Who Is Ben Witherington's A Week In The Fall Of Jerusalem

The book A Week in the Fall of Jerusalem by Ben Witherington III paints the beautiful and tragic picture of all the things around the fall of Jerusalem. In the book he shows incites from biblical texts, historical narrative, and his own telling of the story as well as showing characters from both Jewish and Roman to create a depiction of the politics, religious beliefs and the society at the time of around 70 A.D. I just have to comment on and will do so later about the fact of how Witherington III was able to create such a cohesive story when such little information was available for that time period and event. The event itself is deeply tied to both the Jewish religion and the Christian faith. The author has a background in theology with

I think the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D. is such a profound event that it completely altered the events of history. As we know, the Temple was a place of faith for the Jewish community, it was their place of spirituality. It is what connects them to God and a staple to their faith image. I think that Ben Witherington III represents how it was also more than just a religious site, how it also represented the resilience of the Jewish faith despite being under the oppressive Roman rule. Though as we pretty much knew before the book, the inevitable destruction of the Temple. Witherington III foreshadows this demise throughout the book and does this through the biblical texts that Witherington III sources. It created anticipation throughout the duration of the book. It is also known that the destruction of the Temple has its long-lasting legacy, and its memory would continue to serve as the demonstration of the Jewish resilience. Post destruction of the Temple, we see the groups of the Zealots being disregarded or gone. Really what was left of the Jewish faith were the followers of Jesus and the Pharisees. But the character Josephus plays a great role in detailing the part of the Temple. Especially during the invasion of Jerusalem, working with Titus. His character as medium between the Zealots and Roman rule shows the interesting position that he was in and the

I think it should be noted that Witherington III tended to focus on the Christian religious aspect more so than the Jewish throughout the duration of the book, which I did not think would be the case coming into the story. As I mentioned earlier, I was never too familiar with scriptures, as I did not grow up in a very religious household. With that being said, I found it helpful that Witherington III would add in extra text which would provide a little more context for me as I was not up to date with many biblical events. Adding to the text boxes, Witherington III added pictures and maps, which reminded me of this Lord of the Rings book I had when I was a kid. But it made it easier for me to visualize the story, and I found it fascinating that the author was able to create such an imaginary picture, as I tend to find myself struggling with picturing stories and imagining things with just plain text. It felt that he was not just writing this book for scholars of the Bible but also for people who are being introduced to such stories and historical