What Is a Messianic Jew?

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. There's a new article in the My Jewish Learning website talking about Messianic Jews.

Did they get things right, wrong, or mixed? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown, your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Michael Brown is the director of the Coalition of Conscience and president of Fire School of Ministry. Get into The Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. That's 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

Coming your way from our Fort Worth studio, great to be with you. Here's a number to call with your Jewish-related questions. 866-34-TRUTH.

That's 866-348-7884. Any question that relates to the Jewish people, Jewish literature, anything that relates to Israel today, fulfillment of Messianic prophecy, Jewish background to the New Testament, questions about the Messiahship of Jesus. If you're a Jewish person and you disagree with me in my faith, by all means, give us a call. I can't promise what your tome will be, but I promise we'll be civil on this end.

866-348-7884. A friend in Israel sent me a couple of articles, actually in Bethlehem, sent me a couple of articles. Yes, Bethlehem, part of Israel, but just being more specific, saying Bethlehem, sent me a couple of articles that I want to get into a little later. One about what seems to be a rising tide of anti-Semitism in the publishing industry. And then some concerns about real threat to Israel growing from Iran. Not just in Iran, but surrounding Israel.

What will come to that? But I regularly get emails from the My Jewish Learning website. I found it to be a very helpful website, a lot of excellent articles, excellent information there. So I got a link and the lead article was about Messianic Jews. So I don't know if it was a brand new article or if it's just being circulated now, but it's the first that I saw it. So I've written to My Jewish Learning website just through the general contact portal.

I know at least one other Messianic Jewish colleague has written in. Hopefully we can have helpful dialogue because there is a lot of misinformation in the article. I assume that Tamar Fox, who wrote the article, was doing her best to present things in a fair and honest way. But for whatever reason, there's a lot of misinformation.

So I want to go through the article with you. And let me first say that the term Messianic Jew can be used in two different ways. Broadly, it refers to any Jewish believer in Jesus. And it's a term that we found helpful because to refer to yourself as a Jewish Christian can sound oxymoronic to many. In fact, when I was doing an outreach with Jews for Jesus years ago, they were doing outreach in the city of Pittsburgh, I believe it was. And I was coming in to do a debate with my friend Rabbi Shmueli in the midst of the outreach.

So they had these these banners out or these billboards out all over the city. And they played into this Jews for Jesus thing. And it's like, what, isn't that like vegans for meat, Jews for Jesus?

How can that be? Well, when you say Jewish Christian, what does that mean? Someone said, well, you're a Jew or a Christian because of potential misunderstanding there. So to say Messianic Jew, that puts us in a certain category. And then say in a country like Israel, if you say, I'm a Messianic Jew, then you can even explain, okay, what does that actually mean? Because other Jews believe in the coming of the Messiah.

What do you mean by that? So that's the broader definition, Messianic Jew, Jewish believers in Jesus. The more narrow definition is those who attend the Messianic Jewish congregation and believe in the importance of living a Jewish lifestyle to this day. So that's the narrow definition. So both definitions get blurred together here. And it's understandable.

So I'm not faulting, just trying to help. So the article begins by saying this. Again, this is on the My Jewish Learning website. Who are Messianic Jews?

And start reading the beginning of the article. Messianic Judaism, a branch of which is Jews for Jesus. No, that's false. Jews for Jesus is not really a branch of Messianic Judaism. Jews for Jesus is an outreach to Jewish people. And many of the believers there would not consider themselves practitioners of Messianic Judaism as much as Jewish followers of Jesus. So again, that's kind of blending the two things incorrectly there.

Messianic Judaism, a branch of which is Jews for Jesus, is a religious group that has tried to straddle the line between Judaism and Christianity. Right? That's a fair way of her seeking to say it. We'd say it otherwise.

That's a fair way of her presenting it. According to this group, Jesus or Yeshua in Aramaic was the Messiah and he died on behalf of the world's sins. Correct. They also believe that the Jews are the chosen people. Correct doesn't mean automatically saved, but chosen for a mission. And that the explicit laws of the Torah, such as observing Shabbat, holidays, and circumcision, must be obeyed today.

That's inaccurate as well. There are some Messianic Jews who would use the word must. There are other Messianic Jews who are part of Messianic congregations who say should. And then Messianic Jews more broadly, speaking of the largest number, most of which are in churches, would not agree with that.

