48 pages • 1 hour read
Gerd TheissenThe Shadow of the Galilean
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1986A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Foreword-Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Foreword Summary: “In Place of a Foreword: Letter to a Colleague”
Content Warning: This section includes discussion of antisemitism.
The author, Gerd Theissen, thanks a colleague, Dr. Kratzinger, for a letter. Dr. Kratzinger has heard that Theissen wants to publish a book about Jesus’s life and has urged him to reconsider. A fictionalized life of Jesus might endanger not only Theissen’s scholarly reputation but that of the whole field of New Testament interpretation. Theissen appreciates Dr. Kratzinger’s concerns but does not share them. He explains that he is not making definitive claims about Jesus’s life; he is using the narrative form to reconstruct a plausible sequence of events leading up to Jesus’s death, taking the political and religious landscape of first century Palestine into account. He has chosen to use a narrative form because he feels it is more accessible for readers who would not read a nonfiction account.
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Interrogation”
Andreas, a wealthy Jewish grain merchant, is in prison in Jerusalem. He was arrested during an anti-Roman protest, though he was not a participant and was merely trying to find his friend, Barabbas. One of Andreas’s enslaved workers, Timon, was also arrested. Andreas is questioned in Greek: Like other educated Jewish Palestinians, he is fluent in this language. The protest was against Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judaea. Pilate wants to use temple funds to build an aqueduct, which many Jewish people in the region see as a violation of their religious rights. Andreas is originally from Sepphoris, a small village in Galilee. His interrogators are suspicious: There was a rebellion in Sepphoris some years ago. Andreas clarifies that the rebellion happened before he was born; his parents had not even arrived in the area yet. He swears that he is loyal to Herod Antipas, the region’s king, even though Antipas is quite unpopular. Andreas is still under some suspicion because Timon has admitted that there is a statue in his home—a form of idolatry under Jewish law.
In a letter, Theissen assures Dr. Kratzinger that he will start talking about Jesus soon, once he has set up the political landscape. He asks if he can send Kratzinger the second chapter.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Blackmail”
Stuck in a dark cell for many days, Andreas prays that God will see him safely released. After three weeks, he is brought to see Pontius Pilate, who interrogates him. He asks about the year that Andreas spent wandering the desert in search of spiritual enlightenment under the mentorship of a man named Bannus. Pilate wonders if Andreas was in contact with any rebellious Jewish factions. Andreas knows that he has done no wrong and that he will be acquitted, but Pilate informs him that in order to face trial he will have to go to Rome and that the process will take two years. Instead, Pilate offers to release Andreas if he agrees to inform on anti-Roman sentiment among the Jewish people of Palestine. Andreas is furious: Pilate wants him to betray his own people. Pilate explains himself further. He has trouble understanding his Jewish subjects, as they seem to get angry with him even when he thinks he is obeying their religious laws. He did not expect anyone to get angry about his decision to use temple funds for the aqueduct. Andreas could help him understand Jewish politics better, as some of it seems contradictory to him. Andreas has a day to think over Pilate’s offer. He prays for guidance.
Theissen admits that he has made some historical alterations in his narrative. For instance, Andreas says that in his time in the wilderness, he encountered a man named Bannus, who actually lived some decades later according to historical sources. Theissen has brought Bannus into this narrative, he tells Dr. Kratzinger, because he wants to compare him to John the Baptist.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Andreas’ Decision”
Andreas agonizes over his decision, as he does not want to help Pilate. He knows that if he refuses, both he and Timon will likely suffer greatly. He considers accepting Pilate’s offer and then running into the wilderness, but he suspects he would soon be found. He originally went into the desert to learn more about Judaism, as his family has never been especially pious. He learned a lot about Bannus’ ideas for the renewal of the world and the mysterious, potentially imminent arrival of the kingdom of God. During that time, Andreas met Barabbas, who ultimately became a militant Zealot. Andreas then considers accepting Pilate’s offer but providing him with false or downplayed information. He thinks this morally justifiable, as there are religious stories of people using deceit for good. He falls asleep and has a dream of Pilate as a frightening beast. A man arrives and takes over the beast’s position of power in a more benevolent way; the beast is killed. Andreas awakes with the certainty that corrupt empires will fall when a mysterious man arrives. He agrees to Pilate’s offer on the condition that Timon is released.
Theissen justifies his use of first-person narration; Dr. Kratzinger would prefer that he use third person. Theissen wants to communicate the unique historical perspective of someone who does not necessarily have all the relevant information: Andreas’s incomplete information reflects the state of New Testament scholarship in Theissen’s own era.
Chapter 4 Summary: “The Commission”
Andreas is released from prison, though Timon is not. Initially, Andreas is delighted to be free, but he soon realizes that he has put himself in a very challenging position, as he must now spy on his people while simultaneously lying to the Roman government. He meets with Metilius, the officer he must report to. Metilius gives him his first assignment: He must go into the desert to find a remote Jewish community called the Essenes. They are highly secretive—Andreas is not at all confident they will speak to him—but Metilius wants to know their politics. They support Antipas, but he is uncertain whether they pose a threat to Rome. Metilius notes that “relations between Pilate and Herod Antipas… are less than good” (31). He also asks Andreas to learn more about a certain itinerant prophet in the area, and Andreas is initially afraid that he is talking about Bannus. In fact, Metilius wants to know about John the Baptist. Antipas has imprisoned John the Baptist, who has been very critical of Antipas for breaking Jewish marriage laws. Metilius and Andreas have a brief debate about Jewish customs: They seem needlessly insular and misanthropic to Metilius, but Andreas disagrees and points out that the Romans exert intense control over their Jewish subjects. Andreas insists that Timon be released from prison immediately, and Metilius agrees.
