The first time I heard of Reza Aslan was in 2006, when his book 'No god but God' was out. He was on book tour and was invited to various CAIR events. He was a good speaker and spoke very well about the need for community activism and engagement with the larger civil society.
Never in that time I got any hint of his personal story. The journey he had traveled to reach there. I assume that he was not hiding his detour into Christianity before reverting back to Islam. It was not hidden but it was not out there. At that time I read his book; it was a good one. It is a good introduction to Islam for an outsider. It was objectively written and addressed many controversial issues head on. He did claim to write as an insider.
Then somehow I stopped seeing his name in the invitations to community events.
Fast forward 2013 and I heard that a book is out on Jesus, written by a former Christian. The writer was being unjustly bashed for authoring a book like that and his credentials were questioned. Fox News interview had gone viral. I did not pay much attention to that, and only later realized that the author was Reza Aslan. I got interested, saw the interview and eventually read the book.
It is interesting to note his personal history. Transplanted at a young age from Iran to California at the time of revolution, his family was part of the Shah's elite. Religion was only a name tag for them both in Iran and after moving to USA. Religion was considered synonymous with all things bad with Iran and their traumatic uprooting. Growing up in California he found Jesus. Not only that, he was able to convince his family including his mother to convert. Later he married a Christian. Eventually he moved on and found a new meaning of his parent's religion. Now he is a former Christian, and a professor of religious studies. He has not lost interest in the person of Jesus and this eventually let him on a quest to find the historical Jesus; not what is the image of Jesus as the Christ and the Savior.
This is the first book I have read about Jesus. So my limitations are there. I cannot sift out what is mainstream Christian belief and what is considered objectionable by those who believe in Jesus as the savior. Nevertheless, I think it gives much information in a seemingly non judgemental way, that the reader may derive his or her own conclusions.
To me it offered a lot of information. Until now, all my knowledge base is based on what Islam and Quran says about Jesus. I have learned the Islamic version of Jesus What is believed to be Jesus's story and what is the supposedly wrong concepts accepted or corrupted by the Christian clergy.
I mention the following for my own benefit and for the interest of those like me, who may find these pieces of information interesting, if not puzzling or outright blasphemous.
- Jesus time was the time of Roman occupation of Palestine. It meant much of present day Israel, Palestinian territory, Lebanon and Syria. The Temple was still there in Jerusalem. It was destroyed in 70 AD, some forty years after Jesus crucifixion. Jesus was not alone in that century to claim being Messiah. There were many at that time who professed to be the awaited messiah. Many are mentioned in Roman and Jewish sources but Jesus is NOT.
- There are four gospels, all are written after the destruction of the Temple. They are 'authored' by Mark, Mathews, Luke and John. First was around 70 AC and the last was around 120 AC. They all show Jesus as a pacifist, and each subsequent gospel raise his image closer to the status of being a part of godhead.
- There is a discrepancy in the books as to where he was born. Most believe it is Nazareth, but two of the gospels say it was Bethlehem. The thought being that Bible states that the Messiah will be from David's lineage. Bethlehem was David's birthplace and that being Jesus's birthplace would ease the claim of the same lineage.
- He had four brothers, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, and many sisters. All from Joseph and Mary, although some revisionism has taken place and some claim that Mary had no other children. All these 'siblings' were Joseph's children from a prior marriage. (This is reminiscent of a certain belief that Bibi Fatima is the only child of Prophet and other daughter's of Prophet were in fact Khadeja's children from earlier marriage)
- In fact his brother James was the leader of the religious movement after Jesus was crucified. This is interesting as the concept of Virgin Mary and the immaculate conception of Mary is quite quintessential to the Catholicism
- His birth, and early life is missed in the gospels. The first gospel, Mark's starts with his baptism by John. (Hazrat Yahya)
- There is an interesting shift in the narrative of Jesus's spiritual relationship with John in the four gospels. In the first one, there is clear mention that Jesus was baptized by John, placing John at a superior spiritual level. By the fourth gospel John is telling that the one after him ie Jesus is the main person.
- As John had a miraculous birth, born of an old barren mother, it became important that Jesus's birth should be even more miraculous ie virgin birth.
- There is a juicy story about the death of John. He had objected that the local Jewish client-king tetrarch Herod Antipas had married to his brother's wife, Herodius. She was not happy with John for that reason. One day she asked her daughter, the 'sultry temptress' Salome to perform a lascivious dance in front of his step father. Smitten by her beauty, he asked her to ask whatever she wanted, The girl looked at her mother who asked for John's head.
- Many of John's followers eventually became Jesus' followers after John's execution. In fact two or the 12 Apostle (hawari) were initially John's disciple.
