Customer Reviews

Matthew's Story (The Jesus Chronicles)

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In Bet Guvrin, eight years old Levi diligently studies to become a priest. He is a happy child who loves God, his parents and adores his baby brother Chavivi. One night soldiers of Herod the Great arrive at his home and kill his sibling; as they have all killed all infant males since the Magi claimed the Christ was born. Herod insists he is the King of the Jews and not some pretender.

Levi still believed in God but his adulation turned to loathing as he blames the Lord for his baby brother's death. He rejects the priesthood and instead becomes a Roman tax collector. His people detest him as he becomes wealthy at their expense, but he feels empty inside until he meets Jesus. He becomes his disciple and changes his name to Matthew and follows him loyally. Jesus tells him he will feel the pain Matthew felt when He follows his Father's wishes.

Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins use a contemporary interpretation to tell Matthew's Story, a disciple who transformed from youthful pious believer, to odious sinner to saint thanks in part to Jesus. The use of modern day vernacular makes it easier on the audience to understand the message and power of Christ especially in altering Matthew's life; though in fairness some readers might question free will. As with Mark, Luke and John, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins provide a strong biblical biographical fictional account of a disciple of Jesus.

Harriet Klausner

These books, "The Jesus Chronicles" by Tim LaHaye, are excellent. They help place the gospels in their proper historical perspective and give a new sense of excitement to reading the bible! I highly recommend these books!

Another great series from the Left Behind authors Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye.

If you enjoy biblical historical fiction like me, you should like this book! "Matthew's Story" helps you visualize how the people in the Bible might have been like and how they handled various trials during Jesus time. It is about Levi who is later renamed Matthew "gift from God" by Jesus, who was studying to become a priest when a turn of events takes place he decides to become a tax collector. His life changes when he meets Jesus.

The real Matthew was a Galilean born in First Century Judea. He collected taxes from the Hebrew people for Herod Antipas. Jesus called Matthew to be one of the Twelve Disciples. As a disciple, he followed Christ, and was one of the witnesses of the Resurrection and the Ascension.

Patience Prence Author SCARS: An End-Times Novel

Biblical; the experiencing and reading the Revelation was powerful. I especially enjoyed the fact that in each of the Stories (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) the New Testament books were included.

Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins's MATTHEW'S STORY: THE JESUS CHRONICLES offers a new book in the series and receives Robertson Dean's fine account of Levi, who is studying to be a priest until tragedy causes him to turn his back on his faith and pursue riches. His discovery of prophetic Jesus leads him to a quest that shakes his foundations - and leads Jesus to rename him Matthew in this spiritual, spirited story of one man's calling based on the historic Biblical text.

As with the other Stories, you have to be careful to understand that, while it is based on scripture (and does a great job of telling the gospel), there are pseudo-fictional subplots added for character development, color, etc. That is to say, don't base your beliefs/doctrines on the Stories - get that from the Bible - but you can still enjoy them. I have.

Another great book by the authors of the Left Behind Series. Once I started reading it I could not put it down.

There is not enough space for me to talk about this series. So I will sum it up this way You will not be dissapointed with the Jesus Chronicles!

1st half:

The author really makes the character of Levi/Matthew come alive. Compelling, intriguing story of how the intelligent son once so determined to become a priest encounters a tragedy that fuels an anger towards God which motivates him to become the chief tax collector instead. In the second half of his life, he realizes how lonely he's made himself having spent his life opposing God as much as possible and running towards money with all he's got. He's about to slip into a depression when he has a reunion with his brother, who actually did become a priest, and Levi admits that there's one thing which could make him give God another chance, or so to speak, would be if he were chosen by the Messiah.

Very well-written and emotionally moving, makes you understand Levi completely.

2nd half:

Disappointingly, this portion was comprised primarily of paraphrasing the Bible. Of course what the Bible says is what's most important, but when I purchase something like this I expect more work, more input, from the authors (and from Matthew's firsthand, personal, in-the-moment point of view). In my opinion there were not enough additions I would have expected from a book of this genre - what was Jesus' tone of voice like when he cursed the fig tree? His facial expressions as he told the parables? The thoughts and images that went through Matthew's mind? I would have liked to see some more vivid descriptions and additional scenes that flesh out the relationship Jesus had with His closest disciples. There's some creative moments - including a very interesting (and helpful to personal life) conversation between Jesus and Matthew about his loss early in life, and where is God in such a tragedy as this, which he at first does not understand but suddenly hits him with a wave of comprehension as he's watching Jesus die on the cross.

***For a much better-done novel that makes the Gospels come alive, I would strongly recommend "Jesus: A Novel" by Walter Wangerin. I am always searching for more works like that, and must say that although this one was creative enough by itself, it fell far short in comparison to how moving and realistic Wangerin's novel is.***

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