Review by Bill Crouse, President, Christian Information Ministries

They Call Him Yeshua. By Donald L. Brake, with Shelly Beach. Archway Publishing,
Bloomington, IN: 2019,42I pp., $28.99 paper.
From a Christian perspective the greatest event that ever occurred on this planet was when God, the Second Person of the Trinity, became united with humanity in the womb of Mary. It is impossible for anyone to have enough brain cells to comprehend how that zygote, the first cell of the new individual, was somehow both God and man! But the mystery just begins; how did the boy, Christ, grow into a man? What was His childhood like? What was it like for His parents to raise this child? What was it like to have Him for an older brother?

Most biblically-oriented theologians believe that Christ was impeccable, that is, impossible for Him to sin. That would be for two reasons: 1. He was born of a virgin in order to escape having a sin-nature that was passed down from Adam , and, 2. He was fully God though clothed in humanity. The questions here can almost be endless. How did Joseph and Mary, who did have a sin nature parent a child who could not sin?

The Bible tells us almost nothing about the childhood of Jesus except for the incident in the Temple found in Luke 2:39-52. The passage ends by saying: And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and with people (CSB). In more than 2000 years of church history very few have dared to speculate about the questions raised above until now. Don Brake, a lifelong biblical scholar does just that, only in the form of a novel. We cannot really know the details of Christ’s early life and development, but Brake, who has the necessary credentials, sheds light on this mystery like no one else has. Brake has a Ph.D from a well-known seminary (Dallas) and has studied under the renown biblical scholar, Charles Ryrie. In addition, Brake was a past president of the Institute of Holy Land Studies, lived in the land of Jesus for several years, and is intimately acquainted with the geography and culture of that time period. Before this novel appeared, Brake authored: Jesus: A Visual History, in2014 (Zondervan). This volume is filled with spectacular photographs that make it a worthy companion to this one.

Brake’s goal in writing about Jesus early life was not to engage in fanciful speculation, but to create stories that reflected the kind of life Jesus would have lived as a child and young adult. The story is told largely from the perspective of His parents. I found particularly moving the prayers of Joseph, and Jesus’ relationship to His mother.

If you have any interest in the Greatest Life ever lived, you will find Brake’s historical novel hard to put down. As you are reading, you will gain insight into the boy, Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) and how His self-awareness of His Divine mission developed. Along the way you will sense in a new way God’s incredible Providence in how He brings together Mary and Joseph together, and how the Lamb of God wzls prepared for His Divine mission to save sinners. The book ends pretty much where the New Testament account begins: with the baptism of Jesus