Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Understanding the World of Jesus; Book Review


            When reading the New Testament it can be difficult to understand everything that you read because we are some 2,000 years removed from the culture of the first century. Even passages we think we understand might not actually be saying what we imagine them to be saying. That's where background materials come in. Background materials help to explain the culture and historical setting like events and people so we better understand the New Testament.

            Usually doing background study involves looking in bible dictionaries and encyclopedias as well as commentaries and even technical journal articles. But all of that is time consuming and not everyone has access to all those resources. Enter "The World Of Jesus: Making Sense of the People and Places of Jesus' Day" By Dr. William H. Marty. This book is 185 pages full of information to help someone better understand the New Testament. Now let me say that this is not a exhaustive book, as if you couldn't tell from the amount of pages, but it is very well written and organized and it will help orient a person so that their reading and studying of the New Testament is much more fruitful.

            The book is made up of eight chapter with and Introduction and a Conclusion. There's also nice little glossary in the back for a quick definition on words and people you might not know (Always helpful).

            The introduction lays out the format of the book as well as a brief retelling of the events from Abraham to the end of the Old Testament. This was a great little summary to, again, orient us as we prepare to look at the periods surrounding the first century. Chapter 1 deals with the Persian Period and discusses the reason for the exile. It also discusses the Temple as well as the city of Jerusalem. Chapter 2 introduces us to Alexander the Great and the Hellenization (which was the historical spread of ancient Greek culture, including the language) of the Jewish people and others who were conquered by Alexander the Great. Chapter 3 covers the Maccabean revolt. Chapter 4 discusses the Hasmonean period. Chapters 5 and 6 deal with the Roman Period and Herod the Great. Chapter 7 deals with the early church period and finally chapter 8 details some of the different religious groups around in the first century like the Pharisees and Sadducees. And the conclusion is a wonderful recap of what was discussed in detail throughout the book.

            This book was a pleasure to read and I highly recommend it to everyone. Whether you have access to all those background materials like dictionaries and such or weather you don't this book would make a wonderful addition to your library.

            I should say that the only thing that I didn't like about this book were the shaded pages that were scattered throughout the book. While they gave a lot of great information they interrupted the flow of the main text and I would have rather seen them at the end of the chapters or the information incorporated better into the body of the main text. But that's being nitpicky.

            You can buy it Here or Here
 

Disclosure of Material: I received this book free from Bethany House Publishers book review program, which requires an honest, though not necessarily positive, review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s CFR Title 16, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Primer To Church History


"Timeless Witness" Written and compiled by Tony Lane is a 413 page survey of prominent people and/or writings from church history staring with Ignatius of Antioch (c. 115) and ending with Therese of Lisieux (1897). There are a total of 100 entries bring the reader up to 1897.

The author states the reason and scope of his writing on page 11.

In this collection I have only included works that I consider useful and profitable to read, rather than selecting works based on their importance. But That does not mean that I have narrowly restricted myself to those with whom I am in full agreement. The selection is 'catholic' in that it includes Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist and other authors. The inclusion of a work does not imply an endorsement of its entire contents but only the judgment that it is an important Christian classic that can be read with profit, even though it may need to be read with discernment.

               This was an absolute pleasure to read. Each person or writing is given a short introduction and then a short piece of their text is given. This is a great way to start understanding church history and those people who were major and minor influences throughout that history. If you're interested in learning about church history (and we all should be) then do yourself a favor by picking this book up and reading it. The entries are short only around 3 pages long but the information and the appreciation you'll  gain for church history is immeasurable.

 

You can buy a copy here