Janet’s Book Nook

James D. Tabor

I chose this book because it was authored by one of the archaeologists featured in the book The Jesus Family Tomb. I thought that it would be a continuation or additional reference for the information I read in that book. This book was completely different in subject matter and much less enjoyable to read. The issues I had with this book were that the premise of the book is that Jesus was claimed to be the Messiah because of his family lineage and not because of his supposed position as the son of God. The author also tries to make a case for the fact that John the Baptizer was also a Messiah on the same level as Jesus. He goes to great lengths to prove that Jesus and John were cousins who through their lineage were claimed as the Kingly and Priestly Messiahs. The issues with this are that Mr. Tabor makes many more accusations based not on science or on actual historical facts but on his own assumptions. This book was much drier in nature and comes off as being unbelievable in some aspects because of my faith. I doubt that I would recommend this book to any but the staunchest of fans of Jesus Archeology.