Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, by Reza Aslan

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, by Reza Aslan

I have always been fascinated by religion, particularly Christianity. Not by it’s dogma or rituals, but by the story it tells. Like our best literature, the Bible is filled with heroism, sacrifice, suffering, life and death, all of which make it an evocative read. Christ particularly, is a captivating figure behind the New Testament at least, because, like all great heros, he marches to the summons without flinching. Even when it takes him into the valley of the shadow of death. The gospels are founded upon his message and sacrifice, but for me personally the beauty of the accounts is their portrayal of the man behind the mask, Jesus the human being not Jesus the Savior.

 Like many people I came to know of Reza Aslan’s book Zealot after the car-crash interview he was subjected to by the good old sly fox, Fox News. Rather than refute the book and its argument it propelled it into the national consciousness. But beside this, it is a fascinating read. 

Aslan argues that Jesus imbibes two meanings, the first is that of the Christ, who rose from the dead and redeemed all sins, the second more elusive is of the rural Palestinian, who out of the back woods of Nazareth, ‘a place that doesn’t exist on the map,’ marches into Jerusalem calling for revolution. This is the central argument of the account. Jesus was a Jewish Zealot, a ‘peasant and revolutionary who challenged the rule of the most powerful empire the world had ever known.’ A remarkable story if ever there was one.

The first part of the book discusses Palestine, at the turn of the millennia. Awash with preachers, prophets and rabble rousers, embroiled in political and social strife. Jerusalem, under the subjugation of Roman law and the temple elders, became the locus of many exalted men. The Jewish people had a particular belief in zeal, which, ‘implied a strict adherence to the Torah and Law, a refusal to serve any foreign master [...] and an uncompromising devotion to the sovereignty of God. To be zealous for the Lord was to walk in the blazing footsteps of the prophets.’ On such a backdrop Jesus of Nazareth appeared.

The story of Jesus the man is in some ways more extraordinary than the gospels Jesus the Christ. Here was an illiterate pauper, a magician and exorcist, who after developing a band of ever-growing followers commits the ultimate act of treason when he gives the command: ‘Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.’ This was, ‘a capital offense [...] Considering the temple’s tangled relationship with Rome, [it] is tantamount to attacking Rome itself.’ There is only one pathway left to such a man and after such an act, and that is the path to crucifixion: ‘Like every bandit and revolutionary, every rabble rousing zealot and apocalyptic prophet [...] Jesus of Nazareth is executed for daring to claim the mantle of king and messiah.’ His message is clear, ‘the kingdom of God is about to be established on earth [...] But God’s restoration cannot happen without the destruction of the present order.’ 

Depending on how much we believe of the gospels account, Jesus had the astonishing ability to mythologize himself even while alive, but his death and reported rising was what propelled the carpenter, ensconced in the Jewish faith, into the all-encompassing God of humanity. Aslan gives a wonderful account of how Christianity was formed, from its beginning with James the Just, to its emerging with Paul the Apostle, who more than any figure made the religion what it is today. The New Testament itself is shown to be a cacophony of voices, a blending of fact and fiction, myth and history, but Jesus of Nazareth is the unusual individual who stands behind such an edifice.

The book is a brilliant read, prodigiously sourced and researched, with an engaging style. The most fascinating part of the story of Jesus, however, is that for some reason outside the bounds of history, and research, the early Christians were convinced that Christ had risen from the dead, not as a spirit but as a man of flesh and blood. The kernel of this belief remains elusive even to Aslan’s magisterial scope, but I suppose this last part is the matter of faith. For everything else this account sheds an illuminating light of Jesus the man, who somehow against the odds and propelled by destiny, founded one the great Western religions. Like Aslan thinks, this is man, in his very humanness, is one I could read about all day.