Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Killing Jesus: A History
    Killing Jesus: A History
    Killing Jesus: A History
    Audiobook6 hours

    Killing Jesus: A History

    Written by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

    Narrated by Bill O'Reilly

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Millions of readers have thrilled to bestselling authors Bill O'Reilly and historian Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, page-turning works of nonfiction that have changed the way we read history.

    The basis for the 2015 television film available on streaming.

    Now the iconic anchor of The O'Reilly Factor details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Nearly two thousand years after this beloved and controversial young revolutionary was brutally killed by Roman soldiers, more than 2.2 billion human beings attempt to follow his teachings and believe he is God. Killing Jesus will take readers inside Jesus's life, recounting the seismic political and historical events that made his death inevitable - and changed the world forever.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateSep 24, 2013
    ISBN9781427233332
    Killing Jesus: A History
    Author

    Bill O'Reilly

    Bill O'Reilly is the anchor of The O'Reilly Factor, the highest-rated news show in America. He also writes a syndicated newspaper column and is the author of several number-one bestselling books including Killing Kennedy and Killing Reagan. He is, perhaps, the most talked about political commentator in America.

    More audiobooks from Bill O'reilly

    Related to Killing Jesus

    Related audiobooks

    Ancient History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Classical Corner

      Nov 30, 2023

      Classical Corner
      4 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 1, 2022

      Thomas More, in a c1527 portrait. His book Utopia has sound advice for politicians, says reader Jeremy Rhodes After reading Lauren Johnson’s article on Henry V and Henry VI (September), I will have to agree to disagree with the claim that Henry VI’s

      3 min read

    • Article

      Memoirs Of A Microaggressor

      Nov 26, 2020

      TO UNDERSTAND OUr current moment, start with public apologies. Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, surely thought he was on safe ground when he came out in favour of delaying a Philip Guston exhibition because it included depictions of t

      5 min read

    • Article

      Postcards From Before The War

      Jan 25, 2024

      YOU HAVE TO FEEL SORRY FOR BOOKS that pass their shelf life before they’ve even been published. “Due out on 8 December”, quipped Private Eye last year of Harry Cole and James Heale’s book about Liz Truss’s “astonishing rise to power” … “the book, tha

      5 min read

    • Article

      Biography & memoir

      Jun 29, 2022

      Biography & memoir
      13 min read

    • Article

      A Village in the Third Reich

      May 4, 2022

      Elliott & Thompson £25 Take a small English country town – Sherborne, say, or Kendal – picture-postcard cute and surrounded by beautiful landscape. Then imagine it after a defeat in war, a sixth of its men dead, chaos in the capital, hyper-inflation

      3 min read

    • Article

      New Stories From A Very Old City

      Apr 28, 2022

      Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City Matthew Teller (Profile Books, £16.99) CLOSE TO THE SECOND STATION of the Cross, a juice-seller’s business is booming from passing tourists. The owner is 41 and had escaped Jerusalem to go t

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Sins Of The Father

      Apr 16, 2020

      Four years ago, the BBC aired a deeply disturbing documentary called My Nazi  Legacy. It followed the journey of Horst Wächter, the son of notorious Nazi leader Otto Wächter, as he visited the places in eastern Europe where his father had presided ov

      4 min read

    • Article

      Spare Us The Wagging Finger

      Oct 26, 2023

      THE SOCIAL HISTORIAN Dominic Sandbrook could recently be found in the Culture section of the Sunday Times reviewing a book called Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain by Charlotte Lydia Riley. Sandbrook, who knows his onions, didn’t

      3 min read

    • Article

      Arm’s-length Relationship

      Oct 23, 2023

      When members of Hamas entered Israeli territory and massacred more than 1000 people – many in the most horrific manner – it bore striking similarities to the pogroms that were inflicted on Jews for centuries in Europe. Of course, Europe lost most of

      2 min read

    • Article

      Explaining the Donald

      May 19, 2022

      The Magical and Occult Roots of Political Power John Michael Greer Inner Traditions 2021 Pb, 201pp, £12.99, ISBN 9781644112588 Donald Trump may be the ultimate anomalous phenomenon – at least for our age. How did an elderly American real estate and e

      8 min read

    • Article

      International Books

      Jan 13, 2020

      Imagining the world in the first century AD (not yet called that), it’s difficult to envision Christianity (not yet called that) when it was considered a “blasphemous cult”. It’s 35AD in Jerusalem and Saul, a Jew, is hunting down Christians for execu

