Jesus

Title: Jesus

Author: A N Wilson

Publisher: Pimlico, 2003 (First published 1992)

ISBN: 9780712606974

Pages: 269

The figure of Jesus Christ equally permeates the hallowed space of religious scholarship and the profane sphere of history like no other personage or divinity has ever done. A large chunk of the populace believe that he was the Son of God, died on the cross to atone the sins of humanity and that anyone who believed in him can have everlasting life in the kingdom of God which is yet to come. Obviously, what the believers make out of Christ is clearly at odds with the sayings and deeds of the historical Jesus, who ‘existed within an acceptable religious framework and was not setting out to found a new religion, still less to found a philosophical school’. His teachings were different from other teachers of religion in that he spoke in parables. Also, ‘he didn’t wish to deliver the people with a finished pattern which they could follow. The pattern was something which they must make for themselves’. This book is the result of a very relevant attempt to reconcile the historical Jesus with the divine Christ in light of the improvement in Biblical scholarship after 1950 as a result of new archeological and literary finds. A N Wilson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has held a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is a great biographer and is also a celebrated and prize-winning novelist. However, he is not a Biblical scholar and his biographies of Jesus (this book) and Paul had been instrumental in flaring controversies up.

Wilson claims that the Apostle Paul had invented the Christianity with which we are familiar today. He transformed the Jewish rituals practiced by Jesus into a form acceptable to the gentiles in Asia Minor, Greece and Rome, where the nascent Christianity took root. The book presents the example of the Eucharist which is not at all a Jewish custom. Similarly, most of the fantastic tales associated with Jesus remind more of the mystery cults of the Mediterranean. There are two stages the gospels took, in assuming its present form. First is the oral tradition about Jesus being eventually written down, and then reshaped by the evangelists for their own particular audiences. An approximate date on which they took the present shape is also guessed at. Mark’s gospel was the first among them, which saw the light of the day in 60 CE, in Rome. Matthew came out in Antioch 85 CE, Luke in Corinth 80 CE and John in 100 CE. The historicity of gospels is a pressing point and addressed as such in the book, but no definite answer is given. We can never find the truth by modern historical techniques. Wilson treats them more as stories in which historical characters are woven in. Luke mentions a Roman census when Quirinius was the governor of Syria and Herod the king of Judaea. However, history tells us that Herod reigned between 37 - 4 BCE and Quirinius was not the Syrian governor in this period. Moreover, the census was held in anticipation of imposing a hated poll tax on the Jews and nobody was expected to travel to their ancestors’ places, who had lived centuries before. The book presents a lot many examples like these.

However, the author admits that the New Testament could well be closer in time to Jesus than was once supposed. The analogy is arresting. It is said to be like entering a room after a person has just left, with the impression of a head clearly visible against the cushion, a glass half-empty by the chair, or a cigarette still smouldering in the ash-tray. There are historians who convincingly argue that Jesus was never a living presence in history, but only as religious speculation. This can’t be true. What other evidence do they propose to get convinced, of a person who lived twenty centuries ago? We conceive of the historicity of Buddha or Alexander only through literary references dating very close to their supposed life spans. With this argument at our backs, we’d have to conclude that Jesus was a historical person.

As can be expected, the gospels contain some exaggerated accounts of Jesus’ deeds. Wilson mentions a few incongruities between the narratives of the four gospels which could only come about if the writers were genuinely confused about some of the finer aspects of a real, historical event. Also, it is likely that Jesus was not a carpenter at all, but rather a scholar. Besides, the author warns that the gospels are not balanced biographies, but are really Passion narratives. The other parts in it are just a prelude to the accounts of the last week of Jesus’ life. Subjectivity is the only criterion of gospel truth. This book also examines why Jesus soon became a thorn in the flesh of Jewish religious orthodoxy, which believed in strict observance of rituals for condoning their sins. Jesus granted God’s forgiveness to sinners who simply believed in and followed God in spirit and truth. This ran contrary to the theories of the Pharisees or Essenes who thought that only the pure deserved it.

The effort taken by the gospel writers in ameliorating the guilt of the Romans in condemning Christ requires special mention. This is an area which must be examined in more detail. They place all blame at the doors of the Jews who even demands that his blood be on them and their progeny. The governor Pilate is portrayed as forced to order Jesus’ crucifixion by the mob’s pressure. This incident paved the way for the growth of anti-Semitism in Christian lands, but it was only a bid to propagate the new religion of Christianity among Roman citizens. Convenient to their effort, the parallel church in Jerusalem headed by Jesus’ brother James was crushed in the outbreak of violence against Roman authority and the subsequent purge and destruction of the Temple in 70 CE.

As claimed, the book is indeed a dispassionate account of Jesus of Nazareth rather than Christ of Bethlehem. He presents some original concepts which are very bold. He proposes that Apostle Paul was the servant of the High Priest who was in the team that arrested Jesus at Gethsemane and who had his ear injured in the skirmish. This goes well with the fact that Paul was one of the persecutors of Christians in the beginning and only came round to adoring Jesus after a revelation on the road to Damascus. The book is very well researched and contains a good bibliography with an impressive index. However, the narrative is a bit terse which requires constant vigil from the readers.

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 3 Star