Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit by Jodi Magness

Jodi Magness is a Distinguished Professor of Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. This book is cleverly subtitled "Jewish daily life in the time of Jesus" to afford it a broader Christian readership. The author is a prolific archeologist and historian who blends the exploits of material culture with testimonies of ancient records to reconstruct the realities of Jewish life around the 1st century CE. This book can be useful to those studying the Second Temple Judaism as well as those seeking to understand the historical and cultural background of the New Testament.