Some Books on Christianity From A Jewish Perspective

I list here some books on Christianity from a Jewish perspective.  Listed also are some reviews that I found on the internet.  My interest in doing so is historical rather than theological and is not intended to indicate either agreement or disagreement with the various conclusions of the respective authors.

Rabbi Samuel Sandmel:  “A Jewish Understanding of the New Testament” (1956)

Geza Vermes:  “Jesus the Jew:  A Historian’s Reading of the Gospels” (1973)

Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield:  “The Passover Plot:  New Light on the History of Jesus” (1965)

Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield:  “Those Incredible Christians” (1968)

Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield:  “The Jesus Party” (1974)

Robert Eisenman:  “James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls” (1996)

Hyam Maccoby:  “The Mythmaker:  Paul and the Invention of Christianity” (1986)

Daniel Boyarin:  “A Radical Jew:  Paul and the Politics of Identity” (1994)

1.  Rabbi Samuel Sandmel:  “A Jewish Understanding of the New Testament” (1956)

Ad related to Rabbi Samuel Sandmel: “A Jewish Understanding ...

  A Jewish Understanding - of the New Testament‎

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http://www.amazon.com/A-Jewish-Understanding-New-Testament/dp/1594730482

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Amazon Customer Reviews

I can't put it down!

By Crystal on February 21, 2006

Format: Paperback

I am in the process of converting to Judaism from Christianity. This means that I have lots of questions and confusion about who Jesus was if he was not the messiah. When I bought this book, I expected it to be dry and difficult to get through. Indeed, the introduction is, but it's largely unnecessary for the enjoyment of the remainder of the book.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book is both easy to read and engaging. It is well-researched and written, but also written for the casual reading. In other words, you don't need to be a Bible scholar in order to understand it.

Even more surprising, the book is written in a very respectful and non-controversial way. Although it does not apologize for Jewish beliefs, it also does not pass judgment on Christian ones. Instead, it states Christian beliefs (such as the resurrection) as neither fact nor fiction, but rather as what various people believed.

The book is structured in several parts, covering the cultural and historic contexts, Paul and his writings, Jesus and the Gospels, the other writings (Acts, Revelation, etc.), and the significance of the New Testament.

This book is great for both Christians and Jews, and probably my favorite on Jewish-Christian relations and/or studies.

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2.  Geza Vermes:  “Jesus the Jew:  A Historian’s Reading of the Gospels” (1973)

http://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Jew-Geza-Vermes/dp/0800614437

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UNDERSTANDING JESUS IN TERMS OF HIS RACIAL HERITAGE

By Terry B. Cullom on January 13, 2000

Format: Paperback

Modern Christological study and the quest for the historical Jesus owe a debt of gratitude to both Albert Schweitzer and Geza Vermes. Schweitzer showed us that Jesus' thinking was characterized by apocalyptic (eschatology), and Vermes taught us that if we would know Jesus we must understand him within his historical Jewish culture. It is to Vermes' credit, and an indication of the impact of his book, that in current Third Quest Jesus study we take his Jewishness and his Jewish background as basic to any legitimate interpretation of his nature, teaching, or mission. 3) Vermes, as the history of religions school before him, tends to credit so-called "higher" Christological forulations to a later Hellenist stage, not properly considering Jesus' own claims, stories, beliefs, and praxis that contribute to them, nor giving due weight to the fact that Paul, the first Christians, and most Christian groups were composed of Jews.

I well remember when I first read this book a few years ago. For the first time I saw Jesus come alive--a real historical person who fully shared in his racial heritage. I also remember how it was precisely because he thus became real that God became real to me as well. I think the major fault of Vermes is that he does not see that, for Jesus, YHWH is judging the nations, returning to Israel, and becoming King, in and through his own work. Rather, for Vermes, Jesus is made to fit the, howbeit peculiar, mold of the Jewish Hasidic charismatic. In spite of what I consider to be his weaknesses, I shall remain endebted to Vermes for making Jesus real to me, and setting the course of current Jesus study.

