Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against historical sources, Aslan describes a complex figure: a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity secret and the seditious 'King of the Jews', whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his lifetime. They also espoused a fervent nationalism that made resistance to Roman occupation a sacred duty. Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history's most influential and enigmatic figures by examining Jesus within the context of the times in which he lived: the age of zealotry, an era awash in apocalyptic fervour, when scores of Jewish prophets and would-be messiahs wandered the Holy Land bearing messages from God. Within decades, his followers would call him the Son of God. Defying both Imperial Rome and its collaborators in the Jewish religious hierarchy, he was captured, tortured and executed as a state criminal. Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher from Galilee launched a revolutionary movement proclaiming the 'Kingdom of God', and threatened the established order of first-century Palestine. It's not so 'either or' as Aslan puts it, either political or mystical sometimes, in the case of Jesus, it is both: theo-politik.From the internationally bestselling author of No god but God comes a fascinating, provocative and meticulously researched biography that challenges long-held assumptions about the man we know as Jesus of Nazareth. Yet the author forgets that it had always been Paul's practice with his own Jewish mysticism, well-documented by Jewish scholars. And yes, as Aslan argues, more mysticism enters the faith through Paul, in part due to the Greco-Roman audience. Paul and his conflict with the Jews in Jerusalem over the Gentile mission are the bridge that crosses the gap between the Jewish cult and the Roman religion. Citing Paul in one chapter (14), titled 'Am I Not An Apostle?' in a Book on Jesus is like citing Mozart as an afterthought in the history of classical music.

As a matter of fact, if we include Luke, whom Aslan rightly quips is 'Paul's biographer,' and his Luke-Acts two-volume history, 15 out of the 27 New Testament books were written by Paul or his followers. All of Paul's letters (7-14?) that quote the earlier sayings and traditions (i.e., I Corinthians 15:3-8) were written before 70 AD most scholars would argue that here Paul largely fashions the meaning of Jesus later integrated by the gospels. After 12 years of Paul's ministry, we have his letter to the Thessalonians, written approximately 48 AD, or 15 years after the death of Christ.

Paul was probably converted three years after the death of Jesus (36 AD?), when he experienced a vision (he never spoke of lights and horses).

Zealot jesus of nazareth