Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #629256 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Synopsis
AD 33 was the year when an obscure religious teacher died a criminal's death in an outpost of the Roman empire, an event which had world-changing consequences in the form of the beginnings of Christianity. What was the world like in that momentous year? In this breathtaking book we find out about events in the Roman empire and beyond in order to obtain a picture of the historical setting of the year of Christ's death. AD 33 ranges widely from Jesus's relationship with his friends (such as Mary, sister of Martha, Peter, John, Mary Magdalen) and his enemies (the High Priest, some of the Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees, the Herodians, King Herod, Pilate) to events happening in the wider world. In that year the huge Roman Empire encompassed the countries surrounding the Mediterranean and much of north-western Europe. Cities had water and sewage systems, theatres and public baths. Colin Duriez takes us imaginatively into the world of first century Palestine on the eastern edge of the empire and ultimately shows that the events in Jerusalem are to the future Western civilisation what the founding of Rome was to the Roman Empire.

Customer Reviews

Interesting but incomplete
This work gives reasonable attention to Roman history, but is inconsistent in how diligently it questions its sources. The book lacks any reference to Jewish sources and accepts what the Christian canon claims about 1st century Judaism, including its much distorted picture of the Pharisees, Paul's role, and the impossible trial scene.

That would be alright in an overt work of historical fiction. Because this is written as if it were fact, readers are left with a false sense of knowing.