I recently had the chance to interview Justin Taylor on his excellent new book The Final Days of Jesus: The Most Important Week of the Most Important Person Who Ever Lived, which he co-authored with New Testament scholar Andreas Kostenberger.
The book is fantastic and makes the events of Jesus’ final week real in a new way. I continually found myself marveling at what Jesus did for us as they retold the story in an integrated way from all four gospels, together with theological commentary and insights. I highly recommend it.
Here are some of the blurbs for the book:
“This is a book about the most important person who ever lived during the most crucial week of his life. If you want to get to know the person and teachings of Jesus in the context of an engaging story with practical commentary, this book is for you. It is biblical, personal, and transformational.”
—Darrin Patrick, Pastor, The Journey, St. Louis, Missouri; author, For the City and Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission“You may be wondering what can be done to make Christ’s last week come alive in ways it hasn’t before. It would help to understand the historical background and cultural script a little better, but you don’t want a big book. It would help, too, if your authors were trustworthy, knowledgeable evangelical scholars who could write clearly for laypeople. Look no further—this is the book for you!”
—Craig L. Blomberg, Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Denver Seminary“A clearly presented overview of the most important week in world history. Brief, helpful comments illuminate the biblical story and bring home its enduring and life-changing message.”
—Douglas J. Moo, Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies, Wheaton College
Justin and I go way back to college, where we both got interested in theology and apologetics and studied them together on the side at a secular university. Then we were able to take the things we would learn and defend our faith in secular philosophy classes. So it was fun to interview him on his new book and also talk a bit about some of our experiences learning apologetics together early on.
Here’s the interview: