February 2026 Book Review
Rubén Gómez, ed. Jews and Gentiles in Scripture, Theology, and History: A Compendium for the 21st Century. London: JCS Press, 2025.
Reviewed by Rich Robinson
The seven contributors to this book are all associated with King’s Evangelical Divinity School, a broadly evangelical online-study school based in the UK. It offers a variety of programs including one in Jewish-Christians Studies for which students can earn a certificate. It is mostly aimed at lay people desiring education in theological areas.
Though all contributors are associated with King’s, they “hail from different countries and backgrounds, representing a broad spectrum of theological positions on specific issues. Nonetheless, they all agree that the Jewish people play an ongoing role in salvation history, as revealed in Scripture” (p. 14, Kindle edition). Jews and Gentiles in Scripture is a welcome addition to the field of what we might call non-supersessionist studies from an evangelical viewpoint.
Part I, “Scripture,” leads off with Chapter 1 by Andy Cheung on “Who Is the ‘Israel’ of Romans 11:26?” Chapter 2 is Anthony P. Royle’s “Reading without Replacement: Towards a Non-Supersessionist Hermeneutic of the New Testament Use of the Old.” Matthew Wong offers Chapter 3, “Jews & Gentiles in the One New Man: Equal Yet Distinct,” embracing a term I have not heard before, “distinction theology.”
Part II takes us to “Theology.” Stephen M. Vantassel writes on “Thoughts on a Biblical Theology of the Land of Israel.” Rubén Gómez, the editor as well as a contributor of two essays, investigates “Supersessionism: The State of the Question.” Chapter 6 is by M. L. Volpp on “Messianic Judaism and the Doctrine of Christology.”
Part III covers “History”. Rubén Gómez provides Chapter 7, “From Antijudaism to the New Antisemitism.” The final contribution, Chapter 8, is by Thomas Fretwell on “Jews, Christians, Politics, and the Land.” Each chapter ends with a list of references for further study.
On the whole, this is a good volume. At times the essays forge new directions for discussing supersessionism. I do get the feeling that the book is sometimes trying to cover too much ground in a limited space. Therefore, the resources that end each chapter are good material for delving into these topics in more detail.
Highlights include Andy Cheung’s helpful discussion of Galatians 6:16 and the exegetical options available (though his focus is on Romans 11:26). Anthony Royle’s excellent chapter interacts with Kendall Soulen’s three-fold taxonomy of different types of supersessionism. Royle focuses on “canonical supersessionism” (= Soulen’s “structural supersessionism”), inquiring into its history, its relation to the transmission of Scripture, how it affects methods of interpretation, and the language used in describing the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. For example, Royle takes issue with the idea that the New Testament “reimagines” or “redefines” the meaning of Old Testament texts and offers alternatives to those terms. He addresses the New Perspective on Paul as well as the Paul within Judaism school of scholarship. All in all, a fine chapter.
Matthew Wong focuses on Ephesians 2:11-22. He explores the passage phrase by phrase. The dividing wall of this passage is, in his view, the Mosaic Law, “now been rendered inoperable and obsolete” (p. 62). He then details “Gentile responsibilities” within the “one new man.” He also introduces the phrase “distinction theology.”
Stephen Vantassel argues biblical points for the right of the Jewish people to be in the land of Israel, rather than offering ethical arguments. He traces the place of the land in the Old and New Testaments; in reply to those who say the New Testament does not speak of the land promises, he notes that “the apostolic neglect of land issues may be due to concerns over how Rome would view such statements … and/or that Jews were already in the land and thus the topic was not a pressing one.…” (p. 84), both cogent reasons for the apparent lack of attention to the land in the New Testament. He is open to Matthew 5:5 being “polyvalent,” that is, holding two references at once, both the land of Israel and (as heard by future non-Jewish readers) the entire world. Vantassel interacts with objections and makes a number of points along the way conducive to further investigation. A thought-provoking chapter.
Rubén Gómez delves into the various definitions of supersessionism that are used, distinguishing it from “replacement theology” which is a more limited term. He reviews Kendall Soulen and David Novak on the subject. He then covers responses to supersessionism by Catholics and Protestants and zooms in on evangelical scholars’ approach to the subject. In a footnote, he notes that “many non-supersessionists, this author included, are far from being dispensationalists” (p. 207; so too Gerald McDermott, who as an Anglican has written passionately for a non-dispensational Christian Zionism.). Objections that non-supersessionist evangelicals are either heading towards relativism or pluralism are answered. Finally, Gómez underscores the need to sometimes rest in mystery and paradox when resolving difficult biblical questions, a welcome stance. This was one of the standout chapters.
The weakest and in fact misleading essay is M. L. Volpp’s “Messianic Judaism and the Doctrine of Christology.” She states that “It is important to note that Messianic Judaism is not a blanket acceptance of Christianity and Church doctrine,” stating that Messianic Judaism “has various branches” and that this “leads to a lack of uniformity of Christological beliefs within Messianic Judaism” (all quotes in this paragraph, p. 123).
