Help me remember the name of a historical book about Jesus.

November 17, 2006 6:50 PM

I'm looking for a book I read back in 1999/2000 about Jesus.

I believe the book was new when I bought it in 1999/2000. It was about Jesus but it wasn't really a religious book. It was more from a historical perspective. I think it may have been called "Jesus" or "Jesus of Nazareth" but when I searched Amazon for those I got like 60,000 results. I do remember the author was female, Jewish, and possibly a historian. The book was interesting in that the author would write parts from the perspective of Jesus himself (beginning with his childhood) and then go into historical discussions/speculation on what his life was/may have been like. Oh, I bought it at the Clarkson University bookstore if that helps anyone (probably not, but I'm trying to include as much detail as possible).

posted by katyggls to writing & language (5 comments total)

Could it be this one or this one? They may actually be the same book...
posted by iconomy at 7:03 PM on November 17, 2006

This is the author's wiki, if that helps ID the book.
posted by iconomy at 7:05 PM on November 17, 2006

Wow, you're good, iconomy. It was the second one you listed. I think the first one is the same book just another edition or something. Thanks a bunch. Any insights into how you found that so quickly or were you familiar with the work yourself?
posted by katyggls at 7:10 PM on November 17, 2006

Glad to help! No, I never heard of the book. I've become a semi-professional googler ;)

This is what I googled:
book "jesus of nazareth" jewish historian author

and it was there on the first page.

And now I think I would like to read it...
posted by iconomy at 7:15 PM on November 17, 2006

Wow, that's some google-fu you have. It is a really good book, although if you're very religious it might offend since the author clearly doesn't really believe that Jesus was divine and she tends to explain away the miracles accordingly. But it has some really interesting material on the politics of Jesus' death, and his life as a Jew living in a Roman controlled state. I actually read it for a history of religion class I was taking at the time and really enjoyed the book. But then of course I sold it or something when the class was done.
posted by katyggls at 7:24 PM on November 17, 2006