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"The Last Week: 'One of the most careful and insightful readings of the Bible I've ever come across... [an] important, fascinating and well-written book.' Brian McLaren, author of A New Kind of Christian"
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In "The First Christmas", two of today's top Jesus scholars, Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, show how history has biased our reading of the nativity story as it appears in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. "The First Christmas" explores the beginning of the life of Christ, peeling away the sentimentalism that has build up over two thousand years around this most well known of all stories to reveal the truth of what the Gospels actually say.Borg and Crossan help us to see this familiar narrative afresh by answering the question, 'What do these stories mean?' from the perspective of both the first and the twenty-first centuries. They successfully show that the Christmas story, read in its original context, is far richer and more challenging than people imagine.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
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The birth narratives in Matthew and Luke are so familiar, heard every Christmas in church and on the radio, that I wasn't sure there was much more I could learn about them. How wrong I was! Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan's book started brilliantly; within the first chapter I was hooked on what they unfolded. They approach the birth narratives as parables/metaphors, not particularly addressing modern-day ideas of historicity but instead looking at the narratives and their structure in terms of what the gospel writers might have wanted to say. It becomes clear that Matthew and Luke are very different, with Matthew presenting Jesus as the New Moses, reflecting many images and ideas from Jewish writings, and Luke's emphasis on the stories as an overture to his larger themes of women, the marginalised and the Holy Spirit.
The book goes step-by-step through some parts of the nativity stories, explaining the historical context for many of the events, showing the parallels and the differences between the gospels, relating parts to historical or metaphorical events. I found the book began slightly to drag by the end but I was really taken by much of what they said, particularly the links Matthew makes between Jesus, Moses and Caesar. Some more conservative Christians will probably find the liberal tone of the book too much to stomach which is a real shame as there are some real gems in here, but for those with an open mind and an interest in understanding more about the world of the time of Jesus this is an unmissable book.
The book goes step-by-step through some parts of the nativity stories, explaining the historical context for many of the events, showing the parallels and the differences between the gospels, relating parts to historical or metaphorical events. I found the book began slightly to drag by the end but I was really taken by much of what they said, particularly the links Matthew makes between Jesus, Moses and Caesar. Some more conservative Christians will probably find the liberal tone of the book too much to stomach which is a real shame as there are some real gems in here, but for those with an open mind and an interest in understanding more about the world of the time of Jesus this is an unmissable book.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
An attempt by two distinguished American scholars to get at the heart of what the birth stories mean without getting embroiled in their historical accuracy or the biblical and theological arguments arising within them, beginning with the gospel stories which they see as overtures, parables or stories with meanings rather than history, setting the tone and themes for what is to come.
The context is then explored `within Christianity, within Judaism, within the Roman empire', and against the background of the immediate past and explore with no shortage of detailed information on the ancient world's view of virgin birth and divine conception.
Light (as opposed to darkness) is regarded as an archetypal symbol whose imagery pervades the Old and New Testaments and probably explains why the birth of Jesus taking place on a winter evening in the middle of a dark night. This is not so much historic time as parabolic time, metaphorical time, sacred time and symbolic time.
Predictions (`that it may be fulfilled . . .' ) are not predictions of something to happen in the distant future and certainly not predictions of Jesus. Matthew, for example, is not trying to prove that Jesus was the Messiah nor was he trying to impress or convince `outsiders' but to reflect the convictions of `insiders'.
The value of these stories lies in what mean for us today rather than what meant in origin. We are to understand and relate them to our situation, with an emphasis on joy but joy with conflict, and see advent as a time of anticipation, expectation and repentant preparation but a repentance that has more to do with change than with confessing our sins.
Commended especially to preachers and leaders of worship. It could transform our Christmas services, create new life in the midst of traditional ritual and present the gospel in a way which has meaning for everybody.
The context is then explored `within Christianity, within Judaism, within the Roman empire', and against the background of the immediate past and explore with no shortage of detailed information on the ancient world's view of virgin birth and divine conception.
Light (as opposed to darkness) is regarded as an archetypal symbol whose imagery pervades the Old and New Testaments and probably explains why the birth of Jesus taking place on a winter evening in the middle of a dark night. This is not so much historic time as parabolic time, metaphorical time, sacred time and symbolic time.
Predictions (`that it may be fulfilled . . .' ) are not predictions of something to happen in the distant future and certainly not predictions of Jesus. Matthew, for example, is not trying to prove that Jesus was the Messiah nor was he trying to impress or convince `outsiders' but to reflect the convictions of `insiders'.
The value of these stories lies in what mean for us today rather than what meant in origin. We are to understand and relate them to our situation, with an emphasis on joy but joy with conflict, and see advent as a time of anticipation, expectation and repentant preparation but a repentance that has more to do with change than with confessing our sins.
Commended especially to preachers and leaders of worship. It could transform our Christmas services, create new life in the midst of traditional ritual and present the gospel in a way which has meaning for everybody.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Following on from their highly successful collaboration `Last Week: What the Gospels Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem', Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan examine here the two accounts at the other end of Jesus' life - the nativity stories in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Steering adroitly away from discussion about the historical veracity or otherwise of the events Matthew and Luke portray, the authors concentrate instead on analysing what meaning the Gospel writers were trying to convey to their hearers and readers through the conscious, careful construction of what they wrote. By close textual (and contextual) analysis, they seek to demonstrate that Matthew was trying to portray Jesus as a new Moses, while Luke aimed to show that a new ruler was here, challenging the emperor Augustus' claim to be `Lord' and `Saviour' of the known (Roman) world.
What's fresh and exciting about this is the way Borg and Crossan then bring their conclusions right up to date by juxtaposing Matthew and Luke' challenge to the Roman empire with the challenge of Jesus now to contemporary Western (and particularly American) ideologies of empire, even reclaiming George Bush's language of `manifest destiny' for Jesus: this is a startling, if understated, critique of American pretensions to impose its superpower views on the rest of the world. For those in thrall to the American vision, Jesus' alternative way is clearly signposted here. A possibly epoch-making book: it only misses five stars because its American focus will not necessarily be to UK tastes, and because there's a certain amount of repetition and redundancy in the argument.
What's fresh and exciting about this is the way Borg and Crossan then bring their conclusions right up to date by juxtaposing Matthew and Luke' challenge to the Roman empire with the challenge of Jesus now to contemporary Western (and particularly American) ideologies of empire, even reclaiming George Bush's language of `manifest destiny' for Jesus: this is a startling, if understated, critique of American pretensions to impose its superpower views on the rest of the world. For those in thrall to the American vision, Jesus' alternative way is clearly signposted here. A possibly epoch-making book: it only misses five stars because its American focus will not necessarily be to UK tastes, and because there's a certain amount of repetition and redundancy in the argument.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The First Christmas
I have read a number of books by Borg alone or by Borg and Crossan. They are usually easy reads, but that is not the case with this. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Liz Smith
A good and honest introduction to the Nativity stories
I have read this book several times and I have also sent copies of to friends; I can therefore say that I believe it be a book which demands a wider readership. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Eddie Normal
A laywoman's view
I had known for many years that some of the titles used by early Christians to refer to Jesus upset the Romans ( to put it mildly! Read more
Published on 26 Feb 2009 by E. A. M. Clark
Unanswered questions
A well researched and interesting book which casts new light on the biblical stories of Jesus' birth and makes one think again. Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2009 by M. Findley
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