So some hold to that. Others simply say there should be some Jewish markers in identity. And others say, hey, we are Jews, but we are in Jesus. So the origins of this group can be traced back to the Hebrew Christian missions to the Jews in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

By the 1960s and 70s, Messianic Judaism gained popularity, known by many as the Jesus people, and eventually Jews for Jesus. Okay, this is a paragraph with a lot of things that are mixed up in it. Again, I don't say this to be critical. I'm glad that she wrote the article, but just trying to set the record straight and reached out privately with no response thus far, saying, hey, there's some factual errors.

Can we help you correct them? So first, of course, we would say our faith goes back to the faith of the apostles. They were all Messianic Jews, right? All of the apostles and first believers were Jews who believed in Yeshua, and they continued to live as Jews. And no one then disputed whether they were Jews or not. They disputed whether what they believed was true and accurate or not.

But that's the first thing. In the more modern way, yes, the Hebrew Christian movement as that grew and there was more of a focus on Jewish lifestyle, et cetera. And then the 60s and 70s is when things really exploded, especially in the 70s. Now, the Jesus people, that's not about being Jewish. The Jesus people movement, which began around 67 and went to the mid-70s at its height, I came to faith in 71, 50 years ago in the middle of that Jesus people movement. That's Jews, Gentiles, hippies, radicals, rebels all around the world getting radically born again.

That's what that is. It just happened to be in the midst of it, there were many Jews. All right, that, and if you look back at the early Jews for Jesus tracts, you'll see a lot of them look kind of like hippie psychedelic tracts because a lot of us got saved out of that lifestyle. All right, because of Messianic Judaism and identification with Jesus, all of the major denominations of Judaism, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionists, have rejected Messianic Judaism as a form of Judaism.

That's correct. Some will still recognize individual Messianic Jews as Jews. Most all will still recognize us. You're still Jewish, even though you believe in Jesus. When I was baptized, the local rabbi told my father, well, your son is now a baptized Jew. So most, except for some very, very Orthodox, would agree, yes, you were still Jews. Yes, it's true, in terms of a movement, by and large, the exception of some rabbis here and there, by and large, all of the major Jewish denominations do not recognize Messianic Judaism as a legitimate form of Judaism.

I understand why. Within Christianity, Messianic Judaism is sometimes seen as a group within the evangelical community and sometimes seen as a separate sect. By and large, Messianic Jews are recognized as part of the larger body, and most Messianic Jews are in churches, actually, not in Messianic congregations. At times, various Christian leaders have publicly criticized Messianic Jews for their aggressive missionizing in the Jewish community and for misrepresenting themselves as Jews.

Okay, number one, the Christian leaders who've criticized us for reaching out to our own people tend to be liberal and progressive Christians who would hardly believe much of the Bible the way we believe it. As for those criticizing us for misrepresenting ourselves as Jews, we are Jews. We are Jews.

You say, no, no, but I heard about this guy who was a Gentile and living in Israel now and claiming to be an Orthodox rabbi. Oh, that's totally separate. That's completely aberrant. That's not who we are. That's not what we do. There have been a few cases like this in the news recently, but that's not who we are.

That's not what we do. Messianic Judaism is often presented as an ethnic church for Jews, somewhat like a Korean or Chinese church, but with outreach specific to Jews. However, most experts estimate that in most Messianic Jewish congregations, only about half of the members were born Jews. Yeah, Messianic congregations would call themselves congregations rather than churches, so it's not to be confusing there because church can have a lot of baggage with it, that concept, right?

Yeah, but there's some truth to that saying, yeah, we're still Jews, therefore we worship as Jews, and the Sabbath never changed, so we celebrate the Sabbath, et cetera. Many would say that, and that's a fair way of saying it from the outsider perspective, but this idea that most Messianic congregations, only about half the members were born Jews, in America, that's not accurate. It's less than that.

It's less than that. The average Messianic congregation in America is maybe 30% Jewish unless you're in a major Jewish city, in which case the number will be much higher. So most of the people in Messianic congregations are Gentile Christians who want to connect with the Jewish roots of the faith. Non-Jews who join a Messianic congregation may be asked to undergo a kind of conversion to Messianic Judaism.

In some cases, maybe to come into leadership, but in the vast majority of cases, that's not it. You come in as a Gentile Christian who loves the Jewish people. Although many within the group believe that it's impossible to convert to Judaism, Messianic Jewish conversions are not considered valid by any Jewish denomination, that's true. Non-Jews who join Messianic congregations are something called spiritual Jews, completed Jews, or Messianic Gentiles. False about spiritual Jews, false about completed Jews. That's how some of us have referred to ourselves as Jewish believers. Messianic Gentiles, yes, some use that phrase, so that's correct. Messianic Jews include the New Testament in their canon, correct, and believe that there is foreshadowing and prediction of Jesus in the Old Testament, correct. Supercessionism, the belief that Jesus was the fulfillment of the promise made by God to the Jews in the Tanakh is accepted by Messianic Jews.

