Michael J. Cook

Dr. Cook is Professor of Intertestamental and Early Christian Literatures, and holds the Sol and Arlene Bronstein Professorship in Judaeo-Christian Studies, HUC-JIR / Cincinnati. He studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, was ordained at HUC-JIR in New York, and earned his doctorate at HUC-JIR Cincinnati. Dr. Cook's specialty is the New Testament. He is possibly the only rabbi in the U.S. with a professorial Chair in New Testament, and has extensive expertise in the field of Jewish-Christian relations.

Education
  • Ordained, HUC-JIR (1970)
  • Ph.D., HUC-JIR (1974)
Lecture Titles
  • Including multimedia visuals and videos:
    • From Calvary to Oberammergau 2010: the Impact of Jesus' Death on Jewish Life
    • Terror, Armageddon, and Israel in Evangelical End-time Scenarios
    • Now that Jesus Hasn't Returned: What Does It Mean for the Jews?
    • From Calvary to Oberammergau: the Impact of Jesus' Death on Jewish Life
    • Praying For and Preying On the Jews: Why Do We Matter So to Missionaries?
    • Modern Church Seders: a Mixed Message for Interfaith Relations?
    • Anti-Jewish Shades and Shadows: the Abiding Impact of Medieval Church Art
    • Painting Judas at the Last Supper: Renaissance Images of the Jews?
    • Annunciations, Magi, and Nativities: Revealing the Symbols of Judaism!
    • Are "Messianic Jews" Taking Our Holidays? An Irksome New Dilemma
    • Antiochus the Antichrist: Why Christian Millennialism Is Rooted in Hanukkah!
  • Other:
    • Virgin Birth, Empty Tomb and Shroud of Turin: Jewish Views of Christian Claims
    • Hebrew Biblical Stories: Their Transformation by Christian Theology
    • Charting Our Ways through the Creationist Maze: Why Genesis Promotes Science!
    • Excluding the Laity from Jewish-Christian Dialogue: Why It's Done & What It's Done
    • Missionary Impossible: When Jews-for-Jesus Target Our Youth
    • Close Encounters of the Religious Kind: Jewish Children and Their Christian Friends
    • In the Cycles of Jewish History, Where Are We with Christianity and Islam Today?
  • Academic/clergy institutes:
    • Jesus, Paul, and the Gospels: Are Modern Jewish Approaches Viable?
    • Are the Gospels "Antisemitic"? The Problem of Approaching the Problem
    • Parables of Jesus through a Jewish Filter: What Is Jewish About Them?
    • Paul's Treatment of Judaism in Romans 9-11: Why His Anxiety for the Jews?
    • From Persecutor to Believer: Why Paul's Reversal on Jesus Was Not on the Road to Damascus
    • "And as They Were at Table Eating" (Mk 14): Was the Last Supper a Seder?
    • Talmudic Depictions of Jesus: a Problematic Legacy for Modern Times
    • Jewish Jurisprudence and the Trial of Jesus: Avoiding a Classic Fallacy!
    • Timing the End of Days: Millennialist Misapplications of Daniel's Chronology
    • Teaching Christianity at a Jewish Seminary: Beyond "Statuary" Blindness
Recent Publications
Books
  • Modern Jews Engage the New Testament: Enhancing Jewish Well-Being in a Christian Environment (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, May 2008; 374 pp. incl. endnotes, programmed bibliography, five indices)
  • Companion Figures: A Visual Aid for Teaching Modern Jews Engage the New Testament (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, August 2008; 50 pp. including 84 pictorials, lesson plans for 7 stand-alone lectures and 4 adult-education courses of 4 to 8 weeks each).
Other
  • "Jews and 'Gospel Dynamics': Why Advice by Ancient Sages Is No Longer Sage Advice," The Fourth R, 22 #1 (2009)-forthcoming.
  • "Paul's Epistle to the Philippians: Introduction and Annotation," The Jewish Annotated New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009)-forthcoming.
