Customer Reviews

Mary

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I have an original edition of "Mary" by Asch, as well as a version in Yiddish, both of which I have read.

This book interested me because I am a convert from Orthodox Judaism to Catholicism. Asch, an unconverted Jew, portrays the Mother of Jesus in a very positive light, and portrays her authentic Jewishness in a way seldom seen. I highly recommend this book to Jewish Christians, Jews, and Gentile Christians!

When I was done reading this book, my soul sat in a collapsed heap, drained but cleansed, awaiting the Spirit's rejuvenating touch.

I was first introduced to the works of Sholem Asch some 25 years ago by an old and dear Jewish friend in NYC. Though he wasn't sympathetic to Christianity, he loved Asch's vivid writing. He gave me a copy of Asch's phenomenal "The Apostle", but I had to wait a bit for him to find a copy that he hadn't annotated during his many readings of the work. Such was his regard for Asch's work.

Through the wonders of online browsing, I recently came across "Mary", the earliest leg of Asch's trilogy about Christ. Thinking I could use some easy background reading to break up my more serious pursuits, I started skipping around the early part of the book. But the descriptions of Yeshua growing in stature before God and man began first to interest me, and then to arrest me.

It turns out that Jesus wasn't air-dropped over Israel as the full-blown Messiah. As it is with us, his destiny didn't come automatically to him. He had to study the scriptures and interact with family and townsfolk in a developmental way over what we call his hidden years.

And that is where this book began to shine. I don't know where else you will get so deep a feel for Jewish life in Israel under Rome. As he did with "The Apostle", Asch weaves culture and religion with history and geography, all the while emphasizing the narrative of sacred text, to give the reader rare contextual insight into the lives of the protagonists.

The experience for me was eye-opening and penetrating. Our culture has been so Christianized (and post-Christianized) that we do not recognize the radically disruptive nature of the historical Jesus event. Even the Jews of today, though perhaps unaware, have been theologically and culturally liberalized by it.

Back then, the dominant culture held that Almighty God had dictated that, for example, one who didn't wash his hands up to the elbows before eating could not enter heaven - period. Illegitimate children were categorically unclean under sacred law and were cruelly rejected and left to their own devices. Those who had fallen onto hard times had incurred God's disfavor and thus were considered to be beneath redemptive human mercy and kindness.

Into this Asch introduces the theologically developing Jesus, befriending a half-feral illegitimate boy without even a name, and taking him into Mary's home; Jesus, visiting field workers forced by their debts to bitterly work the land they once owned, teaching and living out God's love to them that believed they were abandoned not only in this world but in the next as well because of their inability to keep the detailed ceremonial requirements of the Law; Jesus, issuing a revolutionary proclamation in the parable of Lazarus and Dives, whereby it's not clean hands that gain one's admittance into heaven, but a clean heart; Jesus, breaking bread with the oppressed and estranged, giving hope and removing bitterness of soul.

Jesus is the ultimate central character here, but the story is mostly written from Mary's perspective. As Jesus enters full-time ministry, Mary becomes separated from him, but she joins him again toward the end in Jerusalem. Mary is struggling with letting Jesus go to his cruel fate, until she has an interactive vision with Rachel. The mother of Israel shows Mary countless pleading eyes of Gentiles trapped in sin and darkness, desperately in need of salvation. Recognizing clearly for the first time the unfathomable greatness of God's eschatological plan and the love that drives it, Mary finally submits her heart and accepts the sacrifice she must make. Subsequently, when Jesus prays from the cross, "Into Thy hands I commit my spirit", Mary looking on is in such union with him that she isn't sure who had said it, she or he. The truth is, they both had.

And when Jesus is raised from death, and Mary for the first time publicly refers to her son as "The LORD", the reader hears it with new ears himself, feeling the same profound shock as do her hearers in the book, a level of shock that causes two of Jesus' formerly unbelieving brothers to fall to the ground, weeping at the unveiling of the truth. This is powerful writing.

