The Misunderstood Jew

The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus

By: Amy Jill Levine

Narrated by: Donna Postel

In The Misunderstood Jew, scholar Amy-Jill Levine helps Christians and Jews understand the "Jewishness" of Jesus so that their appreciation of him deepens and a greater interfaith dialogue can take place. Levine's humor and informed truth - telling provokes honest conversation and debate about how Christians and Jews should understand Jesus, the New Testament, and each other.

©2006 Amy-Jill Levine (P)2017 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Written for the general public, this is an outstanding addition to the literature of interfaith dialogue." ( Publishers Weekly)

Beautiful, hopeful, balanced critique of the Church and interfaith relations.

I cannot say enough great things about this text. As a current seminary student who grew up in a large Jewish community in an atheist family, Levine does a marvelous job expressing not only the Jewishness of Jesus but also the issues that have plague the relationships with Jews and Christians. She consistently defines her bias and brings balance to both side’s opinions. She is reverent and respectful with her challenges and criticisms. Supports her claims with scripture, the Talmud, and historical context. If her goal is to bring Jews and Christians together in understanding and harmony with respect for each other’s traditions, she has done so in this book.

Courageous

A courageous and forthright book about a difficult and controversial subject: Jesus and Judaism. She presents a substantial amount of evidence that many of Jesus' most familiar teachings derive from Judaism. But at the same time she is respectful of Christian tradition and beliefs.

We do neither side any good, she suggests, by trying to erase the differences between Judaism and Christianity. To Christians, Jesus is the Messiah, and within Christian tradition there are good reasons for believing that. To Jews, he is not the Messiah, and within Jewish tradition there are good reasons for believing that. She presents the reasons on both sides.

Part of Levine's courage appears in her willingness to take even possible allies to task. All too often, she says, even liberal Christian scholars and presses cast Judaism in the role of an oppressive and rigid system against which Jesus was fighting. (The real oppressors in first-century Palestine were the Romans.)

Donna Postel's narration seems at times to be channeling Amy-Jill Levine. I've heard some of Levine's lectures in the Great Courses series, and I had to remind myself from time to time that this book was being read by someone other than the author.

Well researched.

Great narration. Plethora of details on Jesus and sources of his message found in the Old Testament. Very enlightening.

Not What I Expected or Wanted

If you're seeking a book that looks at Jesus' teachings through the eyes of a first-century Jew, then this is not the book for you. I was hoping this was going to be a book that helped readers embrace richer meaning from the Bible by helping us to understand what Jesus' words would mean to his contemporaries. Instead, it's a repetitive exposition of how scripture is interpreted by some Christians with an anti-Judaism meaning. The entire book is more or less a defense of Judaism from anti-Jewish Christians.

Excellent scholarship

Excellent scholarship as I am a seminary grad from a Protestant tradition and now a Reform Jew.