Iscariot- Tosca Lee

Finally! I had time in my week to finish this. Now, for the review.

My Rating: 4 Stars

Description: In Jesus, Judas believes he has found the One—a miracle-worker. The promised Messiah and future king of the Jews, destined to overthrow Roman rule. Galvanized, Judas joins the Nazarene’s followers, ready to enact the change he has waited for all his life.

But Judas’ vision of a nation free from Roman rule is crushed by the inexplicable actions of the Nazarene himself, who will not bow to social or religious convention—who seems in the end to even turn against his own people. At last, Judas must confront the fact that the master he loves is not the liberator he hoped for, but a man bent on a drastically different agenda.

Iscariot is the story of Judas—from his tumultuous childhood and tenuous entry into a career and family life as a devout Jew, to a man known to the world as the betrayer of Jesus. But even more, it is a singular and surprising view into the life of Jesus himself that forces us all to reexamine everything we thought we knew about the most famous—and infamous—religious icons in history.

My Thoughts:  From cultural stand point, this book was amazing. Lee put a lot research and study into her story. I felt like I could actually see Israel, the Mikva, and Jesus' prayer covering. I felt the social and political tensions as well. No other novel I have read set in the time period has made everything come to life so well from the standpoint of someone actually living then instead of now.

As to her topic, I applaud Lee on her courage. Few would dare to take a hated villain of history and show him as what he truly was, human. I have always believed that there was more to Iscariot's story than simply that he betrayed Jesus and I am glad to finally have read one possibility.

The only issue I had was that some of the events were changed. Either they happened to someone else or in a different place. This threw me off as knew how the stories were supposed to go. However, I understand that Lee needed to condense the story in order to, as she says in her author's note, get to the heart of the story.

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