“Killing Jesus” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard – Jesus the Regular Person

It can be argued that in the grand scheme of things, today there are two different “sides” to Jesus. The first one is the religious Jesus, the pale-skinned white man who came down on Earth to share the teachings of his father, the one who died on the cross and got resurrected three days later.

The other one is the real Jesus, a very average Middle-Eastern man who became a cult leader before being brutally assassinated by the Romans.

The existence of the former comes from biblical texts, while the existence of the latter has been proven in countless historical writings. Killing Jesus by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard is a look into the historical Jesus, detailing his life (or at least, what is known about it) and putting into context his death which, at a certain point, became inevitable.

Though it is true that most books which discuss a religious figure are rather hard to judge for they discuss faith and beliefs, this is not the case seeing as how for a majority of the time, O’Reilly and Dugard manage to tread the fine line between religion and history.

For the most part (at least until the very end), the authors focus on the human aspects of Jesus, trying to steer clear of religion as much as possible.

However, the truth is that with there being so much time separating us from these events, the amount of actual evidence we have is staggeringly-small, or at least insufficient to provide a complete picture, which is where the authors turn to religion.

In other words, though most of the book is history, there are some blanks which are filled in with modern beliefs of the Church.

Nevertheless, I found Killing Jesus to be a nice addition to the series and rather informative when it comes to its substance. We are not only given information pertaining to Jesus’ daily activities and his intentions… rather, we are also given loads and loads of historical context and information about the great wars and political events which occurred at the time.

It seems that in the end, the authors are interested in explaining Jesus’ execution; why it happened, how it happened, and whether or not it was actually avoidable.

If you describe yourself as a religious person, then don’t shy away from this book, even if you do not agree with the views presented in it. With an open mind you can use the information here to build on and add to your pre-existing beliefs.

If you aren’t a religious person in the slightest, then Killing Jesus would be best described as a historical book written in an entertaining fashion that will teach you loads about Jesus, the human being.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in the roots of Christianity or the story of Jesus himself.

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	Bill O’Reilly Personal site Bill O’Reilly is a famous American television show host, columnist, political commentator, and author. He is the host of his own show, The O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, and has penned more than ten books, including the Killing [Assassinated President] series.
	Martin Dugard  Personal site Martin Dugard was born in Maine, and is American author living his days away in the beautiful state of California. Many of his books are in-depth explorations of real concepts or events that occurred, not to mention he is the co-writer of the Killing [Insert Name Here] series.