Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Jul 28, 2013 Julianne Dunn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Again, I wish I had a half star. This would have been 4.5 stars if I had been able to. I found this to be very entertaining and informative. Although I've read the Bible, most of what I remember about Jesus is from Jesus Christ Superstar so for some of the people introduced, I found myself humming the songs associated with them.

The first half of the story is really about building the political and cultural environment that Jesus lived in. I didn't know how much so-called messiahs existed during ...more

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Apr 02, 2015 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: middle-east-nonfiction, faith-religion-and-spirituality, judaism-and-jewishness, christianity

Like No God but God, this is good. While I don't pretend the historical Jesus movement invalidates the myth/narrative/point of all of the clearly-exaggerated/fabricated parts of the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament for me, it is very important to have a good understanding of what's historical, what's not, what we don't know, and the context for all of it. I think Aslan has written a very accessible book - as always, his writing is clear, humorous (unexpected for the subjects of his focu Like No God but God, this is good. While I don't pretend the historical Jesus movement invalidates the myth/narrative/point of all of the clearly-exaggerated/fabricated parts of the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament for me, it is very important to have a good understanding of what's historical, what's not, what we don't know, and the context for all of it. I think Aslan has written a very accessible book - as always, his writing is clear, humorous (unexpected for the subjects of his focus), and well-organized. It does a good job of condensing thousands of years of writing into what really matters in a smallish book for the layperson. I do have some issues with the book, though. Not surprisingly given his background and the current state of Christianity in the US, Aslan focuses on a fairly evangelical interpretation of Christianity, and assumes the most important part of the narrative is the death/burial/resurrection of Jesus, instead of focusing much on his words and deeds when he was alive; those of us interested in the historical Jesus, though, would like more focus on Jesus' actual life. While Aslan does talk about him as a miracle-worker or magician, he glosses over many of what are considered the most essential parts of Jesus' teachings, leaving the reader wondering how historical some of those key texts are - and indeed, looking at the Sermon on the Mount or the Lord's Prayer (which he does touch on...in half a sentence) could change the book's thesis a bit, so it's unsatisfying that they're not given more airtime. I have also read some critiques questioning his methodology - which I don't mind if he's using, for example, sociological methods to investigate a religious issue. But I do think the book engages in a LOT of speculation because there is simply not good historical evidence, with phrases like "Although there is no evidence in the New Testament to indicate whether Jesus was married, it would have been almost unthinkable for a thirty-year-old Jewish male in Jesus's time not to have a wife." He goes on to equate celibacy with not being married, despite his argument on the previous page that the virgin birth was concocted to conceal an out-of-wedlock birth. While I have no problem with the ideas that Jesus may have been married or born to a single mother (and indeed that would be what anyone who believes in science would conclude), all of these points with alternative explanations should be taken as speculation and not proof of anything, either. We just don't know exactly what happened. Given that Aslan's book is meant for a general audience and not an academic one, some of these issues around logical fallacies like proving a negative can be problematic, because they can feel like a less-than-upfront form of narrative construction. ...more

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Sep 15, 2014 Lacey Louwagie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: biography, history, religion, non-fiction, 100-book-challenge-2015, christian

So, this book took over a year for me to listen to because I was listening to it with my husband, which means we only moved forward on it when the following stars aligned: 1) We were together on a long drive; 2) neither of us wanted to sleep; and 3) my husband was not using drive time to work. Usually on long drives, I drive and he works, which means I listen to whatever I want. So times when we are both mentally and physically present to listen to the same book is reduced to once every few mont So, this book took over a year for me to listen to because I was listening to it with my husband, which means we only moved forward on it when the following stars aligned: 1) We were together on a long drive; 2) neither of us wanted to sleep; and 3) my husband was not using drive time to work. Usually on long drives, I drive and he works, which means I listen to whatever I want. So times when we are both mentally and physically present to listen to the same book is reduced to once every few months -- and then my MP3 player that had this audiobook on it bit the dust, and I had to download it onto a new one, etc. etc.

All this is to say, this will be a less coherent review than if I had listened to or read this book in a more efficient manner. Still, this book's overall thesis was easy enough to pick up even after months away. This book bore a lot of similarities and even overlapped some theory/research with How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, except in this book the focus was not on whether Jesus' first followers believed him to be divine but on what Jesus and his first followers believed his mission to be. Aslan presents a Jesus who was concerned primarily with justice for the oppressed in Israel at a time of great political turmoil and corruption. It posits that Jesus was indeed a "Zealot" desirous of the overthrow of Roman occupation, but that this message became more and more muddled as the Gospel writers evangelized to the very people Jesus struggled against -- namely, the Romans. Thus, the message was transformed from one of political fervor to one of learning to live in peace alongside those who oppressed or opposed you.

While Aslan makes a convincing argument, to do so he must "cherry pick" from scripture, presenting some of it as if it is historically accurate and blatantly ignoring other passages. That was probably the biggest frustration for me in this book. Still, overall it offers an intriguing portrait of who Jesus the man could have been, as well as an insightful chronology of how we came to see him as someone potentially very different. ...more

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Jul 29, 2013 Nicole rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, religion

Thoroughly researched and compelling, this is a history-focused book and as such is especially enlightening for anyone whose sum knowledge of ancient Palestine or historical Judaism has come through the lens of an American Christian upbringing.

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Jul 21, 2013 Nick rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history

There isn't anything particularly new or shocking about the "historical Jesus" in this book, but Aslan does a very good job of situating Jesus in the context of his times, and makes a very clear case for both the historical Jesus as a zealous revolutionary as well as how he was transformed from that to the Christ. There's a lot to ponder here in terms of the relation of the historical Jesus to what Christianity has become, and what lessons a practicing Christian today should take away from that. ...more

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Oct 16, 2013 Becca rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, history, daily-show-colbert-report

I really enjoyed this one! Again I found myself wavering between ratings and would give this 3.5 stars if I could. It was a great and fairly fast read. I found it interesting to have the life of Jesus and the early days of Christianity put into historical context in a way that was so accessible for a non-academic.

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Oct 24, 2013 Carolyn rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I really enjoyed reading about the historical time of Jesus. I knew a little, but not much, so I was glad to get more of a background. I think it's important to think of the Bible in the context in which it was written (and of Jesus in the context in which he lived). ...more

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Jul 28, 2013 Susanne Clower rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, religion, biography

For me, this book was fascinating. I had never read a book about the historical Jesus. I really enjoyed reading about 1st century Palestine and the politics and culture of the time. I'd recommend this to anyone interested in the study of religion. ...more

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