Reza Aslan

The author of the best-selling No God but God presents a meticulously researched biography of Jesus that draws on biblical and historical sources to place His achievements and influence against the turbulent backdrop of His time.

The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Zealot

Lizzy Jensen

The notion that the leader of a popular messianic movement calling for the imposition of the "Kingdom of God"a term that would have been understood by Jew and gentile alike as implying revolt against Rome- could have remained uninvolved in the revolutionary fervor that had gripped nearly every Jew in Judea is simply ridiculous.

The readers of Luke's gospel, like most people in the ancient world, did not make a sharp distinction between myth and reality; the two were intimately tied together in their spiritual experience. That is to say, they were less interested in what actually happened than in what it meant. It would have been perfectly normal- indeed, expected- for a writer in the ancient world to tell tales of gods and heroes whose fundamental facts would have been recognized as false but whose underlying message would be seen as true.

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