The court was in the Royal Palace of King James I in Barcelona, Spain. It was the 13th century and in the presence of the king, his court, and many prominent Church dignitaries and knights, the venerable Rabbi Nachmanides (aka the Ramban)–Judaism’s leading scholar, philosopher, physician and biblical commentator–walked in to face off with a convert from Judaism to Christianity, Friar Pablo Christiani.

The Dominican Friar came prepared with a new strategy he was sure would prove to the highly educated rabbi that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Messiah. This time, instead of arguing from the OT prophets, as the church had been trying unsuccessfully for centuries, the ex- Jewish friar argued that even the writings of the Talmud pointed to Yeshua as the promised One.

The Talmud? How could those extra-biblical Jewish writings talk about Yeshua? At the time, the study of Talmud was unheard of within the Church, which preferred burning Jewish books to reading them. Christians were only beginning to be exposed to Talmudic literature...