Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus: General and Historical Objections, Vol. 1 Paperback – February 1, 2000

I bought all five volumes of this series. I just finished the first volume and it was enlightening. I didn't know that there were that many objections to Jesus, but Dr. Brown answered them superbly with all kinds of evidence, take a look at the notes. Scholarly work.

I found the book interesting, concise, easy to read, challenging, heart-warming, convicting and heart-wrenching. Meeting and knowing Jesus is more than a one-time super-natural event. God's word, which Michael quotes, is super-natural to those who sincerely seek God's truth through His Spirit. Looking at past arguments and wins is utterly pointless and a waste of time if you ONLY want to glorify your own view. Isaiah said all of our deeds are filthy rags - our work sucks and if we're honest we will agree. Looking at current formulas for evangelism and anti-evangelism is like putting God in a box. God is too big for any of our boxes and His widsom, mercy and love is beyond our understanding. To God be the Glory. It is God alone who said 'Let there be light'. Since He desires to be known, He alone reveals His Truth. Go to God. Come, leaving your human wisdom at home because it is flawed - Proverbs 3:5-6 says ........trust NOT in your own understanding. Come, leaving your human relationships at home - Abraham trusted God and left home and God credited his trust as righteousness. Come in need knowing you don't have all the answers: Moses said to God, he couldn't do it. God said He would do it and He did.......and He still does.

I found it much better than I expected . Thank you.

Dr. Brown thoroughly goes through the objections to the truth of Jesus being the Messiah. Every answer is explained well and each objection is treated carefully.

Very informative with a lot of details into basic Jewish objections to Jesus actually being the Messiah.... The prophets have spoken. The apostles and followers have written. It’s up to you, the reader to do your homework. Follow the breadcrumbs. Read the Bible in it’s entirety, even if it takes a year. And read this book, by Mr Brown’s as supplemental reading. You will have no other conclusion; Jesus of Nazareth, is the Christ. With us 2000 years ago. And still with us now.

...are filled with blessings. I strongly recommend for serious seekers/believers, both Jewish and Gentile. Rich reads. Eye opening. Very thoughtful and applicable on many relevant issues. His work is a blessing to his People and the Church. 5 Stars are not enough.I Kindled his latest, The Power of Music , the other day. A subject I’ve wondered about for a long time. Good timing Dr! Re “Objections” and “Blood”, same here!! You reading my mind Dr Brown??!

Extremely insightful and thoughtfuly written.

This is the introductory volume to a very thorough and tough-minded series on Messianic apologetics. Dr. Brown is a Jewish believer and brings his own Messianic (Jewish-Christian) perspective to this study. His approach isn't so much to tell the reader what his conclusions should be, but rather to provide the reader with the tools to come to his own conclusions--and I personally like that approach. Bottom line: this is an outstanding piece of work!

I can’t wait to read all the other volumes

I do not think there is another resource like this series. Although Dr. Brown speaks a lot of later Judaism and his views are influenced by further development of Christianity I would say his books take readers back to the first century when Christians (many of them Jews themselves) had to figure out how to explain their faith to their neighbours and friends. He backs up everything he says and is very careful when it comes to original resources.Not too many objections are particularly Jewish. The author deals with questions many Christians and even non-Christians have and sometimes struggle with. I am not a Jew and do not claim be an expert on Judaism. Nevertheless, when I shared some of Michael`s thoughts with my Jewish friends they found them really amazing. Should I point out a single issue it would be the way the Trinity is explained (esp- Vol. II, Chapters 3.1 - 2). Other books are full of philosophical stuff and the best you get is a bunch of rather complex terminology that boils down to 3 WHOs and 1 WHAT as Dr. White puts it in The forgotten Trinity. But Dr. Brown shows how the faith in a divine Messiah flows naturally from Tanakh (a.k.a. Old Testament) and Jewish faith. No need to worry about hypostases, consubstantional persons and things most apostles (Paul being possibly the sole exception) had no idea about.So to sum it up, this series could have a subtitle - Understanding Your Own Bible.

