Novel on Jesus Challenges the Gospels

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

In "Judas, My Brother," Frank in the first person by Nathan bar r the moderation imbedded annota-
Yerby tells the story of Yeshu'a Yehudah who loved Yeshu'a, the tively.
hallotzri, the Mashiah, the Messia. Jesus of Christian history, who re-'
the founder of a new faith that sembled him and was at times
Prejudice is never easy unless it
was an outgrowth of this Mas- mistaken for him.
can pass itself off for reason.—;
hiah's Judaism. It -is a story told
In this novel published by Dial William Hazlitt 1
Press, the historic events related
to Jesus and his followers — and
antagonists — is subtitled "The
Story of the 13th Disciple," which
applies to the narrator Nathan.
Yerby reportedly spent 30 years
doing research for this novel, and
Jan. 3—To Mr. and Mrs. Jerome
the extensive notes and comments
Feen (Sandra Goldsmith), 14411 on the New Testament accounts as
Northfield, Oak Park, a daughter,
well as the views of authorities
Bonnie Elaine.
on the history of the period of
Herod and Jesus, confirm such
Jan. 3—To Mr. and Mrs. Rodney deep studies.
B. Finegold (Priscilla Lunsky),
In one sense the story resem-
5004 Mansfield, Royal Oak. twin

Ignorance is the first requisite of
the historian — ignorance which
simplifies and clarifies, which se-
lects and omits, with a placid per-1
fection unattainable by the highest:
art. —Lynton Strachey

Ignorance

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Oirti2

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Friday, January 10, 1969 35

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bles the view in Schoenfield's
"Passover Plot," and of the idea
that Jesus was being drugged to
revive him after the crucifixion.
There are, in Yerby's book, I
many unorthodox approaches to
the entire historical theme, and
the annotations challenge the
Gospels, point to inconsisten-
cies, to contradictions and mis-
representations.

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The text itself, however, is clos-
er to the generally portrayed de-
scription of an unjust Sanhedrin,
of a crucifixion that was traceable
to Jewish accusations, of the guilt
of the Jewish priesthood.
Yet, the comments on these very
themes deny the blame, Yerby is
unhesitant to refer to John as "writ-'
ing provable nonsense, and plain
damned lies." He charges that-the
writer/editor of John knew no He-
brew at all." He states that "the
conflicting accounts in Matthew
and Acts . . . are clearly fruits of
a wish-fulfillment psychosis."
Yerby did a fairly complete
job in gathering data for his his-
torical novel. He resorted to ex-
tensive quotations from the writ-
ings of Prof. Joseph Klausner

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:-and Dr. Judah Goldin, on Jesus
and the Gospels. Missing are
the authoritative outlines of the
two Sanhedrin in Prof. Solomon
Zeitlin's "Who. Killed Jesus?"

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The novelist's license has led
Yerby to introduce many sex inci-
dents into the story, Nathan's mar-
riage to a girl he loved in Rome,
his love affair with Claudia, the
wife of Pontius Pilate, his affair
with the harlot Shelomith, his sub-
sequent marriage to Yeshu's sis-

dresses!

ter. And there are orgies, mass
crimes, scores of events that com-

plicate the period of pre-Christian
times.
In all of these aspects there are
the many comments based on his-
tory, tradition, Jewish lore, the
conflicts in the priesthood, the re-
volutionary spirit that rose with
the preachings of Jesus.

The evidence from Klausner
and Goldin goes a long way to
indicate- the conflicts on gospels
and to present the Jewish inter-
pretations in the story of Jesus.
In one of the notes, for example,
Yerby, pointing to the views ex-
pressed- by Goldin, states "the
impossibility of there ever hav-
ing been a garden called Geth-
semane."

Yerby's study delves extensive-
ly also into Josephus and utilizes
many of the historic incidents in
Josephus' Antiquities.." There are
explanatory notes on the Jewish
calendar and on other Jewish ob-
servances.
The author's deep study touches
upon historic actions and while
they are imbedded in a lot of sex
the reader will find relief from the
oppressiveness of the disruptive
life of the century before Jesus in

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