Jesus and His World: The Archaeological Evidence

Craig Evans is a scholar of the highest order. He goes into detail on how archeology can help clarify and explain the life of Jesus. He also discredits some of the more sensational claims about Jesus and his life. I highly recommend this book to everyone who's interested in Jesus, the New Testament, archeology, and ancient history!

Great for people unfamiliar with what life was like in 1st century Palestine. Evans is one of the top scholars today writing on the historical Jesus. Be aware, this book does NOT attempt to prove the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth, rather Jesus' existence is assumed on the basis of the near uniform consensus of ancient historians who accept his existence. Evans has no time to entertain the wild nonsense that Murdock and Carrier preach to their internet groupies.Rather, this book shows what everyday life would have been like for an itinerant preacher in Roman Israel. Even though Evans writes from an Evangelical perspective, this book is worth reading if you want to understand Jesus' social-historical context.

I liked the detail of the literary and archeology findings discussed in this book. It will be a good reference during travel to Isreal.

Some people are just good know it alls, but I am a curiosity hound that finds archeology fascinating and informative. This book is good we folks who continue to relish documentation that supports Biblical history and defunct doubt and speculation. A nice easy read and follow for the average reader and maybe a few nuggets for the advanced reader as well. This is a good read.

I cannot begin to explain how much I enjoyed and appreciated this book. Rather than arguing with those who would denigrate the historical Jesus and reduce him to a mischevious country bumpkin, Evans simply refutes the various arguments given by people like the Jesus Seminar by outlining what archaeology says about the time of Jesus. I especially appreciated the photos.

For anyone who is interested in the times and places in which Jesus and his disciples lived. There is no religious OR anti-religious agenda here, just a straightforward look at what archaeology can tell us about Bible times. It is written with academic rigor, but not in jargon; it is intended for nonarchaeologists and students. Excellent resource!

Craig Evans is a talented scholar and skillful author, explaining how the objections of biblical skeptics have been overblown, and how archaeology fully agrees with the biblical narrative.

There are so many points of reference to where the information came from that it makes reading this book very choppy and difficult. I was thinking it would be more of an informational book, but I think it was meant more for a college level religion course or something.

Excellent volume by a conservative professor. As an atheist I can appreciate Evans's scholarship. Very useful if you are, like me, interested in the period. Accepting Jesus was an historic figure is not a matter of faith - we can look at the very little evidence available; however, claiming he was a god, born of a virgin, and resurrected from the dead are, and the archeology does not support these claims at all. Of course, Evans makes leaps of faith and has presuppositions, but still very valuable.

Craig Evans' book is scholarly, up to date and very readable. I couldn't put it down. Evans deals with a number of questions- Could Jesus have been able to read? Did Nazareth exist? Where there synagogues at that time? How were Jews really buried? With archaeological evidence Evans answers these questions and more giving clarity and light to the first century period. Great buy, well worth reading.

Very readable survey of archaeological discoveries as they relate to life in New Testament times. Good balance of scholarly insight, helpful comment on the impact of archaeology on certain academic ideas, and yet readable style accessible to lay readers, with useful content on how various discoveries relate to content of the gospels. Useful and relevant. Would recommend.

Ok but a lot of what he says doesnt apply directly to Jesus. I found I ended up skipping some pages as it tends to go on and on making the same point.

Good to see the sensationalist, agenda-driven media refuted by basic facts, cool-headed reasoning. Archaeological evidence is patchy, but doesn't affirm these extravagant efforts to undermine the NT. Useful photographs; they would have been worth colour, though.