      5 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Dec 9, 2022

      By Selina Hastings The novelist Sybille Bedford is the patron saint of writers who hate writing. She described the actual act as “tearing, crushing, defeating agony” and filled her journal for 1949 with despairing accounts of “Thinking – Dawdling – D

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Invisible Romans

      Apr 11, 2024

      The Invisible Romans
      7 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Apr 10, 2023

      by Sian Norris (Verso, ISBN 9781839764738) versobooks.com You’d be forgiven for thinking that today’s attack on abortion rights is rooted in theological beliefs about when human life begins. Sian Norris, in this timely and chillingly relevant investi

      4 min read

    • Article

      Gangs of New York

      Feb 23, 2023

      Gangs of New York
      8 min read

    • Article

      Tuesdays With Mitch: Ghosts Of Past, Present And Future Issue Ominous Warnings For Jews

      Dec 29, 2022

      Every Sunday at noon, when many are eating brunch or getting ready for a football game, a room full of chairs awaits in the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan. Maybe a few dozen people show up, sometimes more, sometimes less. The

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Killing Jesus

    4/5

    370 ratings46 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This book did not disappoint me. I learned so much about the life and times of Jesus and the history of that era. I can't wait to start the next one!
    • 5/5
      What a great book. It’s a must read!!! I love all of Bill “killing series”.
    • 5/5
      Great and informative book. I would recommend for the history alone.
    • 5/5
      Absolutely magnificent. Such detail and appreciation for the political and religious dynamics of the day yet Christ, knowing what would happen, accepted the Father’s will. Very well done.
    • 5/5
      Amazing book, One of the best books I’ve listen to. Definitely became a fan of the authors. I will be reading all the books.
    • 5/5
      What a great book! I learned more about the real Jesus in this book. I can’t wait to read more in this series.
    • 5/5
      Unforgettable. A closely accurate account from birth to death on the cross! Highly recommend!
    • 5/5
      A historical, rather than religious look at Jesus' life and the events that lead up to the crucifixion I found this book really intriguing as how the Roman government controlled the Jewish people at the time and the plot that lead to Christ's death. Very well written.
    • 5/5
      Great historical background. I enjoyed the flow and pace of the book
    • 5/5
      Very good and very informative to read and to listen
    • 3/5
      The book delivers what it says. It is the story of why, how, and by whom Jesus was killed. There is good detail of those involved along with their histories and their relationship to one another. I didn't give a higher rating only because I did not think it was especially well written, not such that I could say "I really liked it." The book states that Mary of Magdala had been a prostitute and I'm pretty sure that is a view that has been pretty well been show to be false. I found it irritating that it was not at least given as a possibility rather than just fact. To me it shows a lack of research on that point. I assume better research on the material on the other characters was done. I do highly recommend it for those interested in this history. I got a lot out of it.
    • 2/5
      Originally published in 2013.I just didn't enjoy this book like so many other people seemed to. I found it dry. It doesn't mean I don't love Jesus, cause I do!
    • 4/5
      I chose this as an audiobook. I have read a number of O'Reilly's killing series and all have been well done. No exception here. It is a detailed and straightforward narrative of the Jesus story that has held sway for millennia now. Believers, nonbelievers and everyone in between can I suppose draw something from the content. And a story it is. How much truth you derive from it correlates to how much faith you have in Christianity as a religion. O'Reilly gives no opinion or take on the truth of content but simply relates the story. Now where that story comes from and how it was influenced one way or other over the years is a whole topic for another book. In any event as we await the return. It could come tomorrow or in the year 8,537. But that is also part of the story and the suspense of it all. Stay tuned.
    • 3/5
      As Xmas approaches This was sort of like reading abt the 'reason for the season' - I listened to the audiobook - that was hard going bcs I'm not an OReilly fan - just the sound of his voice made me suspicious and irritable - if you aren't either this is probably not the audiobook for you
    • 4/5
      Killing Jesus is not a religious book. It is also not a history book. It is a work of historical fiction, blending legend, fact and creative liberty to tell the tale of Jesus as Christians believe it.Because of the engrossing narrative style of storytelling, it is often not evident where the facts end and the legends begin, but I accept that as a necessary evil of a work like this. If you are reading this book to reinforce your dogma or improve your raw historical knowledge, you will be let down. If you are reading this book for an entertaining story based on the life of one of the most important figures in history, one that makes you feel, think, wonder and mourn the way you might for a beloved character in a work of pure fiction, you are not likely to be disappointed. Killing Jesus is an engaging tale of how things might have happened, and you are right there with Jesus as a relatable figure watching the tale unfolds.
    • 5/5
      I was apprehensive about reading this book, but since I had read another of O'Reilly's books, I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did. What I took from this book is a lesson in history, of what the time was like when Jesus lived. Knowing the background of the region, the history of clashes between different peoples and members of society, helped me better to appreciate what Jesus accomplished. Surprisingly, this was not a particularly religious book. The authors do state that they are Christians, but they are very objective in sharing this historical era. Readers are left to decide on their own what they believe about the extraordinary life of Jesus.
    • 4/5
      KILLING JESUS: A HISTORY BY BILL O'REILLY. Fact, fiction or a little of both? Mr O'Reilly admits at the very beginning of this book that researching Jesus Christ proved to be very difficult. No YouTube videos no photo's no Twitter feeds so he took the biblical teachings and the research and the books of others (well documented in the back of the book) and tried to give the reader what it could have been like back when Jesus walked the roads. I cant say whether this is true or false cause hey folks this is really AGO! As to the quality of the book, like his other books in the series he has taken a historical figure and literally brought him to life in the pages. I found this a very fast read and very engrossing and yes very violent book but well worth the time to read in my opinion.
    • 2/5
      This is a very fast read...if you don't stop to check on the countless elements the authors present as "facts". I got tired researching during the first third, and as it was still a familiar story, I stopped trying for the rest of the book. They get two stars for writing an engaging, imaginative work of supposition, peppered with some actually historical information. They would get one star for sloppy off-handed non-scholarship, but I gave them the extra one for the effort. Disclaimer: I consider Bill O'Reilly to be a pretty smart television personality who has built a popular persona in which he says what he wants to get ratings, bullies his guests and yells louder when they prove him wrong. He's a hack. I have no opinion on Martin Dugard.