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3.   Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield:  “The Passover Plot:  New Light on the History of Jesus” (1965)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passover_Plot    

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Schonfield's conclusions

Based on scholarly research into the social and religious culture in which Jesus was born, lived and died, into the source documents of the Gospels, and into other literature, Schonfield reached the following conclusions:

• That Jesus was a deeply religious Jewish man, probably well-versed in the teachings of the local northern sects such as the Nazarenes and Essenes.
• That growing up in biblical Galilee he had a skeptical and somewhat rebellious relationship to the hierarchy and teachings mandated by the authorities (the Pharisees) of the Temple in Jerusalem.
• That Jewish Messianic expectation was extremely high in those times, matched to the despair caused by the Roman occupation of the land, and by their subjugation of the Jews.
• That he was in many ways both typical of his times, and yet extraordinary in his religious convictions and beliefs, in his scholarship of the biblical literature, and in the fervency in which he lived his religion out in his daily life.
• That he was convinced of his role as the expected Messiah based on the authority of his having been descendant from King David (the royal bloodline of David), and that he consciously and methodically, to the point of being calculating, attempted to fulfill that role, being eminently well-versed in the details of what that role entailed.
• That he was convinced of the importance of his fulfilling the role perfectly (after all prophesy and expectation), and that he could not allow himself to fail, as that would undoubtedly lead to his being declared a false Messiah.
• That he was perfectly aware of the consequences of his actions all along the way, and that he directed his closest supporters, the original twelve Apostles, unknowingly to aid him in his plans.
• That he involved the least possible number of supporters in his plans ("need to know" basis), therefore very few knew of the details of his final plan, and even then only the least amount of information necessary.^[3]

The culmination of his plan was to be his death (the crucifixion), his resurrection and his reign as the true kingly and priestly messiah, not in heaven but on earth— the realized king of the Jews.

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4.  Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield:  “Those Incredible Christians” (1968)

http://www.amazon.com/Those-Incredible-Christians-Joseph-Schonfield/dp/B0006BUN2I

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THE SEQUEL TO "THE PASSOVER PLOT"

By Steven H. Propp TOP 500 REVIEWER on July 22, 2013

Format: Hardcover

Hugh Joseph Schonfield (1901-1988; AKA "Schonfeld") was a British Bible scholar of Jewish heritage, who was once a "Messianic Jew"; his earlier books reflect this: e.g., The History of Jewish Christianity. In 1937 he was expelled from the International Hebrew Christian Alliance, which left him disillusioned. His famous and controversial book The Passover Plot was even made into a movie [Passover Plot [VHS]].

He wrote in the Introduction to this 1968 book, "I have been able to assess the situation much more acutely since the publication of my previous book ... The reactions, both favourable and unfavourable, were impressive and highly illuminating. Letters... flooded in... I was interviewed by many sections of the Press... The upshot was that the writing of the present volume became essential." (Pg. xiii) He adds, "It is possible that 'Those Incredible Christians' will administer a greater shock since it utilizes the same kind of resources in dealing with the formation of the Christian Faith and discloses by what circumstances and devious means it was accomplished... Christianity as we know it is far removed from the original terms of its expression, and this would have been much clearer and more convincing were it not for the loss and suppression of material testimony..." (Pg. xviii)

He argues, "From Paul's writings it can be deduced... that as a young man he devoted himself to a particular branch of Jewish occultism with all its attendant risks, physical and mental, and a strong case can be made out that his violent and berserk antagonism to the followers of Jesus arose in no small part from his secret belief that he himself was the Messiah destined to be 'a light to the nations.' ... Paul's psychic experience... [was] perhaps due to an epileptic seizure..." (Pg. 61)

He states, "With the death of James, and in face of the signs, the moderate Nazoreans took the decision to leave Jerusalem... Events, as we have seen, now went from bad to worse in Judea until... the Jewish people spurred on by the Zealots rose in [unsuccessful] revolt... The first phase of Christianity was ended by this tragic yet heroic chapter in Jewish history... The voices of controversy were temporarily stilled." (Pg. 106-107)

By later centuries, "Evidently it was felt that only a stable and energetic authority able to pronounce firmly on matters of faith and doctrine could cope successfully with the crisis situation. The church at Rome considered that it had been raised up at this time to discharge these responsibilities... the use of fraud and forgery was apparently not regarded as immoral or unethical. But thereby, to the deception of future generations, Christianity was converted from a Jewish movement centered on Jesus as Messiah into a new religion worshipping him as the Divine Son of God." (Pg. 142) He summarizes, "Within one hundred and fifty years of the death of Jesus ... the Church could begin to make much greater conquests in converting to its teaching whole tribes and peoples: it could move from the defensive to the offensive." (Pg. 216)

