Jonathan Bernis - A Rabbi Looks at Jesus of Nazareth

JONATHAN BERNIS

2011 by Jonathan Bernis

Published by Bethany House Publishers
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287.

E-book edition created 2010

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ISBN 978-1-4412-1477-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations indentified NKJV are from the New King James Version of the Bible. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified AMP are from the Amplified Bible. Old Testament copyright 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament copyright 1958, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations identified NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Scriptures marked The Torah are taken from The Torah, the Five Books of Moses, a New Translation of the Holy Scriptures according to Traditional Hebrew Text, 1962, 1967 by the Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Scriptures marked The Talmud are taken from The Talmud, H. Polano, 2008, BiblioBazaar, Charleston, S.C. Original copyright 1876.

Scriptures identified KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

To two men of God who reached out to me and planted
the seed of faith:

First to David Toth, who saw something in me worth investing his
time into. Your perseverance and patience as well as the example
of your own life made a great impact on me.

And second, to the Young Life counselor who challenged me to ask
God to reveal the truth to me about Jesus, all those years ago as
a teenager at Camp Silver Cliff in Colorado. I do not remember
your name, but you played a vital role in my coming to faith.

Thank you for being bold enough to confront me. You challenged
me to keep an open mind, to find the truth for myself.

I am forever grateful.

Contents

My deep gratitude to the wonderful people who have worked so diligently to bring this project to completion thank you!

To my beautiful wife, Elisangela, and my precious children. You always greet me with wide-eyed enthusiasm an excitement that is punctuated with those most special of all words, Papais home! Ilove you more than life!

To my staff at Jewish Voice Ministries International. The faithful execution of your duties during this writing discipline made it possible for me to devote the time necessary to complete this book. You are the best!

To Dave Wimbish, Mary Ellen Breitwiser, Grace Sarber and Jane Campbell for driving this project and me to the finish line. I couldnot have done it without you!

For the friends of Jewish Voice whose faithful financial and prayer support is a constant source of encouragement to me. I amforever thankful.

Most of all, to my beloved Yeshua HaMashiach. Thank You forredeeming my life.

Introduction
A QUESTION THAT
DEMANDS AN ANSWER

WHO IS JESUS OF NAZARETH?

All of history hangs on the answer to that question. It is a question that has divided the world for the past two thousand years. Is Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God as the worlds two billion Christians believe? Or is He a lunatic and liar who deceived the masses?

If you are reading this book, chances are you have chosen to stand with the worlds two billion believers in Jesus the Messiah. But some people try to remain neutral. They say they do not really know where they stand with regard to Jesus claims of divinity, but they do believe He was a great teacher. Regarding this neutral approach, the great apologist C. S. Lewis said:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I do not accept His claim to be God... A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this Man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.1

No matter how hard people may try to remain neutral about Jesus, you know as well as I that it just does not work. One cannot study the New Testament and come away thinking that Jesus was just a great teacher and a good man. If He was simply a good teacher, why did He refer to Himself as the bread of life (John 6:35), the light of the world (John 8:12) or the way and the truth and the life? (John 14:6). He was either a lunatic and liar or He was and is who He claimed to be. After all is said and done, a person must either accept Him or reject Him for who He claimed to be. There is no middle ground.

Sooner or later everyone has to take sides in the Who is Jesus of Nazareth? debate. He demands it. He even confronted His own disciples, asking them point blank: Who do you say I am? (Mark 8:29).

If you are a believer in Jesus, you have already chosen your side. If not, I challenge you to read this book with an open mind and make your own decision.

In the pages ahead I will seek to answer this question, first by sharing a little of my own journey. Then we will look at the findings of scholars who have delved into the life of Jesus. We will consider the historical evidence. We also will study what Jesus contemporaries had to say about Him. But before we go further, I need to make a few things clear:

1. I assume you are reading this book either becauseyou are a believer, or you are a Jewish person whois interested in discovering the truth about Jesus.

As I said earlier, it is impossible not to have a bias about Jesus. When it comes to matters of faith, most of us believe what our parents taught us. We may deviate from our parents teachings at some point in our lives, but most of us come back around to the worldview we learned as children.

That is not the case with me. The worldview I hold now is far different from the one I knew as a child. I have undergone a dramatic paradigm shift. If not, I would not be writing this book. When my experience did not match up with my previous beliefs, I was forced to discard those beliefs. Conversely, when experience validated the truth of things I had always been taught