Jerusalem: The Biography – Simon Sebag Montefiore – 4 Stars

Jerusalem: The Biography – Simon Sebag Montefiore – 4 Stars

Title: Jerusalem: The Biography

Author: Simon Sebag Montefiore

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Year: 2011

Rating:  4 Star

Price and Purchasing Options: This book has had great distribution, but not so much in the LDS Community.  This means that you can find it in second hand options, but not a Deseret Industries.  Look for second hand options on eBay or other used bookstores.  With that being said, this is available in softcover off of Amazon for cheap and sometimes I have even seen it at Costco for a couple of bucks – so a second-hand option usually isn’t required.  Buy it new!

Review: This is a fantastic book, and for anyone who wants a better historical understanding of the gospel needs to read this book.  To be clear this isn’t an “LDS” book, but a unique history book written in the context of being a biography for the city of Jerusalem.  This won’t help you be a better Christian, but will help you better understand the city Jerusalem – and in turn can give you greater perspective on your other studies of the gospel.  I got a great deal out of the book itself, and it helped me gain an even greater amount from the rest of my gospel related studies as a result.

Jerusalem is central to our understanding of Christianity, the ministry of Christ, and future prophecy.  Understanding the background and complex history of Jerusalem can bring greater depth to your own understanding of those critical components of the gospel.

This book is remarkably well written, and has a way to conveying a history while maintaining your attention.  This could have very easily have been a boring history book – but Montefiore is a master of capturing your attention with subtle character development at each historical stage, weaving together each period from the last, and setting the stage for the next. 

The book covers each stage of the history of Jerusalem from beginning with the Davidic reign, through the captivity and invasion of the Babylonians, through the roman rule during the ministry of Christ, the destruction, the renewing, the building up of each ruling empire from the Jews, Christians and the Muslims, with each rotating owner every few decades.  It eventually works its way all the way through the 1950’s Zion movement.

Most importantly you begin to understand the context of Jerusalem today – and why it is the center of conflict: it has always been the center of conflict.  With each succeeding reign, it only increases the complication even more, drawing more conflict for future generations, each with clear “justification.”  The complexity of Jerusalem’s past increases your perspective that there is really little, to no hope of peace in the area of the world until the second coming of Christ himself.  It will require some divine intervention to reset the expectations of those players.  (This last comment is my own take away, and not the perspective of the author of the book.)

This is a critical book, and I would highly recommend reading it!  It will help you gain perspective on the exodus of Lehi and his family, the prophecies of Isaiah, the comments of Christ in Mathew 24, and even the nightly news in regards to that area of world.

  

Suggestions:  Get the book and read it!

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Review #41

Tags: 4 Stars, History, Jerusalem: The Biography, Simon Sebag Montefiore, LDS Book Review, Ryan Daley