Digital Literature

Gems published by HaGefen in the past have long been out of stock.  Recently, they have been scanned and edited in Word format.  Most of the books are freely available in text form on our page "Digital Literature". They may also be ordered at cost as an e-book, saved in their original format on a disk. Some books, such as Screwtape Letters or Pilgrim's Progress, are only available on a disk because of the graphics involved.

In addition to our digital literature we offer you here free downloads of articles and books written by believers, Jewish and Gentile, throughout the centuries.  This is a wonderful heritage and well worth delving into.

Foundation Series

This series in Hebrew, is available only in digital form.  The seven books cover many of the essential basics of the Christian faith.  They are readable, clear, and devotional.

Salvation,  by Ernest F. Kevan
What exactly is salvation? Why do we need it, and what are we being saved from? What does salvation have to do with the Torah? Or the good life? Can we lose our salvation, once gained? This book answers these questions concisely, but clearly.

God Willing, by John Flavel
Are the circumstances of our lives arbitrary, the product of a series of coincidences, or is there a hidden hand guiding the events and people in our lives? Is God in control of all things or just an observer? What does it mean when we say God is watching over us? Does he know everything about us? Well then, why does he allow evil to destroy our world? What kind of care is that?  This book was written in the 17th century by a man who suffered much persecution for his faith, until his death in 1691.

Man Alive! by Michael Green
The death of Jesus wasn't the end. History confronts us with the fact of his resurrection. In this book, the author details the facts to do with the resurrection of Jesus: the empty grave, his appearance before hundreds of his disciples, what the Bible itself tells us, and more. The author also presents all the arguments against the possibility of resurrection, and answers them one by one with facts that are hard to deny.

The Living God, by R.T. France
God is not dead. He is alive and well, and very much involved with our world and our lives  - according to the teachings of the prophets in the Tenach.  This is what our fathers believed, and what this book teaches. Read this book to learn what God's word teaches us about him.

Grace and Truth, by Leon Morris
An Introduction to the study of Atonement. How can the death of one man contribute to the salvation of a sinner? And couldn't it be that since one man took on himself the penalty of death for me, that I can just go ahead and do whatever I want without fear of punishment? These are just some of the questions the author deals with.

Signs of the Apostles, by Walter Chantry
Spirituality isn't about our own strength.  And weakness is not a lack of spirituality. God uses ordinary people, Christians who struggle against the flesh and against Satan's wiles. God uses people who still have personal weaknesses and problems in the war against sin. Super-Holy Christians miss the main point that God requires from those who serve him: an honest and deep understanding of sin in their heart and of their weakness before God himself.  If we can't face the truth about ourselves, how can we bring the Gospel to others in the right spirit?

Genesis 3, by E.J.Young
The third chapter of Genesis - an important chapter that influences our understanding of the Scriptures and the Gospel.  Was Adam's sin really the first step in man's downfall? Is the story just a parable or did it really happen? What does our sin have to do with the sin of our first fathers? What does salvation have to do with our understanding of this sin?

 People in Prayer by John White.  The portraits of ten people in the Bible, leading us to a deeper understanding of what it is to truly pray!

Search the Scriptures Gen - Ruth Bible Study for self-study

Search the Scriptures - Luke   Bible Study for self-study

The following literature is available to our readers courtesy of Jorge Quinonez, a researcher of the writings of  important Jewish-believers in Yeshua from the 19th-century such as: Isaac Lichtenstein, Yedidyah haMatzliakh (Theophilus Lucky), Joseph Rabinowitz, Paul Phillip Levertoff, Joseph Immanuel Landsman, Paul Phillip Levertoff, Joachim Biesenthal, and Jechiel Zebi Lichtenstein. His Messianic Archive page is at www.afii.org/jorge.htm

• Selections from Berit Am by various authors (Rabinowitz, J. Z. Lichtenstein, et al.). Berit Am was the missionary journal of the Instititum Judaicum Delitzschianum that was published from 1893 to 1924 practically all in Yiddish. This collection I put together only includes the Hebrew language material (articles and poetry) that is very comparable to the type of stuff you would see in Lucky's Edut LeYisrael. My thanks to Juan Morales Cano for all the work he did to make the copies and to the library of the modern Instititum Judaicum Delitzschianum located in Muenster, Germany, for making the periodical itself available to Mr. Cano. It is 110 pages (note that some of the articles may be duplicated in this scan).
  Download here.

