Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Just in Time for Holy Week and Easter Sunday

When I was a first-year student of theology at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., I attended lectures by Fr. Roland E. Murphy, O. Carm., on the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament. Thanks to his vast knowledge of Old Testament history, languages and archeology of that period, — and, most of all, to his enthusiasm about his topic — he made the persons and events of that book come alive for everyone in his class.
In imitation of Fr. Murphy, I’ve mixed, in this collection of essays, references from the gospel narratives with information from historical, archeological, medical and theological sources, to “flesh out” these New Testament narratives, hoping to recapture a sense of being there with Jesus as He ministered to the people of Israel in first-century New Testament times, and accomplished, through the horrors of His suffering and death, infinite expiation to His Father for our sins.

The whole point of this collection of twenty-two essays on the life of Jesus is to give the reader more information, not mentioned in the four gospels so that you might more readily experience, in your readings and reflections on these events, something of what others who were actually there with Jesus saw, heard and felt during each event. I use information from historical, archeological, medical and theological sources to “flesh out” these narratives, hoping to recapture a sense of being there with Jesus as He ministered to the people in first-century Palestine, accomplishing, through the horrors of His suffering and death, infinite expiation to His Father for our sins.

I’ve arranged the essays into four parts. The two essays of the first part depict the period from Jesus’ miraculous conception in His mother’s womb, through the joyful and perilous circumstances of His’ birth, early infancy and pre-adolescent life.

The twelve essays of the second part take us on six jouneys with Jesus though many of the significant events of His three-year public ministry throughout all of Palestine. Each essay strives to add all the more realism to the story by including details not contained in the gospels narratives, but literally were unearthed in later centuries.

The five essays in the powerful third part trace the horrors inflicted on Jesus during the solemn three days of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday: His Last Seder; His agony, betrayal and arrest in the garden of Gethsemane; His late-night trial before the Sanhedrin and subsequent beatings by the palace guards; His trial and sentencing by Pilate; His even crueler torture at the hands of Pilate’s Roman guards before carrying His crossbeam to the summit of Golgotha; His extremely cruel crucifixion and excruciating death; and, finally, the hasty interment of His body in a nearby tomb.

The fourth and final part concludes Jesus’ gospel story with three essays, which give a fuller explanation of the evangelists’ sketchy accounts about His resurrection, His post-resurrection appearances to His disciples, and His ascension to His Father.

Just in time for Holy Week and Easter Sunday, this eBook is on sale on the Smashwords.com website below. Its powerful Part 3, reflects on the events of Holy Thursday and Good Friday in the chapters on Jesus’ last Seder, His betrayal and arrest, His criminal trials, His torture, crucifixion and death, and His hasty burial before the sabbath. Its glorious Part 4 concludes the book with the events of Jesus’ resurrection, His post-resurrection appearances to His disciples and His ascension to His Father forty days later.
You can see a sampling of the book at:



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