodox, Brown "wiped the floor" with both of them, with things like "Are you Jewish?" "Is your mother Jewish?" "Is HER mother Jewish?" "Do you keep kosher?" (Contrary to the Bible, the Israeli Supreme Court says a person only is Jewish if their mother is Jewish. Hence, if the mother's mother wasn't Jewish, the mother isn't Jewish, so he's not Jewish, etc.) It then moved on to, "Numbers 23 says, 'God is not a man'. Since Jesus can't be God, all your so-called 'messianic prophecy proofs' are worthless. Also, they can't be proofs, since Messiah has not come yet. Where do Hebrew Scriptures say Messiah will be God? He will be anointed, but only a man. Where does Isaiah 53 talk about Messiah? It's not a messianic prophecy; it's talking about Israel." One evangelist said, "Since the Temple is destroyed, sacrifices can't be offered. How do you get atonement for your sin?" The response was, "After Solomon's Temple was destroyed there were no sacrifices. How were Daniel's sins forgiven?" For non-Christians reading this review, understand that Brown didn't "wipe the floor" with them because their arguments were wrong. They had never heard arguments from "anti-missionary" experts such as Tovia Singer and were not prepared to respond "off the cuff". Brown's books show that many Orthodox arguments contradict Scripture or historic Jewish interpretations or both. For gentiles considering Jewish ev

VITAL Apologetic points NOT TO BE MISSED

The stakes are certainly VERY high on this one. I predict that Michael Brown's four volumes on ANSWERING JEWISH OJECTIONS TO [The Messiahship of] JESUS, will rank as one of the most important apologetic works of this or any century. (and let the fur-fly all you like, I'm convinced of it). Just look at some of the topics covered in this fourth volume in his extensive review of Jewish and Rabbinical objections: 5.3. 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. 5.4. Matthew 27:9-10 is totally confused. First Matthew quotes part of a prophecy from Zechariah, then he says it comes from Jeremiah, and then he takes the whole thing totally out of context. What a mess! 5.6. The New Testament is full of historical inaccuracies. 5.7. None of the important historical writers of the period--Roman or Jewish--make mention of Jesus. It's questionable whether he even existed. 5.8. Modern scholars are in complete agreement that the Gospels portray a mythical Jesus. There is very little that we can really know about his life. 5.9. Jesus was not born of a virgin. In fact, we have traditions that actually tell us who Jesus' real father was--and it wasn't Joseph! Anyway, the idea of a god being born to a virgin is just one of several pagan myths that made its way into the New Testament. 5.10. The genealogies of Jesus given by Matthew and Luke are hopelessly contradictory. 5.11. The Messiah is David's son. If Jesus were really born of a virgin, then Joseph was not his father and he is really not a descendant of David, even according to Matthew's genealogy. And if you claim that Luke's genealogy is that of Mary, Jesus still doesn't qualify, since the genealogy in Luke goes through David's son Nathan, whereas the Messianic promises must go through David's son Solomon. Therefore, Jesus cannot be the Messiah. 5.12. Jesus cannot be the Messiah because he is a descendant of King Jehoiachin. God cursed both this king and his offspring, saying that none of his descendants would ever sit on the throne of David. 5.13. Jesus did work some miracles, but they were not by God's power. We have traditions that tell us he learned magical arts in Egypt. 5.14. Jesus didn't fulfill any of the Messianic prophecies. We know that the New Covenant writers actually reconstructed the life of Jesus so as to harmonize it with certain predictions made by the prophets. 5.15. When Jesus failed to fulfill the prophecies, his followers invented the myth of his substitutionary death, his resurrection, and finally, his second coming, which, of course, they completely expected in his lifetime. 5.16. Do you want irrefutable proof that the authors of the New Testament didn't know what they were talking about? Well, look at Matthew 23:35, where Jesus states that the last martyr spoken of in the He