Finding Messiah
Dr. Jen Rosner reveals that she wrote Finding Messiah in part to tell her own story as a Jewish follower of Jesus and all the tensions that entails.
Her academic, vocational, and personal experiences have given her a rich perspective from which to analyze the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Her book doesn’t answer all the questions someone might have upon encountering the Jewish Jesus, but it is a helpful starting point.
We pointed out that many of Yeshua’s teachings are also found elsewhere in Judaism and asked her what she thinks is truly unique about Yeshua’s perspective and teaching. She relates a conversation she had with a rabbi in Israel in which she said that Yeshua’s commandment to love one’s enemies is not found in the teachings of the sages. This tension was especially apparent to her in Israel due to the antipathy her peers had for the Arab population there. Judaism also marred its own portrait of Jewish messianic expectations as a reaction to Christian claims of Yeshua’s messianic identity during and after the “parting of the ways” between the two faith traditions. The early Yeshua movement also redefined the relationship between Jew and Gentile, resolving the hostility between them.
First Fruits of Zion
