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Jesus: a short life

Reviewed by Alun Brookfield.

This little book is really intended for lending or giving to people who think that Jesus and everything we claim to know about him is little more than a figment of our imagination. It’s standard paperback in size, but in presentation it’s much more like a ‘coffee-table’ book, with good quality paper and lots of colour photos and graphics. The print size is a little on the small size, but that’s compensated by the wide spacing of the lines, giving the whole book a spacious and readable appearance.

John Dickson is an Honorary Associate in the Deapartment of Ancient History at MacquarieUniversity in Sydney, Australia, so he writes with good academic credentials and thoroughness. He starts by addressing the question: “Why the headlines almost always get him wrong”, then systematically works his way through everything we know about Jesus from the gospels and other sources.

Chapter 3 is an excellent example. With commendable (indeed, astonishing!) brevity, the author addresses the issues of when and where Jesus was born, who were his parents and siblings, what he did for a living, whether he was married or not and the ecology of Galilee - and all this in 12 pages, much of which is maps and pictures. This is very accessible scholarship for the first-time enquirer.

Normally, one would grumble about all the footnotes being gathered together at the end of the book, but in this case, it’s the right choice. There are also six pages of bibliography and a simple index, providing direction for anyone whose interest has been engaged by reading this book.

I commend it as a resource for seekers who want a straightforward, non-technical, highly readable book to explore. Well, done, author and publisher - please can we have more like this.