Killing Jesus

Title: Killing Jesus – A History

Author: Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

Publisher: Macmillan, 2013 (First)

ISBN: 9781447252665

Pages: 293

A dramatic rendering of the Biblical text, with a touch of historical characters in the background.

Killing Jesus is the third in the series put out by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. The first two are titled ‘Killing Kennedy’ and ‘Killing Lincoln’, the two American presidents who were assassinated. The intention is to put the event in the right historical perspective by narrating the background which led to the event, the prominent characters involved in the incident, its aftermath and the grim personal experiences of the deceased. Even though I have not read the first two, the historical honesty of them is not to be doubted, as the protagonists lived so near to us in time. But attempting the story of narrating the killing of Jesus Christ is a tremendous effort, judging from the vastness of time which separates Him from us and the wide divergence of cultural ethos that existed in ancient Palestine and today’s world. While there is no question of refuting the opening line of the book that ‘Jesus of Nazareth was the most influential man who ever lived’, it is equally true that no historical evidence exists that depicts him as a human being. The gospels are our only sources of information. All later works are simply borrowings from the Holy Book. Under such circumstances, we can only conclude that this book is just a feeble effort to present a few Bible stories under the guise of history. The Holy Bible is the world’s most read book, which is presented in numerous versions and all languages so as to appeal to all classes of people. This book is also one among them, which ascribes historical authenticity to stories in the New Testament.

The state of suppressed unrest that prevailed in Palestine at the time of Jesus is clearly brought out in the text. The land was under Roman occupation, but some form of autonomy was provided. Herod ruled as the governor of Rome with an iron hand, but being a Jew, he provided some semblance of local authority. After his death, the country was divided into Galilee in the north and Judaea in the south. The former was ruled by Herod Antipas, a Jew. The Romans couldn’t find any native worthy enough to administer Judea that also included Jerusalem. This area was then looked after by the Roman prelate himself – Pontius Pilate, who walked into history as the man who ceremonially washed his hands pure off the crime of crucifying Jesus. He was under strict orders from Emperor Tiberius not to meddle with Jewish religion. This gave a carte blanche to Caiaphas, the high priest of the Temple in Jerusalem. He could accuse anybody of heresy or who tried to interfere with rituals and condemn them to death. As a mark of superiority of the occupying power, it was insisted that such sentences of death need to be corroborated by Pilate. Caiaphas and his entourage converted the temple into a centre of profit, by obtaining a cut on every cash transaction inside it, in the form of sale of sacrificial lambs, doves and money changers. Besides this, the ordinary people reeled under the yoke of excessive taxation. The expenses incurred by Rome in maintaining a garrison and Roman roads need to be defrayed in addition to grand tributes to the emperor. The Jewish governors themselves indulged in magnificent construction projects that drained the money out of the rural poor. The famished society of Galilee was thus ripe for a rebellion for economic causes alone. This was complemented on the religious side by unfulfilled prophecies in scriptures that trumpeted about a savior who would appear in their midst and shake off the immense burden from their shoulders. All these factors contributed to Jesus’ efforts to rally the people to his cause. What the people and the authorities didn’t understand was that his kingdom was of heaven and not of this world.

For reasons best known to themselves, the authors deliberately paint a very debased picture of the Roman Empire and the men who ran it. Countless details of wanton cruelty, perverted sexual acts and extreme depths of immorality flood the pages whenever a historical discussion is presented in this book. The torture inflicted on Jesus by Roman soldiers just prior to crucifixion is described in excruciating detail bordering on revulsion from readers. It seems that the authors were carried away by extreme passion! Even though it claims to be a historical work on the title, the relationship between it and true history is a very tenuous one. It claims that a dove came to rest on Jesus’ person at the time of his baptism at the hands of John the Baptist. The historical source of this curious observation cited in the book is that this incident is vividly described in all four gospels! When there are differences among gospels, it is attributed to the separation in time between the compilation of the gospels. When they agree on a point, it is ‘overwhelming evidence’ of the ‘authenticity’ of that event. Such is the convoluted logic of this book. In order to put on a cloak of historicity, the book includes a few chapters on real Roman emperors, but of course, by demonizing them and their pagan ways. Blind assertions that are not at all anchored on fact abound in this book, such as “Jesus was born in the spring of either 6 or 5 BC is based on clear historical evidence” (p.21), “there is growing acceptance of the gospels’ overall historicity and authenticity” (p.22) and “women in Jesus’ time were considered equal to men” (p.147). The book assumes that the Magi made their journey from Persia to pay obeisance to new born Jesus, on the flimsy argument that some Chinese astronomers had recorded the sighting of a comet on the western sky around 5 BC. Josephus and Philo are the historians on whom O’Reilly and Dugard heavily leans on, but their dubious distinction as historians mar the narrative’s objectivity. The book is gifted with a good index and a brief description on the sources of reference material.

This book is a compilation of stories from the Bible. But they are told in an appealing way and hence this book is recommended as a work of fiction.

Rating: 3 Star