False, false, false, big false. Supercessionism is the view that the Church has superseded Israel. Supercessionism is replacement theology. Supercessionism says that Jesus does not confirm the promises to the patriarchs, he cancels them.

We all reject supersessionism. By believing in Jesus as the Messiah, we believe God reinforces his promises to Israel, and it is ultimately a Jewish Jerusalem that will welcome the Messiah back, and that the Gospel must go through all nations and to Israel for the end to come. We reject the idea that the promises once given to Israel in the Old Testament now apply exclusively to the Church, so that's a big misunderstanding. But unlike other Christian groups that believe in supersessionism, Messianic Jews maintain a desire to practice many of the commandments given in the Torah. The last part of that is true, but again, we don't believe in supersessionism. And it goes on, Messianic Judaism, believers adhere to some of the laws given to the tourists that just rested on Shabbat, not eating pork and selfish, observing biblical holidays like Sukkot and Passover, however the faith does not adhere to rabbinic law and eschews the authority of the mission in Talmud. You have a very, very small segment of Messianic Jews that believes in rabbinic authority outside of rabbinic views on Jesus.

But that is fringe, and that is something most of us strongly speak. We come back, I'll drop more in this article, and then I want to go straight to your calls, and then get into some of those other articles, 866-348-7884. And then, is Dr. Michael Brown. There we go.

Waiting for that thoroughly Jewish music, thoroughly Hebrew music on Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. You know what, I'm going to come back to this article in a minute, and take some calls first. So let's go over to Jay in Raleigh, North Carolina. Thanks for calling the Line of Fire. Hey, thank you very much, Dr. Brown. I'm a pastor in the Raleigh area, just finished preaching through Job, the faith that challenged God.

Come on! It's been great, of course I have your signature in my book, in the book that I have, because I got it from you at the conference, SES conference. So, I now want to preach through Isaiah, the Church wants me to do that. But I'm a pre-mill post-trib, and I'm fully in the court of the role of Israel in their prophecy, as you are preaching. Thank you for your ministry, by the way. Can you recommend, please, for me, a good commentary on Isaiah that I can preach through? Yeah, okay, so here's the deal. I am in the early stages, just in the eighth chapter now, of my own commentary on Isaiah, which will be a much longer one than the Job commentary. So I'm immersed in it, whenever there's time, day and night, with stacks of commentaries on my desk and behind me in my study, and then all kinds of commentaries on my computer. So, on the one hand, I could rattle off one after another, after another, after another. But let me just suggest a few things, okay? Yes. All right. And the eschatological breakdown, it's not going to intersect all that much.

You know what I'm saying? You're not going to have a lot of comments. It's not like you're reading the book of Revelation, or something like that, or a commentary on the Olivet Discourse in the Gospels.

So that eschatology is not going to intersect as much. But you will have some who are strongly amillennial, and you'll read their commentaries, and it'll feel and come out different. The commentary of Franz Delich in the Kyle and Delich commentary on the Old Testament, which is, you still get the whole set of physical volumes, but it's readily available, super inexpensive online.

Kyle and Delich, so it's D-E-L-I-T-Z-S-C-H, for those not familiar. His commentary on Isaiah was really a classic. Here and there, it gets a little dense with philology. But he's got a lot of great spiritual insights. And that's one I always enjoyed over the years. There's another one by J.A. Alexander from 1800s as well, but if you just get one from back then, the Delich commentary is still worth going through. If I'm looking at more recent evangelical commentaries, as opposed to technical, critical commentaries, John Hartley on Isaiah in New International Commentary on the Old Testament is very solid.

Again, I would land everywhere where he lands on text, but very solid. He's learned it, and it's a good exposition of the text, so it's academic. If you want one a little more popular, very edifying, then J.A.

Mottier, M-O-T-Y-E-R, I believe his name is pronounced differently than I pronounced it. That would be a really good, more popular one. So good scholarship behind it, but written on a more popular level. That might be the easiest one to preach through. He has two versions of it, one in the Tyndale series and one that's independent.

I think the independent one is the larger one. But if I just had to get one for preaching through, it's great. It's Christ-centered. He outlines the flow of things very nicely. He's got a good literary feel. If I want to get more in-depth into the background scholarship, digging deeper into the Hebrew, then Hartley. If I wanted to go, excuse me, Hartley.

