I would like to write a fantasy story about a character that is (keep in mind vaguely) inspired by Jesus. What I want him to have in common with Jesus is mostly that he travels across lands with his disciples, preaches and does miracles. That's when I realized I know almost nothing about him. I could name at best two or three apostles if I tried hard enough and a few scenes from the Bible and that's where my knowledge ends. Does anyone here have any good references where I could learn a bit more? I know there is of course the Bible, but I honestly don't want to spend too much time going trough long religious texts one could spend whole lifetime studying. I'd just like to get basic ideas about who the different apostles were, what kind of miracles Jesus did and some summary of his philosophy.
***The OP has asked an honest research question concerning information on the life of Jesus. Given the nature of religious discussion, as soon as I see anyone dragging this thread into a politicized direction, I will thread-ban the member from responding and delete non-sequitur responses. Please be respectful, mature adults when engaging this discussion, keeping in mind that we are in a WRITING FORUM and that your responses should be made with the story-writing process in mind, as always. ***
I can't comment on other books, but you don't need to read the whole bible to learn about the life of Jesus, just the four Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Those are the bits that detail Jesus' life here on earth. Edited to add that you don't even need to buy a copy of the bible to do this. You can read it all for free on BibleGateway - or the same site has several english language audio versions you could listen to as well.
It's not quite as simple as that; if you want him to fulfil the prophecies that were made, you may need to refer to the prophets who made these prophecies... http://www1.cbn.com/biblestudy/biblical-prophecies-fulfilled-by-jesus You may also want to explore his legacy, as detailed in the various Acts of the Apostles.
Life of Brian joking aside the james stalker biography isnt bad https://www.amazon.com/dp/1931393001/?tag=writingfor07a-20 although note it ws originally published in 1891 so the writing style isnt what you might call modern
I'm well aware of that, but the OP didn't mention prophecies, or the legacy of Jesus, only what He did while He was here on earth. My response was based on that. Reading acts could still be a good idea though.
I would also offer that if the OP would like to engage another author's take on this particular theme, Clive Barker's Imajica is very much a fantasy story loosely scaffolded on the story of Jesus. ETA: Really, it's more of a follow-up story, but it's still pertinent because in order to tell this modern fantasy story, we are given an alternate explanation for the events of the story of Jesus, the discovery of which makes up a good part of the book. For example, in Imajica, "God" (Hapexamendios. Note the -dios ending of the name, meaning god) doesn't create the universe (or dominions, in this story), he conquers them, and sets himself up as the emperor of everything in the first dominion (heaven). The fifth dominion we know of as Earth and the universe we can see, didn't get conquered. The MC of the story, a guy nicknamed Gentle (real name, John Furie Zacharias), goes on his quest and discovers that he's basically a second attempt on the part of "God" to infiltrate and conquer the fifth dominion. Jesus was the first attempt, but the players in the story begin to postulate that Jesus grew wise to what Hapexamendios was doing with him and he rebelled, which puts a completely different spin on why "Jesus died for us". Lots of other stuff happens. This is an incredibly simplified summary.
I second this. The canonical Gospels aren't too long; with an easy to understand translation, you could probably read them fairly quickly. And if OP wants to deal with what happens after his Jesus figure is gone, Acts may be of interest.
When you're reading the four Gospels, I'd accompany it with Isaac Asimov's Guide to the Bible: the New Testament, which explains a lot of the context of the stories and situations that modern readers won't be able to get. I also highly recommend Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan. What makes it valuable is not only Aslan's credentials as a scholar but the fact the he isn't a Christian, and therefore offers a different perspective.
There are many good movies and documentaries about the life of Jesus, faithfully depicting every single event in the gospels. If you really aren't interested in reading the gospels, which would be the best source by far, I seriously recommend the movies/TV series. I wouldn't be saying this about any other topic, but movies/TV shows about this subject are very serious and accurate and will give you a visual depiction as well.
