Bedtime reading

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Katrina Sells

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Nov 6, 2011, 6:33:44 PM11/6/11

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Kirk,

I would love a recommendation for some additional reading about the
Intertestamental period. Does anyone address why writings from that
time period were not included in the Bible? Especially if it helps
set the stage for what kind of world Jesus was entering. Something
like that would have helped me out a long time ago! (Maybe something
for Beyond Next Steps?)

I'm also intrigued by this way we're looking at Jesus' parables in the
context of what was going on in the day. Any further reading on
dissecting the parables in that way? That has been fascinating and
mind-opening!

Thanks for a great class (I mean course)!

Katrina

Kirk

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Nov 10, 2011, 10:19:55 PM11/10/11

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You know how I love such questions...

A couple of great resources for the inter-testamental period...

First is N.T. Wright's book The New Testament and the People of God. It's vol. 1. Jesus and the Victory of God is vol. 2. NTPG was written because Wright kept discovering his grad students weren't sufficiently familiar with the background to the NT and he was tired of repeating it. :-) JVoG is the finest book on Jesus I've ever read. Together they will change your life.
Second is the course The Beginnings of Judaism from The Teaching Company.

Together these will give you a great deal of insight (and keep you out of a life of crime for many weeks!).

Another very worthwhile exercise is to read the Apocrypha, esp 1-2 Maccabees (a Jewish record of the revolt against the Seleucids).

And you can always curl up with the Complete Works of Josephus (Jewish historian who was roughly a contemporary of Jesus - a little later). His History of the Jews is particularly illuminating. The link I gave is for the standard translation - available for $6!!!