This is a very impressive and timely book on Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) by 74 contributors in the field of pediatrics and child health from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Holland and Italy.
The term EBM was developed by Sackett and colleagues from the McMaster University (Sackett DL et al. Evidence based medicine. BMJ 1996;312:71-2) as "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients" or in other words, good medical practice based on as much facts as possible for the benefit of your patient. Since 1991 this field has been incooporated into many medical schools around the work, textbooks published and now we see it reaching pediatrics and child health.
This superbly edited book (updates will be regularly posted on www.evidbasedpediatrics.com) is devided into three sections: "Finding, evaluating and applying the evidence"; "Evidence for routine practices: screening/prevention" and finally "Common pediatrics conditions" with a good and comprehensive index.
The steps in the practice of Evidence Based Pediatrics (EBP) are: to evaluate the clinical situation (by history, by examination and laboratory tests), identify information needs and structure clinical questions, search for relevant information from the literature, evaluate the evidence found or identify lack of evidence and finally apply the evidence to your patients.
You will find many useful and structured entries in this book from the issue of the "well child" to the common pediatric problems of otitis media, constipation, short stature or croup.
We believe that this important book should find its way to the desks of the practicing pediatrician, the lecturer in child health and the researcher in pediatrics.

Professor Joav Merrick, MD
Medical director, Division for Mental Retardation, Box 1260, IL-91012 Jerusalem, Israel, email: jmerrick@aquanet.co.il

Mohammed Morad, MD
Family physician, Division for Community Health, Ben Gurion University, Box 653, IL-84105 Beer-Sheva, Israel, email: morad-62@barak-online.net

If Klassen wanted me to read this book, he should have captured my attention within the first chapter by showing me that he knows what he's talking about. I am a junior in college and a religion major, and I heard Klassen say things during the introduction and chapter one that are not accurate (but people who are not religion majors can see them as well). For example, on p.2, he says this statement, "When the high priests refuse to take back the thirty pieces of silver, he [Judas] throws them back into the Temple and then either hangs himself (Matt 27:1-10) or, according to Luke (Acts 2:15-22) falls forward on the ground and his body burst open pouring out his entrails in an ignominious death." Whoa! Where did that come from? I have never heard of Judas' body exploding before...and if Luke did, he didn't say anything about it. Acts 2:15-22 is Peter's Pentecost sermon. It says nothing about Judas' death. Later, in the first chapter, he has one paragraph explaining how the Gospel writers had their own agenda (which can be seen by anyone when comparing the Gospels to each other). Two pages after that, though, he cites someone named Donatus Haugg who says that they were "objective historians" to help support his point. (16) Since they had their own agenda, though, it's impossible for them to be objective. He just contradicted himself. (Plus, they weren't historians either - which he claims they were. They were not writing history; they were writing theology.) These are only a few of things that I found wrong with what he said, and remember this was only within the first 24 pages. I would like to hear his argument, though, about how "handing over" does not mean "betray," but if he cannot get his information straight at the beginning of the book, I wonder if he can do so for the rest of it.

This masterful study challenges the traditional view of Judas as a traitor who betrayed Jesus...Klassen relies upon impressive linguistic evidence...he also provides a strong exegesis of NT texts...Highly recommended for a wide range of readership from specialists to serious laypersons.

This book is an extremely interesting portrait of Judas which should be overlooked. Klassen is an excellent scholar, whatever one may think of his conclusions. The book discusses the perspectives on Judas throughout history, from the period of the Gospels onward, including the demonization of Judas as typifying the early conflict within Judaism between the Jews and Gentiles who believed in Jesus and those who did not. Then Klassen discusses how Jesus predicted his 'betrayal', and willingly gave himself over. Whilst one could claim he was like the lamb being led to the slaughter, putting up no fight whatsoever, and allowing oneself to be arrested obviously means one is not averse to the idea. Thus, Klassen concludes, also based on other evidence, that Judas and Jesus had planned to get Jesus arrested in order to have an encounter with high priests.
The passage in Acts where Luke states Judas' entrails fall out is chapter 1, verse 18, not chapter 2. Furthermore, Klassen mentions his own opinion regarding the bias of the NT writers, and then goes on to mention the views of others. He is not contradicting himself, but merely exploring various viewpoints. Nowhere does he mention that he agerees with them all. Whilst Klassen's theory would, like any other theory regarding Jesus of Nazareth, be impossible to prove beyond any doubt, it is nonetheless an important perspective on two first century Jews, Jesus and Judas.