Yeshua: The Life of Messiah from a Messianic Jewish Perspective

by Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum

ISRAEL'S MESSIANIC KING During His ministry to the Jewish people, Yeshua (Jesus) journeyed throughout the land promised to the Jewish patriarchs, presenting Himself to the Jews as their Messiah. He was a Jew living in a Jewish land among the Jewish people. Yet, much of the knowledge of this Jewish society, its culture and traditions has grown dim with the passage of time. In this work, Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum shines a bright light on the life of Yeshua and the land of Israel during the Second Temple period, interpreting the Gospels from a Messianic Jewish perspective. To achieve this, Dr. Fruchtenbaum had done original research in the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek source texts, and has also drawn on the works of other scholars and the writings of ancient rabbis. It has taken about four decades of research and work for the account of the life and ministry of Yeshua the Messiah to come into its present form, published by Ariel Ministries in four volumes and an abridged version. The abridgment contains essentially the same material as the multi-volume set, but excludes the source texts for Dr. Fruchtenbaum's teaching. Ariel's Harmony of the Gospels provides the framework for his exegesis.

Genres: Theology, Christianity

701 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2019

About the author

Arnold Genekowitsch Fruchtenbaum is the founder and director of Ariel Ministries, an organization which prioritizes evangelization of Jews in the effort to bring them to the view that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.

Reviews

[Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is, without any doubt, the fact that this book is one of my favorites. I immediately put it as #2 on my top 170+ books to read (second to the Bible). It was an awesome resource to use for daily quiet times in studying the Life of Christ. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, a Jewish believer in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, brings into his writings, an understanding of Scripture, but also, the Jewish culture and historicity of the religion of the Jews in the time of Christ. The book walks the reader through a basic harmony of the four different gospel accounts, explaining key elements of the life of Christ, the historical setting, the influences upon the Jewish religious leaders and why they hated Jesus Christ so much, etc. The book is very informing and one that I thorougly enjoyed reading.

Since there is only one perfect book in the world (The Bible), I suppose it would be appropriate to highlight a possible weakness of this treasure, although I'm hesitant to list this as a weakness: The author uses the King James Version of the Bible in the book so the language is archaic which will undoubtedly lose some people who did not grow up in the time period when KJV was the translation. It's not a major issue, but I'd like to see an edition of this using the NKJV. Other than this, I highly, highly recommend this phenomenal book.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned a ridiculous amount of information from this book. Only taking away a star because of:

(1) poor translation decisions, especially regarding the apostles’ names. This was beyond frustrating and made some sections totally useless. I’m not going to constantly flip back to a chart because the book - written in English - had names in Anglicised Hebrew instead of English. I don’t understand the point of that.

(2) some opinions of the author that I don’t agree with and a few sections I am possibly misunderstanding because of lack of supporting evidence or inconsistent translation of certain words.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-researched book on the life of Yeshua HaMashiach. It's 646 pages that go through the gospel events of the Lord's life from birth to ministry to death and resurrection using A T. Robertson's harmony of the gospels as a reference. Taking this geographical approach, the author states in the introduction that he hoped to use it as a basis to show the correlation between events through a thematic approach.

I think the author did a good job explaining very difficult concepts in scripture. He explained the Trinity (PG 17) by saying that the Son is not God or Spirit, but the same as God. He split the covenants made by God into 8 total - Eden, Adam, and Noah, then Abraham, Moses, land, David and new (PG 20). He covered much history and culture and customs. He even clarified terms such as blameless not meaning sinless but right with God or righteous (PG 33). He also quoted prophecies or scriptures as applicable (PG 50). He's the first author I've found that verified that our Savior was named Yeshua because He would yoshia or save His people from their sins (PG 51). His explanation of our Lord's restoration and commission of Peter was different than I had heard before. He said the Lord ask Peter twice if he could agape Him. After his failure, Peter said he'd like to but couldn't as evidenced by his failure. However, he does phileo him like a friend.

On page 54, the author said that Yeshua was born between 6-7 B.C. so I thought it was interesting that later he dates Yeshua's death to April 7, 30 A D. (PG 583). I also wondered at a few of his other deductions:
-1 Thessalonians 4:14-18 is about the rapture or second coming. The author supposes that it's the rapture since the living meet Him in the air rather than Yeshua staying on earth. I think this passage speaks about the second coming since the dead in Him rise as well at the sofar call.
-the rapture separates believers from unbelievers (PG 478) and unbelievers go to judgement (PG 476). From what I understand, each event fulfills a feast so is the rapture the feast of trumpets or the feast of atonement and white throne judgement? It seems unclear from this author.
-the 5 unprepared virgins aren't saved. I've never heard that theory. I thought they were believers waiting for Messiah, they just fell asleep and away from God. (PG 483).
- Passover is on Friday. The author mentions a high Sabbath, but doesn't confirm or calculate the day of His death. Depending on the year chosen, Sabbath could have been a Wednesday or Friday. A Wednesday allows for the signs of Jonah being three nights (Wed, Thursday, Friday) and three days (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) going from 6 pm to the next day at 6 pm.

Overall, I think this is a good reference and worth reading. It gave me a lot to think about and discuss with others or research more deeply.

[Cesar Gil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have loved this book. Arnold Fruchtenbaum is one of the most important specialists in the Messianic faith. He writes not only to equip the new believers from Jewish origin with knowledge so they can defend their faith, but also to bring an immensely rich historical and theological background for every believer.

There are so many insights into the text of the Scriptures, so many things that will make you marvel at God, develop your apologetics, enrich your sermons, feel encouraged and inspired.

[Carey Smoak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides the necessary background on first century AD life in Israel to more fully understand the life of Jesus. While there is a lot a really good background information that I find useful, I do disagree with some the author's interpretations (primarily related to his eschatology). Nevertheless, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to more fully understand the culture that Jesus grew up in.

[Nicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took months to slowly read through and digest this book. I loved it! I love the attention to detail, understanding of Jewish culture & understanding of the scriptures. There was only one theological point that I don’t agree with (the author doesn’t believe in the power & working of the Holy Spirit today). But other than that, it is a great resource and I highly recommend it. I will be looking for more books by this author.

[Stephen Drew]

Recommend by Ariel Ministries (Tim Sigler)