"This is excellent - well-written and well researched. Most importantly, Maltz presents the subject from a Jewish-roots perspective, vital to the proper understanding of Jesus. Another feature is highlighting the scourge of anti-Semitism, which has damaged Jewish-Christian relations over the centuries. The study of some of the key names attributed to Jesus is very revealing and enhances our understanding of his person from both the divine/eternal and human perspectives. " Mervyn Tilley, Direction, Aug 2008

"The book is incredibly well written with some great teaching. Of course like anything else this should be weighed against the Bible, but I find a well argued understanding of who Jesus was and, for me, it confirmed the fulfillment of the disputed passages that the Jews hold refer to a Messiah that they still await! This is an excellent book of Christian teaching. If you think you know all there is to know about Jesus and his earthly ministry I am sure that this skimming of the surface of Hebrew teaching will make you realise you don't know it all - there is a lot more out there to learn! (RATINGS: Biblical content 10/10, Good teaching 10/10, Intreresting 10/10)" Rob Allwright, Soteria magazine

"The book is a real eye-opener. I really do believe I have been privileged to review an important book - an extraordinary tour de force. Unquestionably this book will make a massive contribution to current thinking about Jesus at a time when both His humanity and divinity are being questioned." Chris Hill, author, broadcaster and international Bible teacher.

"Congratulations on a great book ... it is undoubtedly inspired by the Holy Spirit and written for such a time as this. Your explanation of Daniel is explosive, revealing the message hidden in all that coded language which for so long has cloaked many minds regarding the timing of future events, in particular the coming of the Messiah." Julia Fisher, author and broadcaster

"'In the beginning was the…' - finish this well-known phrase or saying without using the first verse of John's Gospel, using neither English nor New Testament Greek and by reference only to an Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible. Can't be done? This 'voyage around Our Father' - and His Son - will open your eyes in the best tradition of travel and exploration. Steve Maltz has a gift for combining pacy writing with crystal clear distillation of his own careful study of scholarly resources, and a firm grip on the Gospel. The result is a fascinating new landscape of insight - it's not so much Jewish roots of the Christian faith as 'Jewish knowledge' of the Gospel. The Bible-believing reader need not fear any distraction from the Word of God, only reinforcement in some unexpected places. Enjoy!" David Andrew, editor Sword magazine (was Prophecy Today)

"Jesus, The Man of Many Names is in one sense unique. Steve Maltz has been able to bridge the gap between the scholar and the ordinary Christian, and turn scholarship into a life-giving encounter with a living person. Over many years I have read and studied the subject of the Jewishness of Jesus, as well as lecturing and writing about the subject. Reading The Man of Many Names has been an inspiring experience, making the Jesus of the first century and the New Testament vibrant and real in a fresh way. Many Christians unfortunately have a vague and sometimes sentimental notion of' 'Christ' and 'Jesus', and also completely misunderstand the background to the Jewish rejection of Jesus as Messiah. This book changes all that, and the more widely it is read the better. I strongly recommend it." Derek White (Founder, Christian Friends of Israel UK)

"I was and am most interested in your style and approach. As a writer you are most readable - humourous, leading the reader on, putting things in a contemporary and user-friendly way, and with a sense of infectious joy in your discoveries. " Richard Harvey, Tutor in Hebrew Bible, Hebrew language and Jewish Studies, All Nations Christian College

"Steve writes in a lively, accessible way, that draws in and fascinates his readers. Anyone with a yen to explore the mysteries of the Scriptures and meet the totally Jewish Messiah of whom they speak will love this book." Michele Guinness, author

"I enjoyed reading this and found your style of writing to be exciting and creative with a clear pastoral and evangelistic warmth. You share with the reader many key Biblical insights into the person and work of Jesus which leads to much refreshed thinking- I hope the book does well and I will certainly be recommending it within the context of some CMJ gatherings" Rev. Alex Jacob M.A Director of Advocacy – Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People

"I'm really enjoying it. I just love the way you make what can be quite complicated theology both accessible and fun. There is some stuff which I already know but it's presented in a way which makes it enjoyable and really good revision." Kit Eglinton, web consultant and counsellor

"Written at great cost. So many veils are lifted in this book" Norma Gregory MBE

I will start at the end, the very last declaration in the Gospel account of Jesus.

"Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." (John 21:25)

Well it's just as well they weren't all written down, otherwise we'd all be drowning in a sea of books and the trees of this world would be just a memory.

