The Nazarene

THE NAZARENE

by Sholem Asch

 

Nomination: National Book Finalist 1939

 

Date Read: June 3, 2021

 

Although The Nazarene is a work of fiction, the portrayal of Yeshua, his life, his teachings and his ending are humanized in a way I have never encountered before. Whether someone is a believer or not, encountering Yeshua in this light is beneficial and insightful. The premise by which the reader is introduced to the major players in the rise and fall of Yeshua is through Pan Viadomsky, an ironically Jew-hating researcher and procurer of dubious artifacts.

 

Viadomsky seeks out a Jewish assistant to help him translate a rare text in his possession which no one has ever seen. The translator is never named. Eventually we learn that Viadomsky believes himself to be Hegemon Cornelius, one of the persecutors of Yeshua, who continues to reincarnate again and again never achieving the peace of death. I admire Asch for being so bold as to delve into the controversy of reincarnation in a Judeo-Christian retelling of a story of this importance.

 

Asch emphasizes that Yeshua was neither Jewish nor Christian, but Galilean. In Part 1, Cornelius (Pan Viadomsky), an officer in the Roman army, provides the Roman perspective on the rise of Jesus of Nazareth. Part 2 changes to the voice of Judas, the traitor and Part 3 is narrated by Yohanan, a student of Rabbi Nicodemus who sympathizes with Jesus.

 

While I don’t consider myself a Christian in the traditional sense, I do believe in God or a “higher power.” I believe that Jesus did, in fact, live and attempted to rekindle people’s allegiance and faithfulness to God and living in kindness. That being said, I cannot help but think about how the Judaism portrayed throughout with the blood sacrifices, infinite rules about what is clean and unclean and the days dictating what needs to be accomplished sounds like a cult. If my child or relative were to come to me and say that they are involved in a religion of this type, I would muster a psychologist, a deprogrammer and look for a rehab center where they could retire for “exhaustion.”

 

I know that Jesus’ death was meant to repair the relationship between flawed mankind and God but you still can’t escape the fact that God required Jesus’ blood to allegedly forgive us. His death also relieved the need for other blood sacrifices. All of this makes God sound like a damn vampire. 

 

Nevertheless, Asch did an amazing job here and I am truly impressed. One must also consider Asch wrote this not long after he escaped Nazi controlled Poland and immigrated to the U.S. I am in awe.

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