Élet az 1. évben - Mindennapok az 1. század Palesztinájában

by Scott Korb

Időutazás Palesztinában. Mindannyian ismerünk legalább két személyt az i. sz. I. századi Judeából és Galileából: Jézust és Heródest. Ebben a könyvben csak a másodikkal fogunk találkozni. Vele azonban sokszor, utoljára a temetésén. A ravatal színaranyból volt, drágakövekkel kirakva. Takarója gyönyörűen hímzett bíbor, és a rajta nyugvó holttest ugyancsak bíborszövetbe volt burkolva; fején ott volt a királyi fejdísz, fölötte arany korona, jobb kezében kormánypálca, így írja le Josephus Flavius, a zsidóból lett római történetíró. De ha valakit nem az uralkodók élete-halála érdekel, az hova forduljon? Jó helyen járunk: Scott Korbhoz és ehhez a könyvhöz. Fiatal, lelkes, tudós idegenvezetőnk megmutatja nekünk, milyen is volt kétezer éve az élet a világ egy szegletében. Kik éltek ott, mit ettek, hol laktak és hogyan tisztálkodtak, kinek fizettek és mennyi adót hiszen, mint tudjuk, az életben csak két dolog biztos: az adók és a halál. De a halál előtt rendszerint megbetegszik valaki. Kik gyógyítottak és hogyan? És ha nem betegségben, akkor harcban szoktak meghalni. Milyen volt az a háború, amely véget vetett a zsidó királyságnak és az önálló államnak? Scott Korb színesen mutatja be nekünk az I. századi világot. Egyvalakit igyekszik csak közben kikerülni: ez a könyv nem Jézusról szól. Az Európa Diákkönyvtár párjaként elindított új sorozatunkban olyan műveket adunk közre, melyek élvezetes formában összegzik mindazt, amit a történelem, a kultúrtörténet, a társadalom- és természettudományok legfontosabb kérdéseiről manapság tudnia kell és tudnia érdemes a művelt, felkészült diáknak és a tájékozott felnőtt olvasónak.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Ancient History, Theology, Book Club, Historical

221 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2010

Reviews

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some interesting details about life in Jesus' time (though as the author goes through great pains to express - this is NOT a book ABOUT JESUS!). If you are preaching on the Good Samaritan story, or the healing of the lepers, or anything about dead people, you may want to reference this book. It's a good book to read to get a general sense of life in Jesus' time, but it's pretty target focused to its more intellectual Christian audience. Another comment: do NOT skip the footnotes. I usually don't read the footnotes, but Scott makes a lot of funny comments (sometimes personal or related to contemporary life instead, occasionally giving more detail than the main text can offer). The historical details are well-researched and well-referenced, in case you want to check the materials out for yourself. An informative, if not always exciting, read.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as interesting as I would have hoped. Korb writes with tons of footnotes on every page, which makes the reading experience a bit schizophrenic. Korb also says often that figuring out what life was like in first-century Palestine is a guessing game since there is such a tiny amount of recorded history. I wish Korb had guessed more -- I would have liked details instead of generalities. I can imagine for myself what it would be like to live with no running water and no sanitation and no health care and no electricity -- I wish I had learned something revelatory.

Oh -- okay one thing: Judas Iscariot was most likely a member of a group called the Sicarii. (Hence the name "Iscariot.") The Sicarii were a group of rebel assassins (or terrorists, as it were) who resisted the Roman occupation of the country. They would wear short-bladed daggers (sicae) concealed in their robes, get close to a Roman politician, stab him, and then melt into the crowd. In modern-day Colombia, "Sicarios", are professional hit men adept at assassinating, kidnapping, bombing, and theft.

Okay, two things: (and this part is gross so stop reading if you don't want to know.) Part of the horror of crucifixion was that the Romans would leave the body on a cross until it rotted away, body parts falling off and becoming food for scavenging wild animals.

Those Romans...geez.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

I consider it an act of resilience and fortitude that I managed to make it to the end. There is more than one footnote on literally, not hyperbolically, but literally almost every page, each of them straining to be wittier than the next but only succeeding in being tiring and pointless. The tone of the author is so informal as to make one question whether we're actually reading a researched topic or just chatting around a dinner table regarding a few rumors one has heard. I lost confidence in the quality and quantity of the "sources" around chapter 3 and found myself rolling my eyes often. It was offensively poorly written. The title is deeply misleading, and if I could have easily found another book attempting the topic I would have eagerly dropped this one. In the end, I have no confidence in the author or his arguments and could never recommend this book to another.

[John Allenson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book in an attempt to do some research on the daily lives of people in Judea around the first century. The cover really does say it all-it's dominated by a blank space in the shape of Jesus.

