The Gospel of the Beloved Disciple

This, then, is the first full, all-new gospel in 1,500 years. It is not yet another novel about Jesus, such as those by Nikos Kazantzakis and Norman Mailer, nor is it is a harmonizing of the traditional gospels, like those by Leo Tolstoy and Reynolds Price. As James Carse says, in introducing readers to this gospel, "What is needed, now as before, is imagination, but imagination that takes no more liberty with the known historical material than the earlier gospels themselves took.... Each [evangelist] wrote a gospel grounded in the time of Jesus and his own time. Why should we do less?"

The book's prologue dramatically sets the stage by telling how, long after Jesus' death, some of his followers bring an old woman a parchment scroll on which they have painstakingly assembled Jesus' story, piercing together what they remember of him. They come to her because, as "the one Jesus loved," she knew him best. She listens carefully to their "gospel" and, when they are through, tersely responds that "it wasn't like that....There is too much to say to end it here."

And thus begins her gospel, the first full gospel from a woman's point of view. She recounts many of the events of Jesus' life that we know from the New Testament gospels such as his birth, baptism, transfiguration, trial and crucifixation but in a very different and fully credible way. What her gospel brings is her perspective as his most intimate companion; she knew Jesus better than anyone else and wants to tell his story as she really experienced it, not to mythologize him or advance some Church agenda. Perhaps most arresting is her gospel's vivid presentation of Jesus' trenchant exchanges with the people he encounters and its many delightful and though-provoking parables.

The "Beloved Disciple" of the title is not John, but the Samaritan woman, whose role in Jesus's life is expanded from a one-time encounter at the well to a close friendship. Wise in the ways of the world, she says to Jesus, upon first meeting him, "You have a thirst that I could never satisfy. Teach us your thirst."

Along with his other followers, the woman travels with Jesus throughout Judea and is present at the entry into Jerusalem. Earlier in the story, an apparent miracle is performed when a lame boy suddenly leaps from his stretcher and runs away, as Jesus and his followers stand there, but the deeper miracle is understood to be the young man's liberation from his father's crippling expectations.

At last, Jesus is brought before Pilate, who has used a ruse to capture him. Pilate cynically informs Jesus that he must die because, like the swallows that infest the eaves of his palace, he is not at war with Rome, yet Rome cannot defeat him. Thus, to preserve itself as an earthly power, it must silence him, and in a way that his followers will know is unjust, so they may then enter into conflict with Rome--a conflict, in short, of two opposing powers, a game played on Rome's own terms.

Many familiar incidents and parables from the gospels are included, though with a slightly different twist. For instance, the father of the prodigal son seeks his wayward child, finds him in the pigsty, and settles down to tend the swine alongside him.

The author seems to have done at least a fair amount of research into the life and thought of ancient Palestine, though the book is more of a presentation of Carse's other ideas, as written in "Finite and Infinite Games," than an attempt to present the cutting edge of historical scholarship on Jesus.

Traditional Christian readers who might see such a book as blasphemous or irreverent might consider reading the book simply as a series of vignettes in the life of a wandering sage and taking its incidents and stories on their own merits. All readers should find a great deal of food for thought.


Debunking the classical Jesus, again   February 4, 1998
 4 out of 12 found this review helpful

The most interesting part of this book was the exchange between Jesus and Pilate. The rest seemed to be an obvious attempt to discredit the canonical gospel accounts of Jesus' life and death. Not half as interesting as either Mailer's "The Gospel according to the Son" or even Kazantkakis "The Last Temptation of Christ." This book was a disappointment, especially if you have followed the Historical Jesus literature of the past few years.


A summer's read on a winter's evening.   January 9, 1998
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This is a fascinating and absorbing novel. Although it doesn't have the natural realism of "THE Autobiography of Jesus and the Missing Years" it is movingly poetic. It is refreshing to find Jesus being presented in such an accessible manner. I had hoped for a more challenging presentation but I was more than compensated by the skill of the writing. If you find your faith at times flagging, this may just be the breath of fresh air you've been hoping for.