You can watch Mailer talking about reading the NT for the first time in a Charlie Rose interview on Youtube. He comes to it late in life and as an outsider (coming from a jewish heritage).

There's nothing transformative in this book, no radical new take or even divergence from the Biblical narrative (as with The Last Temptation for instance). Instead it's almost predictably a take on Jesus as a jewish man of his time, with some uncertainty and trepidation but overall following the beats as laid out in a harmonizing view of the gospels. This is like reading Mailer's own attempt to understand the story of the NT and that's the biggest failing. There's nothing wrong with it, the prose is nice enough, there's just nothing enticing there, no insight or revelation to uncover. It's exactly what you'd expect. ( )

Credible. Would not be my first choice.

Definitely not Mailer at his best — largely a cut-and-paste of excerpts from the four canonical gospels interlaced with Mailer's own commentary as put into the voice of Jesus as first-person narrator. ( )

Very interesting fictional memoir of Jesus of Nazareth. The narrator's voice is highly believable as he undertakes a mission he's not sure he's up to. ( )

At the very least, Mailer should have done a little research. A cardboard Jesus in what is usually an empty setting. The few details don't fit. (An altar in a synagogue!) ( )