Customer Reviews

Life in Year One: What the World Was Like in First-Century Palestine

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

LIFE IN YEAR ONE doesn't purport to be a scholarly book. It's not deep. It doesn't break any new ground. It's written in lay, conversational language and assumes no previous knowledge on the part of the reader. It doesn't pretend to be anything more than an introduction to a fascinating subject and it qualifies often that a lot of what is said (as is usual in archeology) is personal opinion based on limited available evidence with a touch of imagination and a lot of curiosity thrown in.

All this might seem like a turn off but, actually, I found the book fascinating and pleasurable reading. This is the kind of book you want to take on a plane trip, to the doctor's office, anywhere where you want to take your mind off what you're doing and just let time fly.

First, it is not a religious book. Jesus is often mentioned because, since this was his time and place, much of what everyone assumes about this time and place is directly linked to Jesus, so he must be mentioned. But he is mentioned as a someone known to have been there then, and it would be strange if he wasn't sometimes used as a point of reference or contrast. The book begins just before he was born, and lingers for several decades after his death.

My own assumptions about daily life during the lifetime of Christ were based on the biblical narrative. I realized that a much of what I had assumed was, more or less, probable. But there were many aspects of everyday life that I had mentally glamorized (or modernized) beyond what is likely, and had also made assumptions I was not even aware of until they were contrasted with a more likely reality. On the whole, life was less bucolic, less peaceful, more stressful, and more complicated than I would have thought.

Some bits of trivia were a total surprise. I had no idea that the poor lepers that were so shunned in the gospels, the ones who had to leave society and call out that they were unclean, did not have the disease we now know as leprosy. (That disease had not yet made it to Palestine in the first century.) These unfortunates simply had psoriasis, eczema, or a skin fungus. I hadn't fully appreciated the delicate balances that had to be implemented in a deeply religious society with many cultural and ritual traditions that were in sharp contrast with the reality of being ruled by a foreign power that shared none of these. I hadn't realized that reading and writing would be such rare accomplishments, especially outside Jerusalem, where the sons were needed to work the fields and both reading and writing materials were scarce or non-existent.

Slowly, as the era comes into focus, it becomes clear how difficult it would be for a modern person to contemplate living in a town with no roads (just dusty worn paths of varying widths); in homes with thatched roofs and stone walls held together by dung and with windows just below roof level. A place in which bathing was difficult (but getting dusty, dirty, and sweaty was not); in which the everyday smells (and by-products) of animals and other humans could not have been pleasant. The logistics of sanitation and hygiene were challenging.

The author brings the era to life in a casual but observant narrative, combining little and large details (both known and the assumed) together in a primarily entertaining (and secondarily educational) manner. The book reads like a particularly interesting lecture in which the speaker interacts with his audience and goes off-topic. His many footnotes feel like off-the-cuff anecdotes that are not part of the prepared text but are just as fascinating. (Actually, I don't see why they couldn't just be part of the main text). It is a blend of social and political commentary, archeology, and history with a touch of psychology thrown in.

Topics covered include war, money, health, politics, religious practice and differences, cultural and religious tensions, family structure, religion, death, taxes, and many more topics mentioned in detail or in passing. This said, the book is still briefer than I would like. I really wish it had been longer---not necessarily deeper because it would lose its charm---just longer. I would have liked more detail about topics like clothing, education, available technologies (like for cooking, weaving, heating, wine-making, scientific observation, writing, etc.). I would have liked some details on the life of the wealthy and elite (the life of the poor and underprivileged was well-covered).

I thoroughly enjoyed this insight to life and living in the first century but, with all our challenges, I'm very grateful to live in the twenty-first--especially if I should get eczema.

Life in Year One is, the author goes to pains to point out, not a book about Jesus. Instead, it seeks to place 21st-century persons in Palestine up until about the year 70 CE. Many books have done this before, of course. Some seek to do it visually, like the superb The HarperCollins Visual Guide to the New Testament: What Archaeology Reveals about the First Christians. Others, like Crossan and Reed's Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts, are far more in-depth, too much so in fact for most average readers. In between these two is Scott Korb's new book, which paints word pictures in spritely, rich, and even humorous language, encouraging us to make he connections (and more often, see the disconnect) between that world and ours.

