This Is Where Jesus Walked

PHOTOGRAPHER Erich Lessing calls himself an atheist--"or at best, an agnostic"--but that description would hardly seem credible to those who buy his books. Last Christmas, Lessing's The Bible: History and Culture of a People, told the story of the Old Testament in a lavish pictorial presentation of historical sites, art and artifacts. This year comes the sequel: Jesus: History and Culture of the New Testament (Herder & Herder; $33). As with the previous volume, the narrative is limited to appropriate texts from Scripture and a handful of background essays by biblical scholars--notably a thoughtful discussion of Jesus' Jewishness by David Flusser of Jerusalem's Hebrew University. For parts of his photographic essay, Lessing uses ancient and medieval Christian art--much of it unfamiliar Middle Eastern illuminations, mosaics and sculptures, all of it superbly reproduced in color. But the real eye-stoppers are the photographs of places where Jesus may have walked, such as the ancient stone steps leading to Mount Sion, which, says Lessing, Jesus probably used on the night of the Last Supper; and Jerusalem's 2,700-year-old Pool of Siloam, where, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus sent a blind man to bathe--and thereby restored his sight.

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