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The Prophet
A gripping novel re. the coming King told from the standpoint of prophesy. Written in a style that is both informed and compelling! Hard read to put down!
- GenresHistorical Fiction
Hardcover
First published June 1, 1955
About the author
Sholem Asch
258 books38 followersPolish-American writer Sholem Asch (also written Shalom Ash, Yiddish: שלום אַש, Polish: Szalom Asz) sought to reconcile Judaism and Christianity in his controversial novels, such as
The Nazarene
(1939). Sholem Asch composed dramas and essays in the Yiddish language.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 2, 2020
The second Isaiah preached in Babylon during the Jewish captivity, telling how Cyrus would set the Jews free to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. He was not well received.
December 25, 2022
Then premise of this novel should be fascinating for those who have an interest in Bible studies and scholarship, Zionism, Jewish life and also enjoy reading fiction. Imagine a fictionalized spiritual biography of the conjectured author of DeuteroIsaiah, set at the time just prior to the restoration (about 530 BCE, I would guess). The story line includes echos of what an observer of Jewish life during the 1950's who might see parallels between what he saw in the half century preceding the writing of his novel and the historical setting of the story that he was writing. The tone, in my opinion, captures a spirit of optimism and vision that existed at the time, despite the horrific setbacks of the Holocaust and the economic and security challenges that Israel was facing, and which has been replaced by cynicism.
The author muses about the social context in which particular prophetic visions were said, including most well-known in Isaiah: the apocalypse, the suffering servant and the meaning of suffering, the heralding of the era of peace and Zion as the light unto the nations. He muses about the political conditions underlying some unexplained biblical narratives, he deals with capriciousness and cynical manipulation of public opinion and religious faith, popular reaction to discrepancies between religious teachings and external reality, and how clerics deal with those discrepancies.
The style of this novel is definitely not in keeping with the taste of the modern reader. Long quotes of biblical passages, flowery descriptions of scenery, characters, moods, ruminations, and other side bars which were the bread and butter of readers who lived before the advent of television and internet slow down the plot considerably and might sometimes test the patience of a modern reader wanting the author to get to the point. Reading is further encumbered by the translation, which lacks a flowing and transparent quality. Halfway through the book, I lost it, and downloaded a Yiddish version from the Yiddish book centre. Big difference. Perhaps a new translation can better draw a reader in, even if nothing can be done about the melodrama. Still, I wonder. The Yiddish of the book is a literary version of the Yiddish that I had heard at home. I have been told by Charedim my age (60's) who live in Yiddish speaking ghettos that their children would consider my Yiddish archaic and would not understand some of the idiom and nuances that I use. So I wonder...
The author muses about the social context in which particular prophetic visions were said, including most well-known in Isaiah: the apocalypse, the suffering servant and the meaning of suffering, the heralding of the era of peace and Zion as the light unto the nations. He muses about the political conditions underlying some unexplained biblical narratives, he deals with capriciousness and cynical manipulation of public opinion and religious faith, popular reaction to discrepancies between religious teachings and external reality, and how clerics deal with those discrepancies.
The style of this novel is definitely not in keeping with the taste of the modern reader. Long quotes of biblical passages, flowery descriptions of scenery, characters, moods, ruminations, and other side bars which were the bread and butter of readers who lived before the advent of television and internet slow down the plot considerably and might sometimes test the patience of a modern reader wanting the author to get to the point. Reading is further encumbered by the translation, which lacks a flowing and transparent quality. Halfway through the book, I lost it, and downloaded a Yiddish version from the Yiddish book centre. Big difference. Perhaps a new translation can better draw a reader in, even if nothing can be done about the melodrama. Still, I wonder. The Yiddish of the book is a literary version of the Yiddish that I had heard at home. I have been told by Charedim my age (60's) who live in Yiddish speaking ghettos that their children would consider my Yiddish archaic and would not understand some of the idiom and nuances that I use. So I wonder...
January 13, 2026
Heavily overwritten. Started off well with the description of a balthazzar in Babylon but things started going south with his revisionist tendencies, not of history but his tikkunist revisions. If that wasn't enough, the Prophet, always unnamed naturally enough, has a deep meaningful vision of Mother Israel. I bailed at chapter 5. Luckily it was a cheap book.
January 15, 2021
Not an especially easy read, but definitely worth the effort.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews