Alejandra Pena
Professor Cate
CST130
21 April, 2014
Book Review: The Shadow of the Galilean
Summary:
Gerd Theissen author of The Shadow of the Galilean: The Quest for the Historical Jesus in Narrative Form, is a fictional story of a man named Andreas. The author fabricates an account on the life of Jesus though various characters mentioned in the Bible and its historical context. The Shadow of the Galilean is a make-believe story about Andreas, a Jewish merchant from Sepphoris. Andreas is forced by Pontius Pilot, the Roman governor at the time to reveal the truth about Jesus and uncover any important information about his followers. As Andreas travels through his voyage he narrates the story himself and takes the reader along his journey. Theissen never writes Jesus appearing directly in the narrative but instead the audience only gets glimpses of Him, a “shadow”, Andreas meets people that Jesus had influenced or affected. Through his encounters with these people Andrea learns about the ministry of Jesus, what he said and what he stood for and all the miracles He performed. Theissen cleverly uses his character Andreas as the device to help the reader piece together a sense of the historical Jesus.
The story begins with Andreas attending a political demonstration against Pilate. He is imprisoned by the Romans, suspected for having ties with the terrorists Bannus and Barabbas. Andreas must choose between being persecuted and imprisoned or gather information about the rising Jewish movements that threaten Roman control over the lands. Forced by Pilate, Andreas has to go undercover, but afraid that he might betray the Jewish people he gives irrelevant evidence to the Romans, and they believed him regardless of his unreliable infor...
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...er reading the book it made me more conferrable with this side of Jesus. I loved the character of Andreas and I seek to become more and more like that Galilean from Nazareth that he was searching for Jesus. I loved his passion and constant anxiety to need to learn more about Jesus that something I aspire to have.
I enjoyed the book and I tought it was easy to read and understand. The constant adversities Andreas faced keep me craving more, from the prison scene to him being kidnapped left me wondering what would happen for the next chapter. I also enjoyed learning about the Jewish culture and traditions that the book mentioned, and having a new take on arguments regarding the practice of the Sabbath or how Jesus’s teachings could have sounded to a Gentile back in the day. Overall a fun and interesting book to read and challenged by views on the humanity of Jesus.
I believe the most important concept that I gained from reading the book was to remain faithful, in good times and in bad. Walking blindly can be very terrifying, but God always has a plan for each and every one of us. At times, the plan remains unseen, and that should not deter or slow me on the path that my heart is yearning
What I liked most about it was reading from two different perspectives and how those different perspectives met through the book.
In The Shadow the Galilean, the reader follows the thoughts and actions of a fictional Jewish man named Andreas. The book begins with Andreas being imprisoned by Roman officials for accidently attending an anti-Roman demonstration. The reader finds out that Andreas has connections with anti-Roman friends such as a Zealot named Barabbas, but that he is completely innocent otherwise. Although the Romans find Andreas innocent through their interrogations, Pilate decides to blackmail Andreas in order to use him to spy on the Jewish anti-Roman groups. After realizing that Pilate has the power to imprison him and ruin his family, Andreas agrees to spy for the Romans. Andreas finds himself torn between how he can give information to the Romans and
I can relate this book to my life in many ways; it was easier for me to relate to this book because were both 18 year old girls who want to live life the right way. Also I don’t want to live life trying to be like everyone else, so this was really encouraging to me. A part that helped me was the part about confidence and how important that is. Its important to have confidence in your faith because say you get in a situation you can protect your faith and stand up for what you believe. Another part that I can really apply to my life was how when people were talking about her she didn’t even beg to know. Personally whenever I hear that someone was talking about me, I really want to know what they said! This helped me to learn that why fill my brain with negativity sinful gossip, because that’s not what Jesus would do.
What impressed me most about the book was the incredible detail he used to describe people, places, events, and things. As I said, some people may find all this detail to be tedious. I however think that it was important to have such details to paint an accurate picture of ancient Rome.