I remember being given a rather massive book, as a child, called 'The Life of Jesus.' It was written for children—older children. I remember the pictures scared me to death ...all those fierce-looking men with beards! I read it as if it were an ordinary story, as I'm not religious and never was. However, I do remember it being quite full of detail, yet written in a straightforward manner, and it covered Jesus's entire life. You could do worse than look up a children's book on the topic. I was only about 6 years old when I got this book, and I'm nearly 68 now, so I suspect it's no longer in print. But that might be a way to go on this. Here's one I just ran across that looks like a total cracker of a book. I might actually order it myself. https://www.amazon.com/dp/9652801100/?tag=writingfor07a-20
Keen, Jesus had a 'love everyone' attitude which at times would put him at odds with his own disciples. I wanted to point this out as it is a great source of conflict you can use if you want to base a story of his life. Ben-Hur, while not exactly like what you are doing, is a great book to read to see how one writer has interrupted Christ's life. Some other books would be the His dark Material trilogy, and as @Wreybies pointed out Imijicia (which I'll be doing an in-depth study of story this summer.) Also, Aslan from the Narnia series is meant to be an allegory for Christ. I wish you the best of luck on this, -OJB.
I know there are a lot of nonbiblical, nonchristian accounts or summations of the historical person of Jesus, but it was difficult to find a bunch all conveniently lumped together http://coldcasechristianity.com/2014/is-there-any-evidence-for-jesus-outside-the-bible/ Now, the person who wrote the article does actively interpret the import of the extrabiblical accounts and what they imply generally in favour of Christianity, but it does present various historical writings that mention Jesus—with tones & interpretations from hostile, neutral, and simply differing in perspective of the events It's got Josephus, passages from the Talmud, and other historians of antiquity You can probably just skim to see the author & date of the text, and then read the passages themselves, make up your own mind to which is true or useful to you, and apply them how you see fit. (A lot have to do with the followers or the death of Jesus, but some touch on his general life & ministry) Hope it helps somewhat
Two that deal with early Christianity are Tactitus Annales and Pliny the Younger's letters, both around 100AD Tacitus describes the fire in Rome in 64AD, and the subsequent persecution of the Christians by Nero as the scapegoats. It got pretty gruesome, people burned alive and used as lights, and in fact was carried out on Nero's racetrack, the site of the current Vatican. The obelisk in front of St Peter's Basilica is the original turning point for that racetrack. St Peter was crucified and is believed buried there, while St Paul, being a citizen, was beheaded in the Mammartine prison downtown. Tacitus corroborates the general origins of Christianity, the followers of one Chrestus who had receive the "extreme penalty" (crucifixion) under Pontius Pilate some 30 years earlier. He may have had access to legal records of that case, so this is pretty good confirmation that Jesus existed and died about when and where, and in the manner, Christians believe. Pliny the Younger wrote a letter, as governor of Bithynia (in modern Turkey on the Black Sea) about legal protocols regarding Christians, and included a description of their services, which bear a startling resemblance to modern services, meeting at morning on a certain day of the week to sing hymns to Christ as if to a god, then partake of bread and wine "of a perfectly ordinary kind" after swearing to not lie, steal, cheat or renege on just debts and so forth. I think the emphasis on "ordinary kind" might have to do with Christians claiming to partake of the body and blood of Christ, while also excluding the uninitiated from even observing these rites. Perhaps the Romans believed them to be practicing some kind of cannibalism? The Romans were otherwise pretty tolerant of other religions, even monotheistic ones like Judaism. Josephus Flavius, a Jewish contemporary and probable acquaintance and correspondent with both Pliny and Tacticus, wrote a book "on Jewish Antiquities", a Reader's Digest version of the Old Testament, which became a runaway best-seller hit in second century Rome, and for a while Judaism was the main competition with Christianity for converts. But there was that circumcision thing, and having to give up pork...
I don't know if this is too simplistic for what the OP wants, but the Wikipedia article seems fairly concise, and I'm sure it's well-policed against online vandalism.
