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Sons of Light
Millions of visitors to Israel visit the looming and isolated ruins of Masada to contemplate the spirit of the martyrs who died there in 73 A.D. in defense of their beliefs. These "Zealots" are famous for their final moments, but until now the beginning of their story has not been told. In Sons of Light, John Merrill vividly recreates real life characters and historical events to carry the reader back to the Zealots' early years. Drawn from extensive research into the Dead Sea Scrolls, the work of the first-century historian Flavius Josephus, the Bible, and Pseudepigraphic sources, this story follows five generations of Jewish rebels fighting for independence from the mighty Roman Empire.
456 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2004
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November 21, 2018
I have long been interested in the history of Judea during the early Christian era. I saw an advertisement for John Merrill’s "Sons of Light" in "Biblical Archaeological Review". The book was highly praised. I bought the book from Amazon. It is a well-bound hardback with a beautiful illustration on the front cover, but, after reading it, I’m very much disappointed with it.
Merrill’s novel opens in 47 B.C. Hezekiah, the founder of the Zealots, his two daughters and his parents are trapped in a cave high on a steep cliff. They are hiding from Herod the Great and his Roman allies at the base. Faced with capture, Hezekiah slits his daughters’ throats while his father slits his mother’s throat and commits suicide. Hezekiah then stabs himself and jumps to his death. It’s surprising that a novel about the “Sons of Light” should start off with the founder murdering his own family and committing suicide. I soon discovered reading the book that the main topic wasn’t merely a historical novel about the Zealots (the Sons of Light); it goes into considerable detail about the young Yeshua (Jesus), his mother Miriam (Mary), his father Joseph, and his cousin John the Baptist.
Merrill distorts the historical account of these persons considerably. Miriam is raped by the Roman Centurion Julius Panthera, who, therefore, is the father of Yeshua. When Miriam visits her cousin Elizabeth, Elizabeth takes Miriam to visit Elizabeth’s friend, the elderly Joseph, to ask Joseph if he would agree to marry Miriam because Elizabeth did not want to report Miriam’s rape to the Bet Din. Joseph agrees. This fictionalized account of the lives of Mary, Jesus, Joseph, and the Baptist is such a strong thread throughout the novel that I think this fictional account is the main thrust of Merrill’s book. This fictional account is so different from traditional accounts of these people’s lives that I have reservations of how accurate Merrill’s history of the Zealots is
I am familiar with the writings of Josephus, a first-century contemporary of the Zealots. Josephus paints a very critical picture of the Zealots. During the war of A.D. 66-70, Josephus relates that the Zealots, shortly before The Temple was destroyed, fought a brutal three-party civil war within Jerusalem slaughtering their fellow citizens while Vespasian was conquering all the towns surrounding Jerusalem. So vicious was the civil strife, that the warring parties destroyed all the stored food in Jerusalem. By time Titus was ready to lay siege to Jerusalem, the people were starving and doomed to defeat.
After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, the remaining Zealots at Masada committed mass suicide. From beginning to end, the Zealots look to me like an unruly group. Judea survived the conquest by Titus in A.D. 70. Sixty-one years later, their descendants rebelled again; this time led by Bar Kochba, a man with extraordinary charisma. He organized all the people from Judea, Galilee, and Perea into a unified force with a 400,000-man army. They defeated three Roman armies and liberated all of Palestine. Bar Kochba set up the First Jewish Commonwealth. The present Israeli government, incidentally, is the Second Jewish Commonwealth.
The statement I most disagree with in Merrill’s book is “The Redeemer will be more than a king. . . The Messiah will be a mighty warrior!” God forbid that we all have to spend eternity ruled by a warrior king with all the military might and police required by a warrior. My idea of heaven is that everybody obeys God voluntarily and completely because they all respect God and love God. There is no need for a warrior, for armies, police, jails, etc. There is no conflict in heaven, no difference of opinion about the real world because everyone knows the truth.
I’m harsh on this book because it disappointed me very much.
Merrill’s novel opens in 47 B.C. Hezekiah, the founder of the Zealots, his two daughters and his parents are trapped in a cave high on a steep cliff. They are hiding from Herod the Great and his Roman allies at the base. Faced with capture, Hezekiah slits his daughters’ throats while his father slits his mother’s throat and commits suicide. Hezekiah then stabs himself and jumps to his death. It’s surprising that a novel about the “Sons of Light” should start off with the founder murdering his own family and committing suicide. I soon discovered reading the book that the main topic wasn’t merely a historical novel about the Zealots (the Sons of Light); it goes into considerable detail about the young Yeshua (Jesus), his mother Miriam (Mary), his father Joseph, and his cousin John the Baptist.
Merrill distorts the historical account of these persons considerably. Miriam is raped by the Roman Centurion Julius Panthera, who, therefore, is the father of Yeshua. When Miriam visits her cousin Elizabeth, Elizabeth takes Miriam to visit Elizabeth’s friend, the elderly Joseph, to ask Joseph if he would agree to marry Miriam because Elizabeth did not want to report Miriam’s rape to the Bet Din. Joseph agrees. This fictionalized account of the lives of Mary, Jesus, Joseph, and the Baptist is such a strong thread throughout the novel that I think this fictional account is the main thrust of Merrill’s book. This fictional account is so different from traditional accounts of these people’s lives that I have reservations of how accurate Merrill’s history of the Zealots is
I am familiar with the writings of Josephus, a first-century contemporary of the Zealots. Josephus paints a very critical picture of the Zealots. During the war of A.D. 66-70, Josephus relates that the Zealots, shortly before The Temple was destroyed, fought a brutal three-party civil war within Jerusalem slaughtering their fellow citizens while Vespasian was conquering all the towns surrounding Jerusalem. So vicious was the civil strife, that the warring parties destroyed all the stored food in Jerusalem. By time Titus was ready to lay siege to Jerusalem, the people were starving and doomed to defeat.
After the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, the remaining Zealots at Masada committed mass suicide. From beginning to end, the Zealots look to me like an unruly group. Judea survived the conquest by Titus in A.D. 70. Sixty-one years later, their descendants rebelled again; this time led by Bar Kochba, a man with extraordinary charisma. He organized all the people from Judea, Galilee, and Perea into a unified force with a 400,000-man army. They defeated three Roman armies and liberated all of Palestine. Bar Kochba set up the First Jewish Commonwealth. The present Israeli government, incidentally, is the Second Jewish Commonwealth.
The statement I most disagree with in Merrill’s book is “The Redeemer will be more than a king. . . The Messiah will be a mighty warrior!” God forbid that we all have to spend eternity ruled by a warrior king with all the military might and police required by a warrior. My idea of heaven is that everybody obeys God voluntarily and completely because they all respect God and love God. There is no need for a warrior, for armies, police, jails, etc. There is no conflict in heaven, no difference of opinion about the real world because everyone knows the truth.
I’m harsh on this book because it disappointed me very much.
Displaying 1 of 1 review