We start with a rather large number, 181,026. It's the current number of books about Jesus, available online through the Amazon bookshop. From The Laughing Jesus to What Would Jesus Eat and the Jesus of Suburbia we are presented with a puzzling plethora of academia, trivia and exotica. This man certainly made an impact, even on those who would claim otherwise and how many other figures from ancient history who wrote no book, never travelled far from his familiar haunts and died in his prime, could compete with this impact on the human psyche and the publishing industry?

This book adds to that number, but if it does not lead the reader into a fuller understanding of the life and mission of the most remarkable man who has ever lived, then I hang my head in shame. Because, even if only 1% of those 181,026 books are serious contributions, then a new book on Jesus still has to offer something special to warrant the months of blood, sweat and sleeplessness in the writing, to say nothing of freshness and relevance in the reading.

So, what's new? What is brought to the table here? As the third part of the "… of Many names" trilogy, two clues to the structure and content of this book are evident to those loyal readers. Firstly, the story of Jesus will be threaded together through a dozen or so names associated with him and, secondly, there will be a Jewish angle.

This is not the first book that looks at Jesus through Jewish eyes. The Bible was there first, though many people have not yet woken up to that fact. As there are 4,962 other books available through Amazon with the words Jewish Jesus somewhere in the title, I am not treading in virgin territory. But there's no other book around that also includes the word fresh in the title, so there is my claim for uniqueness and I'm sticking to it!

If you declare a fresh approach to a subject, the claim really needs to be backed up. So again, the question is asked, what's new?

I will answer with a provocative statement and that is, if anyone can lay a claim to know God better than most, it's the Jews. Paul said as much in Romans 9:4-5:

"Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!"

The Jews have been there, done that, bought the yarmulka. In any biography of God, the Jews take the role of the first wife. Their sad story is told figuratively in the book of Hosea. They marry young, it's a first love, raw and exciting. But the young bride is restless, with a roving eye for a well turned-out idol and, consequently, a marriage breakdown and a separation sought. For the ten tribes of Israel, a divorce is granted thanks to her many adulteries (Jeremiah 3:7-9), but for the remnant, a relationship is maintained. The Lord eventually betroths Himself to a new bride, a union not yet consummated, but this new relationship is more inclusive, with Gentiles grafted in to join the Jews of the remnant. So the Jews were there at the beginning, have seen the good times and the bad times, but have never ceased to search for God, even while in exile, even under the severest persecution.

Even when the World rejected them, the Jews never stopped searching. Mostly, they haven't found what they were looking for, but their search has uncovered many jewels, if not always the pearl of great price. Those jewels sparkle like stars in the sky, guiding those who have a mind to follow, to an understanding of the ways of God that can be surprising and exhilarating. And it is this search that forms the bedrock for this book.

When Nicodemus quizzed him about being born again, Jesus gently mocked him, amazed that a Pharisee, "Israel's teacher", failed to grasp his teaching. It was an understandable reaction, because if anyone was qualified to understand this new message it was he. Nicodemus was in a privileged position, perhaps unequalled in history. Here was a learned man, thoroughly acquainted not only with the Hebrew scriptures, but with the whole body of Jewish thought, "The Traditions of the Elders". He spoke the language of Jesus and could read and write in Hebrew and Aramaic, the languages of the Scriptures. And to cap it all, the greatest privilege of all, a one-to-one Bible study with the Son of God himself! We read of few such encounters but there were undoubtedly more.

We are as far away from Nicodemus as it's possible to get. Not only are we denied the privilege of the personal encounter with Jesus in the flesh, we also suffer in that we do not read and understand Holy Scripture in its original language and although we may (or may not be) conversant with the Scriptures, one glaring disadvantage of looking back 2000 years is that we are divorced from their culture, mindset, environment and religious heritage. A 21st century sophisticate, living in a secular society and educated according to principles founded on the ideas of Greek philosophy, can have little natural empathy with a 1st century religious culture, founded on a Hebraic mindset.

Looking at the scriptures afresh with Jewish-tinted glasses can be a thrilling, invigorating, faith-expanding experience. This book offers you a tiny glimpse of the possibilities. Enjoy.

We all have our own take on Jesus. Where do your ideas come from? They certainly didn't just pop into your mind out of nowhere. You put them there, consciously or otherwise. Now thousands of books have been written about Jesus and the views expressed didn't just pop into the author's mind, they came from somewhere. Every author is writing from a given viewpoint. They may be Catholic, Pentecostal, or Church of England and will speak from within those traditions. They may be reformed, or liberal, or fundamentalist and will argue from those positions. They may be speaking from such fringe areas as Mormonism or as Jehovah Witnesses and would want to incorporate their unique slant. Or they may be totally "left field", insisting that Jesus was an astronaut/Venusian/peanut and please buy my book so I can prove it to you.

