In the Footsteps of Jesus: A Chronicle of His Life and the Origins of Christianity

by Jean-Pierre Isbouts

“Stunning illustrations, photographs, and maps…a vivid and thorough picture of the life and times of Jesus.”  –War Cry  (the Salvation Army's biweekly magazine)

The Gospels of the New Testament describe the life of Jesus of Nazareth, from his birth in Bethlehem and his travels through Galilee, to his trial and death in Jerusalem. In the Footsteps of Jesus goes even deeper into the story of Jesus' life by following his path through the Holy Land on richly detailed maps and bringing each pivotal place to life through the latest archaeological and historical discoveries. Breathtaking photography and unique period artifacts complement fascinating text and specially created maps by National Geographic cartographers.

In the Footsteps of Jesus not only illustrates the stories of Jesus's life, but also the characters and events that shaped his journey and ultimately made him one of the most famous figures the world has ever known. This compelling and beautiful book traces Jesus's path from Bethlehem to Nazareth; throughout his "mission triangle" of Lower Galilee and into the Decapolis; and ultimately on his journey to Jerusalem, the Garden of Gethsemane and Golgotha.

Expertly crafted text describes what is known and speculated about Jesus's youth, life and work, while showing the larger events that combined to shape the world in which He lived. Both the text and sidebars describe the places in Jesus' world that can still be experienced by visitors, as well as key sites that have since disappeared but can be reconstructed by forensic means; what life was like in an agricultural society in 1st century Lower Galilee before the Jewish War; the omnipresent tension between Greco-Roman urban lifestyles and observant Jewish communities, which because of its geographic location was particularly acute in Lower Galilee; the devastating impact of Herodian tax regimes and subsequent Roman census-based taxation in Lower Galilee, and the wholesale displacement of the Jewish peasantry; modern religious practices that can be traced to Jesus' teaching and experiences, and other compelling historical figures of the era. Captivating elements include quotes attributed to Jesus; historical data derived from Jewish sources such as the Mishnah, and Roman sources such as Josephus; census data and other documents; key facts, and insightful main text. Newcomers to biblical history as well as the devoted will find this an invaluable reference and a gorgeous book for the home library.

Genres: History, Religion, Christianity, Faith, Nonfiction, Historical

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Jean-Pierre Isbouts was born in 1954. He is a humanities scholar and graduate professor in the doctoral programs at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California. He has published widely on the origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, including the bestseller Biblical World: An Illustrated Atlas; Young Jesus: Restoring the "Lost Years" of a Social Activist and Religious Dissident; From Moses to Muhammed; The Shared Origins of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; and The Mysteries of Jesus. An award-winning filmmaker, Isbouts has also produced Charlton Heston's Voyage Through the Bible, The Quest for Peace, and Young Jesus.

Reviews

[Sherri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's be honest...I originally got this as a picture book. There's so much information in it though!

[Richard Stuhan · Rating 5 out of 5]



Desperate for entertainment, I happened upon a National Geographic television series on the historical Jesus — 15 episodes totaling 5 hours. The program proved so interesting that I later obtained the book on which the series was based. The book was written by Jean-Pierre Isbouts, who also hosted the television series. It is entitled “In the Footsteps of Jesus: A Chronicle of His Life and the Origins of Christianity.”

The book is neither religious nor anti-religious. Although an avowed Christian, Isbouts makes no effort to convince the reader that Jesus is divine, the Son of God, or the Messiah. But it is also nothing like Reza Aslan’s “Zealot,” a thoughtful and provocative but disturbing book which argues that Jesus was just another first century rebel and that Christianity is essentially a hoax.

Instead, the book discusses the historical Jesus — where he traveled, with whom he interacted, and what he said and did. We learn about social, economic, and political conditions in Galilee and Judea, as well as in the larger Roman Empire of which those regions were a part. The account of Jesus’ time is sandwiched between a short history of the two centuries preceding his birth — an account that puts Jesus’ mission in context — and a longer description of how those who embraced Jesus’ message fared in the centuries that followed.

This is not a tome for serious scholars. But it contains lots of interesting details — many of which came as a surprise to me even after hearing scripture readings for over 60 years as a regular Mass attendee. Read this book and you will have lots of ammunition to use if you are invited to a reception at the religious studies department of your local college or happen to run into your clergyman at a cocktail party. Better yet, use what you learn to dazzle your misinformed friends.