• Die Religiöse Denkweise der Chassidim (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1918) by Paul Levertoff.  This is the German original of Love & the Messianic Age and is twice as long. It expounds on how Hassidic Judaism sheds light on the writings of the New Testament.
  Download here.
   
• St. Paul in Jewish Thought / Three Lectures by Paul Levertoff (London: Diocesan House, 1928).  1) "St. Paul and His Jewish Contemporaries" 2) "Claude Montefiore's Criticism and Appreciation of St. Paul"; and 3) "A Jewish Dramatist's Presentation of St. Paul" .
  Download here.

• Love & the Messianic Age by Paul P. Levertoff. This work is a discussion of Hassidic writings and the Gospel of John. The book is in English. Very interesting stuff. Download here.
   
• Rabbi David Kimchi's Commentary upon the Prophecies of Zechariah by Alexander McCaul. (London: James Duncan, 1836-1837). McCaul was not Jewish. He was Irish. However, like Franz Delitzsch who also wasn't Jewish, McCaul had a great interest in Jewish literature and Jewish evangelism. In this work, he translates Rabbi David Kimchi’s Zechariah commentary into English providing his own comments. Part of the discussion involves reviewing differences between medieval Jewish commentators and the New Testament in how they approach scripture that relates to the Messiah, e.g., that the angel mentioned in Zechariah is the Messiah or Malachi’s “Angel of the Covenant.”
  Download here.
   
• The Book of Common Prayer... translated into Hebrew. (London, 1836). It was the prayer book that Michael Solomon Alexander used in Jerusalem in 1838 for his Hebrew services and McCaul in England with the London Jews Society in 1837. Decades later, it would serve as a model for Joseph Rabinowitz's prayer book, Tefila. Despite its shortcoming, the Hebrew translation of the Book of Common Prayer served as the first proto-Messianic siddur.
  Download here.
   
• Thirteen Principles or Articles of Faith , by Joseph Immanuel Landsman; 1913;  Hebrew Messianic Jewish version of Maimonides "Thirteen Principles or Articles of Faith," that is now standard in the siddur (Jewish prayer-book). Its Hebrew title is Ikarei Emunatenu Hakedosha ("The Principles of Our Holy Faith"). The Landsman piece is a pastiche or parody (depending how you look at it; imitation is the best form of flattery as they say) of the Rambam's original. It is virtually unknown to modern Messianic Jews. The version in the PDF file includes a nearly century-old English translation by David Baron from The Scattered Nation (1914) and the Hebrew original of Landsman's "Thirteen Principles" with a Yiddish translation at the bottom of each page.
  Download here.
   
• Sheva Hochmot (Seven Wisdoms) by Rabbi Lichtenstein, subtitled “Geography of the Talmud.” He wrote it under the name of Jechiel Zebi Herschensohn (his original Jewish surname). This book was later reprinted in 1912 by a Jewish publisher. It is a collection of rabbinic sayings on geography (and science in general).
  Download here.
   
• Limudei haNeviim ("The Teachings of the Prophets”), by Jechiel Zebi Lichtenstein; his earliest known work, published in 1868 or 1869. According to Franz Delitzsch, Lichtenstein worked on Limudei haNeviim for 12 years. Later, Harling said that Delitzsch had called the work “the most scholarly and curious work, which a Jewish-Christian had written.” Limudei haNeviim tried to combine the mystical teachings of the Kabbalah and the New Testament as it presents itself as a type of Bible commentary. One of the rabbi's former pupils, Landsman, explains it: “Lichtenstein undertook to harmonize the New Testament with the doctrines of the Cabbala, and the fruit of his studies was... [Limudei haNeviim].” 
  Derekh haKodesh, is a briefer version of Limudei haNeviim cut off at pg. 158 (only includes the title page and introduction or forward. Thus, only the intro/forward is included. 
  Toledot Yeshua (“The Life of Yeshua”)  published under the pseudonym “Even Tzehar.” The title, of course, a response to the rabbinic polemic commonly known as Toledot Yeshu. Yeshua VeHillel, by Franz Delitzsch, translated by Lichtenstein;  a response by Delitzsch to Jewish writers’ comments comparing Jesus to Hillel (viz. Rabbi Abraham Geiger).
  Download here.
   
