Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

I had high hopes for this book but was very disappointed in the scholarship. There are many utterly authoritative assertions that are not accompanied by proper attribution. The author puts words into the mouths of people who lived thousands of years ago. I can't believe this book was a bestseller, or that my fellow readers have such a low bar set for historical writing. One example: The author states that it is "preposterous" to even think that an order would have gone out to the populace to travel to register in a census. Does this author have no knowledge of bureaucracies and autocrats? Governments require the ridiculous of their populaces even in the modern era. He also states with utter certainty exactly what the town of Nazareth would have looked like. He does not take into account that early Christians may have travelled to the ruins of the town and stripped it for mementos, for example, even taking timber with them, possibly. Or that the town may have been stripped, as many a city has been stripped through millennia, by people settling nearby who need the materials. The author also states that there is no documentation of Jesus' birth account and that it must have been made up by the gospel writers in order to "fit" Jewish prophesies. Is it not quite possible that Jesus' life history was wiped from written record by the Romans because of the threat he posed? Again, there are innumerable instances through the ages of the powerful quite literally re-writing history. And just because John and Mark didn't include a birth story in their gospels doesn't mean the story was completely unknown. Perhaps they were focused on what was the most meaningful to them of Christ's story? Maybe Matthew and Luke were concerned that if the birth story wasn't documented then people would be more skeptical of Christ's origin. Who knows. I don't, and neither does Mr. Aslan, nor do any of the writers of the books he lists in his glossary. To me, this author seems to have an agenda in which he seeks to utterly dispel any thought that Jesus could have been the son of God. His assertions just don't hold water for me, and read like his story, not history.

I was without power for a week (yes..an entire week, in the nasty heat, ewwwww) and had Zealot in my I-will-read-this pile for quite some time (well, ok, years). I read it in three days. And not because I didn't have anything else to do. This book changed my outlook on Judaism, the Messiah concept, and Christianity. It's got a lot history, so don't say I didn't warn you. LOTS of history in this book. It was well written, very well documented and has a copious section on notes. Great book, to say the least.