How Should Jewish Readers Begin Studying the New Testament?

A few New Testament terms for Jewish readers (optional)

This article is written mainly for Jewish readers who are interested in Jesus, the New Testament, and the question of the Messiah. It therefore explains only a few commonly used New Testament and Christian terms.

New Testament: the Christian Scriptures from Matthew through Revelation, including the four Gospels, Acts, the letters, and Revelation. The name is related to the ‘new covenant’; it does not mean that the Tanakh has lost its value. Even if you do not presently grant the New Testament the same authority as the Tanakh, you can first read it as the most important collection of documents about first-century and early faith in Jesus.

Jesus (Yeshua / ישוע): Chinese normally renders the name as Yesu, English as Jesus, and Hebrew settings commonly use Yeshua. Christ (Messiah / Mashiach) is not Jesus’ surname. It translates the Greek Christos and corresponds to the Hebrew Mashiach, meaning the Anointed One or Messiah. ‘Jesus Christ’ can therefore also be understood as ‘Jesus the Messiah.’

Gospel means ‘good news.’ The New Testament’s central proclamation is that Jesus is the Messiah, that he died and rose, and that he will return to bring God’s kingdom to completion. Church in the New Testament does not originally mean a religious building but a gathered community of believers; the Jesus movement began among Jews and in Jerusalem.

Apostle means something close to ‘one who is sent.’ The Twelve were first of all Jewish disciples personally chosen by Jesus. Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh / רוח הקודש) continues the Tanakh’s language of the Spirit of God; later Christianity used Trinitarian theology to articulate the relationship among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This article does not tell you to convert first

Xiaoyang, a Chinese Christian from Malaysia, believes that when a Jewish person begins to take an interest in Jesus, the first question should not be, ‘Should I join Christianity?’ The more basic question is, ‘What does the New Testament actually say?’

You do not have to believe the New Testament before you are qualified to read it. Nor must you accept the Trinity, salvation through the cross, or Jesus as Messiah before page one. You can first read it as an unusual collection of Jewish historical documents and ask: what did those first-century Jews who believed in Jesus think they saw in the Tanakh?

If they were wrong, a careful reading will enable you to identify where. If they were not wrong, the implications are immense.

Do not begin with Genesis just yet

This may sound counterintuitive. Jewish readers already have the Tanakh, so why not begin in Genesis and read straight through? Xiaoyang instead suggests that, on a first encounter with faith in Jesus, it may be more efficient to learn what questions the New Testament is actually asking.

Once you know what the New Testament claims, passages in the Tanakh that once seemed unremarkable may suddenly become questions. Whom did Abraham actually ‘see’? Why does Hebrews say that Moses valued the Messiah’s reproach? Why does David call his own descendant ‘my Lord’? Isaiah saw the glory of YHWH, so why does John say that Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory?

The first round, then, is not Genesis through Revelation. Begin with five New Testament books—Matthew, Acts, Hebrews, John, and Revelation—to establish the framework.

First stop: Matthew—Is Jesus the Messiah Israel awaited?

If Xiaoyang could recommend only one New Testament book as an entry point for a Jewish seeker, he would choose Matthew. Not merely because it comes first, but because its opening places Jesus back inside the story of Abraham, David, and Israel. The book does not begin by announcing a new Gentile religion; it begins with Abraham, David, and Messiah.

As you read Matthew, do not hurry past everything except the miracles. Notice Jesus’ continuing relationship with the Pentateuch (Torah), the prophets, David, Sabbath, Temple, Jerusalem, Passover, and the kingdom of God.

You will repeatedly see ‘Son of David.’ Yet in chapter 22 Jesus quotes Psalm 110: ‘YHWH said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand…’ He then asks: if David calls the Messiah ‘my Lord,’ how is he merely David’s descendant? There is no need to answer on the first reading. Mark the question; it will appear again in Hebrews.

Second stop: Acts—What was faith in Jesus at the beginning?

The word Christianity today may evoke Europe, the United States, church buildings, crosses, Christmas, and Gentile culture. Acts presents a different earliest picture: the story begins in Jerusalem, and Peter, John, James, and Paul are all Jewish.

The Jesus movement began as a Messianic dispute among Jews. It was not Gentiles telling Jews, ‘Your faith is wrong; we have a new god.’ It was one group of Jews telling another: we believe the Messiah Israel awaited has come. You may reject that conclusion, but it is important to know that the dispute began within the Jewish world.

Acts also records the gradual entry of Gentiles. Pay special attention to Peter’s encounters with Gentiles, Paul’s mission, Antioch, and the central question of chapter 15: must Gentiles who believe in Israel’s Messiah first become Jews in the full sense?

Third stop: Hebrews—What about Moses, priesthood, Temple, and sacrifice?