  • "The Distribution of Jewish Leaders in the Synoptic Gospels: Why Wariness Is Warranted," Soundings on the Religion of Jesus: Jews and Christians on the Jesus of History. Edited Bruce Chilton, Anthony Le Donne, and Jacob Neusner (Minneapolis: Fortress)-forthcoming 2012
  • Review of Geza Vermes, Jesus in the Jewish World (London: SCM, 2010). Pp. xii + 268. Paper $16.99. Catholic Biblical Quarterly-forthcoming 2012
  • "Jesus at Nazareth's Synagogue: an Anti-Jewish Anachronism," Shofar: An Inter-Disciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies-forthcoming 2011
  • "How Credible Is Jewish Scholarship on Jesus?" The Jewish Jesus: Revelation, Reflection, Reclamation, ed. Z. Garber (West Lafayette: Purdue Univ. Press, 2011), pp. 249-270
  • "Jewish Perspectives on Jesus," Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Jesus. Edited Delbert Burkett (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), pp. 213-231
  • "Where Jewish Scholars on Jesus Go Awry: Last Supper, Sanhedrin, Blasphemy, Barabbas," The Historical Jesus: Quest, Conquest, Non-Quest (Shofar: An Inter-Disciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 28.3, Spring 2010), pp. 70-77.
  • [Excerpts of New Books by HUC-JIR Faculty:] "Modern Jews Engage the New Testament: Enhancing Jewish Well-Being in a Christian Environment," The Chronicle (2008 #71): 32-35.
  • "Jewish Views of Jesus," The 2008 Joseph Cardinal Bernadine Jerusalem Lecture (Chicago: Archdiocese of Chicago: Winter 2008), 18 pp.
  • "The Betrayal of Judas," Reform Judaism (Winter 2007): 40-46.
  • "Paul's Argument in Romans 9-11," Review & Expositor 103 #1 (2006) 113-138
  • "The Problem of Jewish Jurisprudence and the Trial of Jesus," Pondering the Passion: What's at Stake for Christians and Jews (New York: Sheed & Ward, 2004)
  • "Evolving Jewish Views of Jesus," Jesus through Jewish Eyes (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2002) 3-24
  • "Destabilizing the Tale of Judas Iscariot," An American Rabbinate (Pittsburgh: Rodef Shalom, 2001) 109-47
  • "Righting What's Wrong with Church 'Seders,'" Central Conf. of Amer. Rabbis Jour. (Summer 2000) 1-17
  • "The Play that Plagues the Jews: Oberammergau 2000," Reform Judaism (Summer 2000) 22-26
  • "Jewish Reflections on Jesus: Abiding Trends," The Historical Jesus through Catholic and Jewish Eyes (Harrisburg: Trinity Int'l, 2000) 95-113
  • A Manual for Managing the Millennium (Cincinnati, 1999)
  • "The Death of Jesus" [opposite Raymond Brown], Nostra Aetate Dialogue Proceedings (New York: Fordham U., 1998) 56-100
  • "Neutralizing Missionary Encroachment: Conceptual Frameworks," Through Those Near to Me (Danbury 1998) 307-42
  • "Christian Appropriation of Passover: Jewish Responses Then and Now," Jewish History and Thought 5 (New York: Hunter Coll., 1998) 49-63
  • "Jewish Scholars and New Testament Images of Judaism," Community at the Crossroads (Gettysburg, 1997) 21-41
  • "Images of Jesus in the Arts," Proceedings of the Center for Jewish-Christian Learning 10 (St. Paul, 1996) 46-56
Electronic Publications Video
  • Missionary Impossible (academic / 45-minutes) -- based on Missionizing course (Cincinnati, 1998)
Rabbinical Studies
Cantorial Studies
Jewish Educational Studies
Jewish Communal
Service Studies
Grad/Undergrad Studies
Continuing Education
& Youth Programs