(2) BIBLE & BIBLICAL MYTHOLOGY (JESUS):

IAN JONES – JOSHUA, THE MAN THEY CALLED JESUS (1999)

This special mention is essentially a narrower subset of my first special mention for the Bible and Biblical mythology for Jesus as the most prominent Biblical figure in my reading, reflecting the prolific number of books on him. That’s particularly for analysis or studies of what is often termed the historical Jesus (as opposed to the mythic or religious Christ). Essentially we’re talking historical biography as best can be parsed or reconstructed from the available sources, primarily the Gospels.

Apart from the New Testament in the Bible itself, there’s also my top ten entries for Barbara Walker’s The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets as well as the Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, each of which has a substantial number of their encyclopedia or dictionary entries on Jesus or subjects arguably related to historical biography.

However, the keynote book I’ve selected for this special mention for books about Jesus is this book by Ian Jones – essentially Jesus and his disciples as Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang!

No, really – but not literally, although I’d love to see the latter. This biography of Jesus sticks out like a sore thumb from a bibliography that is almost entirely about Australian outlaw bushranger Ned Kelly and his Kelly Gang. But you know what? It works.

For all that the specialty of Jones, an Australian writer, was Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang, it would seem that adapted well to constructing a historical biography of a figure from layers of legend and reverence from sources originating from that figure’s followers.

Jones even makes a reference to this effect in his introduction to this book, saying that in his youth he argued with a priest that using the Gospels as the source of a historical biography of Jesus was like using the closest members of the Kelly Gang as your source about Ned Kelly – an argument he admits he finds embarrassing now for its lack of tact.

Lack of tact perhaps but not a bad approach for gleaning nuggets of fact from legend – or glowing hagiography, although messianography might be a better word in this case. Although as Jones notes from the outset, the Gospels were not actually written by the disciples for whom they are named, albeit he advocates the Gospel of John has consistent signs of originating from a source close to the historical Jesus, perhaps not unlike the favorite disciple for whom it is named.

This book remains my favorite such historical biography of Jesus, in part due to a deft prose style, and one of the biggest influences for my view of the Jesus in the Gospels essentially as a (tragic) figure of what I dub the great messianic ghost dance.

RATING: 5 STARS*****

S-TIER (GOD TIER – WHAT ELSE?)