Man of Nazareth by Anthony Burgess. Short summary

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The Old and New Testament in a modern treatment by the author. Jesus is presented as an ordinary man, Judas, not as a traitor, but as an unhappy deceived man.

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The book is about the earthly life of Jesus Christ from birth to death. Jesus is not presented as a righteous man as he is in the Bible. Judas, on the other hand, is not without positive traits. The narrator is a merchant who had just returned from Jerusalem and had witnessed the crucifixion. He heard a lot about Jesus while he was on the trip.

The deity is endowed with earthly qualities and even has a wife. The novel is replete with historical imagery and quotations from the Old and New Testaments. Jesus preaches a new idea of God, finds resonance in the souls of his hearers, and promotes the idea of humanity, acceptance, and love. The betrayal at the Last Supper in the author’s version is due to the naivety of Judas himself. From the perspective of modern man, the promised reward is too little to commit such treachery.

The book describes the lives of the Virgin Mary and an ordinary carpenter, King Herod and his sons, John the Baptist and Pontius Pilate, the Emperor Augustine and the girl Salome. The historical characters are described as living people close to their contemporaries.