SEARCHING FOR THE MESSIAH

An emeritus professor of religious studies presents a treatise about—and apparently against—society’s concept of “messiah.”

Wilson devotes a large part of his latest book to debunking the idea that Jesus was a messiah, but he goes further by questioning the concept of any leader, real or fictional, as deserving of the title. The author does not offer a thesis for his work; he dives right into the life of Jesus, pointing out that he did not call himself a messiah and was not viewed as such by his contemporary followers. Only after declaring that Jesus was not a messiah does Wilson investigate the definition of the term. Using the Hebrew Bible, he admits that a clear definition of messiah is difficult to find; he settles on “a divinely designated leader who has been anointed—smeared with oil and singled out to perform a task, typically that of being a ruler or priest.” Seeking a more formidable definition against which to measure Jesus, the author turns to an obscure first-century B.C.E. Jewish text called “The Psalms of Solomon.” Interpreting this text quite literally, Wilson then develops a “job description” of a messiah, which is not applicable to Jesus in a significant way: He is not a literal king over a Jewish kingdom. After dismissing the Gospel writers as mythmakers, the author then explains how—but not why—Paul created a new religion about Jesus that ignored the teachings of Jesus. Wilson goes on to argue that modernity has looked for messiah figures in political leaders—his examples include Woodrow Wilson and Hitler—and in fictional characters like Batman. He concludes that we should each be our own messiah. Though not as sensationalist as Wilson’s How Jesus Became Christian (2008) or as melodramatic as The Lost Gospel (2014), this work is nevertheless insubstantial.

A poorly executed religious study.