The Nature of Things

My rating: 4 of 5 stars Noted religious scholar Reza Aslan set out to write a biography of Jesus of Nazareth, the man. It was a daunting task given the fact that there are only two known contemporary historical references to his subject, one by Pliny the Younger and one by Jewish historian Josephus. And both of those references are simply made in passing and contain little information. In fact, the reference by Josephus is made as he is discussing the influence of Jesus' brother James. James, known as "the Just," was the leader in Jerusalem of those who followed his brother's teachings and he was a highly respected and influential man among both the Jewish and Roman communities there. James lived his brother's philosophy. He was a strong defender of the poor and weak against the wealthy and powerful. As such, he came into conflict with the greedy high priest, Ananus, who was a reverse Robin Hood kind of guy. He believed in stealing from the poor and giving to the ...