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Review: Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus

The Jewishness of Jesus and the Jewish roots of Christianity have finally broken through into the Christian mainstream. Zondervan Publishing, one of the largest Christian publishers in the world, has released an excellent new book titled Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith, by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg.

Rabbi Jesus

You may be asking yourself, "Does the world really need another book about the Jewishness of Jesus?" I asked myself the same question when the review copy arrived in the mail from Zondervan. After reading just a few pages, I decided that the world does indeed need this book, especially the Christian world.

Spangler is an award-winning writer and the author of several popular Christian titles. She brings a writing style that the Evangelical reader will find familiar and engaging. Tverberg is the co-founder of the En-Gedi Resource Center, a Christian Jewish-roots ministry, and the author of Listening to the Language of the Bible: Hearing It Through Jesus' Ears. She is a student of early Christianity and its Jewish origins. Together these women make an impressive writing team marshalling a wide array of Jewish sources, including rabbinic texts, and Hebraic insights and wrapping it all together in the warm, anecdotal, devotional style which is popular in Christian, inspirational writing.

As a popular-level introduction to the Jewish Jesus and the Jewish context of the Gospels, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus is second to none. This is a book any Christian can read and find edifying. Pastors will find it to be a source of fresh insights, and laymen will find themselves engaged, perhaps for the first time, with the historical Jesus, Yeshua of Nazareth. Spangler and Tverberg use Jewish sources to shed light on Yeshua's teaching, but then bring that teaching directly to bear on the reader with thoughtful, practical ways to implement Yeshua's words. Each chapter concludes with some suggested applications and connections to Jewish practice, enticing us with Torah, but never in a heavy-handed way.

Christian readers will be delighted with the fresh new insights that pack every page. Messianic readers will be reminded of the core teachings about our Master that we have heard and studied before, and pleasantly surprised to discover new ones. Spangler and Tverberg communicate theological issues, which might otherwise be difficult for Christians, with such grace that most readers will hardly notice the conflict. Consider this passage on Matthew 5:17ff:

Instead of loosening things up, Jesus seems to be tightening the screw. Rather than merely repeating the stricture against adultery, for instance, he tells you that a mere lustful glance makes one guilty of adultery. And then he links anger to the sin of murder. Ouch!

Modern Christians cherish the notion that Jesus came to free us from the unbearable burden of laws we cannot keep, but here [in Matthew 5] Jesus seems to be saying the exact opposite. So is the good news really as good as we think it is? Realizing that Jesus sets the bar higher and not lower is good news, once you understand what he was saying.

Spangler and Tverberg are surprising because, unlike many theologians and writers before them, they do indeed seem to understand what Jesus was saying. Their writing shows tremendous respect for Judaism, yet avoids falling into the typical junk-scholarship clichés or stereotypical mischaracterizations which seem to plague other Christian attempts to package the Jewish roots message. Their scholarship is none too shabby either. The sources are well-documented, and every page contains new insights even for the seasoned Messianic, like me, who thinks he's heard it all before. The book is co-edited by Marvin Wilson of Our Father Abraham, and has endorsements from Wilson, Ray Vander Laan, David Bivin, and Dwight Pryor.

The contents of the book frequently read as a distillation of the teachings of Dwight Pryor and Marvin Wilson. At some points, one can hear Wilson's or Pryor's voice coming through the text verbatim. Spangler and Tverberg also lean heavily on Robert Lindsey and David Flusser's interpretations and the Jerusalem Synoptic School research, but not so heavily as to get bogged down in academics. Telltale allusions to Messianic Jewish sources and publications can also be detected, but in an attempt to keep a comfortable distance between the intended Christian readership and the often unorthodox world of Messianic Judaism, the writers avoid citing Messianic research directly.

The comfortable distance that the book maintains between Christianity and Messianic Judaism is the very thing that makes this book so valuable. One can imagine seeing it prominently displayed in any pastor's office or Christian bookstore without it causing a ripple of concern about Judaizing or legalism. Nevertheless, the material within the book never backs away from presenting an honest, unflinching portrait of the Jewishness of our faith, and continually invites the reader to incorporate that Jewishness into personal practice.

Firmly rooted in the connection that we should all feel with the land, the people, and the scriptures of Israel, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus makes a perfect companion piece for the new HaYesod program. First Fruits of Zion recommends this book for you, your friends, your pastor, and your church.

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith
By: Ann Spangler, Lois Tverberg
Publisher: Zondervan Publishing, 2009
ISBN-13: 9780310284222
272 pages

Review by: D.T. Lancaster

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus may be purchased through our office: www.ffoz.org, 1-800-775-4807.