In the Footsteps of Jesus: A Journey Through His Life: A Chronicle of His Life and the Origins of Christianity

An excellent book full of value fact & photos. It is written from a Roman Catholic/Orthodox point of view. It does not appear to appreciate the evangelical or protestant view of the Christian religion. We used to live & work, both, I as a lawyer & also we as Christian volunteers, at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem - that is only mentioned in rather disparaging & dismissive comments, with which I would not agree.However, it is an amazing and well documented study which I have shown to many other friends & which we can use in our Christian work & witness. Please thank the author, the publisher & the National Geographic , f r producing. It was especially fortunate that it was mentioned in the Dec 2017 edition of the NG magazine & so I was alerted to buy the book itself. Well done - a most valuable contribution to Christian knowledge & so to faith

Wonderful and typical of National Geographic high standards.

Excellent service would recommend

Very informative and interesting book

This book was a gift and initially turned out to be more interesting than I’d expected and filled in some knowledge gaps for me (nuggets of information). The first and most interesting one was that Saul/Paul of Tarsus was a Roman citizen because everyone who came from Tarsus was, being granted that status on account of Tarsus always being its dues to the Romans. Another was the explanation about the Herod’s. Only Herod the Great was a king. Herod Antipas was a Tetrarch as the bible states but without explaining what the difference was – a Tetrarch was a long way beneath a king. The book also explains how Herod Antipas came to be in the position he was and how much less powerful he was than King Herod.But as the book progresses at times the comments are odd and the emphasis on the source misguided or simply sloppy. The author states ‘three wise men’ But there is no biblical or other statement for the wise men being three in number. Yes, there were three gifts but no record states one gift, one person. In other instances, the author writes that Jesus was acting so as to fulfill prophecy rather than actually fulfilling it without providing any evidence for saying so.The author tells us that the purpose of Jesus’s first exorcism was to authenticate his divine mission without exploring any alternative (spiritually supernatural) explanation.The author tells us that ‘Jesus had decided to become an itinerant preacher’ without inviting debate or substantiating his claim which he presents as fact. Surely the truth is that Jesus followed his calling, his purpose and his destiny?The book gets worse as the author frequently presents his opinion as facts and all too frequently speculates. The geographical insight into Jesus life is good (hopefully accurate) but the gospel accounts are at times questioned and given less weight than a single Roman source ‘Josephus – Antiquities of the Jews’. For example, the author suggests or infers the gospel accounts were written to specifically parallel Old Testament miracles performed by the prophets, rather than being true events revealed, miracles performed by Jesus to reveal he was greater than the prophets of the past and therefore that was what the gospel writers recorded. He also endeavours to explain the miracles away as not really being miracles, again without supporting his opinion.Towards the end of the book you don’t get the origins of Christianity as much as a history of Roman Emperors.So, in summary what do you get? Well you get an interesting architectural insight around the time of the New Testament of the bible, you also get some interesting insight into the Romans. But unfortunately, you also get a lot of the author’s opinion presented as fact, and without invitation to consider or debate those opinions and which aren’t ones I agree with for a number of reasons not withstanding they really aren’t close to being solid facts, despite being presented as such. I don’t think this misleading book is good enough for a charity shop, it’s going in the bin.

This is a beautiful book and so well written

An excellent read by a very professional and learned archaelogist.Enjoyed every word, picture and maps.Will definitely get more books written by this Prof.

This is one of the best books of its type that I have. It has beautiful pictures, is easy to read, provides pictures of artifacts, places, maps and links it to bible versus. The authors did an excellent job.

Excellent - it’s off on some geographical locations and names but nonetheless it’s not too bad in accuracy.

ナショジオ社らしく豊富な写真資料や地形データを掲載している。本書に日本語翻訳版は無い。著者のジャン・ピエール・イブス氏がナショジオで著作した本で日本語訳があるものは”The Biblical World: An Illustrated Atlas”(2007年)の邦訳「地図と写真で読む 聖書の世界」(2007年)のみとなる。しかし”Archaeology of the Bible(2016年)”の方が新しく出版されたものとなり、二つを比較すると、考古学的な知見の変遷が見られるのも興味深い。更にその１年後に発行されたが本書”IN THE FOOTSTEP OF JESUS”(2017年)となる。本書が新約時代の最新版となる。内容的には”The Biblical World”と”Archaeology of the Bible”の新約聖書時代を合わせ、最新情報に更新した内容となっている。　問題は本書は誰に向けて書かれた本であるかという点である。福音主義的ではないという人もいるし、福音主義的だという人もいる。結論から言うと、著者は十分に福音主義的であり、かつカトリックと正教とも矛盾せず、かつ考古学的にも矛盾しない真理を追究をしたと言える。ここに一つの完成を見たと言ってよい内容となっている。　例えば2007年の”The Biblical World”では著者はヨハネ福音書の記述の研究に注力したために、マタイとマルコには記載されている「鞭打ち」を考慮していなかった。共観福音書を無視する姿勢は福音主義的ではなかった。だがこの2017年の”IN THE FOOTSTEP OF JESUS”では、マタイとマルコに記載の鞭打ちは、考古学的にあったとし、ヘロデ宮殿でそれを行うはずはなく、それはアントニウス要塞だったとして、Via Dolorosaの正統性について可能性を否定しなくなったのは福音主義的な思考という事になる。　また2007年の”The Biblical World”で著者はゴルゴタの場所は「園の墓」である可能性についても言及していた。それは現在の聖墳墓教会が現代のエルサレム城壁の内側にあり、「園の墓」は現代のエルサレムの城壁の外にあり、聖墳墓教会の位置は福音書の記述と異なると考えたからである。これは思考的には福音主義的な思考だ。だがイエスの時代は現在の城壁は無く、AD70にエルサレムが陥落した以降にローマが作ったものであり、あるとすれば第三城壁であるが、その第三城壁自体もAD70年の対ローマ戦を見越して急ごしらえされ、イエスが居た時代には無く、そもそも「聖墳墓教会」も「園の墓」も第三城壁内であり、両者とも第二城壁外である。逆に聖墳墓教会はエルサレム城外でかつ発掘された第二城壁城門遺跡の目の前で「人通りが多い」ところであるが、「園の墓」は城門から離れているため、よほど視力の良い人でもさすがに罪状書は町から読むことはできない。ゴルゴタは聖墳墓教会だったとするのは、これもまた福音主義的な思考ということになる。　著者はカトリックや正教の立場で本書を書いたわけではなく、徹底的な福音主義の立場で書いたものであるが、結果的にはカトリックや正教の立場と矛盾しない内容になっている。これは世界中探しても、このような冷静な立場で書かれた著作物は他に類を見ないであろう。今後ともジャン・ピエール・イブス氏の著作には注目する必要があるだろう。

Printed on very high quality paper, this is a lovely book. Photos taken of artifacts and current sites and so well done. Nat Geo always does a great job. I highly recommend.