The Last Temptation (Paperback)

It was Scorsese's controversial adaptation of this novel that made me want to read this- the film correctly stating that it wasn't related to any of the gospels. Kazantzakis, as his introduction & the translator's note at the end points out- he was a deeply spiritual man- a theologian whose interests included Nietzsche, Dante, Buddhism, Lenin's Communism.

This book writes around the gospels & the biblical source- something that figures in much literature, think of Faulkner's Light in August, Cave's And the Ass Saw the Angel, Selby Jr's Last Exit to Brooklyn, King's The Green Mile & Beckett's More Pricks Than Kicks. People generally don't find a problem with this, but once a novelist, a filmmaker or a playwright grapple with the actual figures presented in the Bible, then problems arise.

The Last Temptation stands alongside such novels as Jim Crace's Quarantine & Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master & Margarita- books that use Christ's life in a manner related to the novelist & the world they lived in. Just like The Bible. To be fair, it does bear some relation to Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885)- particularly in the notion of the wanderer in the wilderness. It also sits next to the play Son of Man (Dennis Potter), the silly recent TV programme Second Coming, & films such as The Gospel According to St Matthew, Jesus of Montreal, The Devils & Dogma.

The Last Temptation is just another way of looking at the world presented in the gospels- The Bible a work that has problems regarding its composition & translation over the years (think of the way Bill Hicks threw a spanner in the works of the creationists with the word "Dinosaurs"). If someone reading this is a devout Christian, I can't see how this would challenge their belief- if it is as 'evil' as protestors suggested or its presence on the Vatican's Index (bizarre that Pasolini's Gospel St Matthew is Vatican-approved, when the Christ presented in that film has elements shared by Pasolini- Marxism, colour of skin, language, the use of Billie Holiday etc. This book does not differ to that). Personally I'm a non-believer, pin me down to vagueness & apathy, but this book does have a universal feeling to it- a spiritual work not tied down to papal certainties (if such a thing exists!).

Kazantzakis' novel is a work of immense depth, the notion of the Last Temptation itself not an incitement to desecrate the body of Christ- but to show the sacrifice made: how one life was chosen over another. Christ is rendered human, so he can become the symbol. I think this is one of the great books of the 20th Century, whatever religious persuasion you are, I think this has a lot to offer & for me remains one of the most potent treatises on spirituality & the meaning of religion I have read...

In this beautifully written novel, Jesus of Nazareth is first presented as a young carpenter who makes crosses to facilitate the Romans' crucifixion of troublesome Zealots, though he is much hindered in this activity by the figure of Judas Iscariot, himself a Zealot, who attempts to deflect his efforts by ruining his handiwork. After one such crucifixion, Jesus departs for a monastery in the desert, but just prior to this is a an episode in which he visits his old childhood sweetheart, Mary Magdalene, who has turned to prostitution because the God-possessed Jesus has been unable to take her as his wife.
Judas seeks out Jesus, intending to kill him, but when Jesus announces his intention to take a message to the people and shows no fear of death, Judas relents and decides to accompany him, hoping that his as yet vaguely defined mission will develop into a full-scale rebellion against Rome. Jesus' earliest preaching comes after he has rescued Mary Magdalene from a stoning, and is heavily influenced by a philosophy of love for all. He swiftly gains some rather fallible followers.
Judas encourages him to visit John the Baptist who daily proclaims the end of the world and the imminent arrival of the Messiah, believing that John will recognise Jesus for what he is. John's response is ambivalent, but on the whole, he is impressed by Jesus' Messianic credentials and counsels him to seek enlightenment in the desert. Drawing a circle in the sand there, Jesus refuses to emerge from it until he hears God's voice. He is visited by various temptations in different forms, but returns to his disciples with a more savage message: that of the axe. On his return journey, he enjoys the hospitality of two unmarried sisters, Mary and Martha, who later play a major part in the novel's conclusion.
He takes his new philosophy to Jerusalem where he of course angers the Scribes and Pharisees by his alleged blasphemies and criticisms of the Mosaic Law. He heals the paralysed daughter of the Roman centurion, Rufus, and in the vicinity of Bethany raises Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, from the grave. The corpse-like Lazarus, however, is only partially restored to life and emits a disgusting smell which repels those around him. He is eventually murdered in a particularly gruesome manner by another Zealot, Barabbas. Jesus convinces Judas to betray him and his own crucifixion swiftly follows.
However, on the cross, between his anguished cry of 'ELI, ELI' and its conclusion 'LAMA SABACHTHANI', Jesus is again visited by a dream. His guardian angel, who later takes the form of a Negro boy, rescues him and brings Magdalene as his bride. Before her proposed marriage to Jesus, however, she is murdered by companions of the Apostle Paul in his former incarnation as Saul. Jesus eventually enters the household of Martha and Mary, effectively taking them both as wives. He again works as a carpenter and fathers many children, until one day, he encounters Paul (after his 'Road-to-Damascus' experience) preaching the Risen Christ. A violent quarrel ensues with the result that Paul feels he can now discard a historical Jesus completely, in his own quest to set the world alight with a new and supernatural gospel. Jesus is much disturbed, but returns to his tranquil earthly life.
Old age descends on him and, at the Fall of Jerusalem, he re-encounters his disciples as decrepit old men. Only Judas retains something of his former vigour. Jesus' complacency is finally shattered by Judas' accusation that he has been a 'Coward! Deserter! Traitor!', hiding himself in the life of an ordinary man, when his destiny clearly called for his sacrificial death. The other disciples appear as pitiable weaklings whose lives have been wasted because they invested their faith in Jesus the failed Saviour. Conscience stricken and broken, Jesus briefly experiences their anguish, but soon finds himself back on the Cross, the previous scenes all having been illusions representing his final and most severe temptation. He can now complete his death-cry as one who has been faithful to the bitter end. In a sense, then, in his end is his beginning.
The weakness of this novel, however, lies in its too-radical revision of the original Biblical narrative. Apart from the Temptation in the Wilderness scenes (e.g. Mt. Ch. 4) and the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane (e.g. Lk. 22:44), there is very little in the Gospels to justify Kazantzakis' characterisation of Jesus as a figure even in conflict with himself and his mission, let alone as a tortured or morbid loner whose message to the world only dawns on him slowly and painfully by degrees. Kazantzakis finds it necessary to recreate by violence Jesus' so-called 'hard' parables and to foist on them new endings more in line with his own preconceptions. Many of the miracle stories attached to the authentic life of Jesus are subsumed by Kazantzakis into the dreams of his characters: Mary the mother of Jesus is visited by the 'Magi' in this way, and similarly, Jesus and Peter walk on water only in Peter's mind, and subsequently in Matthew the tax-collector's highly dramatised 'gospel'.
There is a major weakness in the author's characterisation of Judas; at first he is wholly resistant to the message of love and sees the role of the Messiah in very clear, if predictable, political terms. It is therefore to be expected that when Jesus reveals to him that the Saviour is Isaiah's 'Suffering Servant' and must be crucified, Judas would reject this philosophy just as violently. Yet he succumbs to Jesus' will with surprisingly little resistance. Indeed, few of Kazantzakis' characters are convincing as Jews, but come across as barely disguised Greek peasants, shrewd, worldly and cynical. In short, Kazantzakis has turned Jesus and his world into that of a struggling Nietzschean superman, almost wholly of his own making.

Dr. Kenneth D. Farrow
<kfarrow@supanet.com>