Customer Reviews

The Archeology of the New Testament: The Life of Jesus and the Beginning of the Early Church

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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This is a wonderful and lovingly prepared work. For the best of all worlds, I would suggest reading this with the incredible companion book, "The Autobiography of Jesus of Nazareth and the Missing Years". Then it is almost like an interactive experience, because you see the real man Jesus through "The Autobiography..." and see exactly where he lived in this book. It may appear a daunting book because of its 400 + pages, but I found it too short! If there is anything else the authors could have included in this excellent book, it can only because there is still 2000 years of dust on it! Buy it today.

This book is an enormous treat - an archeological book written by a biblical scholar. It's hard to know which aspect provides the more valuable information. Of particular interest and surprise is the amount of coverage of such topics as John the Baptist, the Tombs, and the Cross.

The book is well written and amply illustrated. There are few notes: the author instead includes lots of information in the text itself. Also, there is no bibliography, although there is an extensive "List of Ancient Sources" which is highly informative. If I had one criticism it is that the book assumes the reader is not a beginner, and as a result this may not be the best introductory text.

Written in 1969, the book is dated. Yet almost everything relevant to the archeology of the New Testament had been discovered by this date, so the few finds since (e.g., the ossuary of James the Just) do not negate the book's value.

Every New Testament reader should have this book in their library.

I have the revised edition of this text (1992), and before purchasing it from Amazon, I frequently came to the site to research information from this book. The book is technical enough to satisfy the researcher, yet easy to read for the beginner in archaeology or Bible. I've quoted from this text for several research papers for college classes. It's concise and reliable in its presentation and information.

My NT Archaeology professor recommended this book to us and I bought this used one. It is much cheaper and serve my purpose. No color images inside.