So I finally think Karen Armstrong’s book is heating up a bit.  I know she is covering a lot of time.  But now we have finally to my great approval started counting up in the years towards modern times.  I hope my thoughts are not too random in this post, but there are various things that I would like to point out.  The first is transistion that Armstrong does from using “Yahweh” to know the abbreviation “YHWH”. Does anyone know why this is so?  Next, I’d like to point out the connection to this weekend.  I thought Armstrong did a superb job on briefly summarizing the creation of the Christian religion as well as the story of Jesus and why he is so important to the Christian faith.

On page 101, Armstrong includes a picture of the Samaritan sect of Jerusalem.  I had no idea about this sect and I thought  it was interesting to learn a little bit about it.  It seemed to meet that their dress is a bit different than other Jews.  I also enjoyed Armstrong’s connections with history to Jewish and Christian holidays.  It made the meanings of the holidays clearer to me.  Armstrong refers to Passover (right now) on several occasions.

The author did a good job on taking of Herod.  A man that I did not of before reading these chapters.  She does an adequate job of chroniclogy dating the history of Palestine.  Her take on the Greek rule was interesting.  It was great to learn more about the life and times of Julius Caesar.  Not to skip around but I enjoyed the explication of the significance as well as the maps of the Western Wall.  I really enjoyed the picture on page 131, and the differentiation of the stones with time (Herod and post-Herod).  The map on page 141 simply amazed me.  In particular the 30 miles scale.  It made me think that all this happened historically, which is the great cause to the disputed land now