Book Recommendation: Meet the Rabbis

A while back, Amazon.com recommended that I read Brad Young’s book, Meet the Rabbis: Rabbinic Thought and the Teaching of Jesus, and because I didn’t know anything about the rabbis I decided to save it to my Wishlist. A month ago, I finally bought it and I just finished it on vacation to Punta Cana.

The book is structured into 3 main parts:

1. Introduction to Rabbinic Thought
2. Introduction to Rabbinic Literature
3. Introduction to the Rabbis

And here’s a quick list of things that I found interesting and helpful:

1. That it’s important to understand the rabbis in order to better understand Jesus- (Young parallels rabbinic thought to Jesus' to illuminate some of his thoughts)
2. A good reminder that not all Pharisees are legalistic hypocrites (pg. 7-8)
3. The role of the Sanhedrin and the importance of Torah after 70 C.E. (Ch. 4)
4. The many parallels between Rabbinic and New Testament (Ch.5)
5. The relationship between the Mishnah ,the Talmud (Jerusalem and Babylonian), and Midrash (Tannaitic and Amoraic)
6. An overview of the major rabbinic leaders (Ch.11)

I recommend this book to anyone, who wants to gain a better understand of the rabbis. Also, for a better review check-out Dr. Craig Blomberg’s review.