King Jesus

“Both the knowledge of a scholar and the imagination of a poet are brought to bear upon Jesus as child, boy, and man. . . . A bold speculative adventure” ( Harold Brighouse, Manchester Guardian ).   In Robert Graves’s unique retelling, Jesus is very much a mortal and the grandson of King Herod the Great. When his father runs afoul of the king’s temper and is executed, Jesus is raised in the house of Joseph the Carpenter. The kingdom he is heir to, in this version of the story