One of my friends has been deeply studying the Jewish roots of the Bible. I applaud this while also recognizing potential danger, just as there is a danger in heavily engaging with any non-Christian community without remaining strongly connected to believers. Non-messianic Jews today believe a lot of the same things that the Pharisees believed in Jesus’ time, the ones who rejected Him as God’s Messiah and handed Him to the Romans. Studying the case for why we can believe that Jesus is the Messiah is an awesome and fascinating journey (this book is a good place to start).
One erroneous view many modern Jews take is to incorporate Jesus Himself as simply a “good rabbi” saying claims of His divinity were only added later on. They (as well as many Muslims) say it was an invention of Paul and not of Jesus or His disciples. Those accusations don’t account for all the times Jesus Himself claims to be God (Matthew 28:8-9, 19; Mark 2:1-12; 14:60-62; Luke 22:67-70; John 1:18; 4:25-26; 5:18; 8:22-24, 57-58; 10:33; 20:27-28) or the fact that the apostle Peter calls Paul’s writings equal with “the rest of Scripture” (2 Peter 3:15-16).
Lest they should say that these passages were corruptly added later, I point to the sheer volume of passages that would have to be changed, the fact that we have manuscripts that date back to less than 100 years after the authors, and a fact on which Christians, Jews, and Muslims agree: God would not allow corruption into His Word.
You can go deeper into proofs of the resurrection with Dr. Gary Habermas. As Tim Keller says, exploring your doubts is a great way to grow your faith and relationship with God. Be sure to do it alongside trusted friends in the Church, though. Don’t go it alone.
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