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The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (Hardcover)

~ Amy-jill Levine (Author)
Key Phrases: interfaith conversation, warrior messiah, domination system, New Testament, Old Testament, Babylonian Talmud (more...)

4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. It is a simple truth that Jews and Christians should be close friends, since they share common roots and a basic ethical system. But the gulf between the groups seems vast. Levine, professor of New Testament studies at Vanderbilt, presents a strong and convincing case for understanding Jesus as "a Jew speaking to Jews," and for viewing Christianity as a Jewish movement that ultimately swept the world in its influence and authority. But with this expansion came an insidious anti-Jewish sentiment, fed by some New Testament texts (wrongly understood, the author urges) and the emerging political power of the Christian church. Levine does a masterful job of describing the subtleties of anti-Semitism, across the years and across the religious spectrum, from the conservative evangelical mission to convert the Jews to the liberation theologians who picture Jews as adherents to an older, less merciful religion. In the end, Levine offers a prescription for healing and mutual understanding; a chapter titled "Quo Vadis?" outlines steps that can be taken by Jews and Christians alike to bridge the divide that has caused so much suffering over the centuries. Written for the general public, this is an outstanding addition to the literature of interfaith dialogue. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Levine, a professor of New Testament studies at Vanderbilt, joins the ranks of Bart Ehrman, John Dominic Crossan, and others in the search for the historical Jesus. In the first several chapters, Levine treads familiar ground, discussing Jesus within the context of Judaism and examining how Christianity evolved from a Jewish sect to a gentile church. This information can be found in other, more clearly written sources, but what Levine does very well is discuss Jewish-Christian relations throughout the millennia, even as she provides a context for discussion. Though Levine clearly shows how Judaism has become a scapegoat of Christianity and offers many examples of Judaism's tenets taken out of context by church writers, she is not writing to stir up trouble. What she wants readers to understand is that lifting Jesus from Judaism is not helpful to either group and that there are plenty of ways to focus on similarities. As Levine concludes, "As different as they are, church and synagogue have . . . the same destination whether called . . . the kingdom of heaven or the messianic age." Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: HarperOne (November 28, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060789662
ISBN-13: 978-0060789664
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #469,880 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
interfaith conversation, warrior messiah, domination system

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New Testament, Old Testament, Babylonian Talmud, Jesus of Nazareth, John's Gospel, Roman Catholic, Hebrew Bible, Holy Spirit, John the Baptist, God of Israel, Gospel of John, United States, Lord's Prayer, Luke's Gospel, Pontifical Biblical Commission, Scriptures of Israel, Christ Jesus, Jerusalem Temple, Jesus's Jewish, Last Supper, Lord Jesus, Middle East, Dead Sea Scrolls, First Testament, Jesus Christ

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Customer Reviews

31 Reviews

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4.3 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)

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58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite valuable, with a few qualifiers, January 3, 2007

By	Jean E. Pouliot (Newburyport, MA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

That Amy-Jill Levine is a Jewish professor of New Testament studies was a surprise to me. Why would a Jew teach the stories told of the Christian Savior? But when I thought about it, why not? Didn't I take courses in Old Testament from a Christian professor?

Which helps to make Levine's point. Our biases unconsciously affect our categories. And, as Levine argues in "The Misunderstood Jew," our categories often make Jews the bad guy in order to make Jesus look good.

I have been a Christian religious education teacher for a number of years and I recently received a Masters degree in theology. But I found Levine's thesis at once fresh and engaging, if not completely convincing. Her basic idea is that Christians, usually in an effort to make Jesus more palatable to secular, pro-feminist and pro-multicultural worshippers, often do so by making his Jewish culture more rigidly pietistic, misogynistic and insular. Take the divorce issue. It is not uncommon for progressive Christian preachers to state that Jesus's prohibition against divorce was actually a pro-feminist attempt to counteract the misogyny of Jewish custom. These customs (we are told) allowed men to put women aside for trifling faults, such as bad cooking. But Levine shows that the portrayal of Jewish customs is based on a single utterance by rabbi engaged in testing the hypothetical limits of just causes for divorce. Hardly was this statement the mainstream view of Jewish scholars or rabbis. But by claiming it was, Christians can water down Christ's absolute prohibition into a pro-female statement. Levine's familiarity with the New Testament is evident. In the case of divorce, she uses the gospel texts themselves to make a compelling case that the divorce question was not intended as a referendum on male domination, but a return to the Creator's intent as expressed in Genesis.