Life in Year One explores the life of persons in the first century through ten broad topics: an overview of the world, money, home, food, baths, health, respect, religion, war, and death. Each chapter provides enough detail to enable the reader to grasp the tremendous distance between our time and theirs, yet it largely avoids scholarly arguments and archaeological jargon that could cause the reader to lose interest. Korb does expand upon the text in fairly extensive footnotes, which are often more enjoyable than the rest of the text. (Take for example, this nugget in the chapter on food, where Korb explores the shift to a more centralized, agribusiness-like food economy: "What today we call Cargill and Monsanto and Perdue was, in the first century, known by the brand name Antipas. Or a bigger brand name still--Caesar.") Korb relies on a wide range of scholarly opinion, but largely seems most convinced by the more progressive interpretations of that ancient culture.

I have rarely felt so engaged when reading about this period. The chapter on money, for example, (a topic I've read a LOT about since my hobby is collecting first century coinage) was the single-best treatment of this subject I've come across, but every chapter expanded my sense of perspective and ability to put the biblical texts in a wider context. You'll end each chapter very thankful you don't live in that time and place (especially after reading his chapter on health. Yikes!) I think it would be a lot of fun to read this book with a group, especially if the leader could pull in relevant biblical texts to illuminate and illustrate the book's text.

This was a good read: highly informative and at times quite amusing.

Although Scott Korb reveals nothing new of the biblical era, his writing style is quick to absorb and quite humorous at times. I finished this short book in one morning.

The chapters are short and focus on one topic at a time: From Roman Palestine to money, homes and houses, food, baths, health, respect, religion, warfare and death, each chapter is filled with footnoted additives, comedic relief and contradictory evidence. We learn that the people in Year One were ruled by Rome, influenced by the Greeks, and very, very patriarchial. They lived in cow-dung covered homes, ate mostly bread, avoided the pig, used bathing water frugally, avoided soap and kept clean mostly as a ritual rather than for hygiene's sake. And despite the many differences between Jews and Roman, what kept the Jews strong was their local pride in their uniqueness. And all this before Jesus' time! The imagery alone is quite entertaining.

What makes this book interesting is that there is no proselyzing here. Korb writes from a historian or researcher's point of view and does offer some contradictions to biblical history of the region. He warns readers at the start that "this is no book about Jesus!" People who are looking for scripture and holy sacrament had better read elsewhere.

Perhaps there are books out there that cover each of the above-mentioned topics in a more scholarly (and boring) manner, but for someone who wants a good image of what life was like for the commonman of the time, this is a good read.

3 Stars for Content, 1 Star for all the blasted footnotes. 2 Stars overall.

Life in Year One is, sorry Amazon, the kind of book that you can really only get a sense for before buying by holding it in your hand and flipping through it. If the "Look Inside the Book" option is active when you're reading this review, I strongly recommend that you use it before you consider buying it, because while its not going to give you the clarity that a quick skim will, it will probably help make evident some of the books strengths and, unfortunately, its weaknesses.

Strengths
- Well, I've never seen a book like this one on the shelf at a local bookstore, although I presume that a few exist. It will probably be a welcome addition to the required reading for both History and Religion classes at many colleges (perhaps its primary market?)
- The writing is engaging, to a point, and you get a feel for the enthusiasm of the author towards the material
- It isn't superficial. The author really does seem to try to take a scholarly approach to the topic, focusing on what is really important from a sociological point of view, though his writing seems to aim for the popular audience.
- Most people probably will indeed learn something from this book that will give them a more informed perspective on what they read in the New Testament, and on the 1st Century AD, a period whose events helped shaped Western Culture, and the world
- The author admits that there is much that simply cannot be known, and doesn't seem given to speculation. This, however, is also a weakness (see below)