He concludes, "We have looked very sharply and without blinkers at Those Incredible Christians in hope that the ecclesiastical mind may be capable of making a positive response. If it cannot the Christian laity may be able to take over. It is at least a pointer in the right direction that the burden of Christian thought now is the Church in the World... This book must therefore close on an invitation... for Christians to turn with new insight to the consideration of what our story has revealed... Christians must go back to the beginning and search out anew in the context of the Jewish vision, which the Church forsook, the mysteries of the Kingdom of God." (Pg. 224-225)

This book will interest those looking for alternative/speculative theories of the rise of Christianity.

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5.  Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield:  “The Jesus Party” (1974)

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/hugh-j-schonfield-2/the-jesus-party/

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KIRKUS REVIEW

Adopting a more scholarly tone and to some degree deemphasizing the cloak-and-spearpoint intrigue of The Passover Plot and Those Incredible Christians, Schonfield continues to popularize and politicize the work of such biblical scholars as Robert Eisler. Anyone familiar with Schonfield's belief that the historical Jesus was an activist Jewish nationalist won't be surprised to learn that the ""Jesus Party"" was not a Christian organization at all. According to the detailed scenario here Pentecost marked the rallying of rebellious Jewish sects around the Nazarean party, which flourished under the leadership of Jacob the Just, the brother of Jesus; however the true anti-Roman nature of Jesus' following was obscured by Luke and other writers after Paul and Peter began preaching to the gentiles. Schonfield's thesis is far from idle and his investigations into chronology are particularly impressive, but he stubbornly refuses to consider any evidence that the teachings of Jesus might somehow account for the religion that bears his name and he doesn't hesitate to fill the empty spaces in his outline with pure conjecture. Having rejected the ""Miracle Hay"" message of the Gospels, Schonfield proposes that we must ""almost bludgeon our way towards the reality with which they are so little concerned."" The predictable result is a daring if ham-handed hypothesis, to be debated by a smaller, more sophisticated audience than this maw crick academician has sometimes reached in the past. Provocative.

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6.   Robert Eisenman:  “James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls” (1996)