For a Jewish reader, Hebrews may be one of the most worthwhile New Testament works to read early. It continually engages Abraham, Melchizedek, Moses, Joshua, Aaron, priests, the high priest, the tabernacle, the Most Holy Place, blood, sacrifice, covenant, rest, and the Psalms.

You need not agree with it first. Begin by examining how it uses the Tanakh. Its real question is this: if Jesus truly is the Messiah, what did Israel’s system of worship ultimately point toward? Are priests, the tabernacle, Yom Kippur, and animal sacrifices the endpoint, or were they anticipating a greater reality?

Hebrews repeatedly returns to Psalm 110 and another line: ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’ The question grows larger: why is the Davidic Messianic king also an eternal priest? Why are kingship and priesthood brought together in one person?

Fourth stop: John—Only now ask who Jesus really is

By this point you know that Jesus is called Messiah and Son of David, that his earliest disciples were Jewish, and that Hebrews connects him with priesthood, covenant, and tabernacle. Now comes the harder question: is Jesus only the Messiah, or does the New Testament make a still greater claim about him?

John begins by placing Jesus’ existence ‘in the beginning.’ Jesus says that Abraham rejoiced to see his day and did see it, then adds, ‘Before Abraham was born, I am.’ This invites a return to the Genesis stories in which YHWH appeared to Abraham: are those accounts connected with this saying?

Isaiah 6 describes YHWH of hosts seated on the throne. After quoting Isaiah, John 12 says that Isaiah saw Jesus’ glory. What relationship does the New Testament claim between Jesus and YHWH? You do not have to accept the Trinity first; you can even set the term aside temporarily and begin with the texts themselves.

Jesus also says, ‘If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.’ Is that true, or did Jesus’ disciples overread the Torah? Keep the question open and test it when you later reread the whole Tanakh.

Fifth stop: Revelation—How does the New Testament reconnect the whole Tanakh?

Xiaoyang does not recommend beginning with Revelation without any background, because it can easily be reduced to 666, beasts, war, disaster, and the end of the world. At this stage, however, you may begin to see how thoroughly Jewish its world is.

You will meet Genesis’ tree of life, serpent, and new creation; Exodus’ plagues, Lamb, exodus, and song of Moses; Isaiah’s throne, holiness, and new heavens and new earth; Ezekiel’s living creatures, Temple, river of life, and city; Daniel’s beasts, Son of Man, and kingdom; and Zechariah’s lampstands, olive trees, and Jerusalem.

Revelation is therefore better understood not as a Western Christian fantasy about the end of the world, but as a book that refocuses the Tanakh’s end-time imagery on Jesus the Messiah.

Do not judge the New Testament by today’s ‘Christian culture’

Xiaoyang has believed in Christ for eighteen years as of August 2026, yet he does not think that most Christians today have truly understood the New Testament. Many know only ‘Jesus loves you,’ Christmas, going to heaven, and attending church on Sunday, while remaining unfamiliar with Moses, tabernacle, priesthood, Davidic kingship, prophets, God’s kingdom, resurrection, and the new heavens and new earth.

For example, the New Testament certainly records Jesus’ birth, but it does not command believers to celebrate Christmas every December 25, and Jesus was not born in December. The later date, customs, and cultural forms developed over a long history, with some elements interacting with existing European festivals. ‘Christmas in Christian culture’ therefore cannot simply be equated with ‘Jesus in the New Testament.’

Likewise, ‘going to heaven after death’ is not the complete endpoint of the New Testament story. Its great conclusion is resurrection, the kingdom of God, the Messiah’s reign, judgment, the new heavens and new earth, and God dwelling with humanity. Heaven is not unreal; it is simply too small a shorthand for the whole New Testament story.

Jewish background can be an advantage in reading the New Testament

A Jewish reader familiar with Torah, Passover, Sabbath, Temple, priesthood, David, the prophets, Jerusalem, and Israel’s history may recognize the New Testament’s background more quickly than a Gentile Christian familiar only with modern church culture. Lamb evokes Passover; high priest evokes Yom Kippur and the Most Holy Place; Son of David evokes kingship and Messiah; New Jerusalem is not easily reduced to ‘going to heaven after death.’

This does not mean Jewish readers will naturally agree with the New Testament. Jesus’ deity, the cross, the new covenant, the place of Gentiles, the interpretation of Torah, and the Trinity remain difficult questions. Yet Jewish readers may possess a natural contextual advantage in understanding what the New Testament authors were discussing.

Jewish ancestry itself does not guarantee greater knowledge of God. The point is that the New Testament grew out of Israel’s story: Israel is the root, and the church is made of branches grafted in.