Weaknesses
- While the writing is engaging, the author leans on Footnotes to a greater degree than ANY book I have written. I will bet that 2/3 of the pages have footnotes, and on several of them, the small type footnotes take up more than half the page. The author is upfront about this, but that doesn't make their overuse acceptable. This, if you ask me, is simply lazy writing, and it is incredibly distracting, as it interrupts the reading flow and ability to "take in" what the author is saying. If its important enough to write more than a one sentence footnote, simply find a way to include it in the text.
- The title of the book is "What the World Was Like in First Century Palestine", and that kind of sums it up - the author addresses his topics at the 10,000 foot level. You gain a greater understanding of the society, but not the people, and not really what "daily life was like", beyond the sections dealing with dust, dirty and cleanliness.
- The author's unwillingness to speculate, no doubt, is why there's little in the book about daily life. We don't know for sure, how people lived, but geez, knowing that I'd be glad to hear a little informed guessing.
- I would have enjoyed a Myth/Fact section either in the book or as a major chapter. Many of our perceptions about the era are drawn from Movies and Television Dramas (Ben-Hur, King of Kings, Last Temptation, The Passion, etc.) and I can't help but wonder how much of what we see and think we know is true or not. For example, what exactly DID Roman soldiers wear? What did every day people wear? What did they eat? How long did they live? How did they take care of their teeth?
- Finally, for a book that actually references Monty Python, the failure to reference "What have the Romans ever done for us?" is curious. It's a great question, one that at least part of the culture is familiar with, and deserving of an answer. One isn't given.

So, to sum up. If you have to read this in a class, there are worse fates. But if you're looking for a book that you can keep on your shelf for future re-reading and a combination of enlightenment and enjoyment, you may wish to look elsewhere.

No one can tell you exactly what life was like in first century Palestine ... as Scott Korb would say, we can only talk about PERHAPS and IMAGINE, and Scott takes us on a journey to explore first century Palestine using these words.

But while he introduces these words at the beginning, he does not rely upon them. As Korb explores the time period from the invasion and takeover of Jerusalem by the Roman Empire (37 BCE) to the eventual fall of Jerusalem (approx 70 CE), he also explores the facts.

As one example: While in other areas of the Roman Empire, coinage included an image of Caesar, first century Palestinian coins do not. This single fact gives an image of the concessions made to the Jews who did not believe in any form of imagery and who would not have used the coins had they been minted. They were always Jews first and members of the Roman Empire second.

Have you ever wondered why the books of the New Testament were written in Greek? After reading this book, you will be much more clear on this important issue.

As I read through the book, I discovered many interesting facts and examples, and I did enjoy the footnotes as well.

I recommend this book as an easy-to-use resource for Sunday School Teachers for adults and children. I believe that you will be enriched by the facts and ideas, and even the imagines and perhaps's will be a great benefit. If you are in charge of your church library, I do recommend this as a book that will interest your teachers and congregation members.

I also believe that it would make a good additional resource for Pastors who want to spend a little time conjecturing about the background. While there are many more scholarly resources available, few of them are written in such an interesting and condensed manner. I have proudly added it to my library and have already used an illustration in a sermon.

Five stars ...

In a remote yet irritatingly rebellious corner of the Roman Empire, events were unfolding that would change the course of history. This quick, entertaining read explores what life was like during that time. From the brutal exploits of Herod the Great and his successor Herod Antipas to the daily grind of peasant life, Korb offers a peek into a world that was both completely different and painfully similar to our modern one.

This is not a book about Jesus, although Korb mentions him in certain places. As the author takes pains to point out, Jesus' life is so fraught with layers meaning that it's nearly impossible to take a straightforward look at it. Further, Jesus himself was hardly an ordinary member of his society.

LIFE IN YEAR ONE offers lots of interesting tidbits about religiosity and purity in first-century Palestine. Even ordinary objects like coins and pottery were imbued with religious and political significance. The simple act of using an old coin from the Hasmonean dynasty--one without an idolatrous face on it--could be an act of local pride. Pottery had to be made of limestone or chalk, both because stone was closer to the earth (thus pure) and because it was locally made.

Korb points out that the vicissitudes of Jewish life under the Romans have many parallels to more recent times. Peasants who had drawn their sustenance from family fields for generations now had to rent the land and buy back the food they had grown themselves. Production of grain suddenly became centralized and specialized--in a sense, creating the "birth of big agribusiness." The resulting economic alienation was a factor in the turmoil that would eventually spell revolt and exile. Intriguingly, the rebellion was both violent and nonviolent, including a massive (successful) "die-in" of sorts in Ceasarea to protest images of Ceasar in Jerusalem.

Though very interesting, the book gives its subject rather brief treatment; I had hoped for a few more nitty-gritty details. Korb is also a bit over-zealous(1) with the footnotes, which mostly consist of wild tangents, jokes, and references to other footnotes. In fact, it often seems like he's using them as filler. Still, the fact that I wished the book was longer shows how thoroughly I enjoyed delving into this fascinating ancient world.

