Seeking to explain the enigma of Messianic Judaism in North America, this work deals with issues of persecution, misrepresentation, and defamation by both Jewish and Christian groups against Messianic Jews. The text considers several aspects of Messianic Judaism, including: its attempt to explode the ancient walls erected by Jews and Christians toward one another; its search for renewal of the Jewish roots of the body of Christ; and its efforts to express biblical faith and Messianic living in a contemporary Jewish dress.
Who are the Messianic Jews? What do they believe and practice? What is the Jewish community's reaction to the development of Messianic Judaism? In this pioneering study, Dan Cohn-Sherbok traces the development of the Messianic movement from ancient times to its transformation after World War II. Focusing on the nature of the movement today, the volume continues with a detailed examination of Messianic practices, and the place of Messianic Judaism within the contemporary Jewish community.
This book is the go-to source for introductory information on Messianic Judaism. Editors David Rudolph and Joel Willitts have assembled a thorough examination of the ecclesial context and biblical foundations of the diverse Messianic Jewish movement. Unique among similar works in its Jew-Gentile partnership, this book brings together a team of respected Messianic Jewish and Gentile Christian scholars, including Mark Kinzer, Richard Bauckham, Markus Bockmuehl, Craig Keener, Darrell Bock, Scott Hafemann, Daniel Harrington, R. Kendall Soulen, Douglas Harink and others. Opening essays, written by Messianic Jewish scholars and synagogue leaders, provide a window into the on-the-ground reality of the Messianic Jewish community and reveal the challenges, questions and issues with which Messianic Jews grapple. The following predominantly Gentile Christian discussion explores a number of biblical and theological issues that inform our understanding of the Messianic Jewish ecclesial context. Here is a balanced and accessible introduction to the diverse Messianic Jewish movement that both Gentile Christian and Messianic Jewish readers will find informative and fascinating.
The apostle Paul wrote that all believers--Jewish and Gentile--are to serve the Lord together as "one new man." But a growing movement today seeks to keep that from happening. As Stan Telchin explains, proponents of Messianic Judaism are confusing both Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus and dividing the church. Their insistence on following rabbinic form and their statements that Jewish believers need to be in Messianic synagogues in order to maintain their identities are unbiblical. Telchin discusses the growth of this movement, its unscriptural doctrines, and its ineffectiveness in Jewish evangelism. Those who have been swept up by the nostalgia and beauty of "Jewishness" or who have been hurt by division in the Body or who love Israel will find their hearts and minds freed by this firm but loving message.
With this book, Owen Power offers the first full-length intellectual history of the thinker Hugh Schonfield (1901-1988). Power contextualises Schonfield and his work in the spheres of Jewish ideology and Messianic Jewish politics as a means to explain the complicated nature of Messianic Jewish identity. There are many problems in making sense of the varied claims made about the Jewishness of Jewish Believers in Jesus--as there is a striking lack of agreement as to their Jewish status among halakhic authorities--and there is no real consensus among Messianic Jews themselves in answering the question, "Who is a (Messianic) Jew?" On the other hand, the attitude of many Jewish commentators regarding Messianic Jews is that they are traitors and apostates pretending to be Jews--Christian missionaries hell-bent on enticing Jews from their communities to the welcoming embrace of the Church. Normative Jewish opinion tends to treat Jewish Believers in Jesus as a monolithic group and thus fails to recognise the wide range of groups and individuals who claim to be Messianic Jews, even if there is among them little consensus as to what such a label means. Schonfield's case both reinforces such convictions and problematizes them.
