A couple weeks ago, this video of author Reza Aslan made the rounds on the interwebs. It’s pretty ridiculous, and it inspired me to buy his book Zealot. I don’t know a lot about biblical history, so I was excited to read Aslan’s book and get a historical outlook on Jesus.
Aslan divides this book into three parts. The first section is an overview of ancient Judea for about a century before and after Jesus’s birth. This was great because it provided a lot of background on the political and social climate that existed at that time. The second section covers Jesus’ life and ministry. The third covers the history of the early church for about a century after Jesus’ death.
Aslan’s main point in Zealot is that based solely on the fact that Jesus was crucified, we know that he had overtly political teachings, since Rome reserved crucifixion for those guilty of sedition. From that simple fact, Aslan expands and retells the narrative of Jesus, placing him squarely in the center of the political turmoils in first century Palestine.
This book isn’t nearly as controversial as I expected it to be. Aslan gives a well-researched and well thought out description of Jesus that certainly seems plausible to me. I enjoyed reading not only his descriptions of Jesus, but also his reasoning and the documents he cites (with the exception of his reliance on the Q source, which is, at least so far, completely hypothetical).
One of the best insights I got from this book is that the bible is a useful historical document because you can look at each book and learn a lot about whom it was being written to, and why. For example, with each successive canonized gospel in the new testament, Jesus becomes less and less “earthly” and more and more divine. The blame for his death is also shifted more and more heavily from the Romans to the Jews. Aslan posits that both of these changes are aimed at converting a Roman audience to Christianity, and an attempt to distance Jesus from Jerusalem especially after the war between Rome and Judea that culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. (before any of the gospels were written).
Aslan makes many good points about Jesus, and while I don’t know if I agree with all of them, he gives the reader plenty of context so that I can disagree in an informed way. Really, that’s all I ask from a popular science book (or in this case, popular history – see my criticism of Outliers). If you’re interested in the topic, pick up a copy of the book because it’s engaging and informative and a very good read.
To see the full list of books that I’ve read for this project click here.
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