Stage six: read the whole New Testament from Matthew to Revelation

The first five books merely establish a framework. Next read the entire New Testament, from Matthew through Revelation. Do not become trapped in every detail at once. First finish the whole story: Jesus appears, dies, and rises; the disciples preach; Gentiles enter; the church forms; the apostles interpret the Messiah; the end approaches; the Messianic kingdom and new creation emerge.

Mark every quotation from the Tanakh. Whenever you read ‘it is written,’ ‘the prophet says,’ ‘Moses says,’ or ‘David says,’ return to the original context. Do not trust only the single line selected by a New Testament author; examine it yourself.

You can even use three marks: ✓—I understand this connection; ?—I still do not know why the New Testament author reads it this way; ×—I presently disagree. You do not need to pretend that you already accept every conclusion.

Stage seven: only now reread from Genesis to Revelation

At this point begin the full journey from Genesis to Revelation. Temporarily test this hypothesis: ‘If the New Testament’s claim is true, the Tanakh and the New Testament form one continuous story.’ Then examine it for yourself.

When you reread Abraham, ask why Jesus says Abraham saw his day and why Genesis repeatedly says that YHWH appeared to Abraham. When you reread Moses and the exodus, ask why Paul says ‘the rock was Christ / Messiah’ and why Hebrews says Moses valued the Messiah’s reproach above Egypt’s treasures.

When you reread David, you will again meet Psalm 110’s ‘my Lord’ and eternal priest. When you reread Isaiah, you will encounter YHWH of hosts, the child, the suffering servant, the king of glory, and world peace. Are these many unrelated figures, or images of one Messiah at different stages?

Finally, in Revelation you return to Genesis: the tree of life reappears, the ancient serpent is exposed, the first heavens and earth give way to new heavens and a new earth, and humanity’s departure from God’s garden ends with God dwelling with humanity. In Christian understanding, this is not a Jewish story ending before a Gentile religion takes over, but one story moving toward completion.

You do not have to accept the Trinity before reading John

If Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are immediately heard as three gods, most Jewish readers will naturally reject the idea. But at the beginning of the reading journey, there is no need to settle a complete doctrine of the Trinity first.

Begin with the text: why does John place Jesus ‘in the beginning’? Why does Jesus say Abraham saw him? Why does John say Isaiah saw his glory? Why are some passages originally about YHWH applied to Jesus in the New Testament?

After examining those questions, ask why Christians eventually articulated the Trinity as ‘one God, with real distinction among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.’ This is more natural than memorizing a theological formula before engaging the texts.

Do not decide who Jesus is only by what later Christians did

Christian history undeniably contains anti-Judaism, persecution, forced conversion, violence, and theological arrogance. These must not be erased. Xiaoyang also does not believe that everything done by a group carrying the name ‘Christian’ necessarily represents Jesus.

Two questions must be kept distinct: what did later Christians do, and who was the first-century Jesus? The former cannot by itself settle the latter.

Reading the New Testament is not conversion

You can read Matthew without yet accepting Jesus; read Hebrews while disagreeing with its author; or read John without accepting Jesus’ deity. Reading is not surrender. It begins with understanding.

What should be avoided is rejecting a book solely on the basis of someone else’s account before actually reading it.

A seven-stage route for Jewish seekers

Stage one, Matthew: is Jesus the Son of David, and why is he also David’s Lord?

Stage two, Acts: why were the first believers in Jesus themselves Jewish, and how did Gentiles enter?

Stage three, Hebrews: how are Moses, priesthood, tabernacle, sacrifice, covenant, Melchizedek, and Messiah related?

Stage four, John: why did Abraham see him? Why did Isaiah see his glory? What is his relationship to YHWH?

Stage five, Revelation: how do Messiah, Israel, the nations, Jerusalem, judgment, resurrection, and new creation finally converge?

Stage six: read Matthew through Revelation in full. Do not rely only on doctrinal summaries; see the whole story for yourself.

Stage seven: reread Genesis through Revelation and ask again whether these are two religious stories or one story.

Finally, do not hurry to ask, ‘Should I choose Judaism or Christianity?’

At the beginning, narrow the question. Do not start with ‘Which religion should I join?’ but with ‘Who is Jesus?’ Is he only a Jewish rabbi, a failed Messianic claimant, a man later deified by Gentiles, or the one to whom the stories of Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets truly point?

If the answer is no, then after reading carefully you will at least know what you are rejecting. But if the answer could be yes, the question is no longer merely whether to accept a Gentile religion. It becomes: has the Messiah Israel awaited for thousands of years already come once?

If he has come, the New Testament ends with an even greater announcement: Jesus the Messiah will return on the clouds. Xiaoyang’s first advice to a Jewish seeker is therefore not to believe immediately or convert immediately, but simply to read personally—beginning with Matthew.