Reply #11: I have not finished this book but I did read "The Last Week" which was very good... [View All]

[mikelewis]

I remember that I did not agree with everything he and his co-author wrote in the Last Week but it did help put a few things into context. He explained the usage of Markan frames and demonstrated that the withering of the fig tree was one such frame. He also tried to recreate the daily itinerary of Jesus in Jerusalem during the last week though he believes that the crucifixion was on Friday and there are others who think it was on Thursday, an idea I agree with. All in all, the Last Week was a good read and I would probably be interested in reading more of his work. I do have the copy of the book you are referring to btw... ironically it's on my cluttered desk. The book starts with the Gospel of Jesus and launches into a layman's view of the historical First Century. I didn't get too much farther than a few pages into though. I usually just listen to books on tape while in the car and I tried to read this one while waiting for my son to finish wrestling practice. Unfortunately for the book's sake, my son quit wrestling I haven't found the time to get back to it.

On edit,

I would also like to suggest another very good read... James Tabor's The Jesus Dynasty, the book is really very good. One big problem was his tangent in his exploration of Jesus' biological father. He repeats an ancient Rabbinic rumor that Jesus was the son of a man name Panter. He then goes on to talk about finding a first century tomb of a Panter in Germany and postulates that this grave site might hold the true biological father of Jesus. Aside from that sort of foolishness, the book is really quite good. Tabor's a frequent guest on the History Int. show The Naked Archeologist.