      In the "A Note to Readers", O'Reilly says "[i]n the writing of this fact-based book..." It takes very little research to call out 15 or 20 questionable "facts" just from the first few pages...there are several even before getting into the book. Example: O'Reilly says "[b]y the way, both Lincoln and Kennedy believed Jesus was God." Lincoln's colleague, friend, bodyguard and biographer Colonel Ward Lamon says he did not believe in the divinity of Jesus. Other accounts differ but that the opposing evidence is neither refuted nor even presented, well, the cherry-picking indicates the standard to which the authors did their research. Standard apologist work: start with a premise, argue for its truth, ignore the clearly contradictory, dismiss dissent.

      Their persistent reference to and descriptions of Nazareth are not qualified with respect to there being no scholarly agreement on anything related to Nazareth, or even the references within the Bible. Instead of using qualifiers such as "some agree that", or "most sources indicate that", the entire book is written as "fact". This tells me that the authors started with popular legend and then found corroborating materials...anything close...and disregarded the rest.

      In the Afterword, the authors deceptively state "Roman writers of the period referenced his name..." Actually, there are no references in any writings "of the period"...even the Gospels finally voted into the canon 400 years later were not likely written until long after "the period". Pliny the Younger, writing nearly 100 years later, talks about a "Christus", and yet O'Reilly and Dugard claim that as a mention of Jesus.

      To be fair, hidden way in the back of the book in that Afterword, the authors finally admit that some of their story is "consigned to legend." Odd that the authors state with such certainty that John the apostle was 94 when he died, having written both the gospel of his name AND the book of Revelation. Modern scholars not only do not feel that the apostle John wrote anything (or that anything at all is certain about him), but that Revelation was written by a completely different author. It is this kind of sloppy reference that screams out to anyone with more than a Sunday school knowledge of the subject.

      Now, in the postscript, O'Reilly says they had "to separate fact from myth based upon a variety of sources." There are no primary sources, no secondary sources - even the references in Josephus have been discredited as later editing/insertions. There is only legend and true scholarship would sift the stories for convergence and divergence and attempt to determine when the legends arose, how they spread and how they grew over time. Of course, that would involve access to sources in languages unknown to the authors, and unavailable to the public, but that doesn't seem to have fazed them. O'Reilly makes a living spouting whatever he wants without seeming to care if anyone believes it or questions it. Given his long career, there are numerous instances where he contradicts himself when convenient (whether deliberate or not), regardless of what he said in the past. I expected better from a book on this subject. Silly me.


