The dust cover of this best-selling book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard is headed by “The story of Jesus’ crucifixion as it’s never been told before.” This is the third book of the O’Reilly and Dugard team, and I continue to suspect that Dugard is the primary contributor of historical research for the books. Regardless of that, I judge that I would recommend “Killing Lincoln” and “Killing Kennedy” in front of “Killing Jesus.” My wife agreed with me that this book is the least compelling of the O’Reilly/Dugard books. Her comment was something to the effect, “I was hoping for a different outcome.”

“Killing Jesus” contains a wealth of interesting and important historical facts about the era in which he lived.  The first words of the book are, “To say that Jesus of Nazareth was the most influential man who ever lived is almost trite.” Over 2.2 billion people believe that he is God and that includes 77 percent of the U.S. population. The authors do say they were interested in presenting a historically accurate story and were not trying to convert anyone to a spiritual cause.

It is somewhat remarkable that Jesus survived his childhood. King Herod sent his soldiers to kill all male children under the age of two because it had been prophesized that one of those children will be the next king of the Jewish people. The brutality of the executions is the first example of the prevalent cruelty described in the book. I couldn’t help but wonder why Herod was so concerned about a potential threat after reading the lengthy list of his ailments. He couldn’t have believed he was going to live much longer when he ordered the executions. He died in 4 B.C., which indicates in part the discrepancies in what year Jesus was actually born. I don’t recall that the book explains how Mary and Joseph were able to keep Herod’s soldiers from finding the baby Jesus.

Rome’s influence was prevalent when Jesus was born, and a common theme of the book is about the politics of Jewish leaders and how they had to always consider what Rome would want or accept.  The rule of Julius Caesar is described with a focus on his assassination on the Ides of March. Caesar’s brutality is documented with a description of his murder of all members of German tribes after the Germans launched a failed surprise attack on Caesar’s legions. The genocide resulted in the estimated death of 430,000 people. The book doesn’t return to Jesus until chapter four after describing various Roman dignitaries, the wars waged against each other, and Cleopatra, who is said to be fluent in nine languages. John the Baptist, who is viewed with suspicion as a potential threat by the religious leaders called the Pharisees, enters the story in chapter six. He recognizes Jesus as the Son of God and baptizes him. John will eventually be imprisoned for many years and beheaded.

Jesus “…has become a victim of his own celebrity by chapter ten, and is life is more and more in danger as increasing numbers of Galileans believe he is the Christ. He is credited with many miracles. He tells Simon to return to the water after Simon had spent the day failing to catch a single fish. He drops his nets with Jesus aboard and catches so many fish the nets begin to break. Others have to go out to help collect the sheer volume of fish. This and other miracles and the numbers of his followers cause the Pharisees (there are 6000 of them, and their name means “separated ones”) frequently try to trap him into committing an act of heresy, but he continually proves too intellectual to fall into their traps. Jesus renames Simon Peter (meaning “rock”), and Peter becomes his first disciple.

Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, and Joseph Caiaphas, the high priest and leader of the Jewish judicial court enter the story. Jesus has predicted his death, but his disciples seem to not believe him. Caiaphas becomes more intent on finding a way to have Jesus crucified, and the Pharisees watch Jesus at every public moment as he makes his way to Jerusalem. There is a strange occurrence when he becomes annoyed with a fig tree that failed to provide him fruit even though he knows it is not the correct season. He is annoyed and says “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” The tree begins to shrivel by the next day, and the story becomes one of the most told by his followers. Perhaps this unusual behavior by the normally peaceful and calm Jesus is caused because he knows that his death is imminent.

Judas Iscariot is described as the treasurer of the disciples, and he steals from the treasury at every opportunity. He betrays Jesus for thirty silver coins (120 denali) paid by Caiaphas. Jesus is aware of the betrayal, tells the disciples one of them will betray him at the Last Supper, and tells Judas that he knows he is the one. As he waits to be arrested he began literally sweating blood, a condition known as hematridrosis brought on by intense anxiety. He takes no action to save himself despite his knowledge of the horror that waits.

Jesus is arrested, interrogated, and beaten severely. He is convicted to die by crucifixion after being lashed with whips imbedded with bits of metal or sheep bone. His guards make him a crown of thorns and push it down so that thorns cause severe bleeding. He has the good fortune, if you can call it that, that he did not live several days before dying of suffocation as is the fate of some less fortunate prisoners. Two followers take his body to a tomb, coat him with myrrh and aloe, wrap him in linen, and seal the tomb by rolling a stone weighing several hundred pounds to cover the entrance. As told by the Bible, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb hoping to anoint him with spices. The stone has been rolled away, the body is gone, and the body of Jesus has never been found.

The book closes with an afterword that gives short descriptions of the main characters in the life of Jesus. John was the only disciple who was not martyred, and he died at the age of 94. Judas Iscariot is said to have died by hanging himself after throwing his thirty silver coins into the Temple.

I have two final observations. I found the frequent use of footnotes, some of which are quite long, was a distraction. I appreciate that the authors wanted to add historical facts, but wish they would have worked those facts into the writing. I am aware that some of our grandchildren frequently check on what I’ve been up to by reading this web site. This book contains frequent vivid descriptions of brutal violence and depravity, and I hope the Grandchildren decide to read something else.