The author can't get away from talking about not talking about Jesus. He spends so much time not talking about Jesus that he has virtually no time to actually talk about things like clothing, non-Jewish populations of Palestine in the first century and the affect of non-Judeaen Jewish populations on the Judeaen Jews. A more honest approach to the life and times of Jesus would have been to directly discuss Jesus rather than to treat him similiar to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in the Harry Potter novels.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book (Not, no not, a book about Jesus)was very fun to read. It was written entertainingly and gave context to the time and place that I was unaware of. Definitely written for the lay person, in spite of the occasionally annoying footnotes. However, even those were informative and very often funny too(see tanning with dog feces). How come I never learned in Sunday school that King Herod's genitals were infested with worms?

[Dave Reidy]

Scott is a friend and a thoughtful guy. This should be a very interesting book.

[Jason Pettus · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

I first became a fan of Scott Korb because of his remarkable 2008 book The Faith Between Us, co-authored with Peter Bebergal, in which through a series of essays disguised as letters the two not only compare and contrast their differing religious beliefs (Catholicism and Judaism), but also what it's like to be intensely religious in the first place within their circles of mostly atheistic, arts-friendly intellectuals; and now Korb has another nonfiction book out, the much more straightforward Life in Year One, which presents in a series of systematic chapters exactly what the latest theories are regarding what actual day-to-day life was like for the people of the Middle East during the years that Jesus was literally alive (and by extension the entire first century of the Christian Era). As such, then, Korb inventively combines anthropology, sociology, history, literature and theology to present as all-encompassing a look at the first century AD as possible, offering up mostly things you would guess about these times anyway (essentially, that life was generally much shorter and more brutish than now), but also uncovering all kinds of interesting facts that will come as a surprise to most (such as just how many different sects of Judaism actually existed between 1 and 100 AD, Christians being merely one of them, and how little these groups generally got along with each other), and with Korb wisely avoiding the "bloated NPR-bait" trap of so many of these books by turning in a tight, always interesting 200-page manuscript for his own. A brisk and fascinating read, you certainly do not need to be religious yourself to get a lot of enjoyment out of Life in Year One, and it comes recommended to all who like their airport and beach titles to be more studious than trashy in nature.

Out of 10: 9.0

[John Behle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, colorful, with a sprinkling of humor, Scott Korb relates many of the ways of life in Year One to today.

We are so fortunate to have the Bible. While many ancient text scholars pooh-pooh using the Bible as a reference work for day-to-day life "back then", but why not? The New Testament has several authors, written in differing stages, but all recording, in famed graphic detail, the start of Common Era.

While Korb makes great pains to say this is not another book about Jesus, to be sure, jesus keeps up a steady thread of appearances throughout the work.

The chapters I liked best are the truly basic daily life regimen portraits. How people flirted, married, what they ate and drank. How the homes were arranged and decorated. The relations between Palestine and their iron fisted Roman rulers across the Mediterranean Sea are made bloody clear, whoa.

Korb ties many themes together in his wrap-up chapter. He travels,with great difficulty, to the sites from the Bible, relating how far we really have not come in over 2,000 years.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty fun and relaxing read, very nice break from the heavy academic stuff I was doing at school, which was enjoyable. It got a little *too* casual in tone at times which was kind of annoying and I really feel like it could have done without the author's perpetual need for snarky side comments and speculation. I felt like the author jumped to a lot of conclusions regarding some subjects, such as the status/role of women in this time (I agree that it certainly wasn't *spectacular* but the way it was described made them seem especially agency-less in a way that didn't ring true to me), but overall I thought it was an interesting overview. I would love to read more books on this subject that go into more researched detail on everyday life, that's more evidence based, but like I said, this was mostly a casual read which was nice.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This COULD have been pretty interesting, but the author's smug tone, silly footnotes, and all-around trying-to-be-too-clever did grate after a bit. Couldn't tell the author's exact position on who Jesus really was--there were a few kind of condescending comments, but by and large, the author kept insisting the book was NOT about Jesus. Kind of odd, really, since why else would anyone write or read a book about the first century A.D.? Without that one thing, why not the third century BC or the second AD? So that was sort of odd, too.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't at all what I thought it would be. It was very informal, and even though it was a quick read, I still felt like there wasn't a whole lot there. The author says right in the beginning that most of what he was going to talk about was conjecture, but I just didn't find it all that interesting. Disappointing.

[Jennifer Guyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't Bother.

[David Cavaco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book cover to start. Engaging book about what life was like in the Holy Land back in Year 1 from the perspective of an average citizen. This book is not so much about religion but more about daily life. Enjoyable.

