Uncle Yeshu, Messiah

About the Book

Uncle Yeshu, Messiah, is a historical novel, and novels are by definition fiction. I have therefore invented dialogue, thoughts, and whole scenes, which have no source other than my imagination. Jesus´ first trip to Jerusalem and the narrator´s trip to Rome are such scenes. I have no reason whatsoever for believing that some of the things I describe happened--but I do not know beyond dispute that they did not. And while falsification of known facts is not acceptable in a historical novel, anything that conceivably could have happened is legitimate. In accordance with that convention, I demythologized some biblical myths, such as curing leprosy, which could have been done by the method I described. For other myths, such as walking on water, I felt that any attempt to offer an explanation, such as standing on a floating door, would have reinforced the delusion that the inventors of gospel myths believed they were telling the truth. I was not willing to do that.The Christian gospels are fiction, written by authors who knew that they were writing fiction, and this novel is fiction, written by an author who knows that he is writing fiction. For a nonfiction account of Jewish and early Christian history, and an explanation of when, where, how and why the various parts of the Judaeo-Christian bible were written, see my "Mythology´s Last Gods," Prometheus Books, 1992.

About the Author