30华年如一梦

二月在武汉期间，在母校做了约半小时的短暂停留。今年是大学毕业30周年，而离开校园仿佛只在最近。下面这张照片是匆忙拍摄的一组照片中的一张。前景建筑为“老斋舍”，建于民国十九年，是武汉大学不变的风景。

武汉大学一景（2014年2月17日）

Killing Jesus

Killing Jesus: A History turned out to be a page-turner for me, after a slow--sometimes painfully, start.  

The book is a very well-researched book that provides the necessary cultural, historical and political background and context for the reader to better appreciate and understand what is presented in the Gospels of the New Testament. The book brings a sense of closure to what happened to certain figures and places relevant to Jesus' death, such as Pilates and Jerusalem, in a way that parallels the ending of some history-based movies. The book also offers some explanations or answers to why certain events described in the New Testament took place the way they did (e.g. the roles and positions of the Pharisees, the relationships between and among the Temple, the political figurehead of the Jews, and the Roman ruling class). 

However, the book does not, nor apparently is its objective to, answer the ultimate question--one that probably matters the most to many, Christians and non-Christians alike, whether important biblical accounts of Jesus, particularly his resurrection, are accurate or supported by any historical accounts, apart from those in the Gospels.  That defect, perhaps an inevitable one, renders a sense of incompletion.

Despite the excellent art of story-telling demonstrated in the book, there is no breakthrough in the book. Relying heavily on Scripture itself on events concerning Jesus, the book offers little significant or new insight into the life and death of Jesus.  Killing Jesus as a book therefore is largely cumulative over the existing Christian literature.