Judaism in the New Testament: Practices and Beliefs

This book is very thought provoking, and reflects more than a few profound thoughts about Christianity as a Judaism. Chilton and Neusner are both very learned scholars, and so far as I can tell neither writes for popular audiences (one possible exception being Chilton's book on Rabbi Jesus).

It is not an easy read, and some portions were impossible for me to follow (I like Chilton's works, at least if I understand him I do, but he really needs a better editor). The book contains profound observations and thoughts, but it takes persistence to read it all.

The most important lesson I learned is how critical it was to NT personalities to "define Israel." The authors pointed out the different approaches between Paul, Peter, Jesus, and the author of Hebrews. This point is made after significant space is devoted to explaining that there were many Judaisms, and there there never was one orthodox, traditional Judaism. I was also inspired by the discussion of the Sabbath, and how Jesus claimed to be the Sabbath (Matthew 11:27-30).

For someone seriously seeking to understand the Jewishness of Jesus, and the Jewishness of early Chrisitianity, this contains some important material. But, a reader would want to have already read a lot about those subjects before getting to this book. That's because the writing style can be terribly confusing and tedious, which compounds the challenge of addressing issues that are not routine.