God grabbed hold of a Presbyterian pastor to take him to the religion of Messianic Jews. What follows is a mystery story that reveals answers to the dilemmas in a problematic faith. In traditional rabbinic Judaism it is blasphemy and in church doctrine it is heresy. But as a third biblical religion with its own soteriology it is neither false nor mistaken. Untying the knot of contradictions in Messianic Judaism sheds light on the eminence of Judaism and the chauvinism of Christianity. It turns familiar assumptions upside down with a monotheistic hermeneutic for reading the New Testament and an inclusive soteriology unfolding the revelation of God's new idea. It is new wine that invites believers to a deeper devotion through reexamination of fundamental truths. The majority of Messianic congregations share many of the beliefs and teachings of evangelical Protestantism, a choice that has not achieved the goals of the Messianic movement—because the contradiction in the evangelical assumption is real. Explore the alternative truths of radical monotheism through the eyes of a gentile convert from the church who learned to read the Bible with new eyes and met Yeshua (Jesus) again for the first time.
Restoring the Fortunes of Zion tells the dramatic story of the reemergence of Israel onto the stage of modern history from the genocidal fury of the Holocaust to its extraordinary survival in face of regional hostility and global contempt. It shows how the return of the Jewish people from two millennia of exile realizes with uncanny accuracy the visions of the biblical prophets, and explores what this signifies for the future. Rob Yule brings together accessible scholarship biblical, historical, geographical, political and theological with strong advocacy, to create a book that I found riveting and moving. I commend Restoring the Fortunes of Zion to all those who wish for a clearer sense of Israel, its emergence from desolation to vitality and those who helped and hindered its progress. It is an exceptionally valuable resource. Dame Lesley Max, Auckland The publication of Restoring the Fortunes of Zion is extraordinarily timely and vital for our understanding of current world events. It enables us to better understand from a biblical perspective what has happened in Israels past, what is happening in Israel today, as well as what is going to happen to Israel in the future. Revd. Murray Dixon, Palmerston North Rob Yules book weaves together a carefully researched, erudite, scholarly but eminently readable and fascinating account of Israel. He intertwines and interprets the history, politics, military strategy, theology and culture of the region, in the past, present and future! The sweep of his vision is as breath-taking as the intriguing subject matter that he covers. Revd. Owen Hoskin, Auckland
There are many aspects to this task of rabbinic training, but four closely related questions rise to the surface as requiring primary attention. The first is a question of description: What ought to be the functions performed by a messianic Jewish rabbi? The second is a question of legitimacy: What similarities exist between the functions performed by messianic Jewish rabbis and rabbis in the wider Jewish context such that the rabbinate in both contexts may legitimately be seen to be variations on the same theme, and the messianic Jewish rabbinate therefore legitimately a rabbinate? The third is a question of differentiation: How and why are the functions performed by a messianic Jewish rabbi contextually particularistic and therefore different from those performed byChristian clergy? In other words, how is a messianic rabbi more than just a Protestant Pastor with switched labels? The fourth is a question of biblicity: Is there biblical justification or precedent for the proposed paradigm of the rabbi as a surrogate priest? Each of these questions emerges from messianic Judaism's interaction with different but overlapping audiences. The question of description is addressed primarily to the messianic Jewish context. The question of legitimacy is addressed primarily to the wider Jewish world. The question of differentiation is addressed primarily to the church world. The question of biblicity is addressed both to the messianic Jewish context and the church world. And in all cases, looking over our shoulder is the general public. --from the Prologue
In nineteenth-century Britain the majority of Jewish believers in Christ worshipped in Gentile churches. Some attained ethnic and institutional independence. A few debated the implications of incorporating into their worship the observance of Jewish tradition, and advocated the theological and liturgical independence of Hebrew Christianity, characterised by opponents as the "scandal of particularity". Previous scholarship has documented several Hebrew Christian initiatives but this monograph breaks new ground by identifying almost forthy discrete institutions as components of a century-long movement. The book analyses the major pioneers, institutions and ideologies of this movement and recounts how, through identity negotiation, hebrew Christians - and also their Gentile supporters - prepared the way for the development in the twentieth century of Messianic Judaism.
This monograph analyses almost forty Hebrew Christian institutions - and the ideology of their founders - in nineteenth-century Britain, components of a century-long movement which were to varying degrees characteristic, through identity negotiation, of ehtnic, institutional, theological and liturgical independence.
