The Complete Jewish Bible expresses the "original and essential Jewishness" of the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. Without making the text difficult to read, translator David H. Stern incorporates many transliterated Hebrew proper names and key words. His intention is to render the message of the New Testament not from the linguistic, cultural, and theological perspective of the Gentiles, but from that of the Jews, out from whom Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, was born and to whom, primarily, He ministered before His death and resurrection. For Jews, this translation affords an opportunity to see how the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah are all fulfilled in the New Testament in the person and work of Christ. At the same time, the translation helps Christians appreciate the foundational nature of the Old Testament in relationship to the New Testament.

David H. Stern began his career as a secular academic, earning a Ph.D. in economics at Princeton University and serving as a professor at UCLA. After coming to believe in Yeshua as the Messiah in 1972, Stern received a Master of Theology degree at Fuller Theological Seminary and later taught the Seminary's first course in "Judaism and Christianity." He has authored several books, including The Jewish New Testament Commentary, a companion to The Complete Jewish Bible.