Killing Jesus: A History by Bill O'Reilly (Book Review)

Killing Jesus

A History

by Bill O'Reilly

& Martin Dugard

259 pages

Henry Holt, 2013

history / religious

Read in 5 days

Rating: ★★

Amazon | BN

"To say that Jesus of Nazareth was the most influential man who ever lived is almost trite."

Review: I finished this book last week but it's taken me this long to write a review of it because the end bothered me so greatly I wanted to calm my frustration first. I'm not 100% calm but I think I can manage a review less scathing than what I had in mind the second I finished it. Where to begin? How about what I liked? The Afterword.

Yep, you read the correctly, my favorite part was the chapter after the last chapter that most people don't even read anymore nowadays! And trust me, after reading the last 2 or 3 chapters I almost wasn't going to read the Afterword, but figured I might as well since I read over 200 pages already! The reason I liked it was because it gives brief descriptions of what happened to the main players in the story of Jesus, namely the disciples. Admittedly, these are stories I didn't know because it's never dawned on me to be remotely interested in their lives as much as I was/am in the life of Jesus.

Otherwise, I found Killing Jesus to be lacking in a discernible flow the way Killing Lincoln did. I realize there was a lot to cover, what with all the different bad guys and their story and history as well as how Jesus lived, but for all the 200+ pages written I got no sense of his life. With Killing Lincoln I felt like I was in the mind of Boothe and walking in the shoes of Lincoln. It all felt very real. Maybe because it was in a relative time period? Whatever the reason I felt there was too much "fact" and not enough story. And then what little story was there didn't match up to what I know the story of Jesus to be.

Again, I realize O'Reilly wasn't going for the faith based aspect of Jesus' life, more the facts and what could be proven. Fine, I get that. But there were two things left out towards the tail end; the first is when Jesus is carrying the cross through town, he falls, and a young woman is able to walk over to him and give him a cup of water without the guards noticing her. The other is while on the cross one of the two men on either side of him speaks and Jesus says something along the lines of, "forgive them Father for they know not what they do." Those two moments are left out! Were they not provable? Did they not happen? If so then say that cause I was confused as to why they were left out. I know it couldn't have been for the sake of space. I know that can't be it because a good chunk was wasted on telling the story of Caesar which I felt could have been condensed down to a few pages. We all (I hope) know his story and didn't need to hear it again. And all those pages on the ancestry of the evil people surrounding the life of Jesus could have been left out as well. They felt more like fillers than a means to move the story along.

I honestly never thought this book would disappoint me the way that it has. And while I have no interest in the story of Killing Kennedy, I hope it (as well as his other Killing Series books) is better told than this one.

Summary: Millions of readers have thrilled by bestselling authors Bill O’Reilly and historian Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, page-turning works of nonfiction that have changed the way we read history.

Now the anchor of The O’Reilly Factor details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Nearly two thousand years after this beloved and controversial young revolutionary was brutally killed by Roman soldiers, more than 2.2 billion human beings attempt to follow his teachings and believe he is God. Killing Jesus will take readers inside Jesus’s life, recounting the seismic political and historical events that made his death inevitable – and changed the world forever.

To learn more about Bill O'Reilly visit his site here.