http://www.amazon.com/James-Brother-Jesus-Unlocking-Christianity/dp/1842930265

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Jesus is really my brother

By Jacques COULARDEAU on July 25, 2005

Format: Paperback

Robert Eisenman was the leading figure in the movement to free the Dead Sea Scrolls and make them all public, which was essential to start understanding what happened twenty centuries ago around Jesus. The present book is the result of his lifelong research in Middle East religious history. First the method. He brings together all documents available from the end of the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 3rd century CE. He considers all that is common but that does not give him the truth. For him the truth may come, and any interpretation can only come, from the differences in overlapping documents. He considers all documents are ideological interpretations of facts and stylistic rewriting of these same facts. The New Testament is a complete rewriting in Greek (he uses the concept of overwrites) of previous documents (he does not specify what they were : probably oral tradition in local semitic languages). He tries to decipher the rewriting and discover the buried version, using the method invented and devised by Kenneth Burke in his logology and his approach of Augustine. And it is the different elements he can find in other documents that lead him along the way to a reasonable and effective interpretation. Second the style. His extremely detailed work leads him to many repetitions of documents and facts in the whole book. It is circular, but each document or fact that is used several times, is used every single time in different conditions and thus helps build a different interpretation and thus gets a different meaning. We have to be patient and very humble in our search for truth, because one fact can have a great number of values and interpretations. That is the style at book level. If we go down at chapter and subchapter levels we have the same circularity but this time because the author threads up facts one after the other in a continuous flow of data from which he eventually gets his interpretation. The discourse is syncretic and thus may give you a vertigo. But it is the only way to proceeed : lines of data from which you draw a conclusion or rather a hypothesis from which you are going to work on. Now the general ideas. Jesus had three brothers, James the Just (minorized in James the Less, and there was only one James), Simon the Zealot, Judas the Zealot (but also Thomas and many other names among which Jude), and one sister, Mary Salome or Salome. The author concentrates on the brothers. First he denounces the multiplication of some names like James, Mary, Judas, Simon, etc. This is done to erase Jesus' family and to lessen and minorize the brothers who were invested by Jesus himself with the responsibility to further his work, James first, in no way with the intention to create a new religion but to create a new balance of power in the East to impose some freedom for the « Jews » to the Romans, and in no way with the intention of being God, or anything like that though he presented himself as the Son of Man, i.e. the Son of Adam, hence the Second Adam, hence the one announcing the end of this unjust world and the coming of divine judgment. The best case is Judas Iscariot who probably did not exist and was a complete invention drawn from various elements in the Old Testament and historical events of the period. This leads to a very clear interpretation of this family as a Zealot or Nazirite family fighting for a strict observance of the Law of Moses (righteousness, love of God, circumcision, separation : no fornication, no consumption of wine and eventually meat, no riches). The book then follows the historical Saulus and his transformation into Paul and his vision/invention of the Christian religion : no circumcision, no food code, spiritual communion with God and Jesus Christ, and communion in the body and blood of Christ (bread and wine) in a ritual sacrifice for everyone. He attacks James in the early 40s but fails to kill him. He lets the Priests and Herodians attack him in 62 which leads to his being stoned. Paul seems to be the inventor of the Christian religion though Mary's perpetual virginity is contained in Nag Hammadi apocryphal documents attributed to James himself. Obviously a new religion was being born. The nazirite of James' party would have led to strong tensions with the Roman empire. His death led to an all-out confrontation and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. But James was spreading his influence fast and far beyond the Jews. Paul highjacked this movement and produced a religion that was universal and acceptable by the Roman Empire, which was to happen with Constantine : the Christian religion became the unifying element of the Empire. With this book we are at the center of such questions, though I do not accept the conclusion that Jesus was on the same line as James. I think Jesus was trying to bring together the two lines : confrontation and collaboration with the Roman Empire into some independent project that would have guaranteed independence for the Eastern part of the Empire, or maybe even more : a federal conception of the Empire.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

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7.  Hyam Maccoby:  “The Mythmaker:  Paul and the Invention of Christianity” (1986)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Mythmaker-Paul-Invention-Christianity/dp/0060155825

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From Library Journal

Maccoby's book, written for the intelligent general reader, presents in clear and persuasive but controversial form his thesis that Paul synthesized Judaism, Gnosticism, and mystery religion to create Christianity as a cosmic savior religion. According to Maccoby, Paul's Pharisaism was his own invention, though actually he was probably associated with the Sadducees. Maccoby attributes the origins of Christian anti-Semitism to Paul and claims that Paul's view of women, though inconsistent, reflects his Gnosticism in its antifeminist aspects. A Talmudic scholar, Maccoby believes that Paul's wide variance from the Jerusalem Church (Nazarenes, under James and Peter) led to the separation of Christianity from Judaism. Recommended for theological and larger public libraries. Carolyn M. Craft, English, Philosophy & Modern Languages Dept., Longwood Coll., Farmville, Va.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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8.  Daniel Boyarin:  “A Radical Jew:  Paul and the Politics of Identity” (1994)

http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Jew-Politics-Contraversions-Literature/dp/0520212142

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Penetrating reading of Paul's gospel January 14, 2001

By Christopher W. Coffman VINE VOICE

Format:Paperback

I hesitate to contradict the highly qualified reader who considers this book a masterpiece. Indeed, the book should be read widely, as it is a penetrating and sensitive reading of the Apostle Paul's work, and it surfaces and analyses some key issues, such as the likelihood that what led to Paul's Damascus experience was his search for an answer to the question of how the One God of Israel could deliver salvation to all the world, not just Jews but also Gentiles. Boyarin's work is thoughtful and generous (although there is more bite in his footnotes than in the text itself). Boyarin considers himself a post-modern Talmudic scholar, and it is the influence of Derrida and de Man, however attenuated, that lumbers his otherwise brilliant analysis. Boyarin himself privileges, to use his own post-modern jargon, the theme of "difference" over all the other themes he surfaces. This struck this reader as a passing (post-modern) fad, and these sections will date in a way that the rest of this extremely interesting book will not.

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