Questions About Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

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I am only halfway through the book, so it may be answered later in my reading, but so far there has been a lot of talk of men having a great number of followers that also claimed to be the messiah. In Part 2 Aslan claims there were a many men wondering around performing "miracles"... My question is, if at this same time of civil upheaval, why was it Jesus that has stood the test of time over others claiming the same?

Ivo
The answer is because of Paul the Apostle.
It took a prominent Roman who converted to the faith and started preaching it outside of Judea to fellow Rom…more
The answer is because of Paul the Apostle.
It took a prominent Roman who converted to the faith and started preaching it outside of Judea to fellow Romans and other Jews. On the list of the most important christian figures the Catholic church itself rates Paul the Apostle first! He was instrumental in establishing a foothold of the new faith in the Empire. There it competed with a lot of "new" Eastern religions that promised everlasting afterlife and eternal punishment for wrongdoers such as Mithraism being the most popular at the time.

Nero's prosecutions actually helped a lot with promoting the Christian faith. He was a universally hated figure, becoming even more notorious after the The Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. It was widely believed by the populace that he caused that fire.
To shift the blame from himself he accused the Christians and began a campaign of bloody prosecutions which ended up endearing the young religion and it's courageous adherents to the populace.

The last person to cement Christianity's standing in Europe was Constantine the Great who lifted the faith up and decriminalized it. Afterward with one exception all future Emperors and their family were Christian. That meant that if you wanted to move up in the vast Imperial bureaucracy it was very beneficial to be Christian. It was very quickly afterward in the span of a century that Christianity became the dominant religion and the old faiths were in turn criminalized. (less)

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How does our present image of Jesus of Nazareth differ from the historical Jesus portrayed in this book?

Greg According to Aslan, the present image of Jesus is the “Jesus the Christ” figure that was pretty much the invention of Paul. It is notable that the apo…moreAccording to Aslan, the present image of Jesus is the “Jesus the Christ” figure that was pretty much the invention of Paul. It is notable that the apostles who actually knew and followed Jesus during his ministry vehemently condemned Paul and his teachings about Jesus.

Paul had the last laugh because the reality of the “historical Jesus” was that of a zealot who opposed both Roman rule and the Temple, and preached an impending arrival of a new Kingdom on Earth that he would rule, overthrowing the established order and restoring Judea to Jewish hegemony. This was the Jewish expectation of anybody claiming to be the Messiah.

Once the Romans razed Judea and destroyed the Temple, which occurred before some of the canonised Gospels were written, this view of Jesus became highly inconvenient. It was better for the early Christians if Jesus could be painted as somebody who was not a political opponent of Rome; to do otherwise was to invite persecution. So the Jesus message evolved into a Kingdom not of this world, and a man who did not preach violence or Jewish exclusivity, and did not oppose Rome. The evolution of Jesus’ image can be clearly traced chronologically; the later the Gospel, the more the Jews tend to be blamed for Jesus’ execution, for example. Aslan shows that these later images were post facto Pauline inventions, and not at all what Jesus’ own words indicate.(less)

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Would you call this book more the presentation of the research of a scholar, or of a religious person's search for truth?

David Hockabout If one is a believer,the book posits a different interpretation of the Christ based on the bible , historical resources and the history of the Holy La…moreIf one is a believer,the book posits a different interpretation of the Christ based on the bible , historical resources and the history of the Holy Land(during the period of Jesus life. The goal of Aslan is to broaden our understanding of Jesus not to turn folks into atheists or ,like me. and agnostic. (less)

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Cindy breeding ,, can you pleas distinct between jesus of nazareth and Jesus Christ ?

Robert Irish According to Reza Aslan, we can think of "Jesus of Nazareth" as a completely human peasant who taught some revolutionary ideas, was a compelling leade…moreAccording to Reza Aslan, we can think of "Jesus of Nazareth" as a completely human peasant who taught some revolutionary ideas, was a compelling leader of people, and was crucified by the Romans for sedition. He remains relevant because of remarkable claims made about him. According to Aslan, those claims later led to the construction of "Jesus Christ" an otherworldly eternal being and Messiah. God, in other words. So, what Aslan is doing is essentially separating out as two different things the "God-man" unity that has been central to Christian doctrine since at least 300 CE. (less)

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Well actually, Jesus' followers called him God while he was alive, not decades after his loving death. It isn't a political fight. Is that clear?

Jerry Daniels Not all of his followers from when he was alive called him God. All one has to do is read the first three gospels of the Bible to find this out.

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