Customer Reviews

The Day Christ Died

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Jim Bishop writes a book that is not only Biblically accurate, but it is also entertaining. Although I do have a word of caution, remember this is fiction! He has taken Biblical fact and blended them together with fiction to create an understandable flow events during the ministry of Jesus Christ. Nonetheless, Jim does a great job bringing the reader into the Age of Jesus' time using historical research. He reviews the Jewish background (e.g., Law, customs, and more), as well as articulating the structure, politically and religiously, of the Roman Empire. Again, Jim Bishop writes an outstanding book that will educate everyone, and give all Christians who read it a deeper sense and appreciation of what Jesus did for all people.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a student of the scriptures. The narrative style the book in which the book is written lends to easy reading. The language of the text draws the reader on an ancient journey and place you in the garden, in Herod's palace, on the cross, with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I also found the background history on the Roman and Jewish cultures very helpful with understanding why things happened the way they did. Reading "The Day Christ Died" will help you understand why Christ died, which is the ultimate point.

Jim Bishop has a way of making history come alive.

I'm not usually a fan of historical fiction, liking the stories of mankind straight up and as they happened. Jim Bishop does not fictionalize his stories the way a Vidal of Sharra does -- what he does is add color and texture to actual events and actual dialogue to make two dimensional histories come alive.

In this book, Bishop, as I understand it, took only the dialogue and scenes appearing in the Gospels to tell the story of Christ's final day on earth. The book is broken down into hour by hour chapters. Three background chapters -- one on Jesus? life; one on the Jewish world and one on the Roman -- give the "greatest story ever told" context and allow the reader to more easily slip back into a world 2,000 years old.

As I understand the Gospels -- and I am by no means an expert -- Bishop remains true to the Jesus story and the biblical account. While the Gospels are moving in themselves, having such a skilled writer describe the scenery, the points in Jerusalem where Jesus was taken and traveled and the characters who inhabit the drama enlivens an already supremely rich story.

Anyone interested in a thoroughly engrossing book should read The Day Christ Died. This book covers more than just the day Christ was crucified. It gives a perspective of ancient Roman and Jewish life in the first centry. Bishop gives excellent insight into the personalities of those involved in this drama that continues to effect all of humanity 2000 years after the event.

'The Day Christ Died' tells the story of the 24 hours leading up to the death of Jesus Christ.

It takes the familiar story from the Gospels and adds details from everyday life of the time. There are chapters on the Jewish and Roman worlds of the time that further add insight.

This book is similar to Mel Gibson's movie 'The Passion of the Christ' in the way that it focuses things on the last day. There is also a lengthy chapter entitled 'Jesus' which tells much of the story of His earlier life.

It is very good at helping to explain the background and cultures of the times. For instance, it adds lots of insight into the political maneuverings of Annas and Caiphas and the way their positions interacted with the Roman authorities.

This is a quick read packed with lots of information. It is very worthwhile.

A truly remarkable well written book on the last hours of the world's most famous man. Mr.Bishop's time and efforts are well applauded in this beautiful book. I read it three times then hesitantly loaned it out. I first borrowed it from the local library then had to buy a copy to have for myself.

Jim Bishop seemlessly weaves his biblical scholarship and anthropological knowledge with scripture to create a full accounting of the last days Christ's life. Divorced from the realities of life under Roman rule, modern Christians may lack an understanding of the visceral realities of the crucifixion-which Bishop provides. Altogether a beautifully spiritual book.

Jim Bishop does an excellent job of pesonalizing humanities Saviour. It makes the reader privy to Jesus "the man" as well as the disciples and the dynamics of them as a group. Who knew that two of the disciples were Jesus' cousins? I didn't but I do now thanks to Jim Bishop. In a time when the world asks, "What would Jesus do?", Jim Bishop lets us know what Jesus really did.

Using the accounts of the four Gospels and other texts written at the time of Christ, the author writes about the last day of Jesus Christ. He starts at the beginning of the Hebrew Day at 6 P.M. with Jesus and ten of the apostles coming through the pass between the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Offense en route to Jerusalem and the Last Supper. And we follow an hour-by-hour narrative of this day until it ends at 4 P.M. the following afternoon, when Jesus was taken down from the cross.

The book also has three chapters that give us the historical context in which to understand the words and actions of those involved that day. The chapters cover a background on Jesus Christ himself, and on Roman and Palestinian life and history.

The narrative style of the book is very engaging and gives us a view of that day as Mel Gibson tried to do in his movie 'The Passion of the Christ'. And Jim Bishop as able to give you great insight about the deeper history of the reasons and actions regarding Christ's last day, as he understands it.

Remember the old fifties TV show, "You Are There" which recreated as accurately as possible the great moments in history as if they were happening as you watched? "You are there..."

That's what this book is...a recreation, as historically accurate as possible, of Jesus' last day on earth as a human with scripture interwoven into the events of the day as it happened and as it went along. At times moving, very moving...

Fundamentalists looking for aura and glory will not find it here. Instead, readers will find a carefully written account of life in the Palestine of that day and, as carefully as can be researched, the reactions, thoughts, hopes, fears and dreams of the the Apostles, Priests and Roman officers as they lived that day, not knowing what it was, where it would lead or what it was all about. A very, very, very good effort.

While there is no groundbreaking theology here--there was never intended to be any--the reader can learn a lot about ancient Palestine and come to a greater and deeper understanding and appreciation of life in Jesus' time...For example, few would know or imagine that the Jews were doing brain surgery in this time, removing cataracts, too. False teeth and dental work were common. It was all part of Jesus' world, a world we never think about or comprehend.

What we learn about his world alone is worth the read. And for Christians, it adds a richness and fullness to the age-old story.