The Day Christ Died (1957)

Very cool take on Jesus last day.
I guess this is an historical fiction. Though the author states he only uses dialog attributed to Jesus from actual quotes, the rest has got to be conjecture to some degree.
Well written and a good read. ( )

I remembered reading this during a highly religious period while I was in high school. In fact, I was weighing whether or not I had a religious vocation at that time. With that in mind, I decided to re-read it this year as Easter approached.
The book didn't match my memory completely, but I appreciated the the detail into which Jim Bishop went and the historical context into which he placed the events. But I didn't appreciate some of the what I interpreted to be his posturing.
All in all, though, it was well worth re-reading. But I doubt that I'll return to it for a third time. ( )

Using the accounts of the four Gospels and other texts written at the time of Christ, the author writes about the last day of Jesus Christ. He starts at the beginning of the Hebrew Day at 6 P.M. with Jesus and ten of the apostles coming through the pass between the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Offense en route to Jerusalem and the Last Supper. And we follow an hour-by-hour narrative of this day until it ends at 4 P.M. the following afternoon, when Jesus was taken down from the cross.

The book also has three chapters that give us the historical context in which to understand the words and actions of those involved that day. The chapters cover a background on Jesus Christ himself, and on Roman and Palestinian life and history.

The narrative style of the book is very engaging and gives us a view of that day as Mel Gibson tried to do in his movie 'The Passion of the Christ'. And Jim Bishop as able to give you great insight about the deeper history of the reasons and actions regarding Christ's last day, as he understands it. ( )

In Bishop's best tradition, and moment-by-moment account of Jesus' last day. Powerful and well-researched. ( )