I think you may be overestimating the amount of reading you'd need from the Bible itself for this project. The Bible is huge, but the actual Jesus narrative in the New Testament is a VERY small portion of that in terms of page count. The Gospels - the books that recount Jesus' life - comprise only four of the 66 books of the (Protestant) Bible (Catholics and Eastern Orthodox have more). From your perspective, it gets even shorter than that, because the Gospels aren't consecutive. They're four different tellings of the same complete narrative, lots of overlap. So, in theory, you could get away with reading just ONE of the Gospels and have enough material to work with for research purposes. The shortest, the Gospel of Mark, clocks in at around 11,000 measly words. It's not even a novella. So, my thought would be to start with the Book of Mark as your basis, since you can probably read it in like one sitting. If someone were proselytizing, they'd tell you to start with the Gospel of John - which has a lot more teaching about love and such - but there's a specific reason you DON'T want to do that if you're doing structural research. Historically speaking, John was written as an addendum to the other three gospels (and says as much in-text) - it purposefully leaves out the hight points and focusses on extra stuff that that John thinks the other three authors missed. The three others (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are referred to as the "Synoptic Gospels" because they all cover pretty much the same narrative, with minor additions. Of those, Mark is the earliest text, the shortest, and the most mysterious and mystical. It's generally accepted that Mark was itself the primary source text used by the writers of Matthew and Luke - with Matthew adding further anecdotes aimed at his specifically Jewish audience, and Luke adding more universal themes for a specifically non-Jewish audience. So, here are a couple of basic research strategies that you might consider to hit the Bible narrative without hitting it too hard: Strategy # 1: Just read Mark - that gives you the basics in as little time as possible. Strategy #2: Read Mark and John - That gives you the basic synoptic narrative plus John's additions Strategy #3: Read Luke and the Acts of the Apostles - The book of Acts, which details the activities of the disciples after the resurrection, was written as a sequel to the Gospel of Luke by the same author. If you want to trace the narrative past the point where Jesus exits the physical stage, I'd read Luke instead of Mark, to give you a cohesive authorial voice going into Acts.
Mark was written for a Hebrew audience and includes a lot of geneaology, but almost none of early life (birth etc) of Jesus. John starts with the mystical "In the beginning was the Word..." and also skips his birth. His mother Mary is supposed to have lived with Luke for the last part of her life, and that Gospel has a lot of details on her pregnancy, delivery, and some child hood things, such as getting lost in the Temple when he was twelve... things only a mother would relate. The Wedding at Cana? I don't know which gospel that is in, but I would expect it also to be in Luke's. Interestingly, Matthew and Luke differ in the details of Jesus' birth.
At the risk of dragging this thread slightly off topic, I am happy to refer you to a book called The Bones of Saint Peter by John Evangelist Walsh. It relates how, in an archeological dig under the high altar of the Vatican, a Roman cemetery was found, along with what looked like a temple with a niche in a buttressing wall. In the niche, they discovered the bones of an old man (and, curiously, a mouse). What happened afterwards was almost a comedy of errors, with one of the Vatican staff removing the bones without telling the other archeologists, after which the bones were lost for many years. It was only after another scholar interpreted the graffiti on the buttress wall that the significance of the niche was understood, which resulted in a workman's recollection of where the contents of the niche had been stashed. As it turned out, it is very likely that the bones were indeed those of Saint Peter, and that the tradition that he was buried at the site of the high altar was accurate. The book is a great read for those who like archeology stories.
So, at risk of dragging this a bit further off topic - I think this debate raises another question for the OP about exactly what kind of research to do. If you were writing a story about early Christianity, then historical research about the early Church and archaeology and such would be important. If I read correctly, however, the OP is looking to use the Jesus story as a template for a fictional religious figure. In that particular case, I think the important research would probably NOT be into historical detail. Instead, you'd probably need to look at how Jesus' STORY is WRITTEN rather than trying to determine the details you'd need for historical fiction. If I were doing that, I'd probably stick with the Gospel narratives as a basis - because that's the story structure. Is there bias in that story structure? Yes. But that's kind of the point, especially in legends and morality tales (and I say that as a religious person myself - I believe all of this stuff, but I can also look at the writing critically). The other thing you might look at is the tellings of other assorted messianic or prophetic figures from religious history and how their stories are presented and dramatized. I'm thinking in particular about people like Buddha, Mahavira from Jainism, Baha'u'llah from Baha'ism - and Jewish messianic claimants like Shabbatai Zvi. (I'm leaving out anyone who had any military/political component to the story, like Mohammed or Simon Bar Kochba - just because I think the OP is looking for the "gathering disciples in the wilderness" type of figure).
Agree with @Commandante Lemming. There are four Gospels because there were four accounts of Jesus' life and preaching, which were written from memory decades after his life. As a result, although they generally agree in outline, they differ in detail, as eyewitness accounts of events long past are almost certainly going to do. These were considered most consistent.
The differences in detail are fun to explore too - as Matthew, Mark, and Luke are all recounting the same general series of events, but with differing approaches aimed at differing audiences. The Bible actually does that several times - another good example being the histories in the Old Testament. The books of 1 and 2 Chronicles cover exactly the same narrative as the books of 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 2 Kings - even quoting those books verbatim at times since Chronicles was written much later - but there are some really stark differences in perspective and emphasis (Samuel and Kings are bloody histories with morally flawed characters, Chronicles is a court history with little blood and much more emphasis on the temple and religious proceedings.)
