53. What You Must Read Before You Speak

The Christian Statement

The Jewish conversation requires specific preparation that goes beyond general apologetics training. The disciple must read:

Jewish Primary Sources

• The Torah, Prophets, and Writings (Tanakh) in a Jewish translation — Jewish Publication Society is recommended
• Night by Elie Wiesel — before any conversation about the Holocaust
• Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
• A basic introduction to the Talmud — enough to know what it is and how it works

Messianic Jewish Scholarship

• Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, Volumes 1–5, by Michael L. Brown — the most comprehensive treatment available
• Messianic Christology by Arnold Fruchtenbaum — Jewish Messianic prophecy from a Jewish-Christian scholar
• Betrayed! by Stan Telchin — the single most accessible conversion account for a Jewish audience
• To the Jew First, edited by Darrell Bock and Mitch Glaser — essays on the theology and practice of Jewish witness

Church History

• Our Hands Are Stained with Blood by Michael Brown — the history of Christian antisemitism, written by a Messianic Jew
• When a Jew Rules the World by Joel Richardson — eschatology and the Jewish people

54. The Hebrew Roots of Christian Theology

The Christian Statement

The Gentile church has largely forgotten its Hebrew roots. The recovery of those roots is not merely a scholarly exercise. It is a spiritual and missional necessity for the Jewish conversation.

What the Gentile church has often forgotten:

• The Sabbath — rooted in the Jewish institution, pointing to the rest available in Christ
• The Passover — the Last Supper was a Passover seder; the Eucharist is the Passover re-narrated
• The appointed feasts — Leviticus 23 describes seven feasts, all of which have Christological fulfillment
• The Temple liturgy — the book of Hebrews is incomprehensible without understanding the Temple
• The Psalms as prayer — the prayer book of the first Christians
• The prophetic tradition — the prophets are not background to the New Testament; they are its foundation

The Gentile disciple who has recovered these roots is not merely better prepared for the Jewish conversation. They are more fully Christian — connected to the root that supports them, worshipping the Jewish Messiah through the Jewish scriptures, standing on the foundation that the Jewish people laid.