<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Useful
Review: Expanding and reissuing an established classroom text, Professor Malina provides the beginning Bible student with an historically and culturally accurate panorama of first century a.d. Palestine. The greatest value in his work is that it helps contemporary Christians to avoid anachronisms when contemplating Jesus and the early Jesus movements.Professor Malina's syntax is often stilted and verbose. This text reviews substantial amounts of materials published elsewhere. Nevertheless, the text is useful, especially for the beginning student of the New Testament.
Rating:
Summary: Useful
Review: Expanding and reissuing an established classroom text, Professor Malina provides the beginning Bible student with an historically and culturally accurate panorama of first century a.d. Palestine. The greatest value in his work is that it helps contemporary Christians to avoid anachronisms when contemplating Jesus and the early Jesus movements. Professor Malina's syntax is often stilted and verbose. This text reviews substantial amounts of materials published elsewhere. Nevertheless, the text is useful, especially for the beginning student of the New Testament.
Rating: 
Summary: Great resource!
Review: I really enjoyed this book and its insights into the norms and mores of the time when Jesus walked the earth. Being American, most of the material regarding everyday life in the Middle East at that time is somewhat foreign to me, my way of thinking and my upbringing. This book will help clear up difficulties encountered in the Gospels in the areas of: honor and shame, individual versus group, social status, kinship and marriage and what is considered clean and unclean. It is written in a relaxed, easy style and is a great resource for studying the life and times of Jesus. I have made room for this fine work on my shelves so that it will be at my fingertips when I need a first century reality check. -- Moza
Rating:
Summary: Really opens new horizons for the reading of the N T
Review: Malina looks into the culture, presuppositions and values of the first century Mediterranean peoples. The understanding of the way of life and values open up new understanding of many passages principally of the Gospels which are difficult to understand. The value of honor & shame illumine many of the controversies surrounding the person of the hisorical Jesus. This really is great reading for anyone who wants to understand the Gospels today. Enveloped in a Western materialistic and individualistic culture (anti-culture?) it's difficult to enter into the mind of the first century. Malina helps us to do this and therefore to be able to understand the Gospels and the person of Jesus better.
Rating:
Summary: Must Read
Review: Malina's volume is a must for anyone who intends to exegete the New Testament. Students of the Bible will benefit greatly from the material because it introduces one to a world unlike our own.
Rating: 
Summary: Good info, but academic
Review: The material in this book is very interesting, it provides great insight to how first century Mediterraneans lived, but the writing is very academic and dry. This is a required text for my lay school class, and we found it difficult to slog through. This book needs Cliff Notes.
<< 1 >>
| 
