In observance of Passover and Easter, millions of Jews and
Christians are retelling ancient stories of faith from the Holy
Land. But when it comes to day-to-day life in that ancient world
— what people ate, how they flirted, how they stayed clean — how
much do we really know? Religion scholar Scott Korb takes on
that question, and the real nitty-gritty of that existence, in
his latest book, Life In Year One: What the World Was Like in
First-Century Palestine. A historical travelogue of sorts, Life
In Year One details the tumultuous era in which Jesus lived.
Korb, a professor at New York University and The New School,
draws from ancient texts, archaeology, and ancient and modern
historians' often contradictory accounts, to paint a picture of
that ancient world — when the Jewish people chafed under Roman
rule, when bandits and assassins roamed the countryside, and
when entire economies and belief systems were being transformed.
A Catholic himself, Korb makes clear in his very first chapter:
this is a book about