Bread and Stone-A New Kingdom Review

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(More customer reviews)I have read Cheryl's first book, Wilderness Refuge and thoroughly enjoyed it. When Bread and Stone came out I couldn't wait to continue with this wonderful story of the lives of people who lived in Jesus time. I was so impressed with the historical accuracy of the background of the story and especially with the extenive 11 page bibliograpy at the end of the book. I learned and was entertained at the same time. I would highly recommend this book and am looking forward to the next one.

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In AD 30, Valerio Tullus and his Jerusalem household are shaken by an earthquake, but more so by Yeshua, a Galilean rabbi shaking Jewish society by proclaiming God's coming kingdom.Eight years before, Valerio arrived in Judea dead to all he loved. But after fighting and nearly dying to defend Leah, a young Jewish woman whose struggle to survive and serve God had inspired him, Valerio realizes that her compassionate God saved his life. Now he wonders - does Yeshua possess the same divine power?To find out, Valerio, Leah, and her children Simon and Anna set out for Galilee in search of Yeshua, and their encounter with the rabbi shakes the foundations of their lives. Is God's kingdom coming soon, they wonder? Will their love for one another endure when it does? And what will happen to Yeshua?In her writing, Cheryl Ann Toliver hopes to engage readers in New Testament culture and history, so they can better understand its message and learn what people thought of Jesus in his lifetime. In Bread and Stone: A New Kingdom, she continues her story begun in Wilderness Refuge: A Prophet's Kingdom.Publisher's website: http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/BreadAndStone-ANewKingdom.html

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Jesus the Sage: The Pilgrimage of Wisdom Review

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(More customer reviews)Ben Witherington III has contributed a marvelous work to the study of one of the key, yet obscure leadership roles in Scripture. While we often think of kings, priests, and prophets in the Old Testament, this book gives the reader some very convincing proof of the sage's crucial role in leading and influencing society. With great skill (and tremendous footnotes!) the author weaves the sage's role from Old Testament, through the inter-testamental period, and climaxes with the picture of Jesus as Sage. But he doesn't stop there and adds several New Testament persons to the list of those we can consider "sage." For anyone looking to deeply study the role of sage and the nature of divine wisdom would spend their money wisely in getting this book.

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The path of wisdom from Solomon to Jesus and from Jesus to the churchIn the early Jesus movement, wisdom in the person of Jesus was believed to have returned to heaven, exalted to the right hand of God, and to reign from there. But Jesus as wisdom had left both his legacy and his influence behind. The sayings of Jesus recorded in the Gospels reflect not only the influence of the Israelite wisdom traditions, but also the tradition of the personification of wisdom.In this provocative volume newly available in paperback, Ben Witherington provides both an introduction to Israel's wisdom traditions and insight into how Jesus and his sayings fit in that tradition. Beyond this, he demonstrates the on-going significance and influence of these traditions on other New Testament writings. He concludes that Jesus may be viewed primarily as a prophetic sage emphasizing instruction, insight, and humor in a vein counter to the dominant culture.

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What Crucified Jesus?: Messianism, Pharisaism, and the Development of Christianity Review

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(More customer reviews)Ellis Rivkin has written a book that confronts head-on the erroneous perception that the Jews crucified Jesus. This would be a surprise to most Christians. It was to me. With a reasoned and enlightened style, Rivkin takes us back to the historical, religious and political context of the New Testament, with special analysis of what it was like to be an observant Jew living in Israel under total Roman domination at a time when Jews, as today, were doctrinally divided on key interpretations of Scripture, such as the resurrection from the dead, temple worship, and messiah. Essentially what Rivkin does for us is to provide the vital historial, religious, and political context to the New Testament (NT) narratives, a context that is missing or out of focus for most Christians, who, wanting to focus mainly on the Gospel message, also absorb the palpable anti-Jewish tone throughout the narratives. Rivkin points out repeatedly that the anti-Jewish tone must be understood in the right context and cannot be construed as being anti-semitic in intent or interpreted as some kind of justication for the Christ-killer libel that has been propagated against Jews for centuries. In other words, for Christians, there is no justification based on NT Scripture that the Jews crucified Jesus; and, for Jews, there is no justification for slandering the writers of the NT by saying that they hated the Jewish people and thereby have spread their presumed hatred to the world through the NT Gospels, Letters, and histories. There is much more to this book, and it is worth the inexpensive price. It should be read by itself for the analysis and style, although it is repetitive in places because it is apparently an edited compilation of speeches by the author on the topic of Christian anti-semitism. An if any Christian doubts the extent of Christian anti-semitism in Church history and today, let him or her also read another seminal title, "The Anguish of the Jews" by the eminent and scholarly priest-author Edward Flannery, who died in 10/98 in his 80's. These books deal with a topic that is as current as today's headlines, on an issue that is at the heart of peace and justice in the world today, and at the heart the prophetic stories in the Bible. Importantly, Rivkin's book can give Jews and Christians another reason to understand and even trust each other a little bit more because of their common heritage and their G-d, in spite of doctrinal differences.

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This landmark book by noted scholar Dr. Ellis Rivkin examines the legacy of the Gospels, which traditionally assigned the responsibility for the arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus to the Jewish people.

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