Book Review — Why Christians Should Care About Their Jewish Roots

Nancy Petrey. Gonzalez, Florida: Energion Publications, 2015. 38 pp. (Paperback).

Author Nancy Petrey takes the position that Christians generally do not care about, and are largely unaware of, their Jewish heritage; I am not sure I agree. It seems to me that there has been a renewed interest in our Jewish roots, with Seder meals and other traditional Jewish observances found in many of our Baptist churches.

But for the sake of argument, let’s assume Petrey is right. So why should Christians care about their Jewish roots? Petrey lays out an impassioned argument, beginning with the fact that the earthly Jesus was Jewish. Petrey decries the “anglicization” of Jesus in art, using Da Vinci’s painting of the Last Supper as her primary example. Another argument is that the early Church was composed of Jews; she maintains that of the 3,000 new converts at Pentecost, “every one was Jewish.” Hmmm. Maybe. Probably. But do we actually know that? Isn’t it possible that there was a random visitor who happened by, listened to Peter’s sermon and was transformed by the news of Christ. Nit-picky, maybe, but it lends insight to the dogged determination of the author to make her case.

The author made thought-provoking arguments, but too often made definitive claims about issues that scholars disagree on, such as the language Jesus spoke (she took the position that Jesus spoke Hebrew — something even the Pope and the Prime Minister of Israel had a public disagreement on). This little 38-page book had me stopping several times on each page to check out the assertions made. In the end, some of her statements proved factually correct (and I learned something), while others remain murky (and I learned something).

All in all, the book was a bit too dogmatic for my taste, but it was well written and interesting — and I learned something.

—Reviewed by Martine Bates Fairbanks, Ed.D.