Theissen responds to Kratzinger’s assertion that he is focusing too much on religious and political debates about Judaism instead of on Jesus. Understanding Jewish thought is essential for understanding how Jesus’s message became popular. After all, Christian monotheism grew directly out of Jewish monotheism. Theissen also acknowledges that some of his contemporary perspective is informed by the relatively recent horrors of the Holocaust.
Foreword-Chapter 4 Analysis
The itinerant philosopher Bannus, whom Andreas meets in the desert, is based on a real historical figure, though Theissen admits in one of his letters to the fictional Dr. Kratzinger that he has shifted the date of Bannus’s birth forward by several decades to bring him into the fictional narrative. The historical Bannus—sometimes spelled Banus or Banos—is mentioned by the historian Josephus. Josephus is a major source for Theissen’s work, being one of the only historians to talk about Jesus and the political situation in first-century Palestine fairly close to Jesus’s lifetime. Josephus lived from around 37 to 100 CE, and he spent time learning from Bannus when he was around 19 years old. Depending on Bannus’s age, he might already have been a philosopher in Jesus’s time, as some sources suggest that Bannus was a disciple of John the Baptist. Theissen’s decision to alter the timeline of Bannus’s life illustrates the utility of fiction as a mode of historiography. Theissen wants—as he tells Dr. Kratzinger—to compare Bannus with John the Baptist. Fiction allows him to place these figures alongside one another as he could not do in a straightforward history.
Andreas comes under suspicion when one of his enslaved servants, Timon, admits that there is a statue in Andreas’s home. Under a strict interpretation of Jewish law, the presence of the statue is considered a form of idolatry—a serious sin in that it tempts people to worship an image or symbol rather than the pure being of God, which is beyond symbolism or representation. Andreas’s ownership of the statue serves as a reminder that that even in ancient times, there were multiple, competing interpretations of scripture. In this era, there were three major Jewish sects in Palestine: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. The Zealots, a militant movement, were sometimes considered a fourth sect. The statue also serves to characterize Andreas as someone who maintains a degree of flexibility in his personal religious adherence. Throughout the novel, Andreas seeks accommodation between his Jewish identity and the imperial culture of Rome.
King Herod Antipas is an important figure in this story, though he does not appear as a character. He was the king of Galilee and Perea from 4 BCE to 39 CE. He is not to be confused with his father, King Herod the Great, who ruled Judaea from approximately 37 to 4 BCE. It was Herod the Great who is mentioned in the gospel stories of Jesus’s birth; Herod Antipas was king when Jesus died. For clarity, this guide refers to Herod Antipas as “Antipas,” although Theissen’s narrative typically calls him “Herod.”
The Shadow of the Galilean is primarily a story about Political and Religious Upheaval. It is set during a time when the Roman Empire had control of Palestine. The Roman occupation started in 63 BCE and continued in various forms until the sixth century CE. The Romans had a polytheistic religion, while the Jewish people were (and still are) strict monotheists. This theological difference creates significant tension between Jewish Palestinians and Roman authorities in the novel. As the Roman territorial governor Pontius Pilate negotiates with the captive Andreas, he complains for example that the Romans have been barred from making offerings in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem: Normally, the Roman authorities make a show of participating in the religious ceremonies of subject peoples, but the strict monotheism of the Jews makes their religious observance incompatible with that of the Romans.
In the first century CE, several Jewish sects were involved in debate about how the religion should be structured and whether anything should change. According to Jewish prophecies, a Messiah will one day arrive and usher in an era of peace. In the first century CE, some Jewish sects believed that the Messiah’s arrival was imminent. Some people took Jesus to be the Messiah and became Christians, while most others did not believe that he fulfilled messianic prophecies and remained Jewish.
Theissen deliberately brings Historiography and the Ethics of Narrative to his work through his letters with Dr. Kratzinger. Kratzinger’s implied letters often represent the state of Jesus scholarship in the modern day. Many scholars, both religious and secular, study Jesus as a historical figure to try to determine what, if anything, can be known about him. This book was published just one year after the Jesus Seminar, a major conference featuring roughly 50 scholars who debated claims about Jesus as a historical figure. Theissen is clearly aware of the arguments made in that seminar, and he notes that his work is not intended to be a perfect historical reconstruction. It is necessarily informed by some modern biases, and the letters to Dr. Kratzinger emphasize this distance from historical events.
Theissen constructs a story of Morality and Culpability that starts with a wrongful arrest and an abuse of power. Andreas’s experience has some parallels to Jesus’s later imprisonment and execution, making it clear the extent of the power that Rome held over the people of Palestine during this time. Andreas’s decision to inform on his own people also creates thematic connections to Judas Iscariot, the disciple who ultimately betrayed Jesus according to the gospels. Theissen attempts to tackle a very complex historical and political moment while being open about his own Christianity and about his desire to avoid falling into antisemitic stereotypes, an endeavor in which he is not always wholly successful.