Discounting the lunatic fringe (you know who they are, even if they don't), the basic tools of the trade, apart from the scholarship and talent of the author, are the Bible as source material, the opinion of other commentators who agree with the position you are taking and an assortment of other opinions of those you are going to quote as a means of contrast. That's about it. Every serious book you have read about Jesus comes from the same structure - the Bible, your views and the views of others. And for a book to offer something new into the Jesus debate, it has to either come from a place that has rarely been mined before, or it extracts its nuggets in new ways.

This book hopefully does both. It comes from a mindset lost to the ages. It comes from a culture that birthed and nurtured our Saviour. It comes from a religious system that ultimately denied him. And, although much of the material has already been made available, a lot of it is from books of a bygone age, written in flowery language, arranged in labyrinthine paragraphs, or from the dusty halls of academia, or in the hands of those who are simply not eager to share their findings, for religious reasons. This book has been written to share such knowledge in the true spirit of democracy, in a way that even the author himself is able to understand it!

We will meet Jesus in surprising places. We will meet him at the very beginning of time, in the early days of the Jews and their struggles with God. We will see him as a fulfilment of unique promises, living as one among his people, teaching them how to live and how to understand him better. We will see what happened when his people failed to recognise him and how they covered up their mistake. We will then marvel at how some discovered him for themselves, despite incredible pressures from both within their own community and from the world that hated them in his name. Finally we will see him in power and splendour at the end of days.

This is a book mostly for followers of Jesus of Nazareth, but also for those who wonder what on earth it is all about. It's for those who are honest to admit that they don't have it 100%, that they wouldn't last 5 minutes in a room, defending all aspects of his nature and ministry, with a highly motivated sceptic.

If you have given any thought to any of the following, then this book will help:

• How involved was Jesus in the creation of the universe?
• What did Jesus do before his incarnation?
• How can Jewish People not see Jesus as the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies?
• How Jewish was Jesus?
• What exactly did Jesus do to make the religious leaders so angry?
• What was so special about Jesus' teaching methods?
• What title did Jesus most use for himself and why?
• What was the biggest mistake ever made and how was it covered up?
• How was the real Jesus hidden from ordinary Jews for nearly 1500 years?
• How did some Jews find Jesus against all the odds?
• Who is going to be really surprised when Jesus returns?

Before we get started there's one thing that needs to be made clear. Everything we need to know about Jesus with regards to our personal salvation is written in the Word of God, the Bible. This book is not going to uncover any lost truths that diminish or discredit this basic message in any way. The intention is to provide condiment to the feast, oil for the mental gears. Your faith will be gently bolstered, without leaving safe ground. Trust me, you will not be led astray.

The Bible is, as ever, our benchmark, anchor and foundation. Although we will be dipping into other Jewish writings on our journey, from the Aramaic Targums, to the Hebrew and Aramaic Midrash and Talmud, these will be taken as illustration only, to confirm the Word of God, not to contradict it; to illuminate it, not to read doctrine into it.

Yet, for most of you, you will be venturing into unexplored territory. You will not be the first to dip your toe in the water of Jewish scholarship but it can be a daunting experience for the untrained. So let me assure you that you will not be alone on this exhilarating voyage of discovery, you will receive all the gentle guidance you need. Although I have included a description and potted history of the Jewish literature we will be dipping into, in the Appendix, at the end of this book, I will also set the scene for anything that may be unfamiliar to you, as and when you need it.

This book will provide a dozen interlocking portraits of Jesus, all describing him from a different angle, but combining to provide a full picture. And the picture is so complete, so compelling, so awesome that you wonder why the Jews, particularly the learned religious scholars of the 1st century missed the point!

The book is written for those Christians who are eager to go deeper into an understanding of Jesus Christ and are willing to explore the Jewish roots of their faith, without necessarily having any prior knowledge of such things. This is not another book for scholars, although there is much scholarship within its pages. My task has been to interpret the good work of biblical, religious and historical scholars into a meaningful narrative. To aid in this process, although all references from Scripture and religious documents are included, I have only rarely included direct quotes from academics, scholars and commentators. This is to ensure a consistent flow to the narrative, not a petty arrogance. Nevertheless I have included in the Appendix, all books and articles referenced, for your further study if you so wish.

Finally, remember what Paul said about the Jewish roots: Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! (Romans 11:11-12)

Greater riches for the World. This book is just the start!