- Jesus had around 72 disciples; it included women. They were asked to chose Jesus above their families. (72 comes as a sacred number in Islam also. There were 72 martyrs. In Islam also one is asked to love the Prophet more than their family members ie children and wives)
- The inner core of disciples were the 12 apostles. All were men, and some were originally John's disciples. They were 12, corresponding to the 12 Jewish tribes. And when one of them was killed, (Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Jesus to the Romans, another was chosen immediately to keep the number 12 constant. Again, 12 is a sacred number in Islam, ie twelve Imams)
- Jesus did not want to perform miracles on gentiles and compared them, at least in one quotation, to dogs (Mark 7:27)
- Jesus had enough with those seeking miracles, Mathew 12:38. Something like Quran's abhorrence for miracles.
- Some Jews thought of Jesus as Elijah reincarnated.
- Many people are called Son of God in Bible. We in Islam familiar with the verse which mentions Uzair as being claimed son of God. In Bible the son of God is used as a sign of closeness to God. David in Psalms 2:7 and Israel in Exodus 4:22 are claimed to be God's sons.
- Jesus had called himself Son of Man.
- The quote which sealed the fate of Jesus, was when asked by rabbis whether it is right to pay tithe to Romans. He looked at the coin, which had Caesar's imprint on it., and said, "Give back to Caesar what belongs to him and give back to God what belongs to Him'. As per Reza it meant openly rebellious thoughts, as it meant that Jerusalem does not belong to Caesar.
- Jesus himself named James as his heir.
- After the crucifixion of Jesus, his family stayed on in Jerusalem instead of going back to Galilee. His brother James, became the leader of the mission, ie head of the 12 Apostles.
- James was later stoned to death by Jewish Temple authorities. It is his death, mentioned in the historical account of a first century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, which is the first ever mention of Jesus in any non biblical literature. It mentions the death of 'James, the brother of Jesus, the one they call messiah'. It was in year 90 AC or so
- There was a divide in the Christian community early on when the outside Jews ie the Diaspora Jews which were more Romanized became more involved. These Jews had been exposed to the Roman way of life and were critical of the traditional ways of Jewish rabbis and priests. They found the message of Jesus much interesting and close to heart. Eventually there were two groups of believers in Jesus, the Hellenists (the Romanized Jews of Diaspora) vs the 'Hebrews" the locals. The Hebrews were more inclined to keep Jesus in the Jewish tradition, while the Hellenists wanted to do nothing with the Jewish traditions. The main leader of the Hellenists was Paul.
- Paul was NOT one of the 12 Apostles and never knew Jesus personally. He was an avid opponent and supporter of the persecution of Jesus followers after his crucifixion. He only changed when he had a vision of Jesus who asked him "Why are you persecuting me?"
- There was a constant tussle between Paul and James, Jesus' brother. In the end Paul had to succumb to James demand and reluctantly performed rituals at the Temple, acknowledging the Jewish base of Jesus' mission. At that time Jewish hierarchy tried to punish him for all what he had said about them, but Roman soldiers captured him, mistaking him as another suspect they were looking for.
- The story of Paul's imprisonment highly resembles what Quran says about Jesus that someone else was taken by the Roman's thinking of that person as Jesus.
- Later on Paul's case was transferred to Rome on his request. Where he was eventually executed, along with Peter, first of the Apostles, who was in Rome before Paul arrived. The King mistakenly thought both of them playing a role in the Jewish Revolt which ultimately led to the destruction of the Temple by Romans a few years later in 70 AC
- Paul's Jesus was the first creation before Adam was created. (Similar to what many Muslims believe that the Prophet was the first creation even before Adam)
- Paul's epistles, which eventually became the hard core of Christianity as practiced today, had no mention of historical Jesus.
- The Jewish revolt which evicted Romans from Jerusalem was spearheaded by the Sacrii. Very much like the present day Taliban, they were very militant in nature, and the slogan was no god but God (la illaha illal La).
- After three years of 'independence' Romans eventually captured the city and killed everybody and burned the Temple to ground. Western Wall is the only remaining remnant.
- Many of the Romans caught on with this concept of a Jesus who is peace loving and has nothing to do with the rebellious Jews (who had to be exterminated and their Temple destroyed) in opposition to the historical Jesus who was a zealot, anti Roman and anti establishment and was eventually killed for that.
- In 325 AC, an all Roman Conference of Christian bishops in present day Turkey were summoned to 'resolved' the issue, at the request of the King Constance, the first Christian Roman King. They were to decide the Christian doctrine including whether Jesus was Son of God or Son of Man. They voted in favor of Jesus being literal son of God.
- In 398 AC in present day Algeria the New Testament was compiled. Most of Paul's writings were in it, and only one attributed to James.
- Rest is history. Paul had won and James had lost.
- All of Jesus life events are somewhat consistent with Jewish traditions. It is the concept of his resurrection after crucifixion, which has no precedence in Jewish religion and something new.
- In fact the die hard belief of his followers in Jesus's resurrection made Jesus's story different form so many other claimed messiahs executed by Romans in that century.
- Jesus' last words, "Why have you forsaken me?"
In short, the book is not a devotional biography of Jesus. It makes a good attempt to show Jesus as a human being with all its limitations and strengths. It makes a case of how the image of Jesus has changed form a zealot he was in real life to what the world now believes as the savior and the non worldly Xristos, Jesus Christ.