Levine takes on other Christian biases about Judaism's supposed hatred of the poor, its hyper-ritualism, supposed ban on corpse-defilement and many other issues. She relentlessly cuts down the forest of false opinions and bad scholarship to bring Jesus more into focus as a Jew of his time.

In some senses, I think Levine goes too far, even when she has a point. She disagrees with Christians who refer to the Old Testament as the "Hebrew Scriptures" on the grounds that the books were not all written in Hebrew, that Orthodox Christian Churches use the OT's Greek translation, and that Protestant and Catholic Churches include different books in the OT. Fair enough. But she goes into wince-inducing territory by claiming that using the term "Hebrew Scriptures" is subtly anti-Catholic. Also, one wonders what becomes of the Christian Jesus when he is blended so seamlessly into the background of his culture. Is it unfair to think that Jesus opposed some of the religious tendencies of his day? Must we assume (as Levine does) that no Jews were involved in his arrest and death? Perhaps one could see Jews as exhibiting the same tendencies - both good and bad -- of all religious people, including my own Roman Catholic coreligionists. Isn't it a human thing (not a Jewish thing) to confuse particular style of piety with love of God?

In any event, Levine has done a signal service to Christians as well as Jews with this book. Anyone who gives voice to the unspoken biases that inform our religious education and worship does a good that deserves praise.

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45 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Different approach to Jewishness of Jesus, December 25, 2006

By	J. F Joyner "jim_joyner" (Spartanburg, SC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have heard the author in her programs published by the Teaching Company's Great Lecture series, and once I saw Professor Ben Witherington III's endorsement, I put this book on the top of my holiday reading list.

Dr. Witherington endorses her book as "simply the best book ever written about the Jewishness of Jesus and his earliest followers." Dr. Levine's book is a different approach to this category, and I can appreciate Dr. W's generous endorsement of his friend's book. It does not, however, cover very much of the available historical information a seeker really needs to learn about the Jewishness of Jesus. It seems more like a book one should read if s/he doubts whether s/he her/himself, or Christianity, has fully understood the implications of the Jewishness of Jesus, and is interested in a detailed challenge about how thoroughly out of sight is Jesus' heritage among American Christians. I am now persuaded that even those who talk up Jesus' Jewishness have not gone far enough in understanding the implications of this historical fact.

I came away from my reading with the idea that Dr. Levine's primary mission in writing this book is to confront anyone who purposely or unintentionally "divorces Jesus from Judaism, and then uses the story of Jesus to condemn all Jews." While she discusses neo-nutso-Nazis' and other hate groups, she also addresses those who are not hostile to Jews, and even well intentioned.

I finished my reading frustrated over how difficult she and other academics make it to define Jews and Jewishness and especially Judaism. Any serious reader can accept the fact that Judasim was not monolithic, but it seems Levine, like other scholars, must mentally paralyze the rest of us in order for the rest of us to not hold generalized ideas about Second Temple Judaism and Jews. I also came away with the idea that Dr. Levine was so impassioned about her mission that criticism of Jews as presented in the New Testament just could not possibly have accurately reflected commonly-held or legitimate criticisms of (Second Temple) "Judaism" - I think I am supposed to understand myself as being anti-Jewish if I accept these New Testament characterizations.

One thing Dr. Levine makes clear, and I believe this after reading the Dead Sea Scrolls, is that Second Temple Judaism did not believe in works justification. A compelling explanation has yet to be offered up by her or others as to the Apostle Paul's presentation of Law and Gospel, but one will come forth some day. It's just impossible to read Second Temple Jewish writings and still believe that they held to some crude form of works righteousness - this is an example of willful ignorance on the part of Christians, ranking right up there with "King James only" and the 5 cents tax on emails under consideration by Congress.

My Southern Baptist pastor has reached out to our local Jewish community. I hope to give him a copy of this book, and I hope he will read it then in turn pass it on to his friend, Rabbi L___. This book seems well suited to that purpose.

Overall, it's a good book to read.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jesus without the Schmaltz, August 9, 2007

By	Paul O'Shea (Sydney Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If this review reads as though it has been written by a smitten fan, it is; because this reviewer is delighted at last to find, read and enjoy with undisguised pleasure, a book written by a Jew, who places Jesus firmly within his Jewish environments. And to do it succinctly, with wit and a deep appreciation for both Judaism and Christianity.

