Paul Luckraft reviews ‘The Jewish Jesus’ by David Hoffbrand (Destiny Image, 2017).

There are now many books on the theme of the Jewishness of Jesus, but it is always interesting to come across another one and see if it provides anything extra to make it a worthwhile investment in time and money.

This relatively new book from David Hoffbrand, a Messianic Jew with a remarkable testimony, certainly does come into that category with a clear and significant contribution in the area of reconnecting Jew and Gentile in what is known as the One New Man (Eph 2:15).

Even though a lot of the content is familiar, Hoffbrand’s book comes across as fresh and incisive. He is a gifted communicator and has constructed his book neatly into three parts each with six chapters. The aim of the three sections is indicated by the subtitle: reconnecting with the truth about Jesus, Israel and the Church. It is in the third part that he provides that extra dimension on implications for the Church.

Changing Our Thinking

Part 1 focuses on Jesus himself and his Jewishness, including chapters on ‘Jesus the Man’, ‘The Ministry of Jesus’, and the Jewish disciples. The author wants us to meet Jesus as he really was, and as he (the author) now knows him. He sets about uncovering what has always been there from the start but which has been lost over the centuries.

Hoffbrand has come up with a neat way of describing what needs to happen when we turn to the Bible. We should REWIRE our brains, by which he means ‘Read Without Religion’ (take the first two letters of each word). This doesn’t mean forsaking sound doctrine, but means we must “read the Bible as if we hadn’t read it before – to remove the lens of our traditions, which causes us to skip past so many passages without seeing the details” (p14).

David Hoffbrand, a Messianic Jew with a remarkable testimony, is a gifted communicator whose writing is fresh and incisive.

Realising that Jesus was Jewish should change the way we think about Jews today and also about Israel. Part 2 tackles this issue, explaining how God has chosen Israel in the past and still loves her today. Church tradition may tell us God has finished with Israel, that he has moved on, but clearly this is not true. Hoffbrand examines the common fallacies that God has no further plans for the Jewish people and that he would rather punish them than restore them.

Practical Questions for the Church

Part 3 is where we learn about what this should all mean for the Church. The author shared with me that this part of the book was born out of his trips to the Ukraine with his friend Piers Arthur-Crow. Hoffbrand is a trustee of The David House that Piers runs and so was invited to go with him and speak to groups of Messianic rabbis and Christian pastors at their conferences. Here, Hoffbrand found that his message started to crystallise.

What had concerned him before was that while teaching on the Jewishness of Jesus was one thing, working it out in practice was quite another. How does it become real? The answer is found when Jew and Gentile come together as One New Man – a new community in Messiah.

In the first chapter in Part 3, Hoffbrand asks three key questions: What should this new community look like? How do the two people groups live together harmoniously? What principles can we learn from this process? He then seeks answers from Paul’s letter to the Romans, establishing five principles: humility, acceptance, identity, unity, service, and taking a chapter on each.

Realising that Jesus was Jewish should change the way we think about Jews today and about Israel – and it should affect the way we live, too.

Five Principles

Humility is a vital starting point. Neither Jew nor Gentile can boast about what they have. God has accepted each through what he has done in Christ, which should humble everyone and lead to mutual acceptance.

For each group to find their identity in the One New Man may be something of a mystery, but one which has now been revealed in Christ and which can be worked out, rather like a husband and wife within a marriage. Jew and Gentile remain distinct but find a unity in their common Saviour, who has broken down the middle wall of hostility that previously separated them. Now this barrier has been removed, both groups must make sure it isn’t rebuilt, whether in mind, heart or action.

The final principle which ties all these together is that of serving each other. This is more than tolerating or even understanding each other, connoting walking together and looking out for each other. Gentiles may often support Jews through various organisations and charities, but this can often still be at a distance rather than side by side. And do Messianic Jews actually find ways of loving and serving their Gentile brothers and sisters?

Worthwhile Contribution

These are all important challenges for the future as God continues to restore Hebraic roots to his Church and bring more Jewish people into a relationship with their Messiah. This book is a worthwhile contribution to this objective.

As Hoffbrand says clearly, “The Jewish people were not an accident that God would rather forget. The Gentile people are not second best or an afterthought. Together, this new community must be better, not worse, than what has come before” (p156).

‘The Jewish Jesus’ (paperback, 220 pages) is available from the author’s website for £10. Also available elsewhere online. Click here to watch the author’s testimony in an interview with Jewish Voice.