Later on she asserts that, “Attempts to keep the Church and its doctrine out of the Messianic movement play a dominant role in Messianic Jewish theology” (p. 127). She further speaks about “The major stumbling block that prevents Messianic Jews from believing in the divinity of Christ” (p. 128).
I find these statements entirely unrepresentative of the Messianic Jewish movement. At the outset, she turns to the Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (MJAA) for a definition of “Messianic Judaism”: “a biblically based movement of Jewish people who believe in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah” (p. 122). Yet though the MJAA’s own statement of faith affirms that Jesus is God in the flesh,[1] Volpp can say, “While many Messianic Jewish believers have come to accept Jesus as the Messiah, there are still many who question his divinity” (p. 130).
I have to offer a strong objection to her characterization of Messianic Jews/Messianic Judaism. She offers no statistics, and those who identify as Messianic Jews but reject the divinity of the Messiah would be considered by the vast majority of Messianic Jews as not really being his followers. Simply put, “many” do not question his divinity. (The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations (UMJC) offers another case in point in their statement of faith affirming the divinity of the Messiah.[2]) Furthermore, most Jewish believers in Jesus are, for a variety of reasons, in churches rather than messianic congregations and are indeed accepting of “Church doctrine,” understood either in Jewish terms, or as rooted in actual Jewish beliefs (cf. recent scholarship on the idea of Incarnation or similar views being widespread in Second Temple Judaism and even the later history of Judaism[3]). The same is true of those within Messianic congregations.
Volpp relies on Richard Harvey’s fine work on Mapping Messianic Judaism. But her treatment of a five-fold taxonomy of Christological views among Messianic Jews is misleading. “There are a few within Messianic Judaism that support the Christian orthodox view of the Trinity” (p. 131; emphasis added). To the contrary, most Messianic Jews would support the orthodox view of the Trinity, although expressed in a Jewish way, perhaps as a “tri-unity” rather than a Trinity. It is the expression, not the content, that is at issue. Volpp cites Hugh Schonfield at one point, who ended up pretty much abandoning any orthodox faith and is hardly representative of Messianic Jews. And defending Jesus’ divinity through Kabbalah and mysticism is, by and large, a historical footnote rather than a contemporary reality.
I have spent so much time on Volpp’s essay because it significantly mischaracterizes the Messianic Jewish movement as one fractured by Christological disagreement, whereas in fact (1) differences are more related to expression than to content, and (2) some of the characterizations describe those on the outskirts of the movement, who are in no way representative of the vast majority of Jews who follow Jesus. It is not “many” who reject the divinity of Jesus, and it is more than a “few” who hold to an orthodox understanding of God’s triune nature.
Rubén Gómez’s essay on antisemitism deals with definitions and where anti-Zionism fits into the picture. He cites several surveys showing a correlation between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. He advocates for the somewhat awkward if memorable term antiziomitism (= antizionist antisemitism) to characterize the “new antisemitism.” Antiziomitism, coined in 2014 by Rodríguez Prieto, is defined and described as “explicit hatred of Jewishness that also defames Israel and uses the nation-state as an antisemitic tool of the first order. While the old antisemitism was predicated on religion, classic antisemitism on race, and new antisemitism on politics, antiziomitism is predicated on ideology…” (p. 150; italics original). Gómez defends the usefulness of the term, notes the rise of antiziomitism among evangelicals, and traces its connection to Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) as developed by Jonathan Haidt. This represents a creative approach to understanding the “new antisemitism” and Gómez it to be commended for offering a fresh way of understanding it. There is much more of value in this chapter, including the need for Christians to take a stand against antisemitism.
Finally, Thomas Fretwell explores the land question, this time more historically as opposed to the earlier essay’s theological approach. Fretwell tours church history and historic views of supersessionism vis-à-vis restoration to the land. Then follows a brief history of modern Zionism and Christian Zionism, along with interactions with anti-Israel authors Stephen Sizer and Colin Chapman. Political and theological issues are tackled after the history is told, including support in the New Testament for the Old Testament land expectations. Again, there is much more in this chapter worth pondering.
It will be worth your while to read Jews and Gentiles in Scripture, Theology, and History. M. L. Volpp’s essay unfortunately greatly misleads as to the beliefs of most Messianic Jews. In contrast, I found the chapter by Anthony Royle and the two essays by Gómez among the most helpful. The remaining contributions have many strengths as well. I am glad to have learned of this book.
[1] https://mjaa.org/statement-of-faith-2/
[2] https://www.umjc.org/statement-of-faith
[3] E.g., Benjamin D. Sommer, The Bodies of God and the World of Ancient Israel. Cambridge University Press, 2009; Forger, Deborah L. Forger, Divine Embodiment in Jewish Antiquity: Rediscovering The Jewishness of John’s Incarnate Christ. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 2017.