Autor: ZORA NEALE HURSTON
Una novela nunca antes publicada de la querida autora Zora Neale Hurston, que revela al histórico Herodes el Grande, no el villano que la Biblia lo hace ser, sino un hombre religioso y filosófico que vivió una vida de valor y visión.
En la década de 1950, como continuación de Moisés, hombre de la montaña, Zora Neale Hurston escribió una novela histórica sobre una de las figuras más infames de la Biblia, Herodes el Grande. En el relato de Hurston, Herodes no es el gobernante malvado del Nuevo Testamento a quien se le acusa de la "matanza de los inocentes", sino un precursor de Cristo, un rey amado que enriqueció la cultura judía y trajo prosperidad y paz a Judea.
Desde las cimas del triunfo hasta las profundidades de la miseria humana, el Herodes histórico "parece haber sido seleccionado y especialmente dotado para atraer el rayo del destino", escribe Hurston. Íntimo de Marco Antonio y Julio César, el rey de Judea vivió durante el siglo I a.C., en una época de guerra y expansión imperial que abundaba en la época de la guerra.
IDIOMA ORIGINAL
A never before published novel from beloved author Zora Neale Hurston, revealing the historical Herod the Great—not the villain the Bible makes him out to be but a religious and philosophical man who lived a life of valor and vision.
In the 1950s, as a continuation of Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston’s retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the “slaughter of the innocents,” but a forerunner of Christ—a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea.
From the peaks of triumph to the depths of human misery, the historical Herod “appears to have been singled out and especially endowed to attract the lightning of fate,” Hurston writes. An intimate of both Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the Judean king lived during the first century BCE, in a time of war and imperial expansion that was rife with political assassinations and bribery, as the old world gave way to the new.
Portraying Herod within this vivid and dynamic world of antiquity, little known to modern readers, Hurston’s unfinished manuscript brings this complex, compelling, and misunderstood leader fully into focus. Hurston shared her findings about Herod’s rise, his reign, and his waning days in letters to friends and associates. Text from three of these letters concludes the manuscript in an intimate way. Scholar-Editor Deborah Plant’s "Commentary: A Story Finally Told" assesses Hurston’s pioneering work and underscores Hurston’s perspective that the first century BCE has much to teach us and that the lens through which to view this dramatic and stirring era is the life and times of Herod the Great.