some thoughts on Brown vs. Singer (1992)

I enjoyed listening to this 1992 radio dialogue between Jewish Christian Dr. Michael Brown and Orthodox Jewish Rabbi and counter-missionary Tovia Singer. I appreciate that Dr. Brown stuck to the actual New Testament claims, focusing on the disputed question of whether or not Jesus truly is the Messiah; he did not muddy the waters by arguing for the “deity of Christ” or for the Trinity. He makes some good points, and the dialogue is friendly and revealing. They focus in particular on Isaiah 53.

Listen past the call-ins for the following discussion, where Dr. Brown explains some basic facts about Christian-era Judaism that probably most Christians don’t understand, specifically, the centrality of the Rabbis’ idea of the “oral law.” I discuss some of these facts about the Jewish Bible, the Mishnah, and the Talmud here.

Dr. Brown shows himself here to be sincere, knowledgeable, faithful, and genuinely concerned about his fellow Jews.

I’m looking forward to meeting him, and to debating him.

Unfortunately, it seems that these two have had a falling out since.