Review of “Killing Jesus” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard:

I love to read and learn. As a tour guide in Israel, about half of my clients are Christian. When they come to the Holy Land, they want to walk in the steps of the man they believe is the son of God.

I take great satisfaction showing my good Christian friends the Galilee where Jesus grew up and taught; the Sea of Galilee where he, they believe, walked on water and, of course, visiting Jerusalem where he spent his final week before his crucifixion.

Many good books have been written on the subject on Jesus in his native land.

However, one book I truly cannot recommend is “Killing Jesus” by Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (whom, I imagine, did most of the writing).

What is wrong with the book?

First of all, it is full of historical inaccuracies. I mean, really big mistakes that question the authors’ command of what happened.

For example, the authors say that the Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Philistines in 722 BC. Wrong! The bible tells us the Assyrian Empire will destroy Israel and twenty years later try to destroy the Kingdom of Judea and its capital, Jerusalem.

Really!

O’Reilly is the first to admit that he is writing from a Catholic perspective. I guess this is why he portrays Mary Magdalena as a prostitute, when most Christian scholars today reject this bogus claim. She probably was a well-to-do respected matron and supporter of the Jesus Movement.

The list goes on and on. It is truly a rarity when I wonder how such a amateurish tome could be written.

O’Reilly and Dugard are doing a great disservice to their fellow co-religionists. They are perpetuating tales, which have gone out of academic vogue a long time ago.

Don’t buy this book.