1 Pardon the pun.

As I selected and read into this book, I wondered how the author could bring new light to the subject. For two thousand years, scholars have offered insight into "Daily Life in Ancient.. . etc. . ", and a lot of the volumes include pictures.

Well, Scott Korb has done it, in under 200 pages. Having spent a lifetime in church, years in Bible study, and made two pilgrimages to the Holy Land, I could be a tough sell. He delivers the information very well, with thoughtful conclusions.

Be warned that the first forty pages are slower, since this is theology of a sort,and all theology has to "clear the ground". However, stay with it. The book just gets stronger and more readable, and his description of his trip to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the "magnetic mess", is worth the price and time of the book.

I look forward to reading other works by this writer.

LIFE IN YEAR ONE: WHAT THE WORLD WAS LIKE IN FIRST-CENTURY PALESTINE provides a powerful survey from a writer and religious historian who examines Palestine, a troublesome backwater of the Roman Empire that became the birthplace of Christianity and the spiritual center of Judaism. Any interested in what Jesus' world looked like and felt like will find this an outstanding re-creation of the past, offering a lively, fun history using ancient resources as well as the author's own visit to and observation of the area.

I'm sorry to say that this book is not what I was expecting. I am no history scholar (all I know about the period I learned in Sunday school and other similar classes), but I am very familiar with most of the information in this book.

Perhaps the problem stems from the fact that, as the author keeps reiterating, most of what is known about first century Palestine is conjecture. What Korb can present with certainty is hardly enough to fill a book. Sadly, most of the interesting material is relegated to footnotes, which severely detract from the flow of reading. They should have either been integrated into the main text or eliminated altogether.

In spite of this, I do have to say that Korb has a congenial and friendly writing style. I finished the book in spite of my disappointment simply because I came to like the guy.

First, full disclosure: I'm the author's mother and I'm writing this review in collaboration with his grandmother. She's 82 and I'm 62. We're both Catholics, as is my son, which makes the subject matter of particular interest - despite the fact that, as Scott says, "This is Not a Book about Jesus." All this said, we have no vested financial interest in the success of this book. (Although truth be told, my son does owe me a little money from the time I helped him move out of a bad living situation a few years ago. I can honestly say, though, that this has no impact on our review. It only dawns on me now, as a matter of fact, long after I'd already formed my favorable opinion of his book.)

My mother and I typically read who-done-it page-turners and romances. I've even read a few bodice-rippers in my time. And I've always encouraged Scott to write one of those kinds of books. That's where the real money is. Janet Evanovich and all those writers. Instead, he wrote a book of ancient history. Smart, Scott, real smart.

What's so great about this book, though, is that it reads really well, almost like those page-turners we usually read. What he's done is to make history fun without losing any of the seriousness and smarts it takes to get the stories straight and to expand, in his words, our "moral imaginations." You find yourself laughing on one page - say, about personal private privies dug into the ground with a hatchet and then squatted over by guys who covered themselves so they didn't offend God's eyes - and then realize ten pages later that, come to think of it, life in year one must have been really, really terrible for some of those poor people. Just like life must have been really, really amazing for people back then. And come to think of it, those were actually REAL PEOPLE living back then. I know this last point sounds obvious, but what I learned most from this book isn't this or that fact about daily life in the time of Jesus, or this or that interesting tidbit about first-century cleanliness and cooking (although there are some excellent facts and tidbits along the way). No, what I learned most from this book is that the people in year one were people. Real live people. Not some romanticized, glorious, and beautiful people we imagine when we read the Bible or see movies and TV shows about this time.

I mean, look around at the people you share your life with. Those people you know and love or even those people you know and hate. Those people having a really hard time of it right now. Those people celebrating new marriages and new babies and so on. Those people are easy to see and easy to identify with because they are really real. Well, what my son has done in his book is to make the real people from year one really very real. He brings them to life. (Or really he asks readers to bring them to life. But same difference.) He even makes the real people from today's Holy Land really very real. Take, for instance, his cab driver Ahkmed, whom you meet in the Epilogue. He's as different from me as they come - a Muslim man living in the Middle East - but in this book I can identify with him, feel sympathy for him, really learn to like him. You actually get to meet him. That's what is so good about this book. All the people you meet.

Five stars.