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King Jesus: A Novel
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Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Author: Robert Graves
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $11.56
You Save: $ 5.44 ( 32% )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Author: Robert Graves
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Average Customer Rating:
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King Jesus: A Novel Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780374516642
ISBN: 0374516642
Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 424
Publication Date: 1981-10-01
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Studio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780374516642
ISBN: 0374516642
Label: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 424
Publication Date: 1981-10-01
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Studio: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Editorial Review of King Jesus: A Novel
King Jesus, long out of print, is one of the most controversial historical novels of all time. In it, Robert Graves has summoned his superb narrative powers, his painstaking scholarship, his wit and unsurpassed ability to recreate the past, to produce a magnificant portrayal of the life of Christ on earth.
Customer Reviews of King Jesus: A Novel
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: not Graves' best, but still worth a read
Review: My reaction to Graves' KJ was different from reading I, Claudius. Maybe it's because I'm more familiar with the Gospels and so another version of events colored my own response. Perhaps it's because the telling was not as lively and personal as I Claudius. Still it is good to read this book and to get more information about the politics during the time of Jesus - as well as an understanding of the Jews and their politics and their expectations of the Messiah.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A scholarly alternative approach to the life of Jesus
Review: Having grown up in an Episcopalian family in the Southeastern US, I am very familiar with Christ the Savior from St.John's gospel and the epistles of Paul. Graves offers the viewer two alternative interpreations of Jesus in his book,King Jesus. These two alternative views are based on Hebrew concepts of a political/military messiah and the mystery religion of the triple goddess, which requires the sacrifice of the goddess's consort to bless the land and people with his sacrificial blood. There is no doubt that these two world-views, religions, concepts were dominant in the Mediterranean Roman world. For example, St. Paul's epistles strongly condemn the mystery religions of the triple goddess, which he identies as Artemis (also known as Diana in Roman mythology).
I realize that my many fundamentalists Christian friends would find this book disturbing but I would invite them to read this exceptional historic novel to gain more insight into the Hebrew concept of a worldly military messiah destined to overthrow Roman domination or the concept of the consort of the triple goddess, destined to be sacrificed for the well being of the land and people.
First, the book is a political novel about the efforts of the Hebrew leadership to bring about the birth and development of a young man to be their military leader and savior. Jesus is the son of Mary and Herod's oldest son,Antipater, hidden in the home of Joseph until the time he will arise as the Hebrew ruler. Graves was a scholar of Hebrew religion and he brings his considerable knowledge of the Hebrew faith to the novel. Graves writes of a possible plot wherein the birth, schooling, and mentoring of Jesus were all part of a Hebrew plot to produce the Messiah that would defeat the Romans and bring about a Hebrew golden age of 1000 years.
Second,the book is a novel about the struggle between the patriarchial religion of the Hebrews and the cult mystery religions of the triple goddess, or the white goddess. This ancient religion has as the central deity a female goddess who is mother/birth, wife/consort/fertility, and death/destroyer. Graves has Mary the mother of Jesus, his cousin Mary (sister of Martha and Lazarus), and Mary Magdalene playing these roles. However, in the religion of the triple goddess or white goddess, a male plays the role of son, husband, consort, king, and finally human sacrifice to this triple goddess. Graves has Jesus move from the role of warrior king of the Jews to sacrificial king through the novel. Whereas Mary the mother of Jesus is a player in the Hebrew plot to support Jesus as the military Messiah, his wife and cousin Mary asks him to use his powers to raise his cousin (her brother) Lazarus from the dead. Jesus does this act but because he must now offer God a life for a life, he must offer his own life for that of Lazarus. This puts Jesus directly in the power and plot of Mary Magdalene (the layer-out) who requires the sacrificial death of her husband/consort to bless the world and its people. Graves was probably the foremost expert on the religions of the triple goddess and his scholarship helps maintain the internal consistency of the novel.
