The professor of Theology at the Princeton Theological Seminary, provides the most modern and deeply researched treatise into the life of Jesus that I have ever read, even exceeding Richard Rubenstein’s When Jesus Became God. Drawing on many texts that were arbitrarily excluded by the powers who determined what gospels to include in the Bible 200 years after Jesus’s death, she shows
the many contradictions between the ones that were included in third hand accounts from writers, none of whom knew Jesus personally, and wrote many years later. Much of the gospels were written based in part on oral tradition and what had to happen to fulfill Old Testament prophecies.
What emerges is the picture of of a charismatic megalomaniac Jewish rabbi, who speaks in parables, may have been delusional, and is himself conflicted about his role in a troubled world.
There is a lot of debate about who actually condemned Jesus to death in the setting of Roman occupation of Israel, and the details of his crucification.
The resurrection is discussed in detail and the later adoption of the dogma that this was a physical event is seemingly accepted as a real possibility by the author.
The author also clearly believes some of the more etherial and vague stories about Jesus and his vast and continuing impact on the lives of 1/3 of the world’s population, but minimizes the misery and cruelty that has resulted with many wars and cruel Crusades, preferring to emphasize the message of love, help and self-sacrifice. I was therefore not surprised when I recently read about her praise of a variety of clergy who were using various hallucinogens as part of a study to enhance their “spiritual experience”.
I accept that there is a lot more to life than what can be proven by science alone. But I cannot accept dogma that seems to me to me to be clearly impossible scientifically, such as the virgin birth, the resurrection of the physical body, and the transubstantiation of bread and wine into actual body and blood-Jesus must have been completely devoured hundreds of times if that were true. Which body of mine will be resurrected- that of my 20 year old or my current 80 year old? If a cannibal eats me, which body will be resurrected?
An interesting but dry well written very educational read.
4/5
Thanks, The New Yorker.
The Passionate Reader 