[Edwin Setiadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life in year one provides the historical context on what daily life was like in the 1st century Palestine under the Roman Empire control, from 5 BC (which is believed to be the year Jesus was born) until 70 AD (the year the Romans destroyed Jerusalem's Second Temple).

This isn't a book about Jesus though, instead it's more about his neighbours, his fellow Bethlehemite and Nazarene, the politics and economics in his area, the origin of the language he uses (a form of Greek known as Koine), the food, the health, the local customs, the traditions, the war and the death, even the way people flirt back then. I'm absolutely hooked, a really good read.

[John Hornyak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently re-reading. This is a very logical look at what we really know about the time period without too many religious overtones. The author employs extensive footnotes and provides a fair critique of other works such as those by Crossan and Daniel-Rops. This is a light and thought-provoking read for anyone interested in a realistic approach to history.

[Thom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good breakdown of everyday life, to the extent that it can be imagined from the source materials available. Especially enjoyed the comparison of these materials to what is said in the Bible, shining new light on old verses. Epilog is particularly enjoyable.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So. Many. Footnotes. Most were completely unnecessary. Overall it was a decent book though.

[WillowBe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought this would be interesting or at least scholarly. Instead it's pseudo scholarship. Detest the gossipy asides most of which are conjecture. Blech!

[Alan Murchie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a great title and concept, but the book is poorly organized, smug, and irritating.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and informative. Not probably appealing to the hard-core historian. They don't like "fun."

[Peter Toth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alapvetően tájékozottnak érzem magam az ókori történelemírás buktatóival kapcsolatban, és ha jól emlékszem ezt a könyvet egy nagyobb történelmi könyvcsomag részeként vettem meg. Mindenesetre a tény, hogy az Európa "Tudományos Diákkönyvtár" keretében jelent meg, garancia kellene, hogy legyen a minőségre. Azért itt egy kicsit csalódtam, tehát ne várjunk egy messzemenőkig tudományos művet. Látszatra, a lábjegyzetek, stb. mind rendben is van, és még a szerző hivatkozásai között találunk például magyar könyvet is, Vermes Géza: A zsidó Jézus című művét, amelyből többször idéz is (habár ezt én magam még nem olvastam). A probléma inkább a hangvétellel van többször is, például lehet egyet nem érteni egy hivatkozott szerzővel, de azért azzal kommentálni egy megállapítást, hogy ez nem így van, hanem ahogy én mondom, "te buta!". Ez talán nem egy komoly történelmi munkába való megállapítás. Azt hiszem lehet ezt sokkal profibban is csinálni, mint például a nemrég olvasott Jeruzsálem című könyvben Kőszeghy tanárúr tollából, ahol sokkal profibban fért meg a humor a téma komolyságával, és nem érződött erőltetett vicces törekvésnek.

De most térjünk át a tartalomra. A helyszínünk az ókori Palesztina az i.sz. 1. században és a mikro-történetírás hagyományai mentén szerzőnk a zsidó lakosság hétköznapi életét próbálja rekonstruálni 10 fejezetben. Itt olyan témák kaptak helyet, mint a pénz, az otthon, az egészség, a vallás, vagy éppen a háború és a halál. A szerző deklaráltan nem Jézusról akar írni, de azért természetesen mind az Ószövetség, mind az Újszövetség könyvei azért megkerülhetetlen kútfők ebben a témában. Talán a kelleténél többször is hangzik el visszautalás erre a kezdeti premisszára, de ez még nem zavaró. Maga a szöveg nem fog senkinek forradalmi újdonságokkal szolgálni, ahhoz túl rövid is e kötet, így megmarad egy egyszerű, ismeretterjesztő műnek, amit nem fogunk túlságosan előkelő helyre ültetni hivatkozásaink között, amennyiben ezzel a témával foglalkozunk.

[Laurent Reinhardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provides interesting glimpses into what it was like to live in first-century Palestine, the world of Jesus Christ, whom Korb says the book is not specifically about, even though it kind of is. Well written and researched, with chapters addressing the world, money, home, food, baths, health, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, religion, war and death in Year One. However, I feel the author's constant asides in the form of footnotes (198 in a 208-page text) distract and detract from an otherwise compelling narrative. Nevertheless, it's worth powering through to get historical insights into a part of the world that's once again dominating the headlines.

"But admitting all this, we can at least say we know the three most important pieces of the puzzle that was first-century Palestine: Judaism in all its varieties, the Roman Empire in all its power, and Greek culture in all its expressions. And a quick look at the marketplace—or the Greek agora, as it was known-should help shed some more light on the situation. At the same time, it should also remind us just how much a fool's errand it would be to try to figure out exactly where the Jewish piece of our story ended and the Greek part began, or where the Greek piece ended and the Roman part began, or where the Roman piece ended and the Jewish part began once again. By year one, Roman Palestine was a snake eating its own tail. Which meant that someone was always getting bitten." p48

[John Leffler · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems like the author has listened to a number of sources for several theories without actually researching original material for the most part. I don’t leave the book feeling like I actually have experienced Israel the way it was promised in the beginning.

