The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah; Volume 1

by Alfred Edersheim

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Genres: History, Theology, Biblical Studies

750 pages, Hardcover

Published August 28, 2016

About the author

Edersheim was a scholar and writer on the traditions of the Jewish faith and Life of Christ He was born March 7th, 1825 in the city of Vienna, Austria. His parents Marcus and Stephanie Beifuss were of the Jewish faith. In Vienna he studied in the gymnasium and University of Austria.

Around 1845 he moved to Pesth, Hungary where he met John Duncan and other Presbyterian ministers, who were chaplains to Scottish workmen building a bridge over the Danube River. Under their influence he became a Christian and came to Scotland with Dr. Duncan. In 1843 he entered New College until 1844. In 1846 he entered the Presbyterian ministry and thereafter preached for a year as a missionary to the Jews and Germans at Jassy in Rumania. He came to Old Aberdeen Church in 1848 and remained for twelve years. Here he translated several German theological books into English and wrote his History of the Jewish Nation from the Fall of Jerusalem to the reign of Constantine the Great."

Reverend Alfred Edersheim was the second minister of Free Church known then as Old Machar Free Church. After twelve years at Free Church, Alfred's health started failing, he resigned and moved to Torquay in the county of Devon, England. In 1861, he gathered a congregation and in 1862 they built St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Torwood Gardens, Torquay. Because of deteriorating health problems he had to resign from St. Andrews and moved to Bournemouth a spa on the south coast. In 1875 he became an Episcopalian and ordained a deacon and priest in the Church of England. For a year he was the (unsalaried) curate of the Abbey Church, Christ Church, Hants, near Bournemouth. In 1876 he became vicar of Loders, Dorsetshire; resigning in 1883, moving to Oxford, where he was select preacher to the University from 1884-86.

Because of his health condition he eventually moved to Menton, France where he passed away March 16th, 1889.

His publications as author, translator, editor, and contributor to dictionaries and serial works are very numerous. Perhaps the best-known are:

The History of the Jewish Nation from AD 70-312 (1857)
The Jubilee Rhythm of St. Bernard, and other Hymns (1866)
The Golden Diary of Heart-Converse with Jesus in the Psalms (1874)
The Temple: its Ministry and Services as they were in the Time of Jesus Christ (1874)
Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the days of Christ (1876)
The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883; 2 vols)
Prophecy and History in relation to the Messiah, (Warburtonian Lectures, 1880-84)
The History of Israel from the Sacrifice on Carmel to the Death of Jedhu (1885)

Reviews

[Gene · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book certainly was worth reading for the insights it provided into the Gospels and the life of Jesus, but it certainly wasn't a book that I was eager to pick up. The writing style is quite old, sometimes to the point of being hard to decipher, and it was sometimes work finishing the ten pages of fine print each day that I set myself to finish.

Of course a book about the history and culture of the Jews written by a Jew can add some important understandings to Scripture that a Gentile might not catch, and for this alone the book was worth reading. It sets the scene for Christ's birth very meticulously and thoroughly, and strangely enough, that was in some ways the most readable portion of the book even though it was so detailed and lengthy.

I was afraid that with the author being from Oxford the view of the authenticity of the Gospel accounts, and especially of the narratives of the miracles therein, might be held suspect by the author. If I'm not mistaken the so-calld "Higher Criticism" had already taken hold in many places. Edersheim seems to know of this tendency to question the reliability of the Gospel texts as historical documents and argues somewhat effectively against it. Where he seems perhaps a bit wobbly is in the accounts of the demonized. Otherwise, the text seems orthodox in most manners.

I was surprised by the view he gives about multiple returns of Christ. He treats the destruction of Jerusalem in around A.D. 70 as a return of Christ in judgment upon the nation for rejecting Him. I had never read this view before, and though I'm not ready to say I agree with it, it does help explain some of the harder to interpret prophetic statements of Christ toward the end of His ministry.

I have volume 2 of this book, but I think I'll hold off quite a while before I tackle it. These 700 pages or so occupied me from mid-October or so, and I'm ready for something lighter. I will hold onto both volumes and use them for study references because they do add valuable insight to what Jesus did and what He taught and what it meant for those living in Palestine in His lifetime.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful overview, not only of the background and setting of the Gospels, but also commentary on the Gospel narratives and life of Christ. Easily worth 4.5 stars, the only negative being that Edersheim's scholarship is now often outdated.