That's Joel. What am I saying Hartley? Oswald. Excuse me.

Every time I'm saying it, it's like, what am I talking about? John Oswald. Sorry about that. John Oswald in the New International commentary in the Old Testament. Then if you just want to get some rich reading from the 1800s, Dalich.

If you have those, you'll be well served. Wonderful. How do you spell matcher again? M-O-T-Y-E-R. Either one is fine. M-O-T-Y-E-R, J-A matcher.

Either of the two that he has will be fine. Again, there's a massive amount of literature in Isaiah. I keep running out of room with more things. One quick question for you. In terms of using Job as a pastor, my Job commentary, I'd love to know how it helped you. In what way it served you as a commentary as a pastor.

This was great. I had several people ask for me to do this and I told them about you. It has to do with Job and suffering and he challenged God and he was still the hero of the story.

I used this to rescue my daughter who is a very tough lifestyle. And when she realized that Job came out of the other end as the prophet after challenging God all the way through, this was part of her conversion process to get out of Wicca and to abandon, we'll say, a lifestyle that she needed to give up. So I want to thank you. Oh my. She was in it for 15 years, I lost her, and she recently came back.

Oh come on. She's in the LGBTQ community and decided that, well, we said a prayer that God would remove the evil forces from her and protect her from evil forces. It happened, I prayed that it would protect my home as she visited. As she walked through the door, the evil spirits left her and she asked if I could help her come to know Jesus again and our conversation was centered around Job and the position from the perspective that Job challenged God so radically and in the end he was the prophet. And this helped her emotionally and mentally and spiritually to see that because she has had all these questions about God, is he good, and why is the problem of evil and the problem of suffering? So when I did my sermon series on this, that was the highlight of notice how Job challenges God and is bringing out all these issues of suffering. And then in the end, after that I did a sermon just on the problem of suffering of Job and then another sermon on the problem of suffering and answering that.

But Job is key to this whole presentation. Oh praise God. What an unexpected story. And I so rejoice with you and your family and your daughter. Fifteen years, all the prayers, all the tears, all the pain that she lived through. Wonderful. Hey, it would be a joy one day face to face to meet you and your daughter.

I hope we get to do it in this world and don't have to wait for the world to come. But thank you for sharing that. I rejoice with you and your daughter. Thank you so much. Thank you, brother.

All right. Eight, six, six, three, four, truth. Well, that was that was absolutely unexpected to hear that. Praise God for his grace and his goodness. Hey, all of you who pray for our ministry, you're part of that. You're part of that testimony. All of you who contribute to our ministry, you're part of that. All of you who share our materials with others, you're all part of this story. So thank you for for standing together and helping us make a difference. Wow. Praise God.

What a joy to hear that. Let us go over to Andy in Chicago. Hang on. I am just having an issue with my computer here. If somebody somewhere on our team could put Andy on the air, that would be great because my screen, for some strange reason, is not responding.

So if we can get Andy on the air. Tell you what, while we work on that, let's just wait a minute. Let me go back and finish up this article about messianic Jews. And we can separate some facts from from fiction there. The article in my Jewish learning talks about missionary activity. Core component of messianic Judaism is witnessing and missionizing to other Jews.

Absolutely. Those who are not saved. The same, what we ever believe about Jews who don't believe in Jesus.

What happens in the end is the same we believe. Gentiles Jews who don't believe in Yeshua, who reject him, suffer the same fate. And thus helping to bring someone to Yeshua, thus to salvation, is the responsibility of all messianic Jews. But interestingly, many messianic congregations are not that evangelistic. They emphasize more teaching and growing as believers and often don't do as much outreach.

The end of the article, I'm just going to switch down. It says there are an estimated 400 messianic Jewish congregations worldwide. That's probably a low number with 10,000 to 15,000 messianic Jews in Israel.

That's pretty accurate. 15,000. Some claim it's as high as 30,000, but probably 15. And about 200,000 in the United States.

I don't know where she got that number. It could be true, but not in messianic congregations. Maybe there are 5,000 or 10,000 messianic congregations in America.

The vast majority of messianic Jews are in churches all over America. So just to clarify that and set the record straight. So I appreciate the article, but there are a lot of factual errors.

I'm sure well intended. In other words, I don't believe that there was an intent to mislead or give any wrong information or anything like that. My Jewish Learning is a very, very good website. But sometimes people on the outside of a movement are not familiar with terminology and things and can get things mixed up. So we're hoping to be in touch with My Jewish Learning or they'll be in touch with us. Or again, a couple of us have reached out that I know of. So hopefully if they reach back out, we can just help because I believe they want to present things accurately. And the core thing that we are Jews who believe in Jesus and want all Jews to believe in Jesus.

