The Last Temptation

This book makes Christ and his apostles seem so real, even though we all know the story it is a real eyeopener, whether there is a lot of artistic license or not this book should replace the new testiment. It is fantastic, when christ is about to be crucified, you actually want to cry, you really feel for him and you feel for Judas and understand why he did what he did, he may not be the baddie the church want us to believe! It is an excellent book, I would say all people should read it even non-christians as it gives Christ a true identity and all the apostles come to life with their own personalities. a MUST READ!!!!

I Love this Book It Talks about What If Jesus Never Died on the Cross? In alternate timeperiod, Life what would happen and This Book Explains it. I Recommend this Book. However Warning this Book may Offend People who are Into Strict Religion and Might Find some of the Messages Blasphmeous and specficically Attacks certain Beliefs. If You're one of those readers then I Advice Don't Read the Book. I am Christian and I wanted to Read the Book as way to increase my Knowledge.

In the 1950's Nikos Kazantzakis challenged the Bible and in particular the New Testament in a rather poetic way. He didn't try to re-make the dogma but the Christ's narrative and it's dynamics. It is a very special approach on the New Testament that may apply on both Christian believers and non-believers. In that respect 'The Last Temptation' is a masterpiece or a true work of art.

i had wanted to read this book ever since i heard of the title but i really struggled with the first 300 or so pages. at one point i turned to the end of the book to see how much further i had to go and found the translator's notes. there he explains that this book was originally written in cretan argot greek and that it was impossible to render much of this idiom into english, but apparently he persisted anyway because one of my problems initially was that the translation seemed so clunky. neither of two greek friends who had read the book in greek recognised any significant cretan character in their greek version books so i think a less literal but more flowing english translation would have helped. returning to my own reading it began to dawn on me that kazantzakis was having a joke. all along i was telling myself how such an intelligent and widely travelled (geographically and intellectually) man could believe all the stuff he was writing. then i came to the part where matthew (significantly the only literate follower !) tried to write what he had observed only to be pressured to write that which confirmed the prophecies from the old testament, although he knew them not being fulfilled in the nazarene carpenter. with these two fresh insights i fairly sailed along though it's hard to keep up one's enthusiasm when you think you already know the ending. keep reading, the ending is different although no more probable than the authorised version. no resurrection however. the characterisations of the biblical figures in kazantzakis's version coincided very much with my estimations of them when i read the gospels -jesus rude and uncaring towards his mother, cry-baby peter, sexual ambivalence between jesus and john (but also between jesus and his green guardian angel in kazantzakis's version), the ugly dwarf paul hating women and taking over the original message for his own megalomanic ambitions and reducing the 'love' element to one of obedience to paul's biggoted diktat's, a complete lack of interest by anyone in asking lazurus what he had experienced whilst 'dead' etc. there were some things which seemed non-judeaic; for instance, does judeaism do baptism (also in the authorised version), and do they have monastic orders and monasteries ? somewhat more credible than the authorised version (it could hardly be less so !) but both are clearly works of fiction, none of the writers were witnesses to anything and the evidence for any of it is zonk. all in all a very interesting book, just try to find a more readable translation. that's why only four stars.

I'm halfway through.... I can't wait to finish! Great read, and emotional, but in my opinion, only for strong faith born again Christians 🙂 Love it! 🙏❣️

Over a decade after my original reading, this remains one of the most powerful books I have ever read. That Kazantzakis is a genius is an opinion shared by many, and I certainly agree. It is accessible and well paced - a page turner. Another of his books, Zorba the Greek, is also recommended.

clever use of knowlege of paulism and nostisum

'Blacklisted by the Vatican...' is all you need to hear about this book to know it should be read. No one else will ever be able to write a book this good.