Hi Everybody,
I hope you have a wonderful day!
I bought myself another book to accompany my last vacation in Indonesia.
Yes, I went to my beloved country for Christmas holiday, I was happy to
meet my parents and my little brother. I met some friends as well.
Anyway, I downloaded my
Killing Jesus to my kindle before heading
home. I was reluctant to read it in full version. Before I decided to
download it, I had tried to read the sample version. I was like " oh
Gosh, I can't handle this, this too heartbreaking".
Killing Jesus
is a history book based on Jesus Christ's life. The fact that it is a
history book with historical facts make me gloomy. Well, I am a
sensitive person so what I can say. The book is written by Bill O'Reilly
and his friend, Martin Dugard. They are very inseparable apparently,
they have been teamed for many publications. I heard that they are going
to make another history book about WWII, I can't wait to read it.
Killing Jesus
has been in the New York Times Best Seller list. This book has the
same title as Stephen Masfield's "Killing Jesus", same title but
different content... maybe ( I haven't read the book yet).
Killing Jesus
is a famous book because it causes some controversies among its
readers. For instance, some people think it is a blasphemy because you
can't explore God by depicting historical facts. God is holy so you
can't give your thoughts which are not based on biblical matters.I mean,
Bible is also a series of historical events and it was written by
chosen people which had personal thoughts of Jesus Christ and His
teaching. I don't try to defend the authors but I think they merely try
to give a new perspective about Jesus Christ. Jesus is a very
influential historical figure after all.Even, according to a new
internet research Jesus is the most important person in history that
ranks Napoleon second and Muhammad third. I think the authors expected
the controversies to happen. Controversies are good publications, aren't
they? Okay then, I will give you my short review about . It will not be
a long review because I am not a spoiler.
Killing Jesus
The book is written to show the historical background during Jesus'
life. The authors want to give factual descriptions about Jesus' life ,
it is to show the readers that Jesus' lived in a very difficult period
under Roman empire and the corrupt lives of Jewish leaders who played a
important role in Jewish society at that time. Shortly, Jesus lived in a
period of crisis that led unfortunate Jewish people to suffer and to be
oppressed. They lived under constant fear of an unjust system and
ruler. It made them fragile and didn't have a refuge. Their souls longed
for a savior that gave them a genuine freedom from their fears. The
authors address Jesus as an earthly figure not Jesus as God. They don't
mention Jesus as Jesus Christ but Jesus as the Nazarene. I think it is a
good way to keep factual accuracies. Although, the author tries to
delineate the factual matters of Jesus' life, they don't neglect
biblical matters in the book. It seems they want to incorporate every
fact that they have found to support biblical verses and vice versa.
Jesus was a figure that brought a new hope to an oppressed society where
the adversities seemed to be eternal.
Jesus, the Nazarene in this book is depicted as a person who is very
normal as a human being. He can express his sadness, anguish and anger.
However, he has characteristics that make people want to listen and
follow his teachings. He is a very special person with a serene charisma
yet his words are firm and powerful. His words and figure are
consolations for dejected people. People who are outcasts to the society
like a prostitute or tax collectors. The Nazarene comes to give them a
new hope and break down boundaries. He doesn't alienate them but
embrace them with compassion.
The book recounts the life of Jesus from his birth to his early death
in crucifixion. The fact that this is a history book makes the depiction
more vivid. The authors narrates the events through depictions of
characters involved in and influence Jesus' life. For example, they
describe vividly a depraved life of Tiberius , a Roman Emperor during
Jesus' life. They also give generous parts to describe other characters
like John the Baptist, Peter, and more. It is a brilliant effort to take
the readers into a deep comprehension of Jesus' life. I like how it
narrates because it is not only give me a new knowledge about the events
but also it give me a new threshold to understand the difficulties that
Jesus had during his life. The authors are successfully bring the
historical events to the readers' minds using sharp and dramatic
details. Concisely, the book brings new details which the readers can't
find only from reading the Bible. The end of the book provides short
details after Jesus' death. It is stated that there are no evidences
that point where Jesus' body was buried, it was simply an empty tomb.
The details also mention the characters involved in the Jesus' life.
My verdict to this book is I really enjoyed reading it but it makes me
contemplate about the whole story. It makes me grateful about my life
and I feel blessed to have Jesus Christ in my life. I think if you want
to understand about Jesus as a historical figure you can read this book.
It is a neutral book that can be read by anybody, it is not a Christian
themed book. It is like other history books that you can find in Amazon
or book stores. The fact that I am a Christian made me more sentimental
after I finished the book. My rating for this book is 5/5 because the
details in this book are refreshing and novel.
