Review of “In Search of Jesus of Nazareth and His Original Teaching”

[B Sheila Holt]

[Following is a volunteer review of "“In Search of Jesus of Nazareth and His Original Teaching”" by Paul A Weekes.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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I’m pretty sure we have heard of the book of Genesis, the book of Psalms and probably even the four Gospels in the Bible. But how many have heard of the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel According to Mary Magdalene? Paul A. Weekes, the author of In Search of Jesus of Nazareth and His Original Teaching has included the full versions of both of these hidden and very seldom ever talked about lost accounts mentioned above, for our reading pleasure. This book is far from a religious book. It does not attempt to turn readers to Christianity or any other religion. It only explains the life of Jesus as a regular man and some interesting surprises about His teachings as Jesus.

Paul A Weekes moved to Austin, Texas at 60 years old. Soon after, he joined the Unitarian Church. He was then introduced to the Jesus seminar and after years of deep research, Paul began studying the theological Jesus, the historical Jesus and the spiritual Jesus. He conducted extensive researches, read many books, studied articles and documentaries and spoke with Biblical historians. After many years of gathering his findings, being pleasantly surprised at the discovery of the lost accounts and books he came across, he began to write this book. Reading the full versions of these two newly found accounts and some other items that I had never heard of before, were among my favorite parts of this book.

His writing style has made this book very easy to understand. He has also included some very important colorful photos and interesting artwork that aid in telling the story of Jesus, the man. I have studied the Bible many times in my life and I was pleasantly surprised at many of the stories I read along the way. They uncovered a man much different than I had ever thought about. A more down-to-earth man. A more normal, more approachable man. It was very refreshing for me to read about him just socializing among His disciples. I still have my very high respect and high reverence for Jesus Christ, but I actually read this book twice and felt like I was reading about a good friend.

There is nothing that I disliked about this book. It could easily be an enjoyable afternoon or weekend read, for those who are open minded and willing to learn a new way of seeing how Jesus may have lived and interacted with his family and those he mingled with on a daily basis. I was very impressed with the authors’ wide range of knowledge of the material he chose to present to us, because it showed that he had done a great deal of research and had a vast amount of information and stories to share. I thoroughly enjoyed the parts were Jesus seemed to be having normal conversations with his family and disciples. I was also fascinated by the pictures that went along with the various stories. They helped to clarify what was being said and brought more understanding and enjoyment to the book. The pictures are in color, giving more visual appeal to the writing.

I did not find any grammatical errors, zero spelling errors, no errors of any type. I feel this book is professionally edited. There are no profanities, there are no sensitive or sexual parts in the book. I am giving this book a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. I feel the author has demonstrated that he is very knowledgeable on the topics he has chosen to cover in this book, as well as teaching us some valuable lessons along the way. I was very thankful for all the research links provided, to show the different places Paul gathered his information from. I checked some of those links out and was able to read a bit more on my own. I thought that was very helpful of him to include his research links.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to have a deeper and better understanding of the man, Jesus of Nazareth. It could also appeal to anyone who studies Biblical or art history, as well as anyone interested from a scientific perspective. Anyone religious or not may enjoy reading the information that has been included, as well as reading the two books from the lost accounts that were shared with us.

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“In Search of Jesus of Nazareth and His Original Teaching”
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