Scripture Footnotes (Our Sunday Visitor)

Have you ever wondered what it was like in the times of Jesus? I know we have the Gospels and other historical accounts, but not everyone has the time to spend doing that much research and reading. Thankfully, there were great men and women before us who did and compiled it in an easy to read format. George Martin wrote just such a book and titled it Scripture Footnotes, a clever title because footnotes are helpful text when reading something difficult and because he wants us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. For those of you unfamiliar with George Martin, he was the founding editor of the Scripture magazine God's Word Today. He also wrote one of the best series on the Gospels called Bringing the Gospel of Matthew/Mark/Luke/John to Life, all of which were published by Our Sunday Visitor. Today, however, I would just like to focus on Scripture Footnotes. The book is approximately 150 pages long and is divided into the following seven sections:

1. Daily Life in the Time of Jesus
2. The Lay of the Land: Regions and places
3. The Lay of the Land: Towns
4. The Jewish World of Jesus
5. The People in Jesus' World
6. What Comes Next?
7. Jesus

Each section is then broken down into subsections that are a paragraph or a page long. Such subsections talk about different languages - Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek; what people ate, who were the different Jewish groups, etc. Sections Two and Three, "The Lay of the Land" were the most interesting sections in this book for me. I can't tell you how many different times I have been reading a Gospel passage and wanted to pull out a map or get a better idea of the significance of the places Jesus visited. For example, in this book I learned that Tiberias was a capital city constructed by Herod Antipas. While it was being constructed, a cemetery was discovered there making it unclean for Jews to live there, and a big reason why mainly Gentiles lived there. During his time on this earth, Jesus never visited there, despite its close proximity to Capernaum. However, he did gain several followers from there, so word of Him spread there despite His never setting foot there.

This is a quick and simple read. You can sit down and just flip to the sections that pertain what you are currently reading in the Gospels or parts that interest you most, or you can sit down and read it in one sitting without meaning to like I did. After reading through this book, you will see a great increase in your knowledge of the Gospels and will want to dive deeper into your studies, re-reading the Gospels alongside this book. Highly recommended!

This book was provided to me by Our Sunday Visitor in exchange for an honest review.