The Jesus Dynasty

Cover of The Jesus Dynasty

Sept 15

Its early evening here, and I have just finished reading the book that is where this blogs title came from. The Jesus Dynasty is written by James D. Tabor, a colleague of Kathy Reichs. This book has much food for thought, and I am thoroughly in awe.

As mentioned in a previous blog, I became interested in this book after reading the afterward in a book by Reichs. I was skeptical that I would even finish it, as I knew it was based in historical and archeological findings. Much to my surprise, and delight, this book is immensely readable.

I believe that it’s value to both the common man and the studied man is incalculable. For the former, it brings together all the texts and finds that we would not generally have access to. It puts Mr. Tabor’s thoughts on these in perspective. He supports his case well in my opinion. He also admits that it takes much interpretation to attempt to find the historical Jesus and that, therefore, there is a lot left to educated guesses or extrapolations from what we know of the times.

This book is, more or less, amazing to me. Mr. Tabor takes all that I find objectionable about Christianity and gives evidence that every bit of it is the result of theology not coinciding with history. He even points out towards the end of the book that, once we set aside the role Christianity has ascribed to Jesus, there are very few gaps between Christianity, Judaism, and Islam in regards to the man. If we set aside the idea of Jesus being the message and return him to his rightful place as a messenger, there is so much that is right about his message.

Needless to say, I am still processing the points put forward in this book. I would encourage anyone to give this book a read. Even if you do not believe that Mr. Tabor’s ideas are correct, it is a good read. It brings to light the inconsistencies of the New Testament with what we can truthfully say would be the thoughts of a Jew of that day and time. It is food for thought, which- in my less than humble opinion- most of us could always use more of.