First Easter - The True and Unfamiliar Story

by Paul L. Maier

In these pages, author Maier fascinatingly portrays the Easter event, as well as the critical days of the first Holy Week preceding it. He lays bare the nature of the conspiracy against Jesus, unravels the politics behind the Crucifixion, and establishes an absolute date for Good Friday, besides documenting the Last Supper, the capture at Gethsemane, the trial before Pilate, and the process of crucifixion. In retelling the resurrection accounts, Dr. Maier breaks new ground with evidence that, whatever else happened that first Easter morning, the sepulcher in which Jesus was buried was empty. A host of magnificent photographs in color and in black-and-white - many never before published - illustrate the material and provide a pictorial trip to the sacred sites in Palestine. These include an aerial view of old Jerusalem with the locations of Jesus' Passion identified with greater precision, as well as the now famous "Pilate" stone and the newly unearthed bones of the first crucified victim ever discovered. "First Easter" is "a splendid work…objective, interesting, and thought-provoking," says Norman Vincent Peale.

Genres: Nonfiction, Theology

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Paul L. Maier was an American historian and novelist. He wrote several works of scholarly and popular non-fiction about Christianity and novels about Christian historians. He was the Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University, from which he retired in 2011, retaining the title of professor emeritus in the Department of History. He previously served as Third Vice President of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod.

Reviews

[Joe Boenzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A friend of mine had a copy of this book, so I looked for a copy on Amazon Marketplace. The introduction speaks of new discoveries, but I realized that the book was published before I studied theology and that I was familiar with all the archaeological findings that author Paul Maier reported as he worked through the details of the Gospel accounts of the trial, execution and burial of Jesus of Nazareth. I enjoyed the account in any case, as the book allowed me to look at the passion and resurrection of Christ in a systematic fashion. If copies are available, I recommend this book as a help to practicing Catholics and devout Christians during Lent and Passion Week.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enoyed parts of this book and how it was written. But some of the historical facts did not seem quite accurate and alot of it was only mere speculation about things which the Bible did not say. The author seemed to lump Catholicism and Protestanism together even though they are not both Christian in full essence and doctrine. And the author did not say that Jesus was God but only that Christians say that he is the Son of God and the God-Man. He seemed to say thay Jesus was just a good man or a great teacher, which is blasphemy. Jesus Himself claimed to be God and that has only 3 explanations; he was either a liar, a lunatic, or he really was God. There is no middle ground as just a good teacher.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Easter is a good book for Lent. It tells true and unknown facts surrounding the familiar story of Easter.

[Cws]

232.96

[Kathryn]

This was the only other book (A Skeleton in God's Closet was the first) by Maier that I could find through our library at the time. Wow, he would take just one verse, or even a part of one, explain it with other historical texts and Jewish history, religious rules, and customs of the time period to fill in so many blanks in the Bible. The one I most remember has to do with the hardly-ever mentioned verse of graves opening and the dead people walking into town.
Because at the time I read his books (mid to late 1990s), no matter how I tried to find more books by Maier, the library's card catalogue yielded no results. I lost the copy I owned of this book, and, I guess, the correct spelling of Maier, so even later, I never learned the other books he wrote that I so would have loved to read.

[Tim Moravec · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book about the first Easter. Maier combines historical evidence with Biblical references and makes for a fascinating book. Bonus: Find out what calendar day the first Easter was really on. Read anything you can get by Paul L. Maier. He's that good.