The World of Jesus
Dr. William H. Marty
Dr. Marty wrote this book to give the reader an historical
summary of the history of Israel between the time at the end of the Old
Testament and the beginning of the New Testament, a period of about 400
years. He discusses the times of the Persians,
the Greeks, the Jews, and the Romans and provides a timeline at the beginning
of each chapter with highlights of each period.
Many of these times were eras of brutality, power struggles, hostility,
paranoia, and chaos. His sources, for
the most part, are Biblical, but much of the history is based on the writings
of Flavius Josephus.
The cast of characters is huge – and at some points, very confusing
to the reader. I found myself wishing
for a chart of family relationships to help me along. Because this is a summary, the movement is
fast paced from one historical event and ruler to another. I appreciated the special notes that gave
more details on certain characters or events that were mentioned along the way.
Perhaps the parts of the books I gained most from were the
detailed chart comparing Sadducees and Pharisees and the clarification between
the many generations of Herods. The most
confusing chapters were early on concerning the Persians and the Maccabees.
The author provides discussion questions at the end of each
chapter so that this would be a fine study book for a group. The comprehensive index was also quite
helpful and would be a good reference tool for future studies.
This is definitely a slow read because of the historical
nature of the book.
(This book was provided to me by Bethany House Publishers
for my honest review.)
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