Book Review

Jesus Before Christianity

By Roy Hanu Hart, M.D. (InfoFaith Communications, 118 pages, 2006)

Reviewed by Ze'ev Ben Jacob

More than 200 million books and articles have been written about Jesus of Nazareth. Here comes a new book. So why another one?

That's because Jesus Before Christianity (InfoFaith Communications, 118 pages, 2006) by Roy Hanu Hart, M.D., although a small book, treats a big issue that provides Jews with a greater understanding of Jesus and Christians with a better insight into the Jewish view on the subject.

Dr. Hart, a Jewish physician married to Cecilia Therese Chen-Wu, a Catholic, is the founder of InfoFaith Communications, Inc. that's dedicated to building bridges of cooperation between the two faiths.

The author, whose specialty is psychiatry, also has spent years in the study of theology, especially the history and religion of the first century. In Jesus Before Christianity (JBC), as his encyclopedic mind has done in his previous book, Journey of Faith (Menta Publications, 351 pages), he connects all the dots that span a turbulent era, including events of the period, geography of the time, customs, culture, beliefs, philosophies, personalities, and sacred literature.

With a physician's discipline, Dr. Hart examines the first century as he would a patient. His diagnosis, presented in layman's language, gives the reader a clear and candid insight into how the roots of the world's first and then only monotheistic religion, Judaism, laid a foundation that would inspire the emergence of what has become a widespread-growing religion now embracing more than two billion lives.

The result is that this little volume provides a valuable resource for fostering respectful discussion and action.

As a starting point, Dr. Hart believes that for Jews the essence of Jesus is that he was a man, a teacher, a rabbi; for Christians he was divine, special, powerful, casting an influence upon a wider audience. For both he died to make men holy, encouraging them in a tumultuous, brutal, pagan first century to be perfect in goodness and righteousness.

In JBC the author pointedly states his view that Judaism is for Jews and that the big issue for 21st century Jews is that they need not continue to harbor their centuries-old negative attitudes toward Jesus and, in the process, need not be persuaded by well-meaning, perhaps sincerely overzealous, Christians into accepting "Jesus as your Savior." Indeed, Dr. Hart is confident that Jews can accept Jesus' teachngs and yet remain 100 percent Jewish as he has.

In fact, the author of JBC, as he reveals in his other writings, is himself close to Jesus, whom he presents here as a great first-century interpreter of the Torah. Although Dr. Hart recognizes that Jesus has come to be regarded as the greatest of figures in history, the author does not concerrn himself with Jesus' resurrection-identity as God incarnate, which, he concedes, is a Christian, not a Jewish, matter.

What Dr. Hart clearly presents is a picture of Jesus' career as an innovative member of the rabbinic guild of his time --- a rabbi who preached his kingdom theology, the heart of his teaching, that becomes the central theme of JBC. The author also puts into perspective a practice common to both faiths when he explains that the Lord's Prayer, which every Christian recites regularly, is very much a Jewish prayer -- akin to the Kaddish -- and is part of his kingdom theology.

Dr. Hart further explains that Jesus taught in parables, which may seem strange to today's readers of the New Testament, but it was a common technique of the rabbis of his time, thus reinforcing the view of Jesus being thoroughly Jewish.

Although JBC is such a compact volume, the author brilliantly compresses many relevant elements into a context readers can readily follow. He puts into focus the role of Roman rule as the evil empire of its time, the gospels, Joseph and Mary, circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth, education of the young Jesus, brothers of Jesus, John the Baptist, Peter, Pharisees and Sadducees along with Essenes and Zealots, Dead Sea Scrolls, the disciples, House of David lineage, and many more developments.

Through it all, Dr. Hart shows Jesus' love was for all humanity with a realization that his mesage was for everyone as he stressed mercy and salvation and love of neighbor.

The author observes that Jews of today need to separate the man who belongs to Judaism from the god that Paul (aka Saul of Tarsus) made him out to be. Acturally, Dr. Hart adds, Jesus in life saw himself as a messenger sent by God with a message for mankind. In time, the author writes, Christianity would turn the messenger into the message, although Jesus played no part in what would be his deification.

Here Dr. Hart further explains why the deity of Jesus is a concept alien to the Jewish mnd: no Jew can worship a dead Jew, based on the lesson left from the death of Moses as he walked off into the hills at the end of his life so that the people would not have his body to worship.

Still another major point the author brings forward, besides presenting Jesus as a teacher, preacher, and healer, Dr. Hart also classfies him as a prophet. This he admits is an astonishing position for a Jew to take inasmuch as Jewish tradition holds that the Age of Prophecy had ended with Malachi five centuries before Jesus lived. The author also dares to make the other eye-raising point that Jesus' cousin, John the Baptist, also is classified as a prophet.

With a reference to physics, Dr, Hart describes the electron behaving as though it is both a particle and a wave, without appearing contradictory. Likewise, he concludes that Jesus takes one identity for Jews and another for Christians. JBCreflects the author's enormous research and deep reflection. The book distills a vast amount of knowledge as it renders a respectful account of the man called the most influential person ever in the civilized world. Dr. Hart's faithful treatment of the subject will resonate meaningfully with both Jews and Christians.

In his examination of a long-standing religious issue, Dr. Hart's diagnosis is that today's age calls for a new look at Jesus by Jews. The doctor/author is confident that readers will not be disappointed by how he "rehabilitates" Jesus for Jews, while leaving the Christian Jesus intact for Christians to continue to follow as they have been doing for two millennia

With this desire, JBC should take another step in the mission of InfoFaith Communications, Inc. to contribute toward better understanding between Jews and Christians.