That John had to have a huge ego: you can only be saved through my dive. (...) But if Jesus allowed himself to be baptized by this self-centered, will have been convinced he was right: that the Dies Irae was around the corner. (...) In that period of his life, Jesus considered himself a disciple of John the Baptist and, briefly, I admire him a lot (...).
He was forced he [Jesus] to admit what kind of sins he had committed so far (...). It is no longer possible to ascertain what those sins were. Maybe it was a pimp, later it seems that I would ask prostitutes to their collective lunches.
also When Jesus began to baptize, by itself, undermines the outstanding position which was cut John. Today we would call it plagiarism, because Jesus "stole" the baptism of John.
It seems clear that the disciples of John had discovered that Jesus had set up their own version of the baptismal rite of their teacher and that, consequently, went on a rampage and rushed from the Baptist to complain: "Here [Jesus] is baptizing and all are coming to him."
(...) I think just the first part of the verse is the most important one: "Here is baptizing." Which means: "Look ', the bastard of Jesus also has the chutzpah to get to baptize." The hostility of the disciples of John oozes from every pore.
(by P. Verhoeven, the man Jesus The true story of Jesus of Nazareth , Marsilio, Venice, 2010, pp. 71-83)
Penso che questi pochi estratti rendano bene l’atmosfera del recentissimo libro su Gesù scritto da Paul Verhoeven, meglio noto come regista di immortali capolavori della cinematografia quali Robocop, Basic Instinct e Starship Troopers.
Sarebbe fin troppo facile puntare il dito sulle numerose esagerazioni e le ipotesi peregrine che si incontrano ad ogni pagina. Sarebbe facile e anche un po’ ingiusto. Perché, a dispetto di tutti gli aspetti coloriti e un po' dilettantistici del libro, almeno due meriti vanno riconosciuti a Verhoeven.
1. L’essersi cimentato in modo approfondito con la storia della ricerca su Gesù, da fine Ottocento ad oggi. I riferimenti bibliografici e gli studiosi di time to time mentioned in the book, are quite serious and respectable, and the author shows the ability to move with a certain familiarity in the literature. In short, Verhoeven is at least one first have to write, had the decency to go and read a bunch of stuff, and this is something extremely valuable in those who have an easy matter to be passionate and non-professionals.
2. Verhoeven has actively participated in meetings of the Jesus Seminar (the book is also dedicated to the memory of Robert Funk), yet has no scruples to go against the Seminar on certain key issues, such as attributing to Jesus a strong eschatological expectation imminent, to the point that Verhoeven himself, after acknowledging his debt to the Californian group, writes: "I do not think that the Jesus Seminar is very happy with this book" (p. 16).
Ultimately, I think the book could be a tasty Verhoeven beach reading (or the toilet), for those who felt the need to relax a little more challenging tomes.
