Books
‘Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth’
By DALE B. MARTIN
Published: August 5, 2013
Patricia Wall/The New York Times
ZEALOT
The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
By Reza Aslan
296 pages. Random House. $27.
Malin Fezehai
Reza Aslan
People have constructed many different Jesuses. For at least two centuries, scholars and popular writers have mined the Christian Gospels to “look behind” them, to create a portrait of Jesus, using purely modern methods: the historical Jesus as opposed to the Christ of faith. In his book “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth,” Reza Aslan follows this long tradition, settling on the hypothesis, also around for hundreds of years, that Jesus was a Jewish zealot, a rebel against Rome and the Romans’ local agents.
Mr. Aslan’s book has been greeted with unwarranted controversy. Some conservatives seem offended by merely the idea that a Muslim scholar would write a book about Jesus. This should be no more controversial than a Christian scholar’s writing a book about Islam or Muhammad. It happens all the time. Nor is Mr. Aslan’s thesis controversial, at least among scholars of early Christianity.
According to Mr. Aslan, Jesus was born in Nazareth and grew up a poor laborer. He was a disciple of John the Baptist until John’s arrest. Like John, Jesus preached the imminent arrival of the kingdom of God, which would be an earthly, political state ruled by God or his anointed, a messiah. Jesus never intended to found a church, much less a new religion. He was loyal to the law of Moses as he interpreted it. Jesus opposed not only the Roman overlords, Mr. Aslan writes, but also their representatives in Palestine: “the Temple priests, the wealthy Jewish aristocracy, the Herodian elite.”
In the last week of Jesus’ life, Mr. Aslan writes, he entered Jerusalem with his disciples in a provocative way that recalled royal entrances described in Jewish scripture. He then enacted a violent cleansing of the Temple: something like radical street theater, except that it took place in a site of supreme holiness.
Provoked by that action and his other rantings against the Temple and its caretakers, the authorities arrested Jesus. The Romans crucified him as a rebel, a zealot and a pretender to the Judean throne. The charge on the cross is historical: the Romans took Jesus as claiming to be the messianic king of the Jews. Since only the Roman Senate could appoint kings within the Empire, claiming to be a king was treasonous and punishable by the worst kind of death: torture and crucifixion.
Mr. Aslan’s thesis is not as startling, original or “entirely new” as the book’s publicity claims. Nor is it as outlandish as described by his detractors. That Jesus was a Jewish peasant who attempted to foment a rebellion against the Romans and their Jewish clients has been suggested at least since the posthumous publication of Hermann Samuel Reimarus’s “Fragments” (1774-78). The most famous case for the thesis is the 1967 book by S. G. F. Brandon, “Jesus and the Zealots.” Mr. Aslan follows Mr. Brandon in his general thesis as well as in many details, a borrowing that should have been better acknowledged. (Mr. Brandon gets only a cursory mention in the notes.) And the basic premise that Jesus was zealous for the political future of Israel as the kingdom of God on earth is neither new nor controversial.
(Mr. Aslan does not fall into the anachronism of making Jesus a member of the Zealot Party as described by Josephus. He knows that party did not exist in Jesus’ day but arose later. Mr. Aslan means zealot with a small “z.”)
A real strength of the book is that it provides an introduction to first-century Palestine, including economics, politics and religion. Mr. Aslan uses previous scholarship to describe the precarious existence of Jewish peasants and the lower classes, and how the Romans and the Jewish upper class exploited the land and the people. He explains not just the religious but also the economic significance of the Temple, and therefore the power of the priestly class controlling it.
“Zealot” shares some of the best traits of popular writing on scholarly subjects: it moves at a good pace; it explains complicated issues as simply as possible; it even provides notes for checking its claims.
Mr. Aslan also proposes outdated views when he insists that the idea of a “divine messiah” or a “god-man” would have been “anathema” to the Judaism of the time, or when he writes that it would have been “almost unthinkable” for a 30-year-old Jewish man to be unmarried. Studies of the past few decades — including “King and Messiah as Son of God” (Adela Yarbro Collins and John J. Collins) and my own “Sex and the Single Savior: Gender and Sexuality in Biblical Interpretation” — have overturned these once commonplace assumptions.
