The Bible with and Without Jesus

How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently

De: Amy-Jill Levine, Marc Zvi Brettler

Narrado por: Marni Penning

The editors of The Jewish Annotated New Testament show how and why Jews and Christians read many of the same Biblical texts—including passages from the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Psalms—differently. Exploring and explaining these diverse perspectives, they reveal more clearly Scripture’s beauty and power.

Esteemed Bible scholars and teachers Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Z. Brettler take readers on a guided tour of the most popular Hebrew Bible passages quoted in the New Testament to show what the texts meant in their original contexts and then how Jews and Christians, over time, understood those same texts. Passages include the creation of the world, the role of Adam and Eve, the Suffering Servant of Isiah, the book of Jonah, and Psalm 22, whose words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” Jesus quotes as he dies on the cross.

Comparing various interpretations—historical, literary, and theological—of each ancient text, Levine and Brettler offer deeper understandings of the original narratives and their many afterlives. They show how the text speaks to different generations under changed circumstances, and so illuminate the Bible’s ongoing significance. By understanding the depth and variety by which these passages have been, and can be, understood, The Bible With and Without Jesus does more than enhance our religious understandings, it helps us to see the Bible as a source of inspiration for any and all listeners.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Amy-Jill Levine (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Stick Around

Interesting take from a Jewish author on Jewish scriptures. It is certainly a book written to Christians to help them see the other side, and unfortunately, the author cannot avoid some polemic. This is where there was a definite lull in the middle, but stick around for her take on Jonah as it applies to Jewish understanding and Christian understanding of Peter. There are other gems in there as well. She did avoid a translation of Melchezedek that means "My King is Zedek," and the potential YHWHism in "Salem" before Moses, but I'll give her a pass.

Fantastic book.

The narrator is very easy to listen to. The authors do a fantastic job of presenting both sides of the issue in the best possible light while remaining true to the text and the context. Great read.

Good but a bit one sided at times.

Excelent book, although Levine's personality is the one that comes across the most.
Nevertheless, the listener will be enrich by this book.

Very interesting

As a Jew with Christian family and friends, it is helpful to understand how we read the same text differently. Moreso, , that neither is right or wrong.

Scholarly

The narrator was good and pronounced foreign words relatively well.

I enjoyed this, it was dense and scholarly. The authors explained how Jews and Christians have interpreted various texts throughout history. It was academic, not overly polemical. At times it strayed into "everyone should respect everyone else's beliefs" which is nice, but then they would list a few unacceptable beliefs and didact the reader into only accepting interpretations that are good and ethical etc. Good discussion for higher criticism, but I don't think inerrantists would appreciate the idea that NT writers sometimes got things 'wrong', or made things up, or misinterpreted texts. The authors were more concerned with what the biblical authors were trying to say or how communities interpreted what they said, rather than what the original historical objective Truth might be, thus this isn't an attempt at history, but how people interacted with texts.

Of special enjoyment were the sections on the Suffering Servant, the virgin conceiving, Psalm 22, the son of man, and Jonah. Basically the second half of the book.

Jewish life keeps going after Jesus

Jesus didn't live during modern Jewish practice, not surprising when you think of it, Christianity long survived the Roman empire. Medieval Judaism lived alongside Christians, and the various communities impacted each other as we have grown, and often, grown apart. Orthodox Christians often are written out of the Christian story by Catholics, and Protestants don't tend to know much if anything about other practices. Though they often feel deeply that they do know, in the sense that what they do is the right and proper way and everyone else is doing worship wrong.

The idea that everyone in the past was stupid and now we people have it all figured out and that we completely understand their world whereas the people in the past could not possibly understand us is as unsupportable as the idea that the past is a golden age we should all try to return to or emulate and humanity is in a long decline and fall.

We all start out with ideas, and given that the starting point doesn't have our conventions of understanding such as capital letters to indicate names, vowels, and punctuation, it's not surprising that different groups would read differently into shared texts.

The radical idea of this book is that we can assume that other people come by their divergent understandings sincerely and we risk no harm to our own identity by working to sincerely understand what other people intuit, and they are going to continue to be different than us.

Decent read

This definitely came from a liberal Jewish perspective. While seeking to be fair and offer a different perspective in light of historical/modern interpretation and tradition, they seem to rather adamantly oppose fundamental Christian doctrine to the degree that it emphasizes or advocates for replacement theology. That’s where the balanced approach ended, and became a book about why Jews and Christians should reject Christian dogma.
Overall good read though, and provided good insights.

Very Educational

This is a very good book that explains how Jewish and Christian views of the same story can be quite different. It is a worthy book of much welcome scholarship in this area.

Well Done!

This was a well organized and insightful book about a topic I have been interested for a while. I am very grateful to have found it.

Bad audio

I love Amy but the reader has such an audible bias that I couldn’t give the book the time - maybe I could read the book on my own but this audio seemed off putting for me - I was at first determined to get beyond the cadence of the voice but that’s way too many hours to have that pounding on me -so I returned the book. Sad cause I have the utmost respect for Amy’s work