Behold the Man

Behold the Man is a novella by Michael Moorcock, first published in 1966 by New Worlds S.F. It is the story of one Karl Glogauer who travels back in time in a time machine constructed by one Sir James Headington (physicist and wartime inventor) to the year 28 of the common era in search of the historical Jesus. The novel begins with Glogauer arriving in 28 CE Israel, where his time-machine is destroyed. We find out later through flashbacks that Glogauer has chronic problems with women, an interest in Jung, and a messiah complex. He meets and lives with John the Baptist and a group of Essenes. Eventually, he gets lost in the desert and wanders off, leaving John and the Essenes. He makes his way to Nazareth in search of Jesus. When he finds Mary and Joseph, their child Jesus turns out to be a mentally retarded hunchback. At this point, he begins to step into the role of Jesus. In the end, he becomes Jesus, and dies on the cross. this novella is about the philosophical issue of whether or not it even matters if the historical Jesus ever existed. Does something need to have happened historically for the myth surrounding it to be powerful? Which is more important myth or history?

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