The story Isbouts tells relies heavily on the gospels, and he spends a lot of time analyzing the similarities and differences between and among these four accounts of Jesus’ life. The gospels are supplemented by other contemporary accounts of the period — such as the writings of the Jewish historian, Josephus, and the Dead Sea Scrolls — as well as by work done by other Biblical scholars. The book contains very helpful maps (including maps of Jesus’ travels , Paul’s voyages, and the division of Palestine after the death of Herod the Great), extraordinary illustrations (e.g., the structure of the Second Temple), and wonderful photographs — which brought back vivid memories of our recent trips to Israel, Jordan, and Turkey.

For purposes of this review, I limit myself to just a handful of details that I found enlightening — details that answered questions that I had long pondered or that had never crossed my mind. You may, for example, recall stories of Jesus helping the apostles with their fishing. It had long been my belief that the apostles were just really lousy fisherman; perhaps that’s why they were so willing to drop their nets and follow Jesus. But the explanation actually traces to Herod the Great and his successors. Anxious to generate revenue, Herod imposed confiscatory taxes on peasants. When they were unable to pay the taxes, the peasants lost their land to wealthy landlords, who replaced the subsistence crops the peasants planted with more profitable crops that could be exported. Displaced from their lands, the peasants turned to fishing to survive. But the saturation of the fishing industry with displaced farmers led to overfishing of the Sea of Galilee. So, Jesus stepped in to give his buddies a competitive advantage over the new kids on the dock.

Isbouts also offers a different slant on the role of the apostles and explains how — in the pre-Twitter era — Jesus managed to attract large crowds to his shows. The apostles essentially served as Jesus’ “advance men.” They traveled before him to determine if he would be well received in the next village or town. If so, they would find a suitable space for his appearance and they would make sure that the townspeople knew when to expect him.

Isbouts paints a very different picture of Jesus’s relationship to the Pharisees than I had learned to accept. The Sunday readings have been very clear: Jesus and the Pharisees were enemies. The Pharisees were portrayed as anal-compulsive, totally inflexible bureaucrats to Jesus’ loving and compassionate savior. No matter what Jesus said, the Pharisee were always there to challenge him, and they were constantly looking for ways to trick him. There was nothing subtle here. This was Russia vs. Ukraine; cowboys vs. indians; Steelers vs. Browns. But Isbouts suggests that the relationship was much more nuanced. Debating theological issues, he argues, is what the Pharisees did. Far from disrespecting Jesus, Isbouts asserts, the Pharisees’ challenges show that they held his views in high esteem and were receptive to his opinions.

The book sheds light on Jesus’ furious reaction to finding a market for sheep and goats in the Temple compound, along with bankers who exchanged Roman coins for Temple coins — the only currency accepted on Temple grounds. Surely, Jesus must have known that this was the practice. Why, I wondered, was he so angry? The answer apparently was that the high priest, Caiaphas, had only recently moved the market from an area outside the gates (likely on or near the Mount of Olives). So, Jesus was probably genuinely surprised to find farm animals within the Temple property. Their presence was particularly disconcerting to Jesus, Isbouts argues, because he was planning a major address to the throngs then gathering in Jerusalem for Passover — crowds that swelled the city’s population from its usual 40,000 people to nearly 200,000 people. One can certainly understand why Jesus was not anxious to share the stage with sheep and goats.

Jesus’ angry reaction to the market on Temple grounds — driving out the vendors and upturning the tables of the money changers — proved pivotal in the days to come. Roman soldiers had a good view of the Temple from the Antonia Fortress, which was located virtually next door. A riot erupted at the Temple just two years earlier, and the last thing the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate, wanted was a reprise of that unhappy event. So, when Jesus created a disturbance, he immediately became a target of the Roman authorities. To make matters worse, Jesus impugned the honesty of both Caiaphas and Pilate by his observation that they had turned this “house of prayer” into a “den of thieves,” thereby reminding the people of what had started the earlier riots — the accusation that Caiaphas and Pilate had conspired to use the Temple treasury for an inappropriate purpose (building an aqueduct). So, it likely was not his core message that made Jesus a wanted man but, rather, his intemperate reaction to the commercialization of the Temple.

