When the Good News Gets Even Better
Neb Hayden
Reviewed by Teresa Konopka
“When the Good News Gets Even
Better: Rediscovering the Gospels Through First-Century Jewish Eyes” by
Neb Hayden is a hefty devotional book. Meant to be a twelve-week
study, this is no light reading. The main purpose of the book is
to
walk readers through the New Testament through the eyes of Jews at the
dawn of the BC / AD era. By immersing readers into the Jewish
culture,
traditions, laws, and such, Hayden demonstrates just how revolutionary
Jesus’ time on Earth way. There are also historical and
archeological
facts to back up the chronological events, scenes, and places of the
Bible.
Each day’s devotional is clearly marked. The couple of
pages allotted to each day consist of boldfaced themes with
explanations. These tend to shine light on certain events in the
New
Testament. Aside from that, there are notes in the margins that
have
fun facts, fill-ins, and just informal adages. The devotionals
also
include quizzes and sentence completions. Additionally, there are
copious questions addressed to the reader that evoke written
response.
Some questions are personal and some are so theological that they may
stump even a seminary student! Symbols on the pages note when
Hayden
is talking about overlapping scenes, Jewish heritage, personal insight,
Scriptural context, or modern connection.
By the time the
reader is done, they will have recollected the events of the Gospels as
if they were there. While this book is dense both physically and
literarily, it does reinforce teachings of the Bible. Readers
that
already know of the Biblical stories of the Gospel will now remember
them through Jewish eyes. In this way, they will get a glimpse of
what
it must have been like for devout Jews to finally see with their very
own eyes the Messiah that was prophesized to come and redeem the world.