    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book. Bill O'Reilly made the life of Jesus much more understandable. It didn't go into the religious teachings of Jesus, but rather His every day life as a Jewish man. Some of it is based off Biblical passages, and some are based off historical detail of what a Jewish man in that time did. Maybe I am a bit biased being a Christian, but I believe those who want to learn about the Jesus of the Bible would enjoy this book as well.
    • 3/5
      Probably historically accurate but large chunks of accounts of Jesus and the things he did according to the Biblical record are left out.

      The book begins with the birth of Jesus, but then segues into a history of Rome. The connection of the history of Roman rule and how it influenced the world Jesus grew up in was not apparent at first, leaving me to wonder why so much time was spent on Rome Though, granted, there are not many accounts of Jesus's life as a young boy. That said, I did learn a lot about Roman history and customs and how they influenced the culture of the time.

      I would have liked a bit more explanation of the Passover and the Seder and how and why the Jews prepared what foods they did for the Seder and what the symbolisms of those traditions and foods is. For all the history of Rome given, it seemed the history of the Jews was much less. (For example, I know there are 12 tribes of Israel, but very little is said about any of them other than the Levites.)
    • 4/5
      A well researched and very interesting history of the life of Jesus. I enjoyed the political and religious background of the times, as well as the details of the way people lived in that age. An entertaining book that I'd recommend to anyone interested in history and religion.
    • 4/5
      Ok book, I like some of the history about what was going on politically and how the powers to be were at each other. How Rome allowed the Jewish leaders to continue their ways as long a they paid Rome the taxs due them. Interesting to read the interaction between the Roman and Jewish leaders, and how the Jews worked to please the Romans in order to worship and have some control over their lives. The problem that I have with this book is I wish the notation and sources were better.
    • 3/5
      A little too factual and not enough passionate.
      History lessons I guess without emotion. Not enough about Jesus the man.
      If you want the History lesson on the times and wars etc.. this is very good.
    • 4/5
      Now I have a much better understanding of the times that Jesus lived. This book chronicles not only the crucifixion of Christ but the events leading up to it and even how the apostles died. This book is written in historic perspective and does not discuss religious beliefs. I believe the authors did a good job of comparing various sources to separate the myth from the history. The depravity and cruelty of the Roman emperors and their total disregard for the value of human life is depicted very well. Two examples are the brutal murders of babies and crucifixion of thousands of Jews at one time. So if you are historically inclined, read this book. It is, of course, difficult to find information on this subject from a purely historic perspective.
    • 5/5
      Gripping, chilling, moving. Not for the faint at heart.
    • 4/5
      A well written and entertaining account of the life and times of Jesus Christ. For the most part, the authors' style is simple and straightforward, capturing the reader's attention particularly as regards the later half of the book which focuses on Jesus' life as an adult.However, to be fair, this is hardly a balanced scholarly work. Various comments as regards the Roman history of the book are simply wrong. E.g., the book states Caesar utters the famous phrase "Veni, Vidi, Vici" following the Battle of Munda (located in Spain). Actually, the phrase followed Caesar's earlier victory in modern day Turkey at the Battle of Zela. As another example, the authors state it is inexplicable why Caesar did not name his son by Cleopatra (Caesarion) in his will. The reason is obvious to anyone with knowledge of the Roman Republic- a child born out of wedlock to a non-Roman citizen cannot inherit in a will. Such errors make it clear the authors know little of Rome. In addition, the Gospels are cited continually in selected fashion to portray a seemingly consistent factual history of Jesus. In truth, the historicity of Jesus is questioned on many levels and subject to serious scholarly debate.
    • 1/5
      This book was truly pathetic (although I amaze myself that I had expected something better). O'Reilly's only sources seem to come from Shakespeare, the Bible, and the writings of Josephus. I was genuinely surprised that the author claimed the authors of the gospels were known and not in dispute. Again, this was a waste of time and I should have known better but I couldn't resist and had to force myself not to stop listening.
    • 5/5
      As a Christian I found and enjoyed this wonderfully written history as another faith-building, learning experience.
    • 5/5
      Loved this! So much historical information, and I loved how he really portrayed what society was really like. I wish this had been around when I took Western Civilizations in college! This really made celebrating Christmas even more special. I really can't wait for Lent and Easter!
    • 3/5
      After the fashion of Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy, Killing Jesus describes the political scene at the time of Jesus' life. In-depth descriptions of oppression of the Jews by the Romans, the perverted lifestyles of some of the emperors, and the impossibility of most Jews "getting ahead" made the time ripe for the messages of hope that Jesus brought, not even factoring in the talk of so many miracles. 293 p.