The Gospel According to Lazarus is a 2019 novel by Richard Zimler. [1]
Contents
(The paperback, published in 2022, has the title: The Lost Gospel of Lazarus) The novel is set in the time of Jesus.
The Gospel According to Lazarus is a 2019 novel by Richard Zimler. [1]
(The paperback, published in 2022, has the title: The Lost Gospel of Lazarus) The novel is set in the time of Jesus.
The novel tells the story of Lazarus of Bethany from his own point of view. One of the author's goals was to return to Lazarus and Jesus their Judaism and, in consequence, both men are referred to by their Hebrew names: Yeshua ben Yosef and Eliezer ben Natan. The book presents Yeshua ben Yosef as an early Jewish mystic and explores the deep friendship between Eliezer and Yeshua, who - within the fictional setting - have been best friends since childhood.
Reviewing Lazarus for The Guardian , novelist Peter Stanford called it "a brave and engaging novel... a page-turner. I simply had to keep going to the very end in order to know on earth what would happen." [2] In her article in The Jewish Week , Sandee Brawarsky observed that "Zimler’s writing is richly detailed, his characters compelling. Even if readers know how this story will unfold, there are surprising turns in these pages." [3] In his Tikkun review, Jacob Staub wrote that "Zimler is masterful at immersing his readers in the ambience and symbols of each period, in the alleyways and culinary scents of each of his settings, so that the human lessons he elicits are credible and grounded in the past. He views Jewish history as a sacred text". [4]
In June 2019 Zimler published an essay in The Guardian entitled, "I have never met antisemitism in Britain... until now." It explained how Zimler, a highly acclaimed, bestselling novelist, had been rejected for appearances by two cultural organizations after they inquired whether he "was Jewish." He concluded the essay by writing, "if you fail to be welcoming to Jewish writers and artists because you fear a backlash, then your cowardice makes it possible for the haters to have their way – to spread their irrational dislike of Jews and make shunning them seem acceptable. Is that really the 'new normal' you want for Great Britain?" [5]
According to The Bookseller , a trade publication that covers the British publishing industry, both The Observer and The Guardian confirmed that the arts organizations had decided not to sponsor appearances by Zimler after confirming that he is Jewish. [6] The organizations feared that they would suffer from a backlash if they sponsored a talk by a Jewish writer. [6] [7]
Yeshua was a common alternative form of the name Yehoshua in later books of the Hebrew Bible and among Jews of the Second Temple period. The name corresponds to the Greek spelling Iesous (Ἰησοῦς), from which, through the Latin IESVS/Iesus, comes the English spelling Jesus.
Josef Ben Caiaphas, known simply as Caiaphas in the New Testament, was the Jewish high priest during the years of Jesus' ministry, according to Josephus. The Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John indicate he was an organizer of the plot to kill Jesus. He famously presided over the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus. The primary sources for Caiaphas' life are the New Testament, and the writings of Josephus. The latter records he was made high priest by the Roman procurator Valerius Gratus after Simon ben Camithus had been deposed.
Arba'ah Turim, often called simply the Tur, is an important Halakhic code composed by Yaakov ben Asher. The four-part structure of the Tur and its division into chapters (simanim) were adopted by the later code Shulchan Aruch. This was the first book to be printed in Southeast Europe and the Near East.
Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda was a Russian-Jewish linguist, lexicographer, and journalist. He is renowned as the lexicographer of the first Hebrew dictionary and also as the editor of Jerusalem-based HaZvi, one of the first Hebrew newspapers published in the Land of Israel. Ben-Yehuda was the primary driving force behind the revival of the Hebrew language.
Yeshu is the name of an individual or individuals mentioned in rabbinic literature, thought by some to refer to Jesus when used in the Talmud. The name Yeshu is also used in other sources before and after the completion of the Babylonian Talmud. It is also the modern Israeli spelling of Jesus.
Yosef Hayim was a leading Baghdadi hakham, authority on halakha, and Master Kabbalist. He is best known as author of the work on halakhaBen Ish Ḥai, a collection of the laws of everyday life interspersed with mystical insights and customs, addressed to the masses and arranged by the weekly Torah portion.
Jonathan Saul Freedland is a British journalist who writes a weekly column for The Guardian. He presents BBC Radio 4's contemporary history series The Long View. Freedland also writes thrillers, mainly under the pseudonym Sam Bourne, and has written a play, Jews. In Their Own Words, performed in 2022 at the Royal Court Theatre, London.
In Jewish law and history, Acharonim are the leading rabbis and poskim living from roughly the 16th century to the present, and more specifically since the writing of the Shulchan Aruch in 1563 CE.
Lazarus of Bethany is a figure within the Christian Bible, mentioned in the New Testament in the Gospel of John, whose life is restored by Jesus four days after his death. This is seen by Christians as one of the miracles of Jesus. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Lazarus is venerated as Righteous Lazarus, the Four-Days Dead. The Eastern Orthodox and Catholic traditions offer varying accounts of the later events of his life.
Tony Eprile is a South African writer.
Isaac ben Abba Mari was a Provençal rabbi who hailed from Marseille. He is often simply referred to as "Ba'al ha-Ittur," after his Magnum opus, Ittur Soferim.
Richard Zimler is a best-selling author. His books, which have earned him a 1994 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction and the 1998 Herodotus Award, have been published in many countries and translated into more than 20 languages.
Sefer Toledot Yeshu, often abbreviated as Toledot Yeshu, is a medieval text which presents an alternative, anti-sectarian view, as well as a disputed biography of Jesus of Nazareth. It exists in a number of different versions, none of which is considered either canonical or normative within Rabbinic literature, but which appear to have been widely circulated in Europe and the Middle East in the medieval period. A 15th-century Yemenite version of the text was titled Maaseh Yeshu, or the "Episode of Jesus", in which Jesus is described either as being the son of Joseph or the son of Pandera. The account portrays Jesus as an impostor.
Tikkun Chatzot, also spelled Tikkun Chatzos, is a Jewish ritual prayer recited each night after midnight as an expression of mourning and lamentation over the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. It is not universally observed, although it is popular among Sephardi and Hasidic Jews.
Jacob Joseph of Polonne, (1710–1784) or Yaakov Yosef of Pollonye, was a rabbi who was one of the first disciples of the founder of Hasidic Judaism, the Baal Shem Tov.
Sifrei Kodesh, commonly referred to as sefarim, or in its singular form, sefer, are books of Jewish religious literature and are viewed by religious Jews as sacred. These are generally works of Torah literature, i.e. Tanakh and all works that expound on it, including the Mishnah, Midrash, Talmud, and all works of Musar, Hasidism, Kabbalah, or machshavah. Historically, sifrei kodesh were generally written in Hebrew with some in Judeo-Aramaic or Arabic, although in recent years, thousands of titles in other languages, most notably English, were published. An alternative spelling for 'sefarim' is seforim.
The term Bible fiction refers to works of fiction which use characters, settings and events taken from the Bible. The degree of fictionalization in these works varies and, although they are often written by Christians or Jews, this is not always the case.
City of the Sun is a novel by Juliana Maio, published by Greenleaf Book Group in March 2014. The novel, which blends historical fiction with spy fiction and romantic fiction, is set in Cairo, Egypt in 1941 during the North Africa Campaign of World War II. Though a work of fiction, it centers around true historical events and "connects the root of much of today's turmoil in the Middle East with the Axis-Allied struggle for control of the Suez Canal and the early history of the Muslim Brotherhood."