PROLOGUE

There is a form of Jewish Bible interpretation known as midrash. It goes right back to Old Testament times and was well known by Jesus, who made use of it in his own teachings. It literally means to search or examine and is the fruit of the questioning nature of the Jewish soul (both a blessing and a curse). For an example, as a response to the Commandment, "you shall not murder", Jews have urged God to be more specific. Is self-defence included here? What about suicide or warfare? This is midrash. Inasmuch as the Book of Deuteronomy repeats and comments on events and laws already given in the first four Books of Moses, one could say that it is a midrash on them.

Genesis Rabbah is a midrash that comments on the Book of Genesis. It was written around the 4th or 5th century AD, drawing on traditions passed down by "word of mouth" and makes an interesting statement concerning things from before the dawn of time.

It tells us that six things were already in God's mind before the creation of the Earth; the formation of Israel, the Throne of Glory, the Law (Torah), the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, the coming of the Patriarchs, and the name of the Messiah. (1)

When I saw this list it tugged at my spirit, because there was a familiarity here that I couldn't put my finger on. Then it dawned on me and I looked up Paul's letter to the Romans, at the passage where he was answering the rhetorical question, "What have the Jews ever done for us?"

"Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen." (Romans 9:4-5)

Look again and compare these two lists. Virtually identical. I marvelled at this and thought through the implication. Here Paul did not just show his knowledge of the Jewish traditions, the "Traditions of the Elders", but let the Holy Spirit guide him to use them in Scripture. And not just in any old place, but in this key passage that validates the Jewish people in the eyes of God. This suggests two things.

Firstly, the content in these two passages suggests that, what God had in mind before he 'lit the blue touchpaper', came to pass and that the Jewish people were central to everything. No one could read these passages and doubt the importance of the Jews in God's eyes.

Secondly, although the Bible is our benchmark for discerning God's ways, we should not immediately discard all of these "Traditions of the Elders". The key is to let the Bible be the judge and have the final say on every matter. The fact is that, on this matter, the Bible has spoken, in Paul's letter to the Romans, and seems to suggest that there is an element of truth in the oral traditions concerning the events that preceded Creation.

This is key to the rest of this book and, at this point, I want to make the following assertion: The Bible is the literal and complete word of God. All that is necessary for our salvation is in this book and there is nothing outside the Bible, in any Midrash or other "Traditions of the Elders", that can gain you an iota of favour with God. Any biblical Christian would agree with this statement, I think.

For this book to be worth reading you would expect insights into God's word and into the life and mission of Jesus and that these insights are going to be provided from Jewish traditions and observations. What you must realise, those of you who are just dipping your toes in the swirling currents of the Hebraic world, is that this is not a cunning attempt at 'judaising' you, distracting you from the straight path. Quite the reverse, really. The material in this book is going to enhance your spiritual journey, by filling in the gaps that have always been there, but have been largely unnoticed by a Church that has lost its Jewish roots so long ago that it doesn't even realise that James and Jacob are the same name!

I will take this a little further and assure you that, in this book, new insights brought from an examination of the Jewish literature would not only confirm existing Biblical knowledge but would illuminate it and, as a result, boost your faith in a God that desires only that we should know Him better.

This is not a book to mock the Church, to laugh at its mistakes and misconceptions. Believe me, when we examine how Jews have been treated historically at the hands of the Church, there is little to laugh about. It's just about restoration, renewal and return.

"His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two (Jew and Gentile), thus making peace" (Ephesians 2:15)

When Paul wrote these words in his letter to the Ephesians, he was an idealist, he saw the Church of God as being an equal partnership between Jew and Gentile. It never happened, but it's not too late now to start, to restore what was lost.

NOTES

1. "Six things preceded the creation of the world. Some of them were [actually] created, and some of them [merely] arose in the thought [of God] to be created. The Torah and the Throne of Glory were created … The Fathers, Israel, the Temple and the name of the Messiah arose in the thought to be created …" (Genesis Rabbah 1:4)

Preface

Introduction

Prologue

PART ONE: The First Days

1. Memra

2. The Angel of the Lord

3. The Promised One

PART TWO: The Incarnation

4. Yeshua ben Yosef

5. Christ

6. Rabbi

7. Bar Anash

PART THREE: The Last Days

8. Mashiach ben Yosef

9. Yeshu HaNotzri

10. Haver

11. Mashiach ben David

PART FOUR: Eternity and Antiquity

12. The Man of Many Names

APPENDIX

A: The Traditions of the Elders

B: Recommended Reading

C: Glossary of Jewish terms