Every year I keep my eyes open for the book that I will remember as the book I read over the Christmas break. This year I’ve got mine picked out, and if you like well-written but rich history this is a book you just might want to order yourself: Martin Goodman, Rome and Jerusalem. Christian historians have been repeating for years innocent, but sometimes mistaken, ideas about the relationship of Rome with Jews. And the entire interest today in Jesus, Paul and empire is rooted in a view of the relationship of Jerusalem with Rome. This book will flesh out what we are all looking for. Martin Goodman is one of the finest scholars of Rome and a professor of Jewish studies at Oxford. Few can pull together what Goodman has done here. Cant’ wait.