Maimonides’s Yahweh

Rabbinic Judaism’s Attempt to Answer the Incarnational Question

Amy Karen Downey

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781532673375
  9781532673382
• eBook ISBN:
  9781532673399
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

The life of Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides) remains a mystery to many within evangelical Christianity. However, he is lauded as a second Moses by many within modern Judaism. Does he deserve that title? Maimonides's via negativa created a rationale for rejecting the messiahship claims of Jesus in Rabbinic Judaism. Therefore, this book seeks to illustrate that Maimonides, in his desire to create an anti-Christian apologetic regarding the incarnation, fashioned a Judaism that does not reflect the truths of the Tanakh (Old Testament) and developed a Judaism that was untenable for the Jewish people of the twenty-first century. Many Jewish people today are turning in a thousand and one different directions for spiritual answers, but not in the only way that will offer the way to God: Jesus of Nazareth (John 14:6). This work examines the history of Maimonides, his teachings, and an apologetic approach to bring the gospel back to the Jewish people (Rom 1:16).

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: Establishing the Premise of Maimonides’s Yahweh
• Chapter 2: A Brief Examination of Jewish-Christian History (AD 70 to 1290) and Its Impact on Maimonides
• Chapter 3: Moses Maimonides the Man (1135/38–1204)
• Chapter 4: Maimonides the Theologian and His Writings
• Chapter 5: Maimonides and His Reaction to Controversy and Christianity
• Chapter 6: Maimonides’s Impact on Modern Judaism
• Chapter 7: Modern Judaism’s Understanding of Specific Christian Doctrines in Light of Maimonides and His Yahweh
• Chapter 8: Development of an Apologetic Approach for Evangelism among the Jewish People in Light of Maimonides’s Yahweh
• Bibliography