This book is outstanding in that it1. deals with a wide range of objections of Jews against the Christian belief and the Messiah Jesus Christ2. it is written by a Jew who believes in Christ and is therefore especially sensitive to both traditional Jewish concerns as well as issues of importance to the church3. it is adressed, by and large, to the Jewish person who does not yet believe in Christ as opposed to merely supplying information to the interested Christian/Messianic Jewsih reader, although such readers will easily benefit from the material compiled, and4. it seeks to be faithful to both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, while using the best tools in Biblical and Semitic scholarship as well as incorporating the Rabbinic writings where it is relevantThis volume has two parts. Part 1 is about general objections. They contain broad generalizations and sweeeping statements. It shows how Jews in general think: Jesus is not for Jews. The author is answering these objections as a matter of correcting misconceptions as well as getting people to think about the emotional and sometimes irrational nature of what they are saying.Part 2 is about historical Objections. They tend to be more substantial and deal with the very purpose of the Messiah or the alleged failure of the church. Jesus, the Jews in general believe, cannot be the Messiah, because we are obviously not in the messianic age. The author is providing a biblical picture of the Messiah, showing that Jesus was indeed fitting all the Biblical proof.I found this book astonishingly balanced. The author is never polemical or insulting. He has a very broad knowledge of Judaism and Christianity. He worte this book for everyone who is iterested in reaching the Jewish people with the good news of Jesus the Messiah. He says, if anyone needs to hear the truth about Jesus, it is his own Jewish people. But Jewish people have a deplorable lack to know the true Jesus. For them he is a monstrous figure, a false prophet, a liar and deceiver, a traitor and the founder of a terrible, counterfeit religion, one whose followers are the cause or worldwide ant-Semitism and even the Holocaust. But the author makes clear that this is not the real Jesus. Rather Jews have the same biased, unfounded views of Yeshua the Jew that other people have about them as Jews. "The only way to overcome this kind of ignorance and bias is by exposure to the truth, even if that truth hurts.Indeed the author proves many prejudices as unsubstantial. He discerns between the millions who call themselves Christian and those who live really according to the teachings of the New Testament. As if Jews do not also demand to discern between orthodox Jews and secular Jews. He is pointing out that the traditional Jewish teaching about Jesus gives a slanted portrayal of who the Messiah is and what he will do. But since the discription is faulty the people are looking in the wrong direction for the wrong person. It is not education, he says, and not learning that stop people from believing in Jesus but rather ignorance as to who he really is and what their Scriptures really say about him. The same could be said about most Christians, I fear!The auhtor shows that the denial of Jesus as Messiah was in consequent tradition of the Jewish denial of Moses and the prophets. This is clearly stated througout the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. Inso far the reproach that the New Testament is anti-Jewish makes no sense, because it is even milder to the Jews than the Old Testament. Interestingly the Torah says that the world exists six thousand years and that after the two thousand years of the Torah the two thousand years of the Messianic area would have to follow. This has to mean that at the time of Jesus, the Messiah should have come. And? No other "Messiah" has yet arrived!The author is asking whether the Jews did not recognize the Messiah because of their iniquities. According to the Hebrew Bible the Messiah was to arrive before the Second Temple was destroyed. And this happened in the year 70 AD. The Talmud said that the Messiah would come riding on a donkey, if the people were unworthy. Is it possible that exactly this happened?The author is stressing the special meaning of the Jews for the whole nation. He is not supporting the substitution theory that the church has susbtituted Israel as God`s people.He is showing that true followers of Jesus were always persecuted and never the persecutors.Therefore the blame that the Jews were persecuted by true followers of the Christ must be rejected. The New Testament teaching is not purporting any persecution, which can be easily proved. The Jews also find it unfair ,if anyone generalizes the behaviour of some groups of Jews who are no representatives of their father`s belief. Jesus, to the contrary, the author says, is the cure of every problem, individually and nationally, not the cause of the Jew`s problems. One should judge a tree by seeing what fruit is produced by those who hold to its principles and live out its ideals. And Israel`s best friends are Bible-believing, New Testament-reading Christians!In one chapter the author deals about the Holocaust. He rejects the Jewish idea that this was done by Christians. He is citing many Jewish scholars who have had their own theory about the meaning of this tragedy and comments them. In his opinion God brought judgment on the Jews for their iniquities in all times.This is the clear statement of the Torah and the Talmud. But it was Satan who stimulated his willing servants to this extremeness. I found it inconsequent to fail to think of how the judgement comes to a fair completion beyond the gates of death, because nobody could approve a child`s murder as relevant for a nation but not for the individual.Nevertheless the author shows that he went dep into the matter. The still latent problem seems to be this: "that most religions - including Judaism basically look upon man himself to turn back and repent, not fully reckoning with how debased human nature really is. And while Jews and Muslims are taught to ask for mercy and forgiveness in prayer, there are no sure grounds for atonemnet and no full recognition of the depth of human corruption."And the Holocaust proves what? The author says: "The Holocaust forces these questions on us and gives us, I believe, only one possible answer: God himself had to reach down into this deep pit of human evil to save us from our sins - including the sins of the Holocaust."But he is also saying that the likeness of Jesus is ressembling more the likeness of the Jews in the Holocaust than those so called Christians who are no true followers of Christ! Of course, the author is critical on traditional Judaism, but he is as well critical on historical, taditional Christians. But this is not a book to save so called Christians, rather to help Jews to understand that their Messiah has already come."How strange it is that Jewish philosophers and religious thinkers could speculate that the Holocaust represented an act of vicarious, substitutionary suffering for our people, the experience of the servant of the Lord depicted in Isaiah 52:13-53:12, and yet the same philosophers and religious thinkers cannot conceive of our Messiah in such terms, nor can they find a point of identification between Yeshua and the Jewish people!"Acording to the author the Holocaust should draw the Jews to the side of the suffering servant rather than drive them away from him. Out of death - the Holocaust and the cross - came resurrection, the State of Israel and the raising of the Messiah.This is a higly recommendable book not only for Jews, but also for Christians, especially those who have a prejudice against Jews.

Just the book I needed

Very satisfied.