Book Review - The Shadow of the Galilean (Part I)

I am not a novel enthusiast. In my entire life, I read no more than ten novels. But this one, The Shadow of the Galilean, attracted me first because of the title. It is a novel that constructs its plot based on a familiar biblical account. I was curious to find out how the author, a German theologian, uses his imagination and biblical knowledge to makeup his story. The second reason I read the book was because I need to do a review as one of my course assignments.

Let me post it here to give you a summary of what it is. I truly enjoy reading this book; a rare experience out of my many book review assignments.

The narrative story of the book is told by Andreas from Sepphoris, a city in Galilee. Andreas is a grain merchant whose family has business dealings with Herold Antipas. The story began with a riot in Jerusalem as a result of Pontius Pilate’s intention of making use of the Jewish temple treasury for the construction of the aqueduct. Andreas, anxious to greet an old friend Barabbas among the demonstration crowd, was falsely arrested by the Roman authority. He was taken to prison with one of his two slaves. Because of his good education and competency in Greek and as a rich young merchant who travels round the land of the Palestine at that time, Pilate blackmails Andreas to work as a spy under the supervision of his officer Metilius. First he was asked to collect and gather information about the Essenes who live in the wilderness.

Pilate’s government was anxious to know the secret of the Essene community. They were afraid the community might have other hidden agenda, and living in the wilderness perhaps might just be one way of hiding a secret crime. Pilate worried that the Essenes might favor Antipas should there be any kind of further tension and conflicts developed between the two rivals.

Seeing that he really has no other options, Andreas accepts the task and ventures immediately into the journey as he was conducting business along the regions of Galilee and Judaea. He began to collect information from his targeted group of people. First he met a rejected Essene by the name Baruch, who was excommunicated from the community after he had uncovered the community’s secret of hidden treasure, which probably never existed. Andreas saved Baruch in the wilderness, and accepted him into the family as a hired assistance in his trade. He gained substantial amount of valuable information to satisfy the Romans authority about the belief and objective of Essenes who chose to live in the dessert through Baruch.

Essenes are a group of cult believers who disagree with the temple worship and most of its festivals celebrated. They find themselves more peaceful and can better observe God’s commandments in the wilderness than participating in the Jerusalem temple’s worship. They hold to the belief that God in his right time will liberate them from the oppression.