A Question of Truth: Form, Structure, and Character in Der man fun Natseres

Sholem Asch’s Yiddish novel Der man fun Natseres (The man from Nazareth) offers an account of Jesus’ life that seems to accord with the Gospels but in fact represents their radical rewriting. Ostensibly a historical narrative, Der man fun Natseres challenges the very notion of historicity and a monolithic interpretation of the Gospel texts. Instead, it offers a pluralistic, multivalent, even contradictory characterization of Jesus through the eyes of minor participants in the story, some of whom are identified through a framing technique with contemporary characters. In this way, Asch subtly questions the validity of religious dogma and historical “truth.”