Finally, we are left with the question of whether Jesus' crucifixion was a triump of the feminist mystery religion of the triple goddess over the Hebrew messiah or whether Jesus' cruicifixion spelled the doom of the triple goddess as he emerges as the Christian savior.
Graves, an expert on Hebrew religion and mythology, classical history and mythology, and the canonical gospels as well as the Gnostic gospels, is certainly the scholar best suited to try to bring all this together in a fascinating historic novel consistent with the society and theology of the times. Graves was a highly creative and independent thinker and I have no doubt that this book will disturb my fundamentalists Christian friends - none-the-less it is a wonderful description of the world into which Jesus was born and the two major east Mediteranean religious philosophies that competed with Christianity at the time of his death.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Research, research, research.
Review: The thesis of the book is really brilliant. How would an historian in the first centuries of the first millenium view the life of Jesus, the so called "King Of The Jews"? The act of imagination that Graves has taken is breath taking. He fleshes out most of the gaps and mysteries surrounding the Gospels, without attacking or defending Christianity. The book could have been a cringe inducing "Da Vinci Code" but it is a great example of the historical novel.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Fictional-historical story... what's fact, what's fiction?
Review: Definitely not the easiest read I've done, and I confess that before starting the book, I was a little skeptical about it, specially because of being a Faith-related novel. However, I found it to be just that: a novel. A book based on historical events (with recreated fictional elements of course) and the author does a fine job in accomplishing a very comprehensive narrative work (and well documented too!). Of course, English not being my native tongue made this book a bit harder (the style of English and the vocabulary used were not that "friendly" for me, but I guess you gotta be in my shoes to know what I mean).
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Blasphemous Misrepresentation of Truth and History
Review: There is very little that is truthful, historical, or virtuous about this book. Robert Graves was a Liberal and Atheistic classicist who wanted to give his own perverse, ungodly, and blasphemous misrepresentation of the life of Jesus Christ. This work is nothing but a tool of the Devil to deceive the ignorant and those sophisticated reprobates who are "ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Sadly, Graves is now suffering the vengeance of God's wrath in hell for his unbelief and blasphemy. Others who believe his lies, as well as those Liberal cult followers of the Da Vinci Code, will likewise fall into the same ditch. Readers beware!!!
Review Summary: not Graves' best, but still worth a read
Review: My reaction to Graves' KJ was different from reading I, Claudius. Maybe it's because I'm more familiar with the Gospels and so another version of events colored my own response. Perhaps it's because the telling was not as lively and personal as I Claudius. Still it is good to read this book and to get more information about the politics during the time of Jesus - as well as an understanding of the Jews and their politics and their expectations of the Messiah.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A scholarly alternative approach to the life of Jesus
Review: Having grown up in an Episcopalian family in the Southeastern US, I am very familiar with Christ the Savior from St.John's gospel and the epistles of Paul. Graves offers the viewer two alternative interpreations of Jesus in his book,King Jesus. These two alternative views are based on Hebrew concepts of a political/military messiah and the mystery religion of the triple goddess, which requires the sacrifice of the goddess's consort to bless the land and people with his sacrificial blood. There is no doubt that these two world-views, religions, concepts were dominant in the Mediterranean Roman world. For example, St. Paul's epistles strongly condemn the mystery religions of the triple goddess, which he identies as Artemis (also known as Diana in Roman mythology).
I realize that my many fundamentalists Christian friends would find this book disturbing but I would invite them to read this exceptional historic novel to gain more insight into the Hebrew concept of a worldly military messiah destined to overthrow Roman domination or the concept of the consort of the triple goddess, destined to be sacrificed for the well being of the land and people.
First, the book is a political novel about the efforts of the Hebrew leadership to bring about the birth and development of a young man to be their military leader and savior. Jesus is the son of Mary and Herod's oldest son,Antipater, hidden in the home of Joseph until the time he will arise as the Hebrew ruler. Graves was a scholar of Hebrew religion and he brings his considerable knowledge of the Hebrew faith to the novel. Graves writes of a possible plot wherein the birth, schooling, and mentoring of Jesus were all part of a Hebrew plot to produce the Messiah that would defeat the Romans and bring about a Hebrew golden age of 1000 years.