There are several other errors, though most are minor. For instance, Mr. Aslan imagines Jesus standing by the Sea of Galilee with its “salt air.” This “sea,” though, is a freshwater lake.
Given the debate surrounding this book’s publication, spurred by conservative reaction as well as its own publicity, you would expect the work to advance radical readings of the Gospels. Actually, Mr. Aslan is too credulous when reading the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. He is rightly skeptical about some passages, like the birth narratives. But he uncritically accepts as fact many other passages, like precisely what Jesus is supposed to have said at his trial before the high priest and full Sanhedrin. In many cases regarding Jesus, as well as Paul and James, Mr. Aslan takes as accurate deeds and sayings most critical scholars would question.
He also presents as fact what may well be later Christian legend: that Jesus’ ministry lasted three years, that we know in what cities the four Gospels were composed, that Peter was already in Rome when Paul arrived there. There may be a kernel of truth in one or another of these traditions, but they are just that: traditions, not necessarily history.
Some of Mr. Aslan’s other claims are just speculations with no supporting evidence, more at home in fiction than in scholarship — for example, that Jesus spent at least 10 years living and working in the city of Sepphoris.
By profession, Mr. Aslan is not a scholar of ancient Judaism or Christianity. He teaches creative writing. And he is a good writer. “Zealot” is not innovative or original scholarship, but it makes an entertaining read. It is also a serious presentation of one plausible portrait of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
Replies
....eventhough certain aspects of this story are true, again such books keep adding to the confusion . Unknown to many, there were 2 Yashua's in the early stages of AD in Judea. One , leader of rebelious and murderous sect known as Zelots after whom the bible was based and written and which one was nailed to the cross for his crimes. he declared him self a son of David, the one to save his land and peoples from Roman oppression. His campain left a bloody trail , not only on Roman occupiers but also with his own people.
The other one, the peaceful Essene( by many, believed to be a negro ) who healed many sick and maimed during his ministry. The christed one if you prefer whose life was borrowed by biblical writers to make a Zealot Yashua look godly to later generations that would never question official biblical stories.................
........as much as I regard a bible a fairy tale and myth stories, especially new testament, this book has many hidden messages like a sentence in new testament that declares that the governor of Judea sends a peaceful Yashua to the cross and pardons murderous criminal . Has anyone ever wondered about it......................
Note that I said that this was "an entertaining look at a legendary holy man." But I agree with your definition of confusion. Nobody thinks about the possibility that the "virgin" Mary was possibly implanted by extraterrestrials, that Jonah was "swallowed" by a UFO (since whales can't physically swallow a person), or even that Abraham encountered an extraterrestrial with horrific intentions (what kind of God would want someone to sacrifice their own offspring?)
I tend to believe that there was an intense power struggle between this Jesus/Joshuea/Yashua character and the wealthy Jewish clergy being paid off by Rome to keep everyone hush-hush, and that possibly this Jesus-character was labeled as a "king" so that he could be legally executed AND be a part of a planned revenge by these rabbis via an ancient black magic ceremony known as "the killing of the king." This ancient ceremony was evident with a triangle formed with Jesus and two criminals at Golgotha and his blood going into the triangle from a Roman sword (at least according to the New Testament, anyway); the ceremony calls for blood of the sacrificial victim to go into the triangle.
JFK may have also been one to experience this "killing of the king" ceremony as well. He reportedly pissed off some wealthy Jewish rabbis (with money addiction problems similar to the ancient Judea rabbis) for refusing to give Israel nuclear weapons, and he was also labeled as a "king" with this Camelot bullsh!t from the pro-Israeli media. And he got his head blown off with his blood going into a triangle called Dealey Plaza, and people there did report seeing a flash of light when it happened.
