It was the latter wing of the Jewish movement that eventually won out, thus creating a new religion, one destined to have the most followers around the world. One camp remained loyal to the very Jewish roots of Jesus and his family, while the other increasingly came to view Jesus as a divine figure, a figure very attractive to non-Jews who otherwise had little interest in traditional Jewish thinking and living. With the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (who becomes the well-known Paul the apostle of New Testament letters and the book of Acts), the Jesus movement began to be pulled in two directions. It flourished, soon reaching large numbers of non-Jews. Unlike other zealot movements that ceased after the deaths of their respective founders, the Jesus movement not only continued, even in the face of severe opposition. Not long after-however it happened-Jesus' followers became convinced that their master had been raised from the dead and that his mission had not been a failure after all. Jesus was arrested and executed, along with two other rebels. On this understanding, Jesus' proclamation of the coming kingdom of God was a call for regime change, for ending Roman hegemony over Israel and ending a corrupt and oppressive aristocratic priesthood.Īslan's core contention might be outlined as follows: The regime change that Jesus and his followers anticipated did not take place. He places Jesus of Nazareth and his following squarely into this history and social setting.
He reviews the attempts of a number of men who in one way or another sought to throw off either King Herod or the Roman yoke and win freedom for Israel.
I doubt very much that Aslan's fresh take on it will win a following-at least not among scholars.Īslan, who is writing for non-experts, describes Jewish zealotry (largely in terms of zeal for the temple and for Israel's law of Moses) and surveys some of Israel's history between the Testaments.
Few followed Brandon then virtually no one does today. The ablest presentation of this line of interpretation was made by the British scholar S. Reza Aslan's Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth resurrects the theory that Jesus' ministry and death are best explained against the background of Jewish zealot movements at the turn of the era.
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