LIFE IN YEAR ONE

LIFE IN YEAR ONE: What the World Was Like in First-Century Palestine
By Scott Korb
Riverhead Books, 2010
Review by George R. Pasley

Hear is an easily read, thorough, and enjoyable summary of the entire sum of knowledge about life in Galilee during Jesus’ lifetime.

Scot Korb has devoured everything written on the subject, arranged it into ten easy chapters so that non-scholars can easily understand it, and busy scholars can easily digest it. Furthermore, he makes it funny (Talking about cleanliness- or the lack thereof, due to water shortages, he says “A place like Nazareth, without much of local body of water to speak of…would have remained small. A town can only take sop much concentrated stink.”).

Beyond reading all the literature (though he quotes Crossan and Reed most often), Korb visited Israel and Palestine himself, and interviewed numerous archaeologists. The book has numerous annotations, references to quotes, and along bibliography. Makes a great addition to any church library, and affine introduction to the subject for all biblical scholars.

July 31, 2010