Somehow or another, however, Jesus managed to evade the authorities and leave the city. By this point, however, it was too late to walk back to his base of operations in Bethany (where his friends Mary, Martha, and Lazarus resided). So, Jesus and his entourage retired to the Mount of Olives and, more specifically, to an area there called Gethsemane. If Isbouts is correct, everything we believe about that night is wrong. Conventional wisdom holds that Gethsemane was a garden to which Jesus and his indolent followers retired to spend the night in relative seclusion. But “Gethsemane” comes from the Hebrew word gat-shemanim, which means olive press. So, the author’s best guess is that Jesus and his apostles spent the night in a cave used to shelter an olive press. But were they alone on the hillside? Not likely. There were not nearly enough hotel rooms in the city to accommodate the devout Jews who came to Jerusalem for Passover. Those unable to rent rooms in the city camped out on the hillside. So, it is likely that Jesus shared the mount with thousands of other pilgrims. That, in turn, explains why Jewish leaders needed to pay treacherous Judas 30 pieces of silver to betray the master. There were so many people on the mountain that only someone who knew exactly where Jesus was spending the night would know where to find him in the dark.

The differences between this book and “Zealot” are vividly illustrated in the story about Jesus’ appearance before Caiaphas following his arrest in Gethsemane. The Gospels report that Caiaphas interrogated Jesus before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leadership council. Aslan argues that it would have been impossible to assemble the 72 member Sanhedrin on short notice in the middle of the night. Therefore, he concludes, this trial never occurred. Isbouts acknowledges the near impossibility of assembling the entire Sanhedrin in the middle of the night on short notice. But he comes to a radically different conclusion. In Isbout’s view, Caiaphas knew that the Pharisees (as opposed to other members of the Sanhedrin) would not endorse condemning Jesus to death. Accordingly, he invited only those who shared his view that Jesus must die to his early morning soirée.

These morsels are among many others to be found in the book. At least for the casual scholar, they provide interesting background to events we have been hearing about our entire lives. So, unless you are a rabbi or priest, I recommend the book. If nothing else, you will enjoy the stunning photography and other visual aides that appear on virtually every page.

Rick Stuhan

Sent from my iPad

[Pam Fullem · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an amazing book. Although I have known most of the New Testament stories, I learned so much more of the cultural context. All the side notes were so interesting, and the photos, of course, were amazing. The photos also changed what I had imagined some of the places to be like. I thought everything was desert. This book was well researched, presenting many theories when there were multiple explanations. This book was very readable as well. I read it very quickly. The book gave me a much better understanding of the world in the time of Jesus. Thank you Mr. Isbouts!

[Deyanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great maps and pictures...fascinating look at Herod and his descendants. Made me realize just how little I truly know and understand. Placing the life of Christ in context was valuable for me.

[Nichole Renauld · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting historical book. Walking through the life of Jesus and what he has gone through, this is a must-read.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a pilgrimage through time.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started reading this during a 21-day fast with my church (one of the fasts I was doing was from TV). But after reading a lot of the historical context before & around the time Jesus was born, especially about the affairs of the caesar’s family & Herod the Great’s family, I no longer felt like I was missing TV. They could make some great soap operas based around those families! (“All My Kingdom”, or “As The Roman Empire Turns”?)

I also enjoyed the pictures & maps, & I read through the first several chapters like a devotional, where I looked up the scripture references like a Bible study. Any time there are multiple speculations on a subject (origin of the star, exact locations of events, etc), it’s nice to hear different views & hypotheses. The last 2 or 3 chapters delve more into world history since the start of the early church (persecutions, crusades, pilgrimages, etc), so it doesn’t have near as many scripture references.

Before this book I never realized just how rich the Holy Land is in culture & history, as well as for scenery & tourism. Once the 21-day fast was done at our church, this book sat unopened on my coffee table for a few months while other things happened. But in late-May & early-June, I resumed the last 2 & 1/2 chapters. I even started keeping it in my car (where it took up the whole front seat), so I could read it while eating out. It was a bit of a workout hauling my “Big Book Of Jesus” (as I nicknamed this book) to restaurants! The pictures are just beautiful! I learned a lot, & enriched my spiritual life at the same time!

[Sameer Khan Brohi · Rating 2 out of 5]

