Short and awesome history

Zealot: 

The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth 

 by Reza Aslan

A true historian with a flair for language gives himself a herculean task--dig the life of the man Jesus out of the writings of those who convinced he was the Messiah...and had more on their minds than writing accurate history.  And remember--the notion of recording history--"just the facts, ma'am"--is a fairly modern invention.  Think of The Iliad, The Odyssey, or even the writings of Josephus, that invaluable early historian.  If you truly believe in gods and devils, why wouldn't you put them into your history?

How well he actually did I will have to leave to other scholars to debate, but I think he did a fine job. One of the best books of history I've ever read. A very few times he seemed to get off topic but it was awfully interesting so I didn't mind.  I'll be listening to this again. 

(And next  time, in the proper order.  Somehow a couple of chapters got rearranged on my Ipod and ended up coming AFTER the ending credits.)