Book Recommendations - Joshua Tallent

Looking for a good book? Check out my list of recommendations below! Please note that the Amazon links on this page may allow me to earn Amazon referral credits.

You may also want to check out my podcast and audio teaching recommendations.

Jewish
Commentaries
First Fruits of Zion
Other Messianic and Christian
General Non-Fiction
Fiction

Jewish

The Body of Faith by Michael Wyschogrod

The Jewish Way in Death and Mourning by Maurice Lamm

The Jewish Way in Love and Marriage by Maurice Lamm

A History of the Jews by Paul Johnson

Koren Talmud Bavli, Noe Edition by Adin Steinsaltz (the link goes to volume 1, Berakhot)

The Essential Talmud by Adin Steinsaltz

The Classic Midrash by Reuven Hammer

Everyman’s Talmud by Abraham Cohen

Reading the Talmud by Henry Abramson

Chofetz Chaim: A Lesson a Day by Shimon Finkelman and Yitzchak Berkowitz

A Code of Jewish Ethics: Volume 1: You Shall Be Holy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

A Code of Jewish Ethics, Volume 2: Love Your Neighbor as Yourself by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

The Concise Code of Jewish Law by Gersion Appel

God in Search of Man : A Philosophy of Judaism by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Talmudic Images – by Adin Steinsaltz

The Rarest Blue: The Remarkable Story of an Ancient Color Lost to History and Rediscovered by Baruch Sterman

The Holy Temple in Jerusalem by Yisrael Ariel

Biblical Hebrew, Second Ed.

The Life Story of Ben Yehuda: Tongue of the Prophets by Robert St. John

To Be a Jew: A Guide to Jewish Observance in Contemporary Life by Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin

The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch by Sue Fishkoff

Commentaries

The Rational Bible: Genesis by Dennis Prager

The Rational Bible: Exodus by Dennis Prager

The Rational Bible: Deuteronomy by Dennis Prager

The Mystery of Romans: The Jewish Context of Paul’s Letters by Mark D. Nanos

Irony of Galatians: Paul’s Letter In First-Century Context by Mark D. Nanos

Reading Philippians after Supersessionism: Jews, Gentiles, and Covenant Identity by Christopher Zoccali

Reading Romans after Supersessionism: The Continuation of Jewish Covenantal Identity by J. Brian Tucker

Reading Ephesians and Colossians after Supersessionism: Christ’s Mission through Israel to the Nations by Lionel J. Windsor

The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament by Craig S. Keener

Jewish New Testament Commentary by David H. Stern

First Fruits of Zion

The most important books I can recommend are the titles published by First Fruits of Zion. They have a solid understanding of the Bible, and teach from a Messianic perspective. I will link to some of the most important tiles here, but they have many more available on their website.

Torah Club Commentary: Unrolling the Scroll This one-year commentary follows the synagogue’s annual Torah reading cycle, providing commentary and insights on the weekly Torah portions which are read in the synagogue from Sabbath to Sabbath. If you are interested in studying this with a group, let me know! This will be the source of our weekly Bible study starting in October 2023.

Torah Club Commentary: Shadows of the Messiah This year-long commentary presents an eye-opening discovery of Messiah in the Torah. Lift the veil and see the person of Messiah revealed within the Torah. Employing a wealth of Jewish commentary and rabbinic insights into the weekly Torah portions, Shadows of the Messiah is like walking the Emmaus Road with the King himself.

Torah Club Commentary: Voice of the Prophets A one-year commentary on select passages from the Prophets (known as the Haftarah, the sections from the Prophets that are read every week.

Torah Club Commentary: Chronicles of the Messiah This one-year commentary presents an extensive harmonized study of the Gospels from a Messianic Jewish perspective. The best commentary on the Gospels that is available.

Torah Club Commentary: Depths of the Torah This one-year commentary provides an in-depth study into the stories and laws of the Torah from Genesis to Deuteronomy. It goes deeper than Unrolling the Scroll.

Torah Club Commentary: Chronicles of the Apostles A one-year commentary on the Book of Acts and the history of the early church.

The Delitzsch Hebrew Gospels translated by Franz Delitzsch from the Greek into Hebrew, and by FFOZ back into English.

Restoration: Returning the Torah of Moses to the Disciples of Jesus Torah is also for Christians. Biblical Christianity was originally a sect of Judaism that believed in Jesus and revered the Torah as the core of her Scriptures. Restoration is a riveting argument for a return to that original, biblical expression of faith in Jesus.

The Holy Days: Returning the Biblical Festivals to the Disciples of Jesus God has set dates for meeting with his people. This book explores the relationship between Jesus, his followers, and the Jewish observance of the biblical festivals.

From Sabbath to Sabbath: Returning the Holy Sabbath to the Disciples of Jesus Why don’t Christians in the church today keep the biblical Sabbath? Was the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath done away with, canceled, changed, replaced, fulfilled, made obsolete, suppressed, hijacked, or simply forgotten?

The Way of Life A translation and commentary on The Didache, a brief anonymous discipleship manual for those coming to faith, dated by most modern scholars to the first century.

Yeshua Matters by Jacob Fronczak. Yeshua Matters is the story of a pastor who discovers that Jesus Christ was not just a Jewish person, but a practicing Jew, a teacher of Judaism&emdash;a rabbi, known during his earthly ministry as Rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth.

Israel Matters by Jacob Fronczak. Not to be confused by the similarly named work by Gerald R. McDermott listed below. In Israel Matters, the author of Yeshua Matters takes a theology centered on Rabbi Yeshua of Nazareth one step further. Once we realize we are following a practitioner of Judaism, the King of Israel, and the promised Savior of the Jewish people, what happens to our theology of Israel?

Elementary Principles by D. Thomas Lancaster. A commentary and exposition on Hebrews 6:1-2.

The Holy Epistle to the Galatians by D. Thomas Lancaster. The absolute best commentary on the book of Galatians.

The Holy Epistle to the Ephesians by D. Thomas Lancaster. And the best commentary on Ephesians.

What About the Sacrifices by D. Thomas Lancaster. Answering the hard questions about the Biblical sacrificial system.