"In the Footsteps of Jesus: A Chronicle of His Life and the Origins of Christianity" by Jean-Pierre Isbouts is an exploration of the life of Jesus and the early history of Christianity. Published by National Geographic, this second edition is richly illustrated, combining historical narrative with vivid photography, maps, and artwork. The book examines the historical and cultural context of Jesus’s life, offering insights into the places he lived, the people he interacted with, and the events that shaped his teachings. It also delves into the early development of Christianity after Jesus’s death. The book is visually stunning, featuring photographs of key locations, artifacts, and historical illustrations that bring the biblical world to life. It provides a detailed look at the historical and cultural backdrop of Jesus’s life, helping readers understand the environment in which Christianity began. The author combines scholarly research with engaging storytelling, making the content accessible to both academic readers and general audiences. Maps help readers follow Jesus's journey geographically and chronologically, offering a clearer picture of his ministry's progression. The book covers not only the life of Jesus but also the origins of Christianity, giving a full picture of the impact of Jesus’s teachings. The narrative is easy to follow, making complex historical and theological concepts understandable. The combination of text and visuals creates an immersive experience, allowing readers to visualize the ancient world. Some readers might find the book a bit general if they are looking for in-depth theological analysis or academic rigor. While the visuals are a major strength, but the book relies heavily on them, possibly at the expense of deeper textual analysis. "In the Footsteps of Jesus" is an excellent choice for anyone interested in the historical Jesus, the early days of Christianity, or simply seeking a beautifully presented narrative that blends history, culture, and faith. It's especially suitable for visual learners and those who appreciate a blend of scholarly research with accessible storytelling.

[Bill Main · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most stunningly beautiful books that I own! It's a walk thru a troubled area, with a troubled people in a troubled time. I saw the authors TV series. It fascinated me. Things like the culture in Sepphoris, the nearest city to Nazareth, is amazing to me. Jesus and his family had to be influenced by it, but there is no mention of it in the biblical canon. So many things are made more relevant, for example the way the Romans used the land against the people that resulted in poverty, famine, disease and rebellion. I will always reread this when I am at my lowest! Love thru tribulation! It's possible..

[Gary Detrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. Isbouts takes us an archeologial walk, step by step through the territories covered by Christ and his disciples. Well written, beautiful photos, structured nicely, as you would expect from National Geographic. A wonderful account from Herod the Great up through roughly 500 ce.
You encounter many names here and documentation from the scholars of those times. A very enjoyable and worthwhile read and addition to your collection. A great reference.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this because my son had a lot of questions about Jesus and I didn’t have the answers. This is a fairly unbiased account of the places Jesus lived and traveled. Gives a thorough history of the time before, during and after his life. It seems that this author assumes that the reader has some basic knowledge of stories from the Bible, I had to google a bit while reading.

[DeBora Rachelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this because we are planning a trip to Israel and I wanted to know what I would be looking at. This book provided a great summary, history and photos of the areas we will be visiting. So it gave me everything I needed.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading this book! The pictures are wonderful! So we’ll put together. My husband and I both read it and love it. The maps are great. It’s very informative and fascinating reading! Can’t wait to make our own pilgrimage!

[Jenny Esots · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully produced reference book.
With biblical and geographical references.
Having just been to the bible lands I could compare notes.
Would be good to own this one.

[Immy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting, but definitely a slow read.

[Gerry Cragun]

Ordered after watching author's 'History and Archeology of the Bible' on Great Courses Plus. Have been using it as a reference text.

[Joseph Pearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Very well written. The photos, maps, and other illustrations are very good and beautiful.

[TC · Rating 3 out of 5]

All this for one person.

[Michelle Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was absolutely fascinating!

[James F. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This history of the Western world during the centuries both before and after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth is a compelling read which goes far in helping those of today's world in understanding the complexities and challenges of living in a time and place largely under the control of one imperial power, Rome.

What is striking about this history is that the reader might conclude that, with the exception of what wealth is now largely based upon in the modern world, the ancient world was, in many ways, quite similar to our own, particularly in the areas of human emotion, ambition and purpose.

[George · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book, published by National Geographic, up from the new book shelf at the library. I thought the photos and the maps would be worth the time, and they were. I ended up reading all the text as well (it went quickly -- I finished it in two days) and found it easy to follow and quite informative, though I still have trouble keeping all the descendants of King Herod straight!

[Cat. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, it took me forever, but I'm done. After six months, after taking the library book back and purchasing my own copy...I'm sad to say that I'm done. It's a beautiful book, lots of good history, very solid in terms of theology and historiography.

I will probably read this and/or refer to it again.

[Jim Swike · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book that matches modern geography with biblical references and events. Enjoy!

[Pat Padden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hey, it's a National Geographic book. I really just wanted to look at the pretty pictures of the Holy Land.

[lptim · Rating 4 out of 5]

資料清楚，相片精美!

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This helped me to picture the places mentioned in the biblical accounts of Jesus' life, and put some parts into perspective.

[Chenbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a Chinese version.

[Mary Sasala · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really fun and enlightening companion to any who are reading the New Testament. It includes plenty of political and background to the Gospels. Beautiful pictures and great maps as well.