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The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple

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This is an imaginative and thought provoking retelling of the gospel story. I have read the gospels of the Bible many times and read "The Last Temptation of Christ" some years ago. This book is worth considering as another view of Jesus's life and work.

The "Beloved Disciple" of the title is not John, but the Samaritan woman, whose role in Jesus's life is expanded from a one-time encounter at the well to a close friendship. Wise in the ways of the world, she says to Jesus, upon first meeting him, "You have a thirst that I could never satisfy. Teach us your thirst."

Along with his other followers, the woman travels with Jesus throughout Judea and is present at the entry into Jerusalem. Earlier in the story, an apparent miracle is performed when a lame boy suddenly leaps from his stretcher and runs away, as Jesus and his followers stand there, but the deeper miracle is understood to be the young man's liberation from his father's crippling expectations.

At last, Jesus is brought before Pilate, who has used a ruse to capture him. Pilate cynically informs Jesus that he must die because, like the swallows that infest the eaves of his palace, he is not at war with Rome, yet Rome cannot defeat him. Thus, to preserve itself as an earthly power, it must silence him, and in a way that his followers will know is unjust, so they may then enter into conflict with Rome--a conflict, in short, of two opposing powers, a game played on Rome's own terms.

Many familiar incidents and parables from the gospels are included, though with a slightly different twist. For instance, the father of the prodigal son seeks his wayward child, finds him in the pigsty, and settles down to tend the swine alongside him.

The author seems to have done at least a fair amount of research into the life and thought of ancient Palestine, though the book is more of a presentation of Carse's other ideas, as written in "Finite and Infinite Games," than an attempt to present the cutting edge of historical scholarship on Jesus.

Traditional Christian readers who might see such a book as blasphemous or irreverent might consider reading the book simply as a series of vignettes in the life of a wandering sage and taking its incidents and stories on their own merits. All readers should find a great deal of food for thought.

At every point where James Carse allows the canonical gospels to touch his narrative, he has given not a twist, but stood the story on its head, to show by subtle indirection that the opposite of what we have been force-fed through tradition is closer to the truth of the events in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. "If the genius of ruling has not left us, we will not oppose your words. There is a far better way to remove their danger, though their danger is great. We will make them our own. When Rome speaks on behalf of the poor, Rome will be seen as the enemy of great evils. We cannot do away with these loathsome birds so we declare them royal swallows. We will do the same with your words, or with some of your words...." (page 143) Carse has intimate experience of these words, and has followed their precept re some of the sayings and tales surrounding the wandering sage of Nazareth; he has appropriated them for today's intellectual. Clever--a very clever book.

This is a fascinating and absorbing novel. Although it doesn't have the natural realism of "THE Autobiography of Jesus and the Missing Years" it is movingly poetic. It is refreshing to find Jesus being presented in such an accessible manner. I had hoped for a more challenging presentation but I was more than compensated by the skill of the writing. If you find your faith at times flagging, this may just be the breath of fresh air you've been hoping for.

The most interesting part of this book was the exchange between Jesus and Pilate. The rest seemed to be an obvious attempt to discredit the canonical gospel accounts of Jesus' life and death. Not half as interesting as either Mailer's "The Gospel according to the Son" or even Kazantkakis "The Last Temptation of Christ." This book was a disappointment, especially if you have followed the Historical Jesus literature of the past few years.

It is maddening when so-called wise "men" turn questions constantly back to the questioner, especially when the questioner is sincere. This book, which purports to be a "gospel" shows a Jesus who never answers a question or replies with a story that says little. If one of the major relgions of the world were based on the kind of Jesus represented in this book, people of this faith would be inept. Surely, there are some interesting dialogues in this gospel. The conversation between Pilate and Jesus has an interesting bent. But overall one would wonder why anyone would follow this man. His words are uninspiring and he seems not really to care about anyone. Maybe I missed the point.