Uncovering the Jewish Jesus: How the Church's Misunderstanding of Judaism Impacted History

Caleb: Levine succinctly presents a Jewish Jesus and why it matters that Christians understand the layers of that reality. Her work is accessible and personal while being academically sound. Anyone in church leadership should read, particularly with rise of anti-Jewish sentiments and misconstrued narratives related to Judaism and Israel.

United States on Dec 14, 2023

Mary: Arrived on time! Looking forward to reading!

Canada on Nov 01, 2019

SYLVIA CHRISTOPHER: Every Christian need to read this book.

India on Oct 16, 2018

Miras: The book is for someone who wants to understand better the true connection between Judaism and Christianity, written by an extraordinary academic

United Kingdom on Feb 05, 2018

Northnerd: This is a wonderful book for Christian, Jew or the just curious about religion. It's a good read whether you're well-schooled in theology or just beginning to believe. Ms. Levine is a Jew who knows Christianity better than many professed Christians, much to the shame of the churches. Well worth the price of purchase

Canada on Jun 25, 2017

Rebecca. Friedman: This volume makes an excellent companion to the recent Jewish Annotated New Testament, co-edited by the author, or it can be read and enjoyed alone. Amy-Jill Levine makes a provocative case that the Jesus of the New Testament is "not speaking against Jews and Judaism; he is speaking to Jews from within Judaism."

The book can be divided into three parts. In the first two chapters Levine places Jesus and his teachings in the context of Jewish tradition, and more specifically of Judaism as it was practiced and observed in the first century. She does this both by discussing, with numerous scriptural references, the Jewish roots of many of Jesus' teachings, and by debunking erroneous notions about the beliefs and practices of first century Jews. For example, she compares the teaching of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew: "In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets", to the dictum of Rabbi Hillel, one of Judaism's greatest teachers: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. All the rest is commentary, go and learn".

The second part of the book examines the perceived anti-Judaism of the New Testament. She is...

United States on Dec 11, 2013

Amazon Customer: The Misunderstood Jew "The Misunderstood Jew" by Ami-Jill Levine is a rewarding read for both Christians and Jews. "But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!" (Romans 11:12)
We are privileged to live in such exciting times. Whatever the Church gained by moving from its Jewish roots, it lost much more. Today, the Lord is revealing the importance of the Jewish roots to His Church,bringing back the Hebraic context and understanding; and more and more Believers are becoming aware of this. Further, and equally exciting, The Lord is lifting the veil from Jewish eyes so that there is a greater interest, understanding and even turning to Yeshua/Jesus, their Messiah than there has been since he walked and talked in the land of Israel two thousand years ago.
This book is part of the riches that we Gentiles can participate in and enjoy, while at the same time enlightening Jews, giving understanding that Jesus is the Messiah, their Messiah! We can appreciate the revelation that comes by the Holy Spirit through Jewish eyes giving greater understanding of His Word.
Speaking of...

United Kingdom on Dec 08, 2011

Donald B. Johnson: This is a very curious book. From the title one might think it is about understanding Jesus better in his Jewish context, but this is not the case. Most of the book is about raising one's awareness about things in Christianity that either have been or can be "spun" to be anti-Jewish. Lots of terrible things have been done or said about Jews in the name of Christ, who was a Jew. She gives good examples of bad theology where some try to map Jesus and his conflicts with the Jewish authorities to modern situations using a good/bad simplistic and erroneous mapping, in effect making God into our image, as Voltaire quipped.

There is no question she is intelligent, witty, and working for a way to have interfaith dialog that respects the other.

It does seem that she would prefer that Christians not celebrate Passover, preferring to keep their faith on their own "railroad track" to use a metaphor she uses. She makes one minor reference to Messianic Jews in the book, which did not even find its way into the index; but this would seem to be a large area of overlap between being Jewish and being a believer in Jesus, which she would apparently prefer not to explore, rather each...

United States on Feb 12, 2007