Second,the book is a novel about the struggle between the patriarchial religion of the Hebrews and the cult mystery religions of the triple goddess, or the white goddess. This ancient religion has as the central deity a female goddess who is mother/birth, wife/consort/fertility, and death/destroyer. Graves has Mary the mother of Jesus, his cousin Mary (sister of Martha and Lazarus), and Mary Magdalene playing these roles. However, in the religion of the triple goddess or white goddess, a male plays the role of son, husband, consort, king, and finally human sacrifice to this triple goddess. Graves has Jesus move from the role of warrior king of the Jews to sacrificial king through the novel. Whereas Mary the mother of Jesus is a player in the Hebrew plot to support Jesus as the military Messiah, his wife and cousin Mary asks him to use his powers to raise his cousin (her brother) Lazarus from the dead. Jesus does this act but because he must now offer God a life for a life, he must offer his own life for that of Lazarus. This puts Jesus directly in the power and plot of Mary Magdalene (the layer-out) who requires the sacrificial death of her husband/consort to bless the world and its people. Graves was probably the foremost expert on the religions of the triple goddess and his scholarship helps maintain the internal consistency of the novel.
Finally, we are left with the question of whether Jesus' crucifixion was a triump of the feminist mystery religion of the triple goddess over the Hebrew messiah or whether Jesus' cruicifixion spelled the doom of the triple goddess as he emerges as the Christian savior.
Graves, an expert on Hebrew religion and mythology, classical history and mythology, and the canonical gospels as well as the Gnostic gospels, is certainly the scholar best suited to try to bring all this together in a fascinating historic novel consistent with the society and theology of the times. Graves was a highly creative and independent thinker and I have no doubt that this book will disturb my fundamentalists Christian friends - none-the-less it is a wonderful description of the world into which Jesus was born and the two major east Mediteranean religious philosophies that competed with Christianity at the time of his death.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Research, research, research.
Review: The thesis of the book is really brilliant. How would an historian in the first centuries of the first millenium view the life of Jesus, the so called "King Of The Jews"? The act of imagination that Graves has taken is breath taking. He fleshes out most of the gaps and mysteries surrounding the Gospels, without attacking or defending Christianity. The book could have been a cringe inducing "Da Vinci Code" but it is a great example of the historical novel.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Fictional-historical story... what's fact, what's fiction?
Review: Definitely not the easiest read I've done, and I confess that before starting the book, I was a little skeptical about it, specially because of being a Faith-related novel. However, I found it to be just that: a novel. A book based on historical events (with recreated fictional elements of course) and the author does a fine job in accomplishing a very comprehensive narrative work (and well documented too!). Of course, English not being my native tongue made this book a bit harder (the style of English and the vocabulary used were not that "friendly" for me, but I guess you gotta be in my shoes to know what I mean).
All in all, I enjoyed the book, specially having gone and seen The Passion, where both the movie and the book made this past month a very reflexive one for me (and no, I'm not very into religion, I'm "just" one more not-so-good-Christian..... Catholic in my case).
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Blasphemous Misrepresentation of Truth and History
Review: There is very little that is truthful, historical, or virtuous about this book. Robert Graves was a Liberal and Atheistic classicist who wanted to give his own perverse, ungodly, and blasphemous misrepresentation of the life of Jesus Christ. This work is nothing but a tool of the Devil to deceive the ignorant and those sophisticated reprobates who are "ever learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Sadly, Graves is now suffering the vengeance of God's wrath in hell for his unbelief and blasphemy. Others who believe his lies, as well as those Liberal cult followers of the Da Vinci Code, will likewise fall into the same ditch. Readers beware!!!