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JESUS AND THE JEWS

Name: JESUS AND THE JEWS
Author: Alan Watson
ISBN: 0-8203-1703-9

THE PHARISAIC TRADITION IN JOHN

by Alan Watson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 4, 1995

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A bizarre attempt by a legal historian to show that St. John's gospel is based on an anti-Christian Jewish source that was turned around to become Christian propaganda. The Gospel of John includes material not found in the other three and is remarkable equally for its realism and its striking symbolic content. Relying on form criticism, Watson (Law/Univ. of Georgia) claims to discern in this material traces of a coherent and highly unsympathetic picture of Jesus. He believes that John was using an earlier source, now lost, that originated from the party of the Pharisees and was intended to discredit Jesus' character and messiahship, portraying him as a deeply angry man and contemptuous of Jewish customs, thus justifying the active role of the Jewish authorities in his death. This source, surmises Watson, was too well known to ignore, and so John countered it by making changes and incorporating it into his narrative. Although Watson argues his points well and shows that he is acquainted with some of the literature, his unlikely case is undermined by his highly personal reactions to the major episodes peculiar to John: for example, his belief that Jesus' changing the water meant for purification into wine was a deliberate insult to his mother, the wedding party, and Jewish ritual. Even more arbitrary is his heavily Freudian reading of Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman, according to which the rich, archetypal language thinly disguises an explicitly sexual flirtation. Watson's suggestion that the Pharisees invented the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead in order to justify Jesus' destruction by the Jewish authorities is both convoluted and at variance with most recent scholarship, according to which the Romans, rather than the Jews, were really responsible for the crucifixion. Purely arbitrary interpretations that, when all's said and done, just don't fly.

Pub Date: Aug. 4, 1995

ISBN: 0-8203-1703-9

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Univ. of Georgia

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.