It is easy for us who have been raised in modern culture to take for granted what Jesus did in freeing us from the requirements of the Mosaic code, and to be ignorant of the hard reality of the daily conflict he had in doing so. We don't understand what life was like for the person who would please God back then. Asch knows and fully respects what was good in the old way, but the stark antagonism that he delineates between the covenant of legalism and that of spirit ultimately will simply not allow the reader the luxury of neutrality. Through this book I have gained a much deeper understanding of, and humble thankfulness for, the believer's exalted position of freedom in Christ.

Add to that a rare richness in the depiction of things of the soul, particularly regarding the relationship between Mary and Jesus, and this book offers a deeply moving experience that transcends words on a page.

My old Jewish friend who introduced me to Asch wasn't sure if Asch had actually converted to Christ or not, though he suspected that he had. That question had remained a curiosity of mine all these years. But after reading "Mary" the issue is resolved for me. This book is none other than a deeply felt and carefully wrought act of worship. Enter in, and be blessed.

My wife and I have just finished reading aloud (a chapter a night on average) the book Mary by Sholem Asch. I've read it at least twice before but it had just as great an impact this time round as in the past. I found myself in tears at the end of almost every chapter. It's the most sensitive account of the life of Jesus' mother Mary I've ever come across, and is truly anointed writing.

This is a most insightful and valuable book written from the perspective of a Jew, who knows Jewish customs and requirements. Jesus, of course was a Jew. His mother, Mary, nurtured, loved and saw him grow to adulthood. She also saw him crucified and this is why in the Catholic faith she is the queen of martyrs, for as most mothers come to know their greatest gift from God is their children.

Historically, this book brings to life the corruption rife at the time. Not only among the Romans but the Jews. The priesthood had become corrupted and watered down by various puppets put in place by the the powers that be.

Factually, I doubt Mary had any other children besides her Son, Jesus. He did after all entrust her to the care of John, his beloved disciple. If Mary had any other sons, she would, of course, as a widow go to live with them.

A beautiful book written by a man with much insight.

It's amazing what some people (meaning myself) will pick out of their bookshelf at 2am when they are waiting to see if their three year old will go back to sleep.

I chose 'Mary', by Sholem Asch - and have no regrets with the choice. Mr. Asch, though long since departed from this earth, is an author that, like many others, I dearly wish were still alive to continue to write novels to read for years to come. His trilogy of 'religious' novels, of which this is included, may have angered Jews and Christians alike upon release and over the years, but to me this was simply a great work of fiction.

Anyone who ever attended Sunday School, or listened to Christmas songs like Away In A Manger, or Silent Night, etc. - know the 'basis' of this story. The virgin bride, the miraculous pregnancy, the no-frills birth in the stable of an inn with 'no room' for Mary and Joseph, etc., etc., etc. But, with the talent and imagination of a gifted writer, there's much, much more to the tale.

Filled with lavish, believable period detail, historical fact about the people of the time of Jesus, Herod, and Pontius Pilate - this story is a fascinating historical novel on a grand scale. The people of Nazareth come to life in page after page of deeply thought out, moving, and inspirational witness to the birth of the Lord, to his upbringing and the discovery of his 'gift' for prophecy and interpreting the word of God, to the crucifiction at Golgotha.

With such a character as Jesus as part of the story, Mary would have been overshadowed in the hands of a less capable writer. But Sholem Asch goes to great lengths to keep Mary, or 'Miriam' as she is called here, vital, lively, and very much the star of this book, while not sparing any of the known details about the life and times of Jesus Christ.

I am, admittedly, not a religious person...I am more a spiritual person with a love of good writing and a well-woven tale. This is every bit that and more. Highly recommended for reading by those who, like myself, enjoy tales of this genre without any 'preaching', regardless of the subject matter.

I have and old old copy of this book MARY, I wanted to replace it because it was a book I was reading to my Mother as she was dying. It also give an insight on what life was about in the time of Jesus and Mary. Mary was 16 yr old when ahe answered God's call. What an awesome responsibility she took on. Would we in this day and age accept without question God's call??