Looks at a possible version of Jesus' life in Nazareth, stressing his relationships within his family. ( )

I found this book to be Biblically accurate and is borderline blasphemous.
Some of the author's creations that I found offensive are:
Salome, a fictional sister of Mary is married to Ephraim and Ephraim approaches her about taking a second wife.
Mary's mother, is portrayed as being short tempered and not very loving as a wife or a mother.
Jesus' father, Joseph, is critically injured when Jesus is a young man when a tree falls on him. Mary begs Jesus to heal him. He does not and Joseph soon dies from the injuries he sustains in that accident.
There is a strange reference to Jesus' brother, Matthew and the Parable of the Prodigal son.
The flirtations and relationship Jesus has with Tamara.
There isn't a lot of meat in the Bible about Jesus as a young man, but had the book been about Jesus as a teacher, leader, teacher of Parables and included the Sermon on the Mount, choosing the disciples and his life healing the sick it would have been much more enjoyable and she would not have had to "make up so much."
The author has taken a sacred story and injected too many thoughts of her own of the young Jesus and taken too many liberties and interpretations. ( )

3.5 stars. I have recently read several historic fiction books with settings and characters from the New Testament. I liked this best - I think the writing is less old-fashioned. Mostly I read it as a fantasy with characters whose names matched up with members of Jesus' family. That way, any anachronisms were less annoying. And I could skip over the theological differences.

The author included inspiration from some of the well known parables, and based some incidents in the book on them, letting Jesus and his family play the parts of, for example, the lost sheep and the prodigal son. There was a fairly lengthy set-up for the latter and I could see it coming - still it was well presented, including the attitude of the faithful son and the loving response of the father to his concern.

This is actually book 2 of a trilogy. The first book, Two From Galilee is described as a love story of Mary and Joseph. The third one is called the Messiah, and finishes the story from the gospels. I haven't read either one, and probably won't bother. The book was from the library and I worried whether the remaining week would let me finish it. I need not have been concerned, I wrapped it up the very next day after counting the number of chapters remaining.

( )

great! ( )

I liked this book even better than the previous in the trilogy. While some fundamentalists may think it heretical, I found it to be very believable, tender and true to the Word of God.

Mary and Joseph have returned to Nazareth, to their families, to start their own family. The relationships are very real, from the sibling rivalry to the great friend of the family whom the children call "uncle".

Jesus and John's stories are thought provoking as familiar stories from the Bible are woven into the fabric of the lives in the book. Parables' beginnings are explored in a unique and wonderful ways, again making the stories from the Bible even more compelling. It made me go to my Bible to read the words of Jesus, as he told the parables he lived in the book.

The story is tense at times, however, as he realizes fully who he is and what his destiny will be. My F2F book club is going to read the third in the series, The Messiah, for Easter, and I am glad there will be a break in between this one and the next.

This is one that I will purchase, and I highly recommend it. ( )