Zealot

The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

By: Reza Aslan

Narrated by: Reza Aslan

Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

From the internationally best-selling author of No god but God comes a fascinating, provocative, and meticulously researched biography that challenges long-held assumptions about the man we know as Jesus of Nazareth.

Two-thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher and miracle worker walked across the Galilee, gathering followers to establish what he called the "Kingdom of God". The revolutionary movement he launched was so threatening to the established order that he was captured, tortured, and executed as a state criminal.

Within decades after his shameful death, his followers would call him God.

Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history's most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived: first-century Palestine, an age awash in apocalyptic fervor. Scores of Jewish prophets, preachers, and would-be messiahs wandered through the Holy Land, bearing messages from God. This was the age of zealotry - a fervent nationalism that made resistance to the Roman occupation a sacred duty incumbent on all Jews. And few figures better exemplified this principle than the charismatic Galilean who defied both the imperial authorities and their allies in the Jewish religious hierarchy.

Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction; a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves with swords; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity a secret; and ultimately the seditious "King of the Jews" whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his brief lifetime.

©2013 Reza Aslan (P)2013 Random House

Critic reviews

"In Zealot, Reza Aslan doesn't just synthesize research and reimagine a lost world, though he does those things very well. He does for religious history what Bertolt Brecht did for playwriting. Aslan rips Jesus out of all the contexts we thought he belonged in and holds him forth as someone entirely new. This is Jesus as a passionate Jew, a violent revolutionary, a fanatical ideologue, an odd and scary and extraordinarily interesting man." (Judith Shulevitz, author of The Sabbath World)

"A bold, powerfully argued revisioning of the most consequential life ever lived." (Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief)

"The story of Jesus of Nazareth is arguably the most influential narrative in human history. Here Reza Aslan writes vividly and insightfully about the life and meaning of the figure who has come to be seen by billions as the Christ of faith. This is a special and revealing work, one that believer and skeptic alike will find surprising, engaging, and original." (Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power)

pure quality, elegance and unbiased

this has opened my eyes to a world lived by normal men and women 2000 years ago

Reza Aslan

I am a believer in Christ, history, and science. This book had opened my eyes more than I thought possible. I was hesitant at first, thinking it would shake my belief. Quite on the contrary, I am feeling quite fervent for my faith... one may even say, zealous.

Gripping listening

Any additional comments?

Like Reza Aslan I spent plenty of time in Evangelical circles in my youth, so this kind of material always piques my interest. What you learn is that Jesus of Nazareth probably had much more in common with the Taliban than the air-brushed white guy on the cover of my Children's Bible. The Jesus Christ of much of the new testament, Aslan says, was a creation of Paul, who never met Jesus and whose views were significantly at odds with those who did. He highlights passages in different New Testament letters that indicate a feud between Paul and Jesus' brother James over who controlled the truth about Jesus. That was news to me.

I couldn't wait to get back to listening to this book. It goes by quickly and author Aslan paints a vivid picture of the era. At times he appears to take poetic license with the history, given that almost no historical writing about Jesus exists outside of the New Testament. His assertion that Jesus would have been surrounded by MANY other bandits while on the cross, for example, feels like conjecture presented too suredly as fact.

One question the book left me with is, if the traditionally Jewish followers of Jesus who supposedly knew the man himself were so opposed to Paul's teaching that Jesus was God, what were they still following all those years after his death? If they understood Jesus' true mission to be the overthrow of the Romans and their Jewish collaborators, what was the enduring appeal after his "shameful failure" on the cross?

I've been thinking of finally listening to the audiobook of the whole Bible, and "Zealot" provides a very thought-provoking back-story to the New Testament.

Good portrait of 1st century Judaism

What did you love best about Zealot?

Having taken a degree in Religious Studies and Theology, I appreciate the way Aslan constructs a picture of what Jesus' culture would be. I disagree with some points regarding Paul and early Christian movment.....but this is a fun read with a great performance by the author.

Jesus of Nazareth, not the Christ

Wow! I really must start off my expressing my gratitude to Reza Aslan for writing such a book that speaks to the history and culture of both the decades leading up to, and the millennia following, the life of Jesus of Nazareth. I'll get this one imperfection out of the way, and it's really the only flaw I found in the book: I don't know if Aslan was reading from the published copy of his work (certainly not the copy I own) or if he read from an earlier edition but, whenever the phrase 'the Jewish faith' or 'the Jewish religion' came up he said 'the Jewish cult.' A little annoying; and there were some other phrases that didn't match what my eyes were reading as I followed along. But I'll let it pass.