• REVISED MATTHEW COMMENTARY- Jechiel Zebi Lichtenstein's revised commentary on Matthew [Beur lesifre berit haHadashah /Kerech [aleph]: Matai. Paul Levertoff & Heinrich Laible (eds.), Leipzig, 1913] in Hebrew, a substantial revision of his original 1891 edition [Matthäus. Leipzig, 1891]. Lichtenstein died before it could be published.
  Download here.
   
• Edut LeYisrael (Testimony to Israel), by Theophilus Lucky. A 600 page file (all in Hebrew) of all of the extant issues of theperiodical Edut LeYisrael published both in the USA and Eastern Europe.  Hundreds of articles in Hebrew on Torah, rabbinics, the holidays, book reviews, letters, etc. For example, pgs. 7-8 has Hebrew liturgy by Jechiel Zebi Lichtenstein. Along with Lichtenstein's NT commentary, this has to rank as one of the most unique and interesting publications by 19th century Jewish believers in Yeshua. It still awaits modern scholars' analyses.
  Download here.
   
• Anthology of Works, by  Joseph Rabinowitz. Includes: 1) Tefila (R’s congregational prayer book) along with an English translation edited by Jorge Quinonez. Note that this includes a Messianic version of Lekha Dodi. 2) R’s Passover or Easter Service including a complete English translation. 3) A collection of articles from Peculiar People that include English translations of part of Tefila, an introduction on R by Deliztsch and R’s own autobiography, and R’s view on Zionism. 4) English translations by James Adler and others of some of R’s sermons and liturgical material from Tefila. 5) A tract of two sermons in Hebrew. 6) R’s Hebrew sermon anthology, Devarim Nekhumim. 7) R's dialogue between two Jews.
  Download here.
   
• Adon Olam ("Lord of the Universe") - Sephardic Version that has several extra lines compared to the regular Ashkenazi version, including one that refers to the Messiah. Adon Olam is a common synagogue prayer frequently employed in Jewish services and printed at the beginning of Jewish prayer-books (siddurs) in the daily (morning) prayer section. This is a case of a major difference between an Ashkenazi and Sephardic version of the same prayer.
  Download here.
   
• An Appeal to the Jewish People, by Hungarian Rabbi Isaac Lichtenstein (1824-1908), from the late 19th century.
  An abstract: This text entreats Jewish readers to take an unprejudiced and impartial look at the claim that Yeshua is the Messiah. People are asked to reserve judgment on the matter until they finish reading his Appeal. What unfolds is a passionate yet predictable apology. RIL connects together biblical passages, one after the other, at times as part of the actual text (e.g., Ps 39:9-12 followed by Rm 10:13-15 on page 9). This is a common literary technique in rabbinical writings. As well, RIL tries to demonstrate to his audience that Christian doctrine is not so alien or different to that of Judaism. He says "I will not speak of the Christian doctrine of the Godhead Father, Son, and Spirit although our Chassidim, who claim to be successors of the heroes of the Talmud believe in a tenfold godhead, in ten emanations, who with En-Sof (the Eternal) form one absolute, inseparable unity, with ten sides and ten faces." (pg. 15) He also connects Yeshua with the malakh berit (Angel of the Covenant) from Malachi 3:1 (pg. 5) that noted medieval rabbinic commentators such as RaDaK (i.e., Rabbi David Kimchi) equate with the Messiah. Near the end, RIL tries to break Jewish stereotypes of Christian antijudaism by saying that not all Christians are anti-semites (pg. 15). He finishes his Appeal by assuring his readers that in accepting Yeshua as their Messiah they will not lose their people-hood and assimilate: G-d will finally put into action all those prophetic promises he gave to Israel and they will be at the head and not the tail among the nations (p. 21)."
  Download here.
   
• Meal of the Holy King, by Paul Phillip Levertoff (1878-1954), a Hebrew liturgical service written in the 1920s by  and early Messianic Jewish pioneer, and translator of the Zohar into English for Socino Press
  Download here.

• Hebrew New Testament Commentary by Jechiel Zebi Lichtenstein (1830/31-1912). Originally published between 1891 and 1904 in multiple parts, Jechiel Zebi Lichtenstein's Beur leSifre Berit HaHadashah (Commentary on the New Testament) is one of the more interesting Hebrew writings by JBY to have come out of the 19th century.
  Download here.

Contact Information:
Jorge Quiñónez (jorgequinonez@yahoo.com)
12621 Lewis St., #37
Garden Grove, CA 92840
USA.