The Temple: Its Ministry and Services - Alfred Edersheim

One of my favourite books is The Temple: Its Ministry and Services by Alfred Edersheim.  

Edersheim was a scholar of Jewish origin who lived in the 1800’s. He converted to Christianity and used his considerable theological weaponry to build up the body of Christ.

Edersheim’s specialty was researching and then writing about jewish customs at the time of Christ and so his most famous books are set in the 1^st century A.D.

They include; The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ and History of the Jewish Nation after the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus.

This man was a walking encyclopaedia and his works have never been bettered in my opinion. Reading them today, I am amazed at the depth of the information gathered in an era when resourcing information was painstaking even if you could find the books upon which you based the research.

In The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, Edersheim describes Temple life in Jesus’ day with microscopic exactitude. When I first read this book, I found myself saying “Oh, that’s why that passage says…” such & such.

I never realised how much of what is described in the Gospels in regard to Temple procedures had to do with jewish culture layered on top of the original instructions given in God’s Law.

Today, we are the beneficiaries of work by men like Edersheim, but in recent times other people have reproduced his work and made it available online.

An “e” version of Edersheim’s main works can be found here: http://philologos.org/online.htm

Terry.

Disclaimer: christianfaith.com.au is not endorsing all of the e-books found at that site.