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.
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.
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