This was an interesting read. I like the idea of analyzing the biblical text body from a storyteller's point of view, as well as Verhoeven's flat-out refusal to accept any of the supernatural events in it as fact. I'm regularly baffled that otherwise rational people seriously consider the possibility of a man walking on water, or turning water into wine, or reanimating the dead -- things they would never believe if they read about them in the newspaper today, but as long as they are described in that one particular book, we're suddenly in "who knows" territory. Here, those parts of the story are barely mentioned, with the author dismissing them as the rationally "impossible miracles" they are.

Ironically, Verhoeven still gives the bible far more credit as a historical source than I do, and he too sometime goes a little to much into "storyteller mode". I personally think that the historical person who lived and preached in Palestine two millenia ago had little to nothing to do with the fiction Christianity uses as its figurehead today. That too is just an opinion. If anything, Verhoeven's book is one more reminder how flimsy and fallible the one major piece of evidence that we have really is. ( )

Question: What happens when an accomplished film maker delves into the realm of historical Jesus scholarship?

Answer: Fresh insight.

Paul Verhoeven is the only non-theologian admitted to the Jesus Seminar, a group of scholars dedicated to uncovering the historical Jesus. While his book will not be recognized for the depth of research that goes into the books of more noted scholars, it's still an interesting read.

Verhoeven digs into the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist, the sin of riches, exorcisms, and much more to paint Jesus in human terms. Jesus is not an ideal for Verhoeven, but a living, breathing person, with fears and failures alongside his accomplishments. Jesus is a hunted criminal who masterfully escapes the long arm of the law...until an apostate disciple masquerading as a Zealot (not likely one of the twelve, nor even named Judas, according to Verhoeven) leads the authorities to him.

After Jesus' crucifixion, his disciples believed he returned from the dead. But if the whole of the Jesus story were wrapped up in this miracle of overcoming death, Christianity could not have survived for 2,000 years. Jesus created powerful parables and devised a new code of ethics; regardless of his false understanding that the kingdom of God was imminent, he indeed transformed the world. Verhoeven closes his book with this paradox: Jesus' mistaken view of reality led to the most significant ethical revival in the past two thousand years. ( )

At first glance, the idea that Paul Verhoeven, director of Basic Instinct, Robocop, and Starship Troopers, wrote a book on Jesus strikes one as the set-up to a particularly tasteless joke. Fortunately, Verhoeven offers the reader his perspective on the Historical Jesus in his book, Jesus of Nazareth. Trained in mathematics and a prolific filmmaker, Verhoeven has been a member of the Jesus Seminar since he moved to Los Angeles in 1985. He occupies a unique intellectual position within the Jesus Seminar due to his status as non-academic, non-theologian, and non-believer. (But belief is not a prerequisite to historical investigation as evidenced by the plethora of books about Greco-Roman mythology and Hinduism, to take two examples, written by non-believers.)

Verhoeven the Filmmaker provides opportunities for deconstruction and reconstruction of events. Having made his career directing movies for a popular audience, he has expertise in creating stories. The Gospels are similar stories, written to captivate a general audience. Because the Gospels have four separate authors and offer biases from each other, the stories present a specific set of challenges. Verhoeven explores these many challenges, putting forward his assertions. Another challenge facing historians dealing with the Classical Era includes the scant historical and archaeological evidence. In order to reconstruct the period, one must use a blend of historical data, imagination, intuition, and imagination.

Verhoeven asserts the authors of the Gospels “overpainted” certain politically explosive scenes with miraculous events. One must not forget the dangerous political scene of first century Roman Palestine. Numerous messianic figures roamed the province, speaking out against Roman tyranny and collaboration from the Herodian dynasty. Speaking out against Roman rule was not only a political crime but also a religious crime. One worshiped the same gods as one’s monarch. Those in open dissent this truism met with torture and execution. Verhoeven also asserts that Jesus used his ministry to further the plan that God’s Kingdom was imminent. This platform aroused the ire of the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Romans. According to Jesus, all these corrupt institutions would be swept away and the Kingdom of God would re-establish itself.

The short book (only 200 pages of text in the hardcover edition) brings together Verhoeven’s reconstruction of events in the life of Jesus. On occasion, he writes how he would film certain events. These lively visual scenes supplied an otherwise dry and academic book with cinematic flourish. His understanding of a century of theological thought meshes with his take on movies made about Jesus. His takedown of Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ is refreshing and commonsensical in its assessment.

For anyone genuinely interested in the Historical Jesus, Verhoeven’s Jesus of Nazareth brings an outsider’s perspective and an enthusiast’s passion to this endlessly fascinating topic.

http://driftlessareareview.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/jesus-of-nazareth-by-paul-ve... ( )

Verhoeven's book is well-written and is probably a little bit more accessible than the works of many of the other authors of the Jesus Seminar, at least to the average layperson reader. However, he does not bring very much new "to the table." In addition, there are conclusions he draws and statements he make which actually rely on some older scholarship; in some cases, more recent scholarship has actually takes the dominate discussion in a very different direction. For example, Verhoeven's use of the Aramaic term "abba" to mean "daddy" has been recognized by modern textual and linguistic scholars to be an error. "Abba" is simply the Aramaic word for father; no more, and no less. Even a cursory study of modern scholarship would reveal as much.

I don't often read books on Jesus from the perspective of an atheist or agnostic, so for that I am grateful to have read this work. However, as scholarship, it falls short. ( )

Not a bad book, just not very interesting or unique. For the most part, Verhoeven borrows the scholarship of others, namely those scholars contributing to the 'Jesus Seminar', in an attempt to place Jesus historically and culturally. To this end he delivers the conclusions of these scholars sufficiently, even if he doesn't adequately address their method for drawing such conclusions. Verhoeven's unique 'take' on the material seems to be his desire to treat the Gospel narratives as dramatic screenplay's, a method that leads him to imagine how he might have written it were he to be writing it as a screenplay, then assuming that the original authors were using similar narrative techniques to increase the drama and highlight the nature of Jesus' message. And this is where I think Verhoeven goes astray, by projecting his own emotional understanding of narrative back to authors living in vastly different times and cultures he makes the same methodological error that many Christian fundamentalists seem to make. I think if a person isn't familiar with modern biblical historical scholarship, this book might provide a provocative entree into the genre, but I think it will only get you so far in an attempt to understand the historical context and mindset of the gospel authors. ( )