Yes, that is absolutely true. Yeshua, the one and only Messiah. Listen, he is the savior of the world because he's the Messiah of Israel.

Yeshua is the savior of the world because he's the Messiah of Israel. We'll be right back. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

That's a new one. I was just waiting to hear when we got into the Hebrew there. Welcome to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Thanks, team, for playing that Jewish music that reminds you of the day of the week.

I forget where I was. I think I was going in a Panera Bread or coming out or something and it was a Friday. And someone said something to the person and it was about a different day of the week. I thought, no, no, I know it's Friday because I know you've got questions, we've got answers. So I know it's Thursday.

I travel and get confused with days, but I know it's Thursday because it's Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. So welcome to the broadcast. 866-34-87884 is the number to call. If you are excited hearing testimonies of Jewish people coming to the Lord, last week or two just got a couple of notes about people coming to the Lord. One fellow said for 15 years he's been the only believer in his family and just led a cousin to the Lord and said that he used a lot of our resources to do it. When I was with our good friend Eitan Barr who leads one for Israel, an amazing work they're doing, he's talking about the thousands of calls they get and even calls from Orthodox Jews inquiring.

He said, hey, we use a lot of your material. So it's thrilling to hear if you would like to help us reach more Jewish people with the Gospel, would you consider making a year-end gift? Go to AskDrBrown.org. Click on donate. Your one-time tax-deductible gift will be a great help. Or you can become a monthly torchbearer.

Click on monthly support. Find out all the different ways we pour back into you every month, our way of saying thank you to you. Hey, before I go back to your calls, a colleague in Israel sent me this article from a Likud representative. So this is like an Israeli congressman, Knesset member near Barkat. So with the Likud party, that's Netanyahu's party. And it's from Israel Hayom. I'm not going to read all the article to you, but it says the first Iran war is just around the corner.

He said the next war won't be a third Lebanon war. Iran plans to strike Israel from Lebanon, Syria, that's where they've got Hezbollah, Gaza, that's where they've got Hamas, Judea and Samaria. So dissidents within, so Palestinian Muslims who are activists, dissident terrorists, and internally with some Arab Israelis help. So those even within what everyone would recognize as the land of Israel, those that would be dissident.

In other words, an uprising from the outside, from the inside, from all around. And he says what America is doing now in the world, trying to negotiate, you can't do that with Iran, you can't do that with Iran. Yes, the people suffer because of the bad leadership. When you put sanctions on them, the people suffer, but the goal is to get rid of the current regime. Not just being the current leader, but the radical Islamic leadership. And that's for the people to push them out and vote them out.

So he's in the States and is going to be meeting with everyone who can to wake people up. And you say, how do you pray, say, God your will be done in the Middle East? Because there are all kinds of forces that want to bring about all types of catastrophic acts and bring about lots of suffering for everyone in the region. And Iran does have a certain end time mentality in believing in the revelation of the Mahdi, so kind of like the second coming or the first revelation of the greatest of the Islamic guides and leaders who will bring in redemption and there will be the final war and conflict. So just like some Christians kind of hold to this final generation and last conflict and Armageddon thing from one angle, they're coming at it from another angle, except they're ready to go to war for this and try to annihilate Israel. So these are real issues. These are real issues. How close are we?

I don't know. We've heard the rumblings for years and years and years and yet it hasn't happened. I think there's a certain level of restraint because Iran knows if they go further, there will be hell to pay. Israel will not respond passively and America understands that. And I don't believe that America would be able to tell Israel, hey, just kind of sit this one out, let us work diplomatically or fight for... No, not in this case.

I don't see that happening. And if Netanyahu was in, there might be even more saber-rattling to tell Iran don't dare do this. But yes, Israel has done what it can to stop Iran from getting a nuclear bomb through massive hacking that then set certain computer systems to then set things in motion that destroyed things physically so the software then destroyed things physically. Or assassinating leaders. Israel has done this. Assassinating leaders who have been working on nuclear bombs to destroy millions of Jews. Yes, Israel said that they may not shout it from the rooftop but it's been known it was done and the last one would be right out of like a Mission Impossible type of movie how it was carried out. So Israel is saying we've got to stop this wherever we can.

Otherwise millions of people could die in Iran, in Israel and the surrounding region and they're seeking to prevent that. God, your will be done. And let's try again to go to Andy in Chicago.

There we go. Welcome to the broadcast. Thanks for joining us.

