"Killing Jesus, A History," by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, is one of those rare pieces of non-fiction that is very readable. Compared to this book, the Western Civ textbooks you were forced to read in High School are like dust and ashes.
This book goes back 50 years before Jesus was born to give the reader a clear understanding of the social and political times during Jesus?s lifetime. It shows us the extremely immoral and violent culture of Imperial Rome. And it leads us to think we may even understand the pressures and motivations of the people in charge --- The Roman Emporer, Herod, Pilate, and Caiaphas, the Jewish High Priest.
I believe the authors would agree that the crucifixion of Jesus, given His popularity and propensity for antagonizing the establishment, was almost inevitable. Yes, the book does go into some graphic detail of the process of crucifixion and flogging, so it could be rated "R" for violence.
In the end, the authors do raise the question of how Jesus ended up becoming the most influential man in history. Given His relative anonymity to the world at large, this would not have happened; unless, of course, He is who He said He was.
No comments:
Post a Comment