Amy-Jill Levine is a "woman of valour" in the world of Christian New Testament scholarship, and her book is a mitzvah for Jews and Christians. She is a modern Orthodox Jew, observant and informed as much about her own faith tradition as she is about the beginnings of the Christian movement. Levine brings to the table a wealth of knowledge about the late Second Temple period, the Jewish mileau surrounding the life of Yeshua/Jesus, and the complex beginnings of the Christian movement. Her razor sharp erudition is applied to the person of Jesus the observant and faithful Torah Jew using mishnaic and later rabbinic texts to give the reader a very comprehensive picture of the world/s in which Jesus lived and moved. Reading the Gospels from a Jewish perspective and with a critical eye to "weeding" out inaccurate (usually Christian) interpolations gives this foundation period in Christian history a wonderfully refreshing and academically satisfying perspective. I found her exegesis of John 4 a typical example of Levine's scholarship; theology - both Jewish and Christian, biblical and post-biblical, early Christian and Rabbinic literary analysis and criticism, historical contexts and implications for dialogue and teaching.

The second part of the book deals with common misunderstandings and misuses of the Gospels by both well-meaning and less well-meaning people, when it comes to Christians attempting to understand the one they call Saviour/Christ/Messiah. Only through honest study that challenges Christians to look critically at their sacred texts, can a more complete picture of Jesus emerge. And that is often done with some cost, as Levine details over a number of chapters. She does not shy away from wrestling with current issues of Antisemitism, the zealous, but naive, support of some Christians for Palestine at the cost of demonising Israel, and the perennial temptation of painting Jesus as the great liberator from Jewish oppression. With deft and skilled agility, Levine dismantles the myths and replaces them with fact and biblically based exegesis, commentary and plain, old fashioned common sense.

At the end of this slender volume I felt I had been given a valuable tool for working with students, providing both Jews and Christians with a text that could be used in joint study of the most famous Jew to have ever lived. People of faith will not be threatened by Levine's work. On the contrary I found her book only served to enrich my understanding of Jesus placing him firmly within his own people and religious culture. It has certainly made me keen to read more. My only regret is that the book was not longer.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile book with a somewhat misleading title
Amy-Jill Levine's The Misunderstood Jew is a worthwhile read, although one that is bound to discomfort many of its readers. Read more

Published 10 days ago by Van Isle Rev

1.0 out of 5 stars Scholor or Polemic?
Interestingly, the author remains scholarly with respect to OT & NT. But the moment she talks about Qur'an, suddenly she puts on her polemic hat. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Abe

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must-Read Book about Jesus
In The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, Amy Jill Levine, a Jewish Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University, dispels many of... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Mary E. Latela

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book.
Another excellent book examining the origins of Christianity and its somewhat unintentional founder, Jesus.

He was a Jew, a practicing Jew.

Published 7 months ago by R. Hudson

5.0 out of 5 stars Mix of ancient scholarship and current issues
I usually scan a book before committing to reading it. So I'm reading through this book, trying to get a sense of where she's going with it. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Brent G. Wilson

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for every Christian
I found this book to be very well written and highly recomend it to every person of the christian faith. We must accept the fact that Jesus was a jewish man. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Neal T., Ruonavar

3.0 out of 5 stars Read this book
If you love Jesus, you should read this book. If you keep these type of books around to refer to them, buy this book. Read more

Published 16 months ago by Patrick J. Southam

5.0 out of 5 stars Must reading for any thoughtful Christian - or Jew
Prof. Amy-Jill Levine is a Jewish woman who attends an orthodox synagogue in Nashville and who occupies an endowed chair of New Testament studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Donald Sensing

5.0 out of 5 stars Jesus is Jewish!
This is the best book available today about the Jewishness of Jesus. Amy Jill Levine points out that many of the Gospel stories would hit home with more of us if we read the New... Read more

Published 20 months ago by Marc Axelrod

5.0 out of 5 stars Towards Mutual Understanding
This is a first-rate publication that takes the reader into the Jewishness of Jesus in a vivid manner while sensitive to Jewish-Christian differences. Read more

Published 21 months ago by Barrie A. Wilson

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