Christmas Paperback

Though written in an academic style I found this book fascinating. Margaret Barker uses her knowledge of temple tradition and Jewish culture in the time of Jesus, combined with research into ancient writings both Christian and secular, to explore the Christmas story. She sets the scene by writing of the temple, the stories and the politics of the time, and then introduces what she terms ‘other voices’, Adam, The Lady and The Hidden Descent. Having got us thoroughly intrigued she takes us through the Gospels of Luke, Matthew and The Infancy Gospel of James mentioning other writings on the way. Finally she explains the story as told in the Qur’an and finishes with extracts from a translation of the Qur’an. Very readable, I learnt a great deal that I didn’t know before.