To understand what it was like to live in Jesus’ world it does us little good to look directly at him. The way this author sees it, “Jesus felt the weight of Rome and the pull of money differently than other first-century Galileans. He doesn’t appear to have believed in family, work, or study the way other people did. He had what might safely be called an unusual perspective on healing, eating, and drinking. The man didn’t feel at home in his hometown and had no political attachments. He hardly recognized the law and baffled even his closest friends with his ideas about war and peace. And perhaps strangest and most dangerous of all, Jesus didn’t practice religion like his fellow Jews.” The purpose of the book is to illustrate basically the first 70 years of the first century in Israel.

[Irene Baron · Rating 5 out of 5]

To learn what life was like at the time of Christ's birth, I have read many books. "Life in Year One: What the World Was Like in First-Century Palestine," was one book that enabled me to easily understand the day to day life citizens of that era experienced. Korb discussed finances, money, homes, diet, food, market places, languages, bathing, health, religions, war, death and more. He puts you in the midst of your neighbors in that era of civilization. Informative footnotes are used for "different perspectives and clarification on the history being told..." The title of "year one" refers to any time within the first century. This book is not about Christ, it is about what life and the people might have been like at that time on Earth.
I usually underline or circle interesting areas of a book. This one is so good, it has marks throughout. Anyone reading the New Testament in the Bible will more fully appreciate what is written. History buffs, here is a "down to earth" and easy to read book. I placed it on my reference shelf for further needs.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technically I DNF’d this book, but I was mostly just using it for research for a novel I’m writing, so I got some useful info out of it. However, I didn’t feel particularly compelled to finish it for its own sake. The tone was pretty flippant at times, and there were ENTIRELY TOO MANY FOOTNOTES. I’m nerdy enough to appreciate footnotes and good references, additional relevant information, etc. but this was just too much. Probably half of the footnotes were unnecessary, and consisted of the author’s “clever” remarks or opinions or just random nonsense that added nothing. When the footnotes take up more space than the actual text, you have a problem. Not to mention how disruptive it is to the reading experience. (Where was this dude’s editor??) Overall, the information in this book was mostly surface level, clearly aimed at a casual audience. And it didn’t really answer a lot of my questions about daily life at this time.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a time and a place in which events unfolded which changed the world, we don't really know all that much about daily life in the first century in Palestine. But Korb has read and/or talked to virtually everyone and everything that has considered the question, and he breezily synthesizes the ways in which the Jewish people adapted to life under Roman rule, and vice versa. He discusses the role of money (new to the average Jewish peasant farmer), the role of family life, the types of food eaten, the ritual bathing required by religion, the ways in which illnesses were dealt with, the varieties of religious diversions, the many rebellions in that first century, including the final one which led to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the ways in which people died. It doesn't take long to read this book, yet it's filled with information about a subject I knew little about.

[Eve Schaub · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating dive into the world of first century Palestine and what life would have been like for the average person on or about the time Jesus lived. Korb is an entertaining storyteller, although he has a habit of interrupting himself a little bit too often with asides and footnotes. He is appropriately cautious about overgeneralizing and is always clear about his sources for various assertions about what everyday life was like from the vantage points of taxes, religion, food, hygiene and so on. The last chapter brings him into the story as he ventures to contemporary Palestine as a modern day traveller, which is incongruous to the entire rest of the book but perhaps is the best way to end it after all. Definitely recommend.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a very easy & enjoyable read, but I was expecting...more. It's a very philosophical/geo-political look at one time & place, but I was hoping more every day details would be thrown into the mix. In the end, I have a nagging feeling I'm missing something from life in year one, although what I do get ranges satisfyingly from the funny to the profound. The footnotes are also distracting...mainly because they're so damned detailed & informative; they actually compete with the main text. I'm going to have to go back and give them a second look.

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I do not believe any one person whose name was Jesus ever existed, there is quite a bit to be gained from this slender volume, about what life was probably like not just in year one, but during the entire first century. If you believe in the bible, however, you won't want to read these tidbits of actual history rather than the oral storytelling and outright lies of that bible on your nightstand.

[Danny Lamastra · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had some good information, but is mostly a conglomeration of the research of others. So few of the speculations about life in the first century can be said with any level of certainty that some chapters spend a lot of time rambling while coming to no meaningful conclusion. Book questions the accuracy of some points of the Biblical account. Writing style is somewhat unorganized and makes poor use of footnotes. Overall, I think I could have found a better book on the topic.