Killing Jesus
In the spirit of his other two books, Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy, Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard have written a third book, Killing Jesus: A History in 2013. (They have actually written a fourth book, Killing Patton). I am not normally drawn to books written by celebrities, even religious books. In particular, since O’Reilly is an abashed Catholic, I would expect his book to weave Catholic traditions into the story line, as if they were true. So, I would avoid such works.
Yet, a brother in the church loaned me the book to read and give him my impression. O’Reilly and Dugard actually do a better job in their history than I expected. They begin with the birth of Christ and continue, obviously, through His crucifixion. There are some strengths to the book. They set the life of Jesus in the broader historical context of Roman history as well as Jewish history. That is fascinating. The reader is given insight into the cultural context of the life of Christ which could help bring the events to life.
Another strength is that when they deal with actual biblical information, they largely follow the biblical storyline. There’s not nearly as much embellishment on the biblical material as you might expect. Obviously they leave out much. In fact, contrary to their statement in the note to the reader (“But the incredible story behind the lethal struggle between good and evil has not been fully told. Until now.” pg. 4), if you want the full story, you will still have to read the New Testament.
Third, there is not nearly as much Catholicism in the book as you would expect. They could have presented more Catholic ideas about the Last Supper (the “mass”) but, instead, they skip the Last Supper entirely. No Shroud of Turin. No traditions about Mary Magdalene. In fact, even one of the fundamental ideas of Catholicism – the primacy of Peter – is relegated to a footnote in the afterword. In fact, these men (Dugard is Catholic too) note that Jesus’ siblings were just what the normal reading of the text would imply – siblings. The standard Catholic response is to deny that Mary had other children.
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The primary weakness of the book is that, contrary to their outrageous claim, this book does not “fully” tell the story. The danger in books like this is that so many people think that if you know the “basics” or the “highlights” of the life of Jesus, you know enough. Too many get their theology from such books or TV or movies.
God gave us 66 books in the Bible for a reason. We dare not relegate any of them to a “no-need-to-know” basis.
Killing Jesus would be worth your while to read but not at retail price! Get it used, check it out at the local library (if they carry it), or borrow it from someone else. Then go back and read the New Testament for the full story.
–Paul Holland
