The Final Days of Jesus: The Archaeological Evidence

Shimon Gibson (SG) is a very experienced and knowledgeable israeli archaelogist on excavations around Jerusalem & more.The idea of this book is to fill in the gaps in history of Jesus' final days in Jerusalem.Then the question is,this archaelogical evidence (AE),what is it based on?SG uses analysis of the Gospels(Mark,Luke,Matthew & John) and other historical israeli literature to give us AE to support the literature / give more insight on the last days of Jesus.The problem is the lack of details in the literature to support the AE & vice versa and where there are divergent literature views,he takes his preferred view (what can one do? / what if he is wrong?). These make some of his conclusions controversial.I would have liked SG to give more evidence on why he thinks Jesus'tomb is likely to be the one in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre(CHS) or give some thorough history how/why/when/who it came to be that the church(CHS) was built in this site.His out of hand dismissal of the Talpiot Tomb(TT) as the tomb of Jesus is interesting but very shallow.He (SG) is the one who did the archaelogical mapping of the Talpiot Tomb for Israel Antiquities Authority(IAA) in 1980 when the TT was first discovered. He, however is quite successful in painting a probable picture of the landscape of Jerusalem during the last week of Jesus in Jerusalem.He also manages well to fill in the gaps in this difficult & sometimes controversial subject.Some revision of this important book in the future may be very helpful as this AE book paints a valuable landscape picture during the time of Jesus.

Excellent book. I have questions to ask Shimon Gibson, but there is no way to contact him. I have been unable to locate his e:mail address.

This is a very clear and concise presentation of Mr. Gibson's view of the historical Jesus. I was able to read this book in two days. It's a fascinating account, and hard to put down. In some ways, it's more of a clarification of historical events, such as, which way Jesus took to Jerusalem, what might have happened when he rode into town on the donkey, and what might have happened during those stories of Jesus raising the dead. There's an excellent section of ancient Jewish burial practices, and also a section on the Shroud of Turin. I commend Mr. Gibson for a thoughtful discussion of the trial of Jesus, and his fascinating presention of a new location for where it may have taken place. In addition, Mr. Gibson gives a detailed first hand account of a discovery in Jerusalem of a crucified man. But my disappointment with this book is that Mr. Gibson gives a big wind up in a section called "who moved the stone" and then lets the reader down without having the courage to really answer the question, basically saying he'll leave it to believers to decide. And on the question as to the final resting place of Jesus, Mr. Gibson says it's where Christians say it is traditionally without presenting much evidence for his conclusions after the previous sections of his book are filled with lots of details elsewhere. It's almost as if he wants to present new material without going too far as to offend any readers. Nonetheless, for those who are interested in the historical Jesus and first century biblical archaeology, this book is a very interesting addition to the discussion which I highly recommend.

I bought this book for research I was doing on the historical evidence for the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. The author evidently is an archeological historian who had done much work in Israel. Was very complete on the tombs and some on history of crucifixion. Would have liked more evidence on resurrection but overall an interesting book. Author has good writing style that's easy to follow. Assorted photographs included as well.

This Is a Interesting Look at the last days of jesus based on the archeaological finds dating to his time. Some readers may be somewhat distrubed by his conclusion's, but that only made the book more appealing to me. It begans with his journey to jerusalem, and ends with his burial a week later.Some of the Information presented was new, some I had read about before, but I found It all Informative. The archaeological record and the biblical records differ a lot and this book suggest that a rexamination of the scriptures Is vital to understanding the life of the historical jesus. The discription of crucifixion Is graphic, and shows what a horrific practice It was, certaintly not the picture of the peaceful dying christ that adorns many chruch walls all over the world. I would recomend this book to anyone Interested In archaeology, the historical Jesus, and the world of the bible.