One thing the author did well was put illustrations in the book. These illustrations were inferred that they were drawn by the protagonist (see page 14 for example)1. This fits well with the lore of the book and gives it a unique fourth wall break. Another thing the author did well was to incorporating fiction into historical nonfiction. According to the author's home page, he interviewed several people who grew up in Natzi germany that inspired the character of Karl, and he has studied Max Schmeling’s career in order to accurately depict his whereabouts to fit the story2. My only complaint about the book were the several seemingly pointless subplots that surface off the main plot. For example, Karl develops a love interest that consisted of less than half a chapter and smoldered into nothing; It accomplished nothing and added nothing to the story (48)1. Another thing I disliked about the Novel was its inept
My overall opinion of this book is good I really liked it and recommend it to anyone. It is a good book to read and it keep you interested throughout the whole book.
This is my personal reflection about this book. First and foremost, I would like to say that this book is very thick and long to read. There are about nineteen chapters and 278 pages altogether. As a slow reader, it is a quite hard for me to finish reading it within time. It took me weeks to finish reading it as a whole. Furthermore, it is written in English version. My English is just in average so sometimes I need to refer to dictionary for certain words. Sometimes I use google translate and ask my friends to explain the meaning of certain terms.
Reading, "The Shadow of the Galilean," was extremely different than what I was expecting this book to be. I was expecting to be reading of just the life of Jesus and the stories that are presented throughout the New Testament of how He brought people to follow Him and the struggles that He had gone through; not a book that contained both historical facts and fictional characters and events within it. Despite my initial reaction, I became thoroughly interested in this book once I began to read it because it was so different than what I was expecting. The fictional part of it kept me entertained throughout its entirety and made me curious to know what happens next at all times. All in all, I recommend that any person who is learning about the life of Jesus and wants a little "kick" to His stories, dive into Gerd Theissen's narrative of "The Shadow of the Galilean."
Did you like the book? would you recommend this book to others? Why or why
My favourite part about it’s about the part of greek mythology that isn’t well known. The book was very interesting but some may find it a hard read due to all the little details that become big details in the later books. If you enjoy this book I would highly recommend reading the rest of the series, Days of Blood and Starlight and Dreams of Gods and Monsters. Some books you might like from other authors include Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Awake at Dawn by C.C. Hunter, and Shadowshaper by Daniel
She uses these stories to try and explain what the ideas, attitudes and beliefs are that make up the “Roman Way.” Summary The Roman Way is basically an informal history of Roman civilization as Edith Hamilton interprets the writings of the greatest literary figures from around the time of 200 B.C. to 100 A.D. Some of these writers include Cicero, with his vast assortment of letters; Catullus, the romantic poet; and Horace, the storyteller of an unkind and greedy Rome. They are three affluent white men from around the same period of time, although each of them had very different styles of writings and ideologies.
Andreas, son of John, was in Jerusalem when an outbreak occurred. Andreas had come up from Sepphoris in Galilee for Pentecost to visit an old friend, Barabbas, when he noticed Roman soldiers dressed as normal citizens; they had then pulled out their clubs and started hitting people during the demonstration. The demonstration was for Pilate, and Andreas just happened to get into the middle of all the action. “The demonstration was because Pilate wanted to take money from the temple treasury to build a new aqueduct for Jerusalem” (4). The Romans captured people from the demonstration that they suspected for having ties with the terrorists Bannus and Barabbas. While being interrogated about the demonstration, Andreas is given a choice, to both further prosecution and imprisonment or to gather information for the Romans about rising movements that might take over the land.
The book and the movie were both very good. The book took time to explain things like setting, people’s emotions, people’s traits, and important background information. There was no time for these explanations the movie. The book, however, had parts in the beginning where some readers could become flustered.
Overall the novel, as the title page states 'this book will change your life', and prompt you think about things and in ways, you hadn't before. Luke Rhinehart stuck to his aim throughout and did everything the die commanded, showing true devotion to a cause that sent the world into chaos.