I have read both of the other books in O’Reilly’s Killing… series (Lincoln and Kennedy), and enjoyed them both. But perhaps because I am fascinated by the life of Jesus the Man, this book captured my attention and held it. O’Reilly claims that this book is pure history with no theology involved. I’m not sure that is exactly true, but I also think it would be extremely difficult for anyone, but particularly a devout Christian (O’Reilly is a practicing Roman Catholic) to not touch on theology when writing the story of Jesus. Everything that is known about Jesus involves his spiritual teachings. We don’t know his favorite foods or whether or not he liked a good joke (“Did you hear the one about the Saduccee, the Pharisee, and the Samaritan who went golfing?”)
O’Reilly writes this book like a novel, which makes it easy to read. But it also results in something that I always find a bit disturbing when reading nonfiction written like a novel. He inserts context that he has no way of knowing is accurate. For example, he may say it was a sunny day, or suggest what someone was thinking when, of course, he would have no way of knowing what the weather was on a day over two thousand years ago, or someone’s thoughts. Still, it makes for a much more readable book, so I will cut him slack.
One of the criticisms of the book has been that he relies too heavily on one or two historians from two thousand years ago. O’Reilly touches on this in his postscript. While there was a fair amount of historical information about the period of time surrounding Lincoln’s presidency and assassination via books, photographs and newspapers, and even more surrounding the life and times of JFK, there is almost nothing concrete written about the days before and immediately after the life of Jesus. There are a couple of Roman historians, and of course there are the Gospels. And even the Gospels don’t always agree. It seemed to me that the author did a pretty good job of using information from the Gospels only if all four Gospel authors agreed. Not always, but mostly.
O’Reilly starts the book out by setting the stage. To understand why the Jews so eagerly awaited a Messiah, and why both the Romans and the high-level Jewish aristocracy were so fearful of this humble yet charismatic carpenter, it is important to understand how the Roman Empire came to be. I enjoyed the historical background.
But mostly I enjoyed reading the stories about Jesus’ life. There was nothing in the book that I didn’t already know from my many years of Catholic school. But seeing it laid out like a novel made me understand it better.
His description of the day of Jesus’ death was graphic and very likely accurate. It literally brought me to tears. I had always read that death from crucifixion was horrific; now I understand why.
In his postscript, O’Reilly let’s his Christianity come out. He makes two really good points. First, he points out that it is absolutely remarkable that literally thousands of people came to hear and see Jesus preach. Given that there was no sound system, the vast majority of the people could not hear or see him, and knew they wouldn’t be able to do so. Yet they were compelled to come, likely walking miles and miles to get there. There was something that drew them to this man from Nazareth.
Second, O’Reilly notes that most people will admit that Jesus is the most famous human being the world has ever known. He achieved this level of fame with absolutely no infrastructure. No sponsors, no money, no well-known backers. And He has maintained this fame for over two thousand years. It’s hard to imagine that one can know these two things and not be a believer. Just sayin’……
Killing Jesus is an excellent book that I couldn’t recommend more. If you read it, let me know what you think via the comment section.
This will definitely be on my read list. I loved his last 2 books. Reading about the crucifiction will be hard. I tear up during the Passion.
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