Here's what 33rd degree Mason Aleister Crowley had to say about the human sacrifice, from Magick: In Theory And Practice:
CHAPTER XII
OF THE BLOODY SACRIFICE: AND MATTERS COGNATE
It is necessary for us to consider carefully the problems connected with the bloody sacrifice, for this question is indeed traditionally important in Magick.
The animal should therefore be killed within the Circle, or the Triangle, as the case may be, so that its energy cannot escape. An animal should be selected whose nature accords with that of the ceremony — thus, by sacrificing a female lamb one would not obtain any appreciate quantity of the fierce energy useful to a Magician who was invoking Mars. In such a case a ram would be more suitable. And this ram should be virgin — the whole potential of its original total energy should not have been diminished in any way. For the highest spiritual working one must accordingly choose that victim which contains the greatest and purest force. A male child of perfect innocence and high intelligence is the most satisfactory and suitable victim. For evocations it would be more convenient to place the blood of the victim in the Triangle — the idea being that the spirit might obtain from the blood this subtle but physical substance which was the quintessence of its life in such a manner as to enable it to take on a visible and tangible shape.
Those magicians who object to the use of blood have endeavored to replace it with incense. For such a purpose the incense of Abramelin may be burnt in large quantities. Dittany of Crete is also a valuable medium. Both these incenses are very catholic in their nature, and suitable for almost any materialization. But the bloody sacrifice, though more dangerous, is more efficacious; and for nearly all purposes human sacrifice is the best.
(Magick, by Master Therion, published in 1929 by the Lecram Press, Paris, France)
And note that both Jesus and JFK were killed approximately 33 degrees north of the equator. Crowley defined 33 per Kabbalah with the description of "to kill a king of Edom," and some Jewish scholars define the Kabbalah number to be associated with a celebration of Rome killing 24,000 students and their rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, who tried to bring peace to Judea. Note that Kennedy was denying nukes to wealthy Jewish persons while making peace treaties with the Russians, and this Jesus character was reportedly healing people and teaching peace while denying the wealthy Jewish rabbis tribute by throwing the money-changers out of the temple. And we definitely don't need bright young boys like JFK and this Jesus/character, regardless of whether they are black, white, blue-eyed, tan, kinky-haired, or extraterrestrial.
...............I have to agree that Virgin birth might have extraterriestral origin............. Considering certain ancient documents, some suggest that Mary was "bread" towards her , volunteered" ministry/purpose. Essene documents, Book of Enoch and other escoteric books suggest her willingly being made pregnant by a Godly entity.( interpretations of that are many ).
......wealthy Jewish and Roman lawyers, temple scholars and merchants had a grip on society always had control ever since Zarathustra in Sumerian days.its been documented all over the world like Mayans, Toltec, Hindu,Egiptian and so forth. ............Powerfull many times distort the facts of history to deceive the population.
........Roman powers did not keep things hush~hush for future generations. Example : ~.......today we know of over 30 historians at the times of Roman occupation of Judea, 2 of them known as Plinio and Josephus, among most famous, and not one, not one mentiones this famous crucifiction , ministry of a healer and his famous female partner( most of the world believes to be Mary the prostitute)..........however we have some gnostic and essene documents prove the bible version to be a fairy tale.
you speak of magicians and temple priests but did you know that those in the time of "Yashua" murdered live animals at the altar, during their sabatical masses and drank their blood with the worshipers ? ....and that is the meaning of angry Je~sus "turning over the merchants tables" selling live animals for blood thirsty rituals , of the people in his time............................
Very interesting. I have a book entitled: "Jesus, Last of the Pharoahs". (It makes a lot of sense to me, and I believe it is a really good book),
This book was written by a muslim, and hit #1 on the NYT best seller list. It has small errors, but the author reportedly did a great job defining "the feel" of ancient Judea, which would later become Palestine, and is now the declared home for a mainly eastern European population consisting mainly of descendants of western Asian Khazar tribes (who have no ancient linkage with this land whatsoever, no matter how well Andy Williams or Pat Boone sang the theme song to "Exodus" (aka "This Land")).