Hello, Dr. Brown. Thank you so much for taking my call. You bet. First of all, really quickly, I just want to say thank you so much. Your previous caller mentioned the book of Job and I was looking at the copy of Compassionate Father for Ore-Consuming Fire that you signed for me. And it really means a lot. Your signature in there helps connect me in a world that I feel so disconnected right now with. It was really helping me through all this and God bless you. Thank you so much, brother. Well, we are, hey, you're part of her body and you're part of her family. So whatever you're going through, you're more connected than you may feel. But whatever link we can provide, I'm blessed to be able to.

Thank you for sharing that. So my question today is, you know, I have a counter-missionary in my family. And we were talking about Psalm 22, verse 16. And the correct translation in the English that I've read, for dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircles me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. Now, he was showing me that it was mistranslated. The word pierced, it was mistranslated. It was supposed to mean like a lion, and I think he used the word kahari. I don't know how to speak Hebrew, if I'm even pronouncing that right. And then he led me to an email that he had received from Tovey Singer. And he was trying to tell me that was a complete mistranslation from the Christians.

Now, I'm trying to talk with this guy, but he speaks Hebrew, and I don't. And I just felt lost in my... Yeah, we got you covered. We got you covered. This is a real easy one. This is really, really easy, okay? Number one, that verse, they pierced my hands and feet, is not quoted in the New Testament.

That's the first thing. So the New Testament quotes Psalm 22, and it is a vivid portrayal of a righteous sufferer delivered from the jaws of death, and his deliverance is so great that it brings praise to God from the ends of the earth. Jesus fulfills that, right? It's not a prophecy, it's a psalm of suffering, of a righteous sufferer delivered from the jaws of death. Jesus brings it to fulfillment. And when you read the psalm, a lot of it does sound like a description of crucifixion, even aside from they pierced my hands and feet.

That's the first thing. So the verse is not quoted in the New Testament. So the New Testament authors didn't get this wrong.

That's number one. Number two, the oldest translation that we have of that is what's called the Septuagint. That's when Jewish scholars, a couple hundred years before the time of Jesus, translated it into Greek. Okay, so this is a Jewish translation. How did they translate it? They translated it, they pierced.

Isn't that interesting? Then the earliest manuscripts we have of the Dead Sea Scrolls, so going back to a little before the time of Jesus and a little after the time of Jesus, but these are Jewish sectarian manuscripts, not Christian manuscripts, right? When it comes to Psalm 22, it doesn't say Ka'ari, it says Ka'aru, which would mean they dug through, they bore through. So the oldest Jewish translation says they pierced.

The oldest Jewish manuscript says they pierced. Then what we have, what he was reading from is what's called the Masoretic Textual Tradition or the Masoretic Text. That has thousands of manuscripts. There are about a dozen Hebrew Masoretic manuscripts. So these are rabbinic manuscripts that read Ka'aru or Ka'aru.

So they read it differently. So this is not a Christian problem. This is a Jewish problem as to what it means. So that's the first thing. I'm going to tell you where I present all this clearly and you don't have to worry about remembering all of it, okay? So that's the first thing.

This is a Jewish question first, long before it was a Christian question. That's number one. Number two, let's say we take it just as the Hebrew says, Ka'ari yadav arag lai, which is literally like a lion my hands and my feet. What does that mean? Like a lion my hands and my feet?

There's something missing. What does Rashi say? Rashi is the foremost biblical commentarative for Jews.

They live from 1040 to 1105. So when you quote Rashi to a Jew, traditional Jew, that's like gold, okay? Rashi says, like a lion they tore at my hands and feet.

So in other words, he's saying there's a verb missing. Okay, that works for me. That's a good description of crucifixion. You get nails driven in your hands and feet, it's like a lion tearing at your hands.

That's fine. In other words, there's a violent attack on the person's hands and feet. So even if it reads Ka'ari yadav arag lai, which is what the vast majority of Masoretic manuscripts read, there's a verb missing, like a lion my hands and my feet. Like a lion what? Licking? Are they licking his hands and feet? Kissing his hands and feet, right? So it's really not a big issue at all.

It's made into a big issue. But the Christians that translate it with they pierced said like a lion doesn't seem to make sense, but we have this other tradition that says it means they pierced, they dug through, they bore through. That really fits the description of crucifixion well. So if you go over to my YouTube channel, well tell you what, let's try this. If you go over to my website, all right, askdrbrown.org, you will, if you search for Psalm 22, we'll see if that comes up. I'm just going to do a quick search now. But otherwise, on my YouTube channel, Ask Dr. Brown, I have a 32-class series that's totally free where I deal with all the major objections of the counter missionary rabbis.

