The World of Jesus: Making Sense of the People and Places of Jesus' Day

I am reviewing the Kindle edition of The World of Jesus. I love history and I love a great history book that really engages me. This was one of those books. I especially love history lessons that help me to better understand the Bible and the Gospel. This book moves at a quick pace and is practically a page turner. There is murder, revenge, assassinations, military battles and more. This book gives a good sense of the dark, violent and unforgiving world our Saviour was born into.Dr. Marty begins his overview about the time of Daniel in the Old Testament and explains all the significant events until the birth of Christ in Jewish history. This book answers a lot of questions that one may have when reading the New Testament. For example, it explains were the Pharisees and the Sadducees came from and how the Herods came into power. It was extremely interesting to see how Jewish history fit right into the world history that I already knew. For instance, I did not know that Herod the Great (the king that had all male children two years and under murdered in Bethlehem) was a close ally of the famous Mark Anthony.This book is worth the read if you are interested in understanding the context of the New Testament better. And if you are like me you cannot wait until the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Righteous Ruler is born into this world, after reading about so many wicked and perverse leaders who ruled before hand.

This book is a good overview of the history of Israel from the Old Testament to the time of the first century AD told in very layman's terms, focusing on the "intertestamental period" and Jewish politics in the time of Jesus. I'm a Sunday school teacher who needed a better grasp of the context of the first century AD. I once heard John MacArthur, a hyper proponent of sola scriptura, say in a sermon "You can't understand the scene between Jesus, Herod, and Pilate without understanding first century Jewish-Roman politics." So, this is a good book to start learning. Marty teaches undergraduates and this is at that level, highly readable, I recommend it to Bible study leaders. I highlighted a whole lot in my Kindle app and then was able to put those highlights onto Evernote where I can keep them as a reference forever.I bought this Kindle book when it was a 99 cent deal. I would not, however, pay $8.99 for it. The information comes almost entirely from the Bible, Book of Maccabees, and the works of Josephus. It's mainly for Protestants who suspect it's sinful to even pick up the Book of Maccabees, much less apply it to their knowledge about the times of Jesus. (You should at least read 1 Maccabees before this book.) Dr. Marty does not point out any potential shortcomings of those sources; his goal is a simple narrative. There are dozens of names, multiple family trees, and various figures in Roman politics to keep track of, so Kindle x-ray is essential. Disappointingly, the author provides no timelines, charts, or other helps; I recommending finding a good study Bible that has these things for reference (NIV Study Bible edited by DA Carson has some helpful supplements and Rose eCharts has several charts and such available as well). He also begins each chapter with a few paragraphs of ficticious dramatization of an event that he will later explain; these seem a bit out of place. He jumps forward and back chronologically at times to deal with issues like the temple, starting from what we know from the Bible and going back and explaining the context-- Jesus spoke about the temple, so who built the temple in Jesus' day, why did it take so long, why was it built, etc? It could have contained more information about the Decapolis, the area around Nazareth, various cites around Galilee, and more.Each chapter has discussion questions, which are helpful both to quiz yourself on the material covered as well as think more deeply about it. Some are sure to evoke discussion. (I like this trend among Christian books today that include discussion questions, assuming either group reading or maybe just the need to retain the knowledge.) I give it 3 stars out of 5. It's short, and it will give any student or teacher a decent overview and whet your appetite to read more in-depth research into the history. I would also recommend reading Josephus' works as well as Paul Johnson's History of the Jews, various books on the Maccabean revolt, and Greek and Roman history such as Freeman's Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

It is a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to more fully understand the geopolitical environment of Jesus's lifetime. It goes into a lot of depth about Herod and many other rules of the era. It explains why God used the Roman Empire to provide a way for His blessed Son to be given to us. I know you won't regret this purchase! Don't miss the chance to read this. (I rarely make reviews so this glowing review is very unusual for me.)

Study of the Bible is best done with an understanding of the context of the writings that make up the Bible. Understanding events from the view of the people who lived in that period and as well as the meaning of dialogue to those involved, provides a deeper and richer understanding. This book provides historical context for the time prior to Jesus birth and the start of the Church. It help a person to understand the reasons and meaning of some events and statements in the New Testament. The result is a better overall understanding of the gospel accounts and events that impacted the early church. A good read for every Christian, especially new Christians.Richard

as an introduction to the new testament background by way of discussion of the inter-testamental period it cannot be faulted. It is direct and avoids to much waffle. it explains the who were and when effectively.my only issue (and this needs to be understood) is that the book is very basic presenting factual information with little room for discussion or engagement in the text of alternate viewpoints. One more gripe is that it is lacking in terms of reference materials, footnotes, citations or otherwise. For a book trying to cover this breadth of history I would like to have seen it bursting at the seems with either endnotes or a massive bibliography.All that said, if you're not an academic or nerdy type and simply want to get into the background of the new testament period, then this book is for you.I bought three copies, one for my mother, one for a friend and one for the mother-in-law to get her to try and see the importance of understanding the culture and background of Jesus' day before attempting to understand the Gospels properly.

Everything you ever wanted to know about am those people and places mentioned in the Bible h been explained in this book.

A very readable book, providing a good basic background into the lifeand politics of Palestine in the period immediately prior to the birth of Christ

Keep on learning as much as you can there's always something to learn lovely book

The book is based on a series of lectures covering the 400 years (the silent years) between the old and new testament.It was particularly interesting in that it described the tensions and competing factions created by the hellenisation process and I felt it gave me something of an insight into how Paul's mission to the gentiles would have been perceived, that I had not thought about before.However, just like many a history documentary it seemed to repeat the stories several times, which was distracting and irritating.