Aslan spends a bit of time explaining how Jesus's trial was fabricated and embellished over time, noting that the governor Pontius Pilate executed thousands upon thousands of insurrectionists with a flick of his pen, never even giving them proper trials. But the Pilate we read of in the New Testament is a man who cared deeply about whether or not the fellow he was sending to the cross was truly guilty of his crimes; he even tries to make the people choose between the insurrectionist Jesus or the murderer Barabbas (supposedly a custom at Passover, though there is no evidence of this custom). Also, with Mark's gospel in hand, Luke and Matthew paint an even broader picture of a week-willed Pilate, though history speaks of a man who had great disdain for the Jews.

One thing that must be realized is that the gospel writers were not writing to Jews in Jerusalem but to Romans who had overthrown the Jewish revolution. Therefore Pilate had to be "innocent of this man's blood" (just like Annas and Caiaphus) and and the Jews had to be made responsible. Matthew, writing later than Mark, says that the Jews responded as a whole: "His blood will be on us and on our children!" (Matthew 27.25). Luke's gospel says that Pilate "found in [Jesus] no ground for the sentence of death; I will have him flogged and then release him" (Luke 23.22). But John goes the farthest, saying that Pilate actually thought Jesus was the son of God, and Jesus tells Pilate that the Jews are to blame, guilty of a greater sin for handing him over (John 19.11). But then, when Pilate asks "'Shall I crucify your king?' The chief priests answered, 'We have no king the the emperor'" (John 19.15). This is heresy among Jewish faith.

Do not forget that Jesus is arrested at night on the eve of the Sabbath (against Jewish law) during the festival of Passover (against Jewish law); he is brought at night (against Jewish law) to the high priest's courtyard where the Sanhedrin are awaiting him; a group of witnesses appear to testify that he has made threats against the Temple of Jerusalem (also against Jewish law because the trial must begin with a detailed list of why the accused is innocent before witnesses testify against him). Now, if the high priests did actually conduct this little trial, then the Torah could not be clearer about the punishment: "One who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; the whole congregation shall stone the blasphemer..." (Leviticus 24.16), not be handed over to the governor for questioning and crucifixion.

I could go on for hours telling of eye-opening phrases and word-changes in translation that Aslan explains with great clarity, but I thought the previous tidbit would be most interesting. It certainly was for me! Enjoy!

Well Read by Author, enthusiastic, great learning!

Shows how Paul co-opted Christianity along with the Romans to sell it to the Gentiles in Rome. Peter and James remained Jews after Jesus' death, following the laws of the Torah and Moses. The Romans then clearly destroyed Jerusalem, killed everyone, and forever severed the ties between That destroyed Temple in Jerusalem; while marginalizing James (the bishop of bishops) and Peter (head and first apostle). Oh yes, they burned lots of documents in Jerusalem and basically turned to Paul's refuted teachings, the disgraced and censured, into what is basically 50% of the New Testament.

Depiction of historical context descriptive/lively

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Only if they wanted to read well done descriptions of historical context/events/places. This was the best part of the book. I felt like I was there! I found the author's interpretation of Jesus' beliefs/message to be less well developed and somewhat confusing.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The author gives us his interpretation of Jesus, argues for the accuracy of his point of view on who Jesus was using a lot of scholarly material. At the end he says that he is inspired by the Jesus he depicts and wishes to follow him. I just wasn't sure what this would mean. What does it mean to Aslan to follow this Jesus he describes? How would he apply his scholarly insights to his faith? How does Aslan see all this as relating to our lives/faith today?

Have you listened to any of Reza Aslan’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Could you see Zealot being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

yes, but no idea who

Eye Opening

A lucid and well researched exposition that tells an interesting story/history about jesus. Open your mind.

Insightful and Enlightening

This book is full of great historical and contextual information that will help broaden one's understanding and promoting of the Jesus in the New Testament. It is not for the fundamentalist or staunch evangelical Christian. It helped bridge the concerns about certain narratives and dissonance in the scriptures. It's a great read

Educational intuition and sound description.

This book offered a fantastic argument wrapped in sound judgement and educational integrity. It forced me to understand the Bible in a whole new light and respect the Jesus figure in a way I never thought imaginable. Will definitely read again and again!