Killing Jesus (Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard)

I was glad to read this book because it painted a vivid picture of what life was like in the time of Jesus (sometimes too vivid, in the case of the excesses of some of the Roman leaders). If it had not called itself an accurate historical document I would have enjoyed it more, because it was so clearly elaborated beyond what history can tell us and bent to O'Reilly's own biases. I suppose I could forgive the statements about the weather on a particular day, or what Agrippa was thinking as he stood looking out a particular window, as unimportant attempts to bring the narrative to life. But when he describes how Mary gasped in shock at finding Jesus teaching at the temple at age 12, because he had never shown such an ability before, I am left wondering how he could possibly know this, and such unsupportable insight is rampant in the text. He also ignores a lot of biblical scholarship when he assumes, for instance, that the Gospels were actually written by the specific Apostles for which they were named, or that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. All together I found it an interesting book if one is careful not to take it too seriously, but I can't really recommend it.