Yeshua Ben David

📕 Readers of Walter Riggans’ previous books, Jesus Ben Joseph and The Covenant With the Jews, will, at first glance, be surprised by the sheer size of this new volume. Its weighty appearance alone gives the impression that this is likely to be a major work. In more than 400 pages Riggans has neatly woven together a wide range of ideas, problems, questions, personal experience and even Jewish jokes in a way that addresses a real audience and their real issues.
Yeshua Ben David is written, as the author notes, for all followers of Jesus” whether Jewish or not. It is especially aimed at those who are grappling with what Riggans calls the “contemporary resurgence of a strong and specifically Jewish rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus” (p. 9). The book is deliberately arranged in two interlocking parts: the first is what Riggans in his preface calls the “macro issues.” These include an overview of common Jewish objections to the gospel. This is familiar territory to anyone involved in witnessing to Jewish people but covers issues that can easily confuse those less used to them.
Chapter by chapter, Riggans deals skillfully and clearly with the charges that are often leveled at those who would share their faith in Jesus with Jewish people. He grasps the nettle of the accusation of missionary deception, and gives a concise and sympathetic overview of the problem of the history and legacy of Christian anti-Semitism. He responds with cogent arguments to the Jewish notion that “Christianity is okay for non Jews,” and he grapples sensitively with the thorny and often unresolved problem of how Jewish identity relates to faith in Jesus.