FOLLOW
Walking in the Dust of the Rabbi
By Joseph Gisbey
Darton, Longman & Todd. 189 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978 0 232 531 657
Joseph Gisby is keen to introduce us to Jesus as the Rabbi we are to follow.
He does so with some helpful insights and personal stories; he has a great deal of OT material that brings the Jewishness of Jesus to the fore. Much is fresh here, especially his plea for us to see the human side of Jesus the Rabbi (in contrast to what he believes is an over-emphasis on Jesus’s divinity). However he becomes weak on Jesus divinity, saying, in order to become human, Jesus chose to ‘put his identity as God on the shelf’. Did he?
Gisbey has some strange ideas: he thinks Jesus was a Pharisee; he thinks the disciples were all teenagers. But – and it really is quite a big BUT – he never furnishes us with any supporting evidence. How do we know if his ideas are accurate?
He also tells us that following Jesus the Rabbi means we can do what Jesus does and that includes healings. But, once again, where is the evidence? On one occasion he quotes 1 Peter 1.4 where we are told we ‘participate in the divine nature’ and then he adds that ‘we are free to walk and talk like God’. Is that right; is that what the text means?
So, if you read this, please do so with caution. Much in the book is insightful and enjoyably written, but you need your spiritual antenna up. I will not be lending this to my new Christian friends to examine the Jewishness of Jesus, as it will probably confuse them; they are more likely to pick up the unbiblical bits of the book!
