Jesus: First-Century Rabbi: A New Edition

Even though I was first introduced to this work by a counter-missionary Rabbi scolding Rabbi David Zaslow's interview on FoxNews, I must say I really enjoyed this book. I do particularly enjoy works detailing theories regarding historical Jesus. Like Rabbi Zaslow, I was first introduced at any scholarly level to these issues from counter-missionary publications, the first being, "Twenty-Six Reasons Why Jews Don't Believe In Jesus" by Asher Norman. Asher Norman cited a work by Hyam Maccoby, so we bought his works as well. I found Hyam Maccoby's approach to be well thought out, thorough and logically outlined. I was also introduced to the works of James D. Tabor by another Rabbi, and also have Jeffrey Butz's "The Brother Of Jesus" and Jose Fauer's book "The Gospel According To The Jews" which paired with Reza Aslan's "Zealot" were two very big scholarly disappointments. In 2011, I first became exposed to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. I instancing recognized that he too followed Hyam Maccoby's approach quite closely. When he announced that he had written his own book and was going to call it "Kosher Jesus," I was quite exited. However, when I purchased it in 2012, I was quite disappointed. Hyam Maccoby is just a scholar with a deep connection to Judaism, however, I thought that Rabbi Shmuley Boteach as a Rabbi would fill in all the areas that Maccoby did not with his Talmudic training. This was not the case, Rabbi Shmuley essentially became a maggid of Hyam Maccoby's work.Rabbi David Zaslow does what Rabbi Shmuley Boteach failed to do. Instead of just asserting a certain saying attributed to Jesus was from the Oral Torah, and giving a few examples, Rabbi Zaslow provides an in depth citations from the various written works of the Oral Torah, something I expected Rabbi Shmuley. When he asserts that certain teachings attributed to Jesus are found in Rabbinic literature, he provides citations and examples for every teaching of Jesus he set out to prove where in line with Pharisaic Judaism. Even though Rabbi Zaslow (like Rabbi Shmuley) was going against the grain of counter-missionary literature, when it came to the topics of sin and atonement, idolatry, "original sin" versus free-will, Rabbi Zaslow was right on point and stresses and asserts the Jewish views on these topics quite well.The only issue I had with this work is the same one (of MANY) I had with Reza Aslan's "Zealot" that is, the assertion that Sadducees were somehow the "conservatives" and the Pharisees were the progressives. In truth the Sadducee denial of the Oral Torah allowed them to be liberal and progress away from the constraints of the firm and immovable (oral) Torah of the Pharisees.I would strongly recommend Rabbi Zaslow's book over "Kosher Jesus," but especially over "Zealot" (which asserts that JC was not so much a Rabbi, but a poor proponent of the Proletariat concerned with social justice to such an extent that he really belonged in a class with Lenin) and Jose Faur's "The Gospel of the Jews" (which asserts that JC was a tattooed Egyptian magician and a rich aristocrat who liked to have his feet washed). I sincerely hope that Christians can better understand why Jews do not and can not believe in Jesus and most importantly come to the conclusion on their own that Jews should not have to be converted.The counter-missionary Rabbi who originally posted a link to the FoxNews interview scolding Rabbi Zaslow has on different occasions complained that debates on his wall between Jews (with Noachides) and Christians become to heated and divisive with too much animosity. I find it odd that he would scold Rabbi Zaslow and his book which attempts to do the very thing he would like on his own Facebook wall just because it takes that stance that Jesus existed and this historic Jesus behind the myths of Christianity written over him in the Christian Bible upheld Judaism in accordance with the Oral Torah and consistent with the other Sages of his days. While I understand the sensitivities, eventually I hope that Jews and counter-missionaries might someday be able to overcome being offended by anything that mentions Jesus but does not attack him.I applaud Rabbi Zaslow for his scholarly work as well as his thesis to tear down the walls of division between Christians and Jews. This will never be an easy task, with Christians who want to convert Jews and Jews who find the historical Jewish Jesus approach offensive and a threat.

Rabbi Zaslow offers us a clear, thoroughly researched, yet very accessible book that calls on Jews and Christians alike to discover and appreciate the spiritual validity and integrity of their respective religions. In the introduction he writes, "Some Jews and Christians may choose to spend another two thousand years criticizing each other's rituals, theological dogmas, and beliefs, but I believe that God would be better served if we were to look into the mirror and correct the errors within our own religions and denominations first."Written with a light touch, clarity, and warm humor, Jesus: First-Century Rabbi successfully unpacks complex material in a variety of ways reflecting the author's gifts for storytelling and organizing information in ways that help us get down to the heart of things.I've known Reb David as a colleague for a decade now, and have long admired his passionate work for interfaith bridge-building. He has modeled a path of reciprocal respect and mutual spiritual appreciation with Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and leaders of many other faiths, and has done so with an authentic joyfulness that warms the heart. These qualities shine through in this book, providing a hopeful and gentle tone that animates a work filled with great scholarship, historical understanding, theology, and text study.Church and synagogue book groups, or interfaith study groups could not find a better resource book on this topic. And readers of other faith traditions (or of no tradition) will also learn a lot, not only about Judaism and Christianity, but also about the tools humanity needs to establish a new era in which the many religions of the world learn to appreciate and support the light that shines in each of them.

A well-written, thought provoking book. As a Christian, the book supplied information about the similarities of the Jewish faith and the Christian faith that I was totally unaware of.

This is an excellent book. Although I was raised Catholic, I have become more and more interested in Early Christianity (e.g. before 70 AD and the Roman destruction of the Temple) when Christians were called "Nazarenes." Much of the early documentation of this period has been lost and one has to carefully read the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, James, and the early letters (Romans, 1 Thessalonians, 1&2 Corinthians, etc.) of Paul to try to reconstruct this era where most of the "Christians" were Jews and gentile conversion had just started. The author carefully examines the Jewish context of the Early Church and how Christianity changed as the gentile converts became the majority in the Church, until now, when, superficially, it looks like Judaism and Christianity are two different religions. David Zaslow's book makes the Jewish connections much clearer. Other books I would recommend are those written by Amy-Jill Levine (e.g. The Jewish Annotated New Testament) and Maurice Casey.