Modern-day Christians often bring their own presuppositions and assumptions to the reading of the Bible, not realizing how deeply their understanding of Christ's life and teachings is affected by a 21st-century worldview. In Understanding Jesus, author Joe Amaral delves deep into Jewish history, societal mores, and cultural traditions, closing the gap created by geographical distance and over two thousand years of history. Using a chronological approach to the life of Christ, he guides the reader through significant events such as Jesus' birth, baptism, and crucifixion, pointing out illuminating details that that the Western mind would normally miss. Amaral's premise is that to understand Jesus, we must understand the time and place in which he was born, the background from which he drew his illustrations, and the audience he spoke to. Throughout the book he explores specific terms, places, and events for their significance and shows how they add richness and meaning to the text. Topics include the connection between Jesus and John the Baptist, the annual Feasts and why they are important to modern Christianity, Jewish customs such as foot-washing, clean and unclean foods, paying tribute to political governments, and the significance of various miracles. In Understanding Jesus, Amaral draws back the curtain on a way of life that existed during the reign of the Caesars, and in doing so, reveals truths about the way we live more than two thousand years later, half a world away.

Amaral's premise is that to understand Jesus, we must understand the time and place in which he was born, the background from which he drew his illustrations, and the audience he spoke to. Throughout the book he explores specific terms, places, and events for their significance and shows how they add richness and meaning to the text. --from publisher description

Understanding the Difficult Words of Jesus“This book will stir the pot of biblical scholarship for years to come. It will force many to rethink the origin of the Gospels and the Jewishness of Jesus. Some may disagree with Bivin and Blizzard at certain points. No one, however, can ignore the soundness of their conclusion: Jesus is a Hebrew...

He’s the most important person in human history—and Understanding Jesus: A Guide to His Life and Times makes His teaching and impact clearer than ever. More than any other Bible character, Jesus is the person both Christians and non-Christians admire and want to better understand. From Stephen M. Miller, author of the bestselling Who’s Who and Where’s Where in the Bible, this black-and-white paperback reference details the life of Christ, His teachings, and the faith He introduced to the world. You’ll love Miller’s casual, easy-to-read journalistic style, as he sets the story in the Roman world where Jesus lived, adding new insights from archaeology and ancient history. Fascinating sidebars and a complete topical index round out this important book.

The authors examine everything Jesus said about future events as recorded in the four canonical Gospels. This includes the famous Olivet Discourse along with many other parables and sayings. The authors situate Jesus's teaching in its original literary and first-century Jewish and Greco-Roman context.

Previously published in hardcover as King's Cross The most influential man to ever walk the earth has had his story told in hundreds of different ways for thousands of years. Can any more be said? Now, Timothy Keller, New York Times bestselling author of The Prodigal Prophet and the man Newsweek called a “C. S. Lewis for the twenty-first century,” unlocks new insights into the life of Jesus Christ as he explores how Jesus came as a king, but a king who had to bear the greatest burden anyone ever has. Jesus the King is Keller’s revelatory look at the life of Christ as told in the Gospel of Mark. In it, Keller shows how the story of Jesus is at once cosmic, historical, and personal, calling each of us to look anew at our relationship with God. It is an unforgettable look at Jesus Christ, and one that will leave an indelible imprint on every reader.

Commenting on how Christianity is unique among the worlds religions, Fleming Rutledge writes, Until the gospel of Jesus Christ burst upon the Mediterranean world, no one in the history of human imagination had ever conceived of such a thing as the worship of a crucified man. In this book Rutledge looks at the crucifixion of Christ from every angle, considering the entire spectrum of themes and motifs used in the New Testament to interpret Christs horrific death by public torture. Only in such a rich interplay of themes, she argues, can the full gospel of Christs death for the salvation of the world be fully understood and fully embraced. Nearly two decades in the making, Rutledges Crucifixion addresses the singular absence of preaching about the cross in churches today. As theologian Robert Jenson says, This justly celebrated preacher has been digging into the doctrine of atonement for many years. Here is the rich harvest of her labors -- a resource especially for preachers like herself.