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Virtual Macedonia Bookstore - The Herods
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List Price: $15.99
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Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9781402174148
ISBN: 1402174144
Label: Adamant Media Corporation
Manufacturer: Adamant Media Corporation
Number Of Pages: 258
Publication Date: 2005-11-30
Publisher: Adamant Media Corporation
Release Date: 2005-11-30
Studio: Adamant Media Corporation
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Poor, biased, scholarship
Comment: Anytime a book of history lacks an index, you know the scholarship is going to be dubious. But the problems don't end there and they get worse. There are numerous quotations in the book without any citations or references. That failure alone would mean this book couldn't pass muster in any university as a legitimate thesis. Furthermore, the objectivity of the book is in question every time reference is made to Jesus as "Our Lord, Jesus". Clearly, Jesus is perceived as more than just an historical figure. Consequently, there is an inherent Christian bias to the perception of the entire Herodian dynasty and, therefore, a failure to understand and clarify the complexity of the political, social, and personal relations of the Herods and the Jewish people. For example, the author fails to clarify important differences between the Sadducees (ethnic Hebrews who ran the temples, e.g. the Temple of Jerusalem, preserved scriptures and saw themselves as authentic Jews through matrilineal bloodlines) vs. the Pharisees (bascially Greeks and their descendents, originally converts to Judaism, who ministered outside the temples as rabbis in synagogues, and superceded patriarchial law over bloodlines because they were not authentic Jews in the eyes of the Sadducees); and, how the Herods, who were neither, got support from both and played them off against each other. In typical, conventional, Christian historicism, the author fails to mention that third group mentioned in the Dead Sea scrolls, the Essenes, (Sadducee-like fundamentalists but like Pharisees, operating outside the temples) who gave support to individuals and groups opposed to the Romans, Sadducees and Pharisees, and the ruling descendents of Herod the Great. To his credit, the author does point out the fact that Herod the Great had two sons named Philip, i.e. Herod Philip and Philip the Tetrarch. But he fails to explain the real reason why only three of Herod the Great's four surviving sons succeeded him in his plan to divide Palestine into four (tetra meaning four, not three) tetrarchies (actually, Herod Philip was not disinherited, but disenfranchised, i.e. abdicated his tetrarchy and the Romans initially gave it over to his brother, Archelaus, who became an "ethnarch" over two tetrarchies but was later removed in favor of a Roman procurator). The author also points out that Philip the Tetrarch died childless, but fails to note that he was married to his niece, Salome, famous for her role in the death of John the Baptist.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Informative, but not dull!
Comment: This book will give you a great deal of information about the Hasmoneans, the Herods and even some of the Caesars but it never gets bogged down in detail. If you have read Josephus, then this book will refresh some things and there are plenty of references to the Talmud and other Jewish sources such as Philo. If you have trouble splitting the Herods then this book will definately help you. He spends a good deal of time on Herod the Great, but he was a little light on information about Herod Antipas. He does a great job with Agrippa 1 and 2 and giving relevant information about the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. The book was written before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, but this fact really did not affect negatively the accruacy of the accounts. Farrer knows what is important in history and makes great use of his sources. He explains, at times different historical possibilities and notes when there is more than one legend surrounding an event. This book is not at all boring and I recommend it for everyone, pastor, student and scholar.
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Editorial Reviews:
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This Elibron Classics edition is a facsimile reprint of a 1898 edition by Service & Paton, London.
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