Jesus the Pharisee

Rating:
Summary: Disturbingly eye-opening, with well-marshalled evidence
Review: Maccoby (in this and his other books) examines the New Testament without making assumptions based on later Church teachings. He gathers compelling circumstantial evidence, common sense, and knowledge of historical events at the time. By unearthing and contextualizing passages that run against the grain of later Church teachings, Maccoby demonstrates that Jesus was more Jewish and anti-Roman than the depiction of the Gospels.

This, together with Maccoby's "The Mythmaker" provide eye-opening correctives to perceptions of Jesus and his world around him.

When Diane Sawyer interviewed Mel Gibson about his movie, "The Passion of the Christ," she asked him if the Jews killed Jesus. Gibson replied flippantly that Jews and Romans were there, and that there weren't any Norwegians. Later Church teachings and their advocates (until Vatican II) promulgated that "the Jews" (as if they were one cohesive monolith) killed Jesus. Curiously, though, these same teachings have also successfully wrenched Jesus from *his* Jewish -- and Pharisaic -- roots.

If you thought "The Da Vinci Code" was eye-opening regarding the Holy Grail, I urge you to read this about Jesus himself.