Our book study of Reza Aslan’s “Zealot: Life & Times of Jesus of Nazareth” concludes with Part III of III. First, I want to say that I REALLY wanted to like this book…I really did! Unlike many other books that I am requested to read as I join others’ book studies, I had the freedom to pick any book I wanted; I selected this book because I had heard some interesting and provocative ideas were contained therein. And there are certainly provocative ideas, just none that I can take too seriously or somehow internalize and thoughtfully create an inflection point on my journey of faith and spirituality. I will be the first one to say I enjoyed many aspects of Dan Brown’s books, but he never seemed to present his narrative as anything other than historical fiction. If Aslan is going for historical fiction…I take everything back; if he believes he is a serious, scholarly writer, well, that’s a different matter altogether.

Part III is shorter than the previous two parts. The Prologue spends much of its time discussing the disciple Stephen, who is the first to be martyred for his faith and witness to Jesus’ mission and ministry. Aslan’s first thought about this important event: “It is curious that the first man martyred for calling Jesus ‘Christ’ did not himself know Jesus of Nazareth.” I think it curious that Aslan is worried about this, as if someone who was close to Jesus would be preferred? After reading on through the Prologue, perhaps Aslan’s concern with the order of martyrdom is hinted at as he proceeds to his important point: “One can say that it was not only Stephen who died that day outside the gates of Jerusalem. Buried with him under the rubble of stones is the last trace of the historical person known as Jesus of Nazareth.” Aslan reveals his real point of the Prologue, as he ponders how Jesus came to be considered divine: “The answer to that question relies on recognizing this one rather remarkable fact: practically every word ever written about Jesus of Nazareth, including every gospel story in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, was written by people who, like Stephen and Paul, never actually knew Jesus when he was alive.” A more unconvincing idea was never offered in the debates of religion; for here Aslan glosses over more cultural and religious aspects of the early days of Christianity than it is possible to address here. His point makes a conspiracy theorist jump for joy, but true scholarly religious work must rely on greater details. This is similar to proposing that it would be impossible to construct any ideas or observations about George Washington until you farmed, fought, and founded a country with him…I think this highly unlikely.

Chapter 13 is a quick review of tensions between Jerusalem Hebrews and Hellenized Jews from the Diaspora. I will not reveal which Aslan prefers, as that will wreck the big finish in chapter 15! Much of chapter 14 is spent discrediting the Apostle Paul (my words, Aslan spends much effort proving that Paul is not an apostle at all). I think chapter 14 is important for two reasons: (1) the chapter highlights why Aslan (for me) is so difficult to read…particularly his selection of language; (2) the chapter seems to be filled with quotes and biblical references that I will generously call vague or misdirected. These two reasons come together to create some difficult reading, which is best shown by these brief examples: when discrediting Paul’s claim to apostleship, he writes, “Not even Luke, Paul’s sycophant,…seems to consider Paul an apostle;” regarding the biblical Scriptures, “If the traditions can be believed, Luke was a young devotee of Paul;” and again in his attempts to show how Paul despised the original followers of Jesus (certainly known as apostles), Aslan claims that Paul “not only demands to be called an apostle…he insists he is far superior to all the other apostles” (quoting 2 Cor 11:22-22). The words “sycophant” and “if the traditions can be believed” tend to push me in a corner, and if I am honest, close my ears to new ideas. This is bad for me, and bad for the author who hopes to spread new ideas. The biblical reference from 2 Corinthians is interesting, as Aslan uses the quote immediately after speaking of the Twelve Apostles, yet Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is very likely talking about others, not the Twelve. It is difficult to not feel a bait-n-switch game going on.

The climax of the book comes in chapter 15. We have been working this way all along, and finally we find ourselves watching the righteous followers of the man named Jesus faithfully fulfilling Jesus’ mission, centered in Jerusalem; and we have the unorthodox and highly suspect man named Paul, the pretending apostle, spreading his blasphemies throughout the Roman Empire. Which of the two groups will prevail? If this were an action movie, we would all be rooting for the faithful band of followers in Jerusalem…however, the zealous Jews in Jerusalem stir up trouble and the Roman army comes marching in and completely destroys the city, the righteous bunch of Jesus’ followers included. This tragic event frees up the heretical Paul, the Pretender, to spread his personal brand of Christianity…and the truth of Jesus and his mission shall never be uttered again.

Aslan’s book is provocative. And perhaps I am too harsh with my review and my thoughts. Perhaps I am comparing Aslan’s book to something that I wanted it to be, and yet it is not that…I don’t know. As I said when I began this final installment…I REALLY wanted to like this book, but I cannot say that I do. There were certainly some fascinating ideas; some provocative suggestions that have pushed me to consider certain elements of my faith; but in sum, I feel rather empty as I stare at the finished work (really, the title page on my Kindle app). Perhaps if Aslan’s language was a bit less antagonistic, I could have slowly approached some of his insights with more grace and open ears.