The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently

The Bible with and without Jesus is the discussion of the comparisons and contrasts between Christian Bible readers and Jewish Bible readers. The authors, Levine and Brettler, show how many of the stories found in the Bible are available to members of both religions, except that Jews do not have the New Testament in their Bibles. As Levine and Brettler point out, even though we read the same stories, other factors play a role in how individuals interpret and translate them. The viewpoints of Christianity, Judaism, and Bible scholars show how we can better understand our differences and appreciate our similarities.

The Bible with and without Jesus is a thorough read. I appreciated the commentary by the authors over specific Bible books included in this book. The information presented reads like a textbook for a class, including references to the original Hebrew or Greek language in which the Bible books were written long ago. I lost some respect for the book when I read that the authors claim that the “story” in Genesis of Adam and Eve is a myth. This claim made it clear to me that they are not true Christians themselves. Otherwise, the book presents to contain much information.