Zealot (Book Review)

Zealot, Reza Aslan, Harper Collins Publishers, 2013, ISBN 978-93-5136-076-6, Rs. 499, Pp. xxxiv+296

Reza Aslan is an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions. He was born in Iran but now lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two sons. His first book, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam, has been translated into thirteen languages and named by Blackwell’s as one of the hundred most important books of the last decade. This book is a fruit of over twenty years of research and is an attempt to reconstruct a biography of Jesus that is in keeping with the historical data available.

A perusal through the history of the world will reveal many significant milestones, events and people who changed or shaped the course of history. Men and women down the ages through their lives and legacy have affected history either positively or negatively. Some are remembered while others are lost is copious texts under heaps of detail. This biography is about a nondescript man, who lived a seemingly inconsequential life but whose fame and influence grew in leaps and bounds after his death, washing over into our days. His life and teachings are inspiring and provoking people even today. This man, the Christians claim, is God himself incarnate. His name is Jesus.

Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Aslan sheds new light on one of histories most influential , perhaps controversial and enigmatic figures by examining Jesus within the context of the times in which he lived: the age of zealotry, an era awash in apocalyptic fervour, when scores of Jewish prophets and self proclaimed messiahs wandered Jerusalem bearing messages from God. The also espoused a fervent nationalism that made resistance to Roman occupation a sacred duty. The debate regarding the life and times of Jesus is a long ,ongoing one, numbering myriads of pages. Aslan here, has interpreted the texts in the manner he believes to be the most accurate and reasonable. Exposing the claims of the gospels to the heat of historical analysis, he believes, can purge the scriptures of their literary and theological flourishes and forge a more accurate image of Jesus of Nazareth. The Jesus uncovered in the process may not be the Jesus we expect; he certainly will not be the Jesus most modern Christians would recognize but in the end, he is the only Jesus that can be accessed by historical means. Everything else is a matter of faith.

The book contains quite some perhaps startling interpretations. For example, those who firmly hold the biblical data that Jesus was born in Bethlehem due to the census called by Caesar Augustus and escaped to Egypt because of Herod’s maniacal slaughter of infants are in for a surprise. Aslan claims Jesus was born and brought up in rustic Nazareth. The census was called but not in the manner described nor for the purpose claimed by the Gospel. Lack of corroborative evidence for the massacre of the infants and the alleged ‘flight to Egypt’ make the gospel narratives fantastic but not historical. The novel interpretation and reconstruction of historical facts in the book does seem convincing at times but at other moments seems a bit farfetched. The reader is left with a very coarse view of Jesus and that is what he appears to have been, historically-coarse.

The last part of the book deals with the events after Jesus’ death and the legacy he left behind. The Jewish idea of the Messiah is revisited as well as Jesus’ claims to that title. The role the apostles played in spreading the message of Jesus is looked into, besides the gradual elevation of Jesus, the man, to Jesus, God incarnate. The book is riveting and reads like a novel. Aslan has put in a lot of work as can be testified to by the exhaustive notes and lengthy bibliography found at the back of the book. He deserves every bit of praise for this work. Although this is not a book for the ‘weak in faith’ as they might be shaken, it is an important book for theologians, seminarians, pastors and those looking to synthesize faith and reason.