So on my YouTube channel, if we don't find it, here we go, here we go. So if you just go to askdrbrown.org, right, askdrbrown.org, and click on Psalm 22 in the search engine, two things will come up. One, Dr. Brown refutes Rabbi Singer on Daniel 9 and Psalm 22.

How's that? Okay. And the other objections based on Messianic prophecy, the Messiah and the Torah, Psalm 22 and Psalm 40. But the first one is a direct rebuttal to Rabbi Singer. He speaks this publicly, and we refute it. We put manuscripts up, we put pictures up for you to look at.

So askdrbrown.org, askdrbrown.org, and then type in where it says search Psalm 22. And you got it, all your answers right there. Thank you for the call.

And friends, this is what we do. It's the Line of Fire with your host, activist, author, international speaker, and theologian, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice of moral, cultural, and spiritual revolution. Get into the Line of Fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Welcome to Thoroughly Jewish Thursday. Going to go back to your calls in a moment.

866-34-TRUTH is the number to call. You know what just really blessed me? The fact that we could send a caller who has questions to materials that we have online for free that anyone can access. Of course, you want to dig deeper.

I get my five-volume series answering Jewish objections to Jesus or 22-hour set on countering the counter missionaries. So you can always dig deeper. But it thrills me that we are able to provide resources for free to so many people because they take time to produce.

And there's a lot that goes into getting them up and getting them out. We do it because of your generosity. So I just want to thank you again. All of you who have given and supported us.

It's through your generosity that we can do this. We just recorded three more videos. So this will bring a total of 12 now of specific videos. Countering counter missionaries on very, very specific points.

We've done 12 now just dealing with Rabbi Tovius Singers because he's probably got the most videos out on these things. What's interesting is I'm hearing from ex-Muslims and those doing Muslim ministry that our videos are being used to reach Muslims. Because the Muslim apologists, the Muslim missionaries are using many of the arguments of the rabbis and the counter missionaries that we've been refuting for decades. So they're coming up with these arguments to attack Christians. And these Christians are saying, actually we have all the answers already.

They've already been provided. So thank you, those that have stood with us. You're making a difference. And those that want to have the joy of doing it, go to the website AskDrBrown.org. Just reminding you daily as we come to the end of the year that your gifts make a real difference.

AskDrBrown.org, just click on donate. It is true that sometimes as Jews we can play the anti-Semitism card. Just like sometimes the racism card can be played when it's not really there. Sometimes as a Jewish person you perceive anti-Semitism when it's really not there. But there is no question that it continues to rise. It continues to rise in the world.

It continues to rise in America. And often the dividing line is Israel. If you're pro-Israel, then we're going to separate. Or your book can't come out in Israel, won't be translated into Hebrew or whatever.

You're going to have to change this narrative because it's not pro-Palestinian enough. So there's an article again sent to me by a colleague in Israel on the Washington Examiner. Publishers Against the People of the Book.

It's by Melissa Langson Brownstein. Publishers Against the People of the Book. Washington Examiner, December 2nd. So check it out. Check it out and see for yourself if the anti-Semitism card is being played or if the data is pointing at what seems to be reality that there really is a pushback. And just the very first few lines, oh where are we?

Writing Stars, oh okay hang on. The Case of April Powers. Black Jewish Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Reacting to the spring stateside sturge of anti-Semitism that coincided with Israel's war against Hamas. Powers posted a statement opposing domestic anti-Semitism after being criticized by one SCPWI member for not including a comment about Islamophobia and Palestinian discrimination and hung out to dry by the organization she departed. So Black Jew simply speaking out about growing domestic anti-Semitism because she didn't say I'm pro-Palestinian, I'm against Islamophobia.

Because of that she's hung out to dry, she ends up resigning. Stuff is going on friends, let's not downplay it. Okay with that we go back to the phones starting with Bob in Palm Beach, Florida. Welcome to the Line of Fire.

Actually it's West Palm Beach my friend. Hey I'm just going by what's on my screen here, go ahead. No, no, I'm just, anyway, well I've known about you for quite some time and I'm very encouraged about the fact that you have, that you're very intelligent, you do your research and it's very impressive and I'm thankful to God that there are people like you apologists that are willing to contend to the faith in whatever level you possibly can. I've listened to some of your broadcasts and some of your YouTube things and I'm really thankful and grateful for your administration. I just wanted to call and touch base with you and support and also to let you know that I've known the Lord now for some 40 years. I'm from New York, I don't know if you're familiar with the Westbury Hebrew Congregation. I'm called Westbury in Long Island, New York, I was bar mitzvahed there, but then later on in life I came on, I went on to know the Lord Jesus Christ, given my life over to him.

And I'm involved in the gathering down here in West Palm Beach. Now I get to the point, there's a fellow that I've been ministering or I've been speaking with, I should say. Most Jewish people, when you talk about Jesus Christ, whether they be rabbis or strong Jews or whatever the case may be, I've got to be very careful.

And even people in the messianic world, they prefer to call Jesus Christ Yeshua. So I've got to be very careful when I want to reach out to somebody who doesn't know the Lord, who is Jewish, I know an Orthodox Jew in Israel right now. And with the most experience that I've had speaking or witnessing or speaking to Jews, I have to be careful.

And I look to be careful because I'm looking for a place that I can buy my plants some real seeds of faith. And it's somebody. And it's funny, by chance, the last person you talked to on the telephone, you're talking about the religious Jews or a lot of Jews, they go by different texts, so to speak.

Like, let me give you an example quickly. Let me just jump in, only because the clock is ticking and we're almost at the end of the show. So just a couple of thoughts in terms of our interaction with the Jewish community. So you know there's a big difference between a Reform Jew and an ultra-Orthodox Jew, right? And a secular liberal Jew and a very religious Jew.

So there's completely different world views, completely different perspectives on God. I once debated a radical Reform rabbi. And after the first 20 minutes back and forth, I got up and said, the difference between this rabbi and me is that I believe the Hebrew Bible is the word of God and he doesn't. And people gasped, how dare I would say that? And the rabbi yelled out, that's right.

So he barely even believed in God. So you've got this broad spectrum, but your average Jewish person, if you talk about Yeshua, they don't know who you're talking about, right? And I'm not being rude, the one last thing I wanted to tell you, and then you can go right on, is that I had learned, I've been fathered by the King James Version of the Old Testament and the New Testament. And it seems to though, and I'll let you speak, I'm just putting a B in your body, it seems like their wordology of their Old Testament is different from the King James Version. You're going to have any Christian translation is going to be different than a Jewish translation, just like there are differences within Christian translations. In other words, certain verses you're going to read differently.

We may talk about righteousness in one place, they may talk about merit. We may understand something to be messianic. So any translation is going to vary, but for the most part, you're still reading the same thing. You sit down and read it together in English, whatever translation.

You're going to be reading, for the most part, the same thing. But I would never say Christ because that just is a name to a Jewish person. Like Jewish friends of mine that are believers now once thought that Jesus was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Christ, that he didn't have any other concept of that.

So Christ has no meaning. So I always say the Messiah, Jesus the Messiah. Talk about the Messiah and then say, you know, he's one of us. He's one of us.

That's part of our family. The one that all these goyim, these Gentiles all around the world worship as God or there's one all around the world that has brought them to revere the God of Israel and read the Hebrew scriptures in English, their own translation. That's one of us is a Jew. That's the Jew Jesus. And in fact, it says in our Bibles that he's not coming back to Rome or Tulsa or he's coming back to Jerusalem. And in fact, his own people, our people, the Jewish people have to welcome him back.

So he remains one of us. And he's the Messiah. And the reason it's called Christ is because Christ means Messiah. Then from there you say, you know, his mother's name was Mary. No, it's Miriam.

It's Miriam. You know what his original name was, wasn't Jesus. It was Yeshua. And you know, his followers, you know, Saint John and Saint. You know who they really were?

They were guys with names like Shimon and Yohanan and Yaakov. So you try to introduce these things. The best single book I've written to give to a Jewish person open to hear more is The Real Kosher Jesus. If you haven't had that since you expressed appreciation from work earlier, I'd really encourage you to check that out. The Real Kosher Jesus, which I wrote in response to my friend, Rabbi Shmueli's book, Kosher Jesus.

Check that out. You'll find it enriching. And then that's a great book to give to a Jewish seeker. Because within their own world, within their own context of thinking and understanding, it will reveal the Messiah to them. Jesus, Yeshua, who was a rabbi, not a reverend, and who went to synagogue, not to church. Yes, that's who we introduced them to.

And through him being the Messiah, he becomes the Savior of the world. Hey friends, don't forget to get my emails. If you don't get them, askdrbrown.org. There's a lot going on you'll know about, you won't miss if you get them. Askdrbrown.org. Make sure you click to get my emails. Back with you tomorrow. Another program powered by the Truth Network.