Life of Jesus Christ, The

Rating:
Summary: Should be considered a classic of Christian literature
Review: James A. Stalker (1848-1929) was a noted pastor and theologian of the Free Church of Scotland, and in 1879 he published this book as a handbook for Bible classes. Taking the Gospel accounts as his sole resource, Dr. Stalker weaves the various threads of Jesus' life together into a coherent and wonderfully understandable biography.

As might be expected from such a Biblical study, certain facts that might be extracted from other resources (such as the existence of the Jewish sect of the Essenes) are completely overlooked. Also, if you have problems with Gospel record, such as considering it anti-Semitic, then you will also dislike this book.

However, as for myself, I enjoyed the way that Dr. Stalker took the many facts I knew about Jesus, and presented me with a coherent story of Jesus' life, with all of the episodes of His life put into context. I found this to be a great read, and think that it ought to be considered a classic of Christian literature. It does not mention Muslims or any other more modern people and groups, and one should be careful to not extend the author's words beyond what he intended. If you love the Biblical account of Jesus' life, then you will enjoy this book - I did!

Rating:
Summary: Concise, yet rich
Review: The Life of Jesus Christ by James Stalker is a concise exploration of Christ's childhood, his ministry, death and resurrection. This is an excellent resource to learn about the culture surrounding Jesus' ministry. Knowing this information puts much of this period into historical context. I recommend this work. This work was written over 100 years ago, and it's content is timeless. I did find a few words or phrases here and there to reflect his Scottish background, but there was nothing that made it difficult to read.

Rating:
Summary: Simply unscholarly and curtly anti-Semitic
Review: This book is written from a very, very biased perspective against Jews and Muslims, yet seemingly without understanding of either religion. The author does not examine Jesus' life in context with Judaism, but takes Paul's interpretation upon every matter, rather than seeing the obviousness of what is being taught from a Judaic perspective. He simply takes Jesus from his culture and distorts his teachings to appear as if he is not Jewish, when in fact Jesus confessed to be Jewish. The author even overlooks the fact that many of Jesus' teachings came from the Oral Torah, or the so called 'tradition of the elders,' for the purpose of putting down the oral tradition, yet exalting the contradictory tradition maintained by Paul. Essentially, it is a "My ideology is better than your ideology" type of book, which takes every opportunity of putting down the Pharisees and other Jewish groups, even modern Orthodox Jews, in order to extol his own opinions as if they were absolute truth. If you want a good book about Jesus' teachings that do not take the fanatical viewpoints of this author, it is well worth your time to read "Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus, New Insights From a Hebraic Perspective," by David Bivin. Although I disagree with his interpretations in many areas, overall it is very enlightening and is a good first step in order to understand what Jesus taught, not what authors such as Stalker wants you to believe. Keep in mind, however, that the only way to truly learn more about Jesus would be to read the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) and the rest of the Tanakh in it's original context, not reading it simply to place Paulism over Judaism. Learn Hebrew, learn the Oral Torah, review the history of the era, and study.

Of course, if you feel that it is easier just to pick up a simple fundamentalist Christian book